Activision 'Likely' To Sell Game Cutscene Movies

[JimboUK]

Selling content that should of been in the game as DLC isn't enough for these people, now they want to sell us the cut scenes? Greed is going to kill this industry if they're not careful.

 

http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/112/1120940p1.html

[WrathOfDeadguy]

From your wording, I was afraid for a minute that they were planning on making players pay for the cutscenes before they could see them in the game. That not being the case, I'd offer up the following question:

 

How is this any different from game companies selling the soundtracks to their games? Or, for that matter, from the even older practice of selling movie soundtracks?

 

I doubt I'd ever bother because there'd be a huge chunk of story missing from during the missions, but I just don't see how this is a sign of the End Times. What they're doing is offering the option of purchasing the cutscenes separately so that folks can watch them outside the game. Yeah, it's entirely possible to rip them out of the game files... but you can do that with soundtracks too. If there's something inherently wrong with selling content in this manner, the market has waited entirely too long to fight it- motion picture companies have been using that business model for soundtracks since the advent of the cassette tape. It's just as easy to compile and sell video game soundtracks... and that's been going on as long as videogames have had proper soundtracks to sell. Cutscenes are simply the next logical step.

 

Just be glad game companies haven't started breaking up the meat of the games themselves into pieces and selling it as episodes!

 

Oh... right. They have, haven't they?

 

There's no point complaining about this one. The battle was lost before it began, and nobody spoke up when it mattered. I'll save my breath for fighting DRM.

[evilneko]

Ehh, if I own, or know a friend who owns the game already... why would I buy the cutscenes when they can be extracted from the game data anyway?

 

Oh right, I'm not most folks. Most folks don't know they can pluck out the videos and play them without actually being in the game. Doh.

 

BRILLIANT.

well, from their perspective anyway.

[AliasTheory]

After reading this, I think to myself...which games actually have worthwhile cutscenes that I've played recently? The Devil May Cry series is probably the only series that I would pay to see cutscenes for.

 

In short, not worth it. They're all over the Internet anyway.

[evilneko]

Heh, watch Activision go DMCA-happy on youtubers who upload clips from their games. XD

 

Stitch together scenes from Mass Effect you could make a fairly good sci fi movie. :thumbsup:

[JimboUK]

From your wording, I was afraid for a minute that they were planning on making players pay for the cutscenes before they could see them in the game. That not being the case, I'd offer up the following question:

 

How is this any different from game companies selling the soundtracks to their games? Or, for that matter, from the even older practice of selling movie soundtracks?

 

I doubt I'd ever bother because there'd be a huge chunk of story missing from during the missions, but I just don't see how this is a sign of the End Times. What they're doing is offering the option of purchasing the cutscenes separately so that folks can watch them outside the game. Yeah, it's entirely possible to rip them out of the game files... but you can do that with soundtracks too. If there's something inherently wrong with selling content in this manner, the market has waited entirely too long to fight it- motion picture companies have been using that business model for soundtracks since the advent of the cassette tape. It's just as easy to compile and sell video game soundtracks... and that's been going on as long as videogames have had proper soundtracks to sell. Cutscenes are simply the next logical step.

 

Just be glad game companies haven't started breaking up the meat of the games themselves into pieces and selling it as episodes!

 

Oh... right. They have, haven't they?

 

There's no point complaining about this one. The battle was lost before it began, and nobody spoke up when it mattered. I'll save my breath for fighting DRM.

 

"If we were to take that hour, or hour an a half, and take it out of the game and we were to go to our audiences, who we have their credit card information a direct relationship, and say to them 'Would you like to have the StarCraft movie?'

 

Don't think for a minute that they wouldn't try and sell the cutscenes separate, just look at Mafia 2, they even took some of the main story out (along with all of the side missions) so they could sell it as DLC. People paid for a full game and got less than half of it.

[ub3rman123]

If... we were to go to our audiences, who we have their credit card information a direct relationship, and say to them 'Would you like to have the StarCraft movie?'

 

Did I misread that or did Activision threaten us that they know our credit card information?

 

Now I know why this Kotick guy is universally hated.

 

He also says he's planning to sell the cutscene 'movies' for 20-30 dollars each. By that estimation, a game itself is only worth 20 bucks if it didn't have cutscenes. Yes, Kotick has said that he wants to devalue his own games, pretty much.

[JimboUK]

I wouldn't give that lot my credit card information, they hardly come across as trustworthy. :mad:

[ub3rman123]

Now I'm sad that I signed up for a WoW account, because they do have mine. I'm dead.

[evilneko]

But using it for anything else without your explicit consent would be a crime for which you could sue them, and win. They wouldn't. You could also justifiably and successfully execute a chargeback on them, which is something no vendor wants to deal with.