With all of these games coming out on every platform these days, I thought I would be able to find some more information about this topic. A Wikipedia page or at the least a heated forum discussion ending in an argument about the awesomeness of Runescape. I can’t find a damn thing even mentioning something that touches cross platform licensing for games. Maybe I’m not searching for the right topics, or maybe this concept is newer than I thought, but probably not. I mean, I’m just some random internet blog rambling douche bag.
The problem arose when some of the people that I game with were purchase COD: MW2 for Xbox 360 (I don’t own a 360), others were purchasing it for PC. I really wanted to play this game on a console, and I own a ps3. I knew the online community for MW2 on ps3 was going to be terrible, and thus ruining the game for me. I was stuck trying to pick which platform.
I’ve thought about this concept for awhile now, the idea is that you buy a general license for a video game, and are able to play it on any console or pc, whatever platforms are available to this game. I know what you’re going to say “Well, the gaming companies want to make more money.” When’s the last time you bought the same game for multiple platforms? I have nothing to back up this statistic but I would say probably 95% of gaming consumers are not going to purchase a game twice. It’s hard enough to drop $60 for a game that you’re not even sure is going to be a great game. Perhaps some sort of extra charge for a cross platform license would work? How much extra are you willing to pay to play that game on all platforms? I’d say it’s about $10 for me.
I think that this day and age, something of this magnitude should at least be discussed. Right now, there are no arguments for either side (the developers or the consumers). So here’s my argument for cross platform licensing. Currently with the majority of software you can purchase one license for any OS (Windows, Mac, Linux or whatever). I can download, install and run this software on any of the platforms the software was made available for. Why is it so different for video games? It’s the same situation, where the programmers need to rewrite their code to work on different environments. They are currently eating the cost of that programming time, and yet, it doesn’t cost you extra. So, why is it so different for video games? I really don’t know the answer. I guess I could try to make some shit up, and say that the gaming industry is having a tough time right now with all those companies closing down, but I don’t think that’s the case.
So many great games these days are coming out on all platforms and I’d like to be able to play them on whichever ones I want. One thing I do know is that the first developer that releases a decent game that has a cross platform license will probably be very successful. With multiplayer options sneaking its way into every game these days, if anything it would help increase the games online community.
(oh and about the picture, I couldn't find a good picture so I googled multi platform video games, and this came up... figured it was good enough)
Bah, I'm not talking about MMORPG. The control issue on the console alone wouldn't be worth the trouble.
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But how would you get even the most basic mmorpg with all its enormous complexity (which is half the fun!) to work on the simplistic controls of a console platform such as xbox or ps3? That would be a stretch to say the least.
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kreig, I see where he's going with this, but I think there's a major difference between gaming and applications.
I appreciate the honor system and all, but if I purchase a license, I should be able to do what I wish with the software. Within reason of course. I don't want to be given the rights to reverse engineer it and sell it off as my own, but I should be able to move from machine to machine to operating system with little recourse.
Back on topic concerning gaming...I'd love a multi platform license to game with friends across consoles and PCs. Too many times, I'm forced to make a choice for a game between consoles and I have to leave a group of friends behind. It's impractical to think that I'll spend $120+tax on a singular game for only a multiplayer experience on one machine.
The technology is there and it's been done recently with Shadowrun. The game itself sucked, but it was great to be able to play with people on different platforms.
To me, this argument is no different than each person having a different PC and playing online against other PC gamers. Each build is going to be different and as long as you meet minimum specs, you're able to play with whomever you'd like.
The days of the standalone single player experience is fading.
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I knew someone was going to mention photoshop... oh well.
About the incentive part, having a better online community on more consoles gives the users more incentive to buy the game. In turn giving the developers more incentive to create a multi-platform license.
I'm not saying all games should have this, I just thought it would be a great thing for a developer to test out on a game. I've never heard the idea even be passed around.
I would think that most gamers would welcome the idea with open arms.
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Your argument's premise is faulty--most commercial software is NOT sold with multi-platform licenses.
Sometimes software is sold which contains both a Mac and PC version--what's happening here is that they expect you to use it on one platform only as a sort of "honor system" normally (TurboTax comes to mind here).
Nonetheless, most standard software (Office, Photoshop et al.) as well as games are indeed sold in separate versions for PCs or Macs...
Point is: there's little incentive to offer multi-platform licenses. Few persons would want or even need them.
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