I was looking over the GameInformer website when I found an interesting article that got my mind going. The article was titled Opinion - Sony And Nintendo Should Follow Microsoft’s Backward - Compatibility Example. It's good article by GameInformers Brian Shea talking about Microsofts implementation of backwards compatibility and forward compatibility into it gaming systems via its Universal Windows Platform. While it's good I want to go back and do something readers of the old blog will be familiar with. I'm going to go into what we are being told and what we are not being told about this issue.A little history first. I've spoken about the value of backward compatibility years ago when Microsoft announced that the Microsoft X-Box 360 would not be backwards compatible to games that came out for the first X-Box. This was a bad idea on their part and a true disappointment coming from them. The idea that disc based games could not be played on the next system from Microsoft seemed hard to believe. After all they had been in the Personal Computer (P.C.) gaming business for a while so why couldn't they make a system that allowed you to play older games. Well they soon changed their mind and brought limited backwards compatibility to the X-Box 360.
Now fast forward to the current system the X-Box One and again the system starts out with no backwards compatibility. But as you've just read they have changed their minds on it. They've even embraced having forward compatibility for their future systems. Well what could have possibly changed their minds, twice. The answer is obviously money. But not money in making new money for themselves. It's keeping money out of their competitions pockets. That competition is not just Sony or Nintendo it's Valves Steam.
Valve created Steam as the P.C. gamers alternative to a PlayStation or X-Box. You can play many of the exact same games that come out for a Sony system or Microsoft system on your P.C. with a mouse and keyboard or even a gaming controller. This started out as a one stop shop for older games and small independent games that weren't being sold by Sony, Microsoft or even Nintendo. Well years later they've grown as a company and their selection of games has grown gigantically. It's so big it out numbers Sony and Microsofts digital stores. Why is this important you ask? The reason is money.
See it used to be that when a new game would come out you'd buy it from a physical store like GameStop or Best Buy. After a while people who owned the game had the option to sell it back to a store, mostly GameStop for cash or store credit. Now those "used" games would be re-sold by GameStop. The thing was that the gaming companies Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and even disc based P.C. gaming companies would make a profit on the games being sold as "new". They made no profits on the game being sold as "used". This angered them of course but their was nothing they could do about it. They have no control on what games are sold back to a store. The condition of the disc or any extra items that were sold in a premium version of the product was out of their hands. So as far as GameStop was concerned if their not helping deal with the returns of good games but especially bad games than they have not rights to any moneys made on reselling the games made for their system.Well fast forward a few years and downloading games is becoming an easier process. That change has affected GameStop and slowly forced them to either go out of business or reinvent themselves, hence the partnership with ThinkGeek. Now every GameStop store is part GameStop part ThinkGeek and it's not going to change anytime soon. So if your Microsoft, Sony or Nintendo you'd be happy with that, right? But no, you missed the real threat.
While they were all mad at GameStop for making a killing off their games they ignored Steam. It had many of those good and bad games as well. The difference being that since their store was digital they had zero inventory. They didn't deal in the issues that a store with disc-based games had to deal with. See GameStop bought back a lot of good games and resold them as used. But they also bought back a lot of bad games. They couldn't resell all of them. So from GameStops perspective they had a lot of good used games and bad games locked away which they weren't going to sell. The game companies weren't going to buy them back so GameStop just had to eat those games as lost revenue. And of course pay for storage out of their own pockets. Not Microsofts problem but they have no answer for digital.
Steam kept building its library of games with the difference being that they didn't have to change inventory. With their store being digital they don't have to find physical space to store hundreds or thousands of copies of a game. They only need to invest in digital space on a computer server. That means that unlike GameStop you can keep a game that's ten years old in your store. If it's in your store you can make money off of it. That's where they made their money and how they changed Sony, Microsoft and even Nintendos view on backwards compatibility. It wasn't the backwards compatible part to a game console that mattered. It was making money off a game that while old still had an audience willing to pay to play it. Especially on a home computer.
An example of what Steam did that was such a good move comes in the example of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. The was originally released in 2003 for the original X-Box and Windows gaming for the P.C. It was very popular and was one of the X-Box exclusive games that helped build the X-Box brand. Retailing at $60 in the U.S. I ended up buying a used disc-based copy of it from GameStop at around $30 myself. It did not come to Steam until 2009. Now fast forward to 2017 and if I look on Steam I can find a digital version of it on sale for the price of $10. Why is that important? Because this game that originally came out on a Microsoft system in not making Microsoft any money. The fact that is making money for their competitor is a big problem.Now I know what your thinking. It's a $10 game. Why should they be worried about a game that's only $10? Because if your Microsoft making $1 is better than making $0. Especially if its from something that was once exclusively yours. Now you can go and check the Microsoft store and you won't find that game. I'm sure its not even in the X-Box marketplace. So your not making $1 on a game that once made you millions. Yes, its a twelve year old game (as of this writing) but think about all the other games that have this same problem for Microsoft. Everything from Quake, Command and Conquer, Wolfenstein all the way to Doom. Microsoft was once making some money off these title before there was an X-Box now they make $0 off of them. That's the problem. Multiply this by thousands and all that potential profit lost to a competitor is a big fucking deal. That's why you invest in backwards compatibility and future proof yourself with forward compatibility.
