Interesting modchip-related comments by MS Exec

[sj33]

Just a little off-the-record blog post from the guy, dealing with Modchips and the issues associated with them.

http://ozymandias.com/archive/2006/07/31/The-Problem-with-Modchips.aspx

Mainly dealing with three issues - piracy, importing and homebrew content.

Interesting one for me is his comments on importing. He's not wrong, but I don't think some publisher executives have the right to dictate my playng habbits and tastes. Many of my favourite games never recieved a release in the UK, and my taste in games and what games I have the right to play should not have to be dictated by what the publishers deem they should let us have, when I pay good cash for completely legit purposes.
Not financially viable to release X game here? Understandable. But the gamer suffers here, when the publisher suffers no loss from me buying a game they weren't going to release anyway.

It's a broken model that needs fixing, for the good of both the gamer and the consumer. If western publishers will not provide the services we need, we'll go to places that will, and forcfully to stamp that out and decide for us what games we should play will not help progress things.

[Concept]

Interesting article towards the end, agreed.

Cop out on imports though. I can't see how any serious gamer cannot support importing and I find it just as diffcult to understand his position as he can't condone it.

If you're a film fan and certain films aren't shown in the US, or a music fan where albums aren't being released in certain territories, then is it such a crime to go out and track them down if the distribution simply isn't there for the audience?

Importing goes far beyond modships, and to tie to the two exclusively together isn't particularly in-depth. You can get two consoles from two different territories for example.

Is that impossible to condone to?

The answer to cracking importing is simple... increase methods of distribution so smaller audiences can get hold of content they otherwise wouldn't without physically importing. The answer to that in Microsoft's case is to start offering game downloads over Live for a price (and no, I don't mean Live Arcade).

[MartyG]

The comments on importing don't make sense - why give the Xbox360 the ability to be region free for certain games if you can't condone importing? It's at odds with the console design.

And the fecking "You wouldn't steal a car" similie again ...

[eastyy]

And the fecking "You wouldn't steal a car" similie again ...

I never reall understood that line when it came to dvds as its not

"you wouldnt steal a car......make hundreds of copies of it and then sell it on again"


I know with sony that in each area they have there own branch such a SOE and SOA and the money they make goes to them

Is that the same for microsoft? if its not and all the money goes straight to the main company then there is no reason why they should not be for importing

[Dogg Thang]

I think it should be - "you wouldn't steal a car for a bit, realise it's rubbish and you're so glad you didn't buy it, and quickly get rid of it because it's taking too much space and your place is already jam packed with porn. I mean, other cars."

[NekoFever]

Good read, but I hate how he lapses into that "stealing a car is the same as downloading a game/movie/album" argument because it's ridiculous and doesn't work. If downloading something actually carried a realistic danger of being caught and deprived someone of something tangible you can bet that far fewer people would do it. I'm one of the people who wishes piracy would go away and I still don't buy that argument.

He does do an excellent job of verbalising the razor blades model for games and why buying the console doesn't entitle you to do whatever you want with it, though. Might have to keep that bookmarked for the future.

[MattyD]

I can see where he's coming from - he's basically saying the piracy potential of mod-chips undoes the possible benefits for importers, and in the big picture that's probably true - but it wouldn't be a problem if they didn't region-lock consoles in the first place.

Where-ever you buy the game from, the right people get the money and if that game wasn't released in your region, it's money they otherwise wouldn't have had, so I can't see the problem there.

What it basically amounts to is protectionism. They make more money on games in region X than region Y, or they want a return on their investment into local subsidiary companies, and they want us to pay for it.

[Madbury]

That and presumably the need to recoup localisation/publishing and marketing costs in the region where those costs were incurred. The problem is really the internet (far too easy to import now compared to 10 years ago) coupled with the inability of large companies to operate on a single balance sheet.

The exception to this rule are handhelds which have to be region independent (due to their nature). I would imagine you could look at import and domestic volumes shipped on the DS for example and make some pretty accurate assumptions about the impact of importing, if they chose not to region lock console hardware in the future.

[Sony Fanboy]

Importing isn't a right for the consumer anyway, especially when it comes to luxury goods or intellectual property.

One of the stipulations of IP is that even if the owner does not explicit distribution outside of the host/intended region, it doesn't give anyone else the right to do so.

One of the main reasons companies like regions is they are a way of securing market control for the product in particular region, or for selling the IP distribution contract to another company. Since most videogames companies cannot do worldwide distribution on their own, region lockouts provide a good way to sell their goods to other comapnies.

[MikeRox]

the other arguement though is that we are in a global marketplace, it's great for them being able to manufacture the goods anywhere in the world (i.e. cheap labour countries) producing stuff as cheap as possible, they go ape about import duty etc, but as soon as the coin is flipped, also go ape that people are buying stuff from anywhere in the world with one of the arguements being it's cheaper in a different country for such an such reasons.

If they can manufacture stuff in cheaper countries why should it be any different for consumers buying from cheaper countries?

It really does work both ways.

I'm sure the actual developers probably don't care what region their game was purchased in. Just like at Reading last year some bands were condoning downloading illegal mp3s as they just wanted to be heard and for you to share their music with your mates. Not quite the same, but interesting to note that the artists had a different viewpoint to their record labels.

[Sony Fanboy]

A few devs like Cave don't want their games sold/played outside Japan.

But most of the time, it's up to the publisher, and their contract with the dev.

[Jaxon]

His argument against modding the Xbox basically boils down to "I can't condone it because we'll lose money." That's all fine and well, but it's not a strong enough argument to make it illegal. It might have more credibility if Microsoft made the Xbox line of hardware a games-only machine instead of trying to take it in the direction of a multi-function media center. Ditto for Sony's PS3=Computer marketing genius, too.

The revenue generated from those purchases helps to make the business a profitable one...

Try explaining to your stockholders how your profitable Xbox games business burned a $5 billion hole in Microsoft's accounting books.

[stainboy]

[QUOTE=NekoFever]Good read, but I hate how he lapses into that "stealing a car is the same as downloading a game/movie/album" argument because it's ridiculous and doesn't work. If downloading something actually carried a realistic danger of being caught and deprived someone of something tangible you can bet that far fewer people would do it. I'm one of the people who wishes piracy would go away and I still don't buy that argument.
[QUOTE]

I love how people get this now, years ago I'd get into so many arguments because everyone I 'met' used the "steal a car..." line and couldn't understand how it wasn't the same. Maybe I was hanging around in the wrong internet circles

Re: the article, I can see why he isn't for importing as I'm sure UK people buying UK copies, etc is better for them but it doesn't make that opinion right. The fact that importing exists shows that the consumer doesn't like to wait for the game they want to come out in their region or to wait to find out if it's coming out at all. This doesn't mean that the consumers are doing something wrong by importing it means the system is broken and the companies need to fix it. By saying "I done condone it" as though it's as bad as piracy is lazy and arogant.

I don' t understand his views on homebrewing though. I get the razor analogy but does homebrewing really hurt microsoft? It's not like the xbox has it's own windows that people are getting out of buying. Do people really stop buying official game releases when they have homebrew stuff available? I'm not really into the scene, the nearest I got was wanting to get an xbox to run emulators but I'd have still bought xbox games.

[lurch996]

A few devs like Cave don't want their games sold/played outside Japan.

That sounds a little odd. How do you know that?