If you don't think this a real thing than you should check the Microsoft website under Games & Entertainment than follow to the Xbox games (download) section. Look at the games and also categorize them by PC. Those games that say Xbox or Xbox Live are meant to signify that the game is available for download to P.C. but also a X-Box console, primarily X-Box One. You can buy games in the online store and download them to the X-Box One console via the website as well. The thing is look at the price of the games. Those are expensive compared to Steam.
The best example actually came into my e-mail inbox today. The day I'm writing this is the same day I get an e-mail from Steam saying, "An item on your Steam wishlist is on sale!" that item is Doom. The fourth game in the Doom series was released just last year. I mean literally May 2016 it was released on X-Box One, PlayStation 4, and P.C. Retailing at $60 it's on sale now on Steam for $20. That one third of the price makes it worth buying. But what if it were to be sold at the same price on X-Box Live marketplace. The answer is the Steam version is worth getting because that is the version that's playable on P.C.For years it's been known that the P.C. version of a game that's also available on console is the better version. The graphics quality, sound, lighting, multiplayer (if there was one) was all better on P.C. Steam games are the P.C. versions of the games that are also sold on console. So if you had a P.C. that was powerful enough you would be the P.C. version and try to set the game on it highest settings. That way you get the maximum effect of what the game can do. Now what stopped most people was their computers capabilities. Mine for example sucks. It's old so I can't play games as I would like to. There are plenty of other people who can and Steam makes it easy for them.
Now what the big deal about that is that the Steam Link is basically a Chromecast for video games. That sums it up. You need to have a good enough P.C. than connect the Steam Link to your television. Log onto Steam and you stream your game from your P.C. to your television. Thus why I say my computer sucks, it didn't work well for me. But that's a computer age issue on my part. You can buy a Steam Link and Controller at GameStop for $100 each one being $50. But you don't need the controller to make the whole thing work. So think about it, I could have most of the games that I have over my P.S.4 on Steam for better quality and no need to make space for all those games. Not to mention that I can take it anywhere with me if a Laptop is powerful enough to play Steam. By the way they are. All for the low price of $50. I recommend buying pre-paid cards afterward and applying them to your account, more on that later.
Here's something I do that I think you should do to save money when buying downloaded games online. A few years ago Sony was hacked and lots of PlayStation user data was stolen. Within that data was credit card information from their users. Some people were compromised and had major credit card fraud issues. Sony of course had a major problem on it's hand. While I was not compromised I did take my credit card info off my PlayStation account. Instead of buying a game or a download through a credit card I bought PlayStation pre-paid cards. Selling from $10 to $100 you can have money in your account without worrying about your money being stolen. If there was another hack you wouldn't lose any money. You can connect your PayPal account if you like but I avoid that. I do the pre-paid thing with my X-Box and Steam accounts so the worst thing that can happen is someone buying a game on my account that I didn't buy. Once I report this to the company they can refill my account with whatever amount was in it. I lose $0 and $.00 because everything was pre-paid. Treat it as a bill, pay your rent, car, electricity, buy $20 pre-paid card for Steam, cable/internet, loans payments. The money adds up in your account quickly when it's December and you want to buy something from Steam and realize you have $120 in your account. Now you know how I paid for that Steam Link and Steam Controller.
This has gotten long enough so next time I'll talk about how small company independent games are driving this market to evolve. Also continue on the value of sales. The Steam seasonal sales cause parts of the internet to convulse when they happen. Those sales are so good even I had a moment of temporary insanity. Back on the Nintendo Gamecube I bought a game called Ikaruga for $50. I found it on Steam for $10 so I added it to my wishlist right before the Winter sale. The sale came and I got it for $5. Middle Earth: Shadows of Mordor cost me $10 not the original $60 or the PlayStation 3 disc version for $20. I spent $15 for the P.C. versions of a 15 year old game and a 3 year old game. Remember earlier when I mentioned Knights of the Old Republic was $10. The sale price was $2. Think about that for a minute. If that's not value for money I don't know what is. For more info on the Steam store check this out from GameInformer and Matt Miller - Valve discusses the past and the future of the Steam store. The blog post 'Our philosophy and next steps' is here.By the way you know who else noticed the value in all this gaming money. The one company that Microsoft, Sony, and even Valve has to fear Apple. More on that next time. Or you can check my old posts under Apple: The things they are doing wrong. Either way, enjoy.
+Game Informer
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+IGN
+PCMag
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www.howtogeek.com
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