Hi Michael,
The answer to both of your questions is simply money. Companies limit
the number of items in order to force prices up by controlling the
supply and raising the demand for those products. If they didn't do it
that way eventually they would have a large supply of products but
little to no demand for them making the value of their products
worthless. Therefore they limit the number of products that are
created and sold.
To put it another way if a company creates only 10,000 copies of a
certain product they can set whatever price they think it will sell
for. If the supply is limited and demand is high then the product will
sell for a lot more money than if the company had made 1,000,000
copies of that product. Make sense?
However, the problem is that the internet has made it possible to
share electronic media like books, movies, music, and games so that
the normal rules of supply and demand no longer apply. Without
encryption and other forms of security a person can make hundreds,
thousands, and perhaps millions of copies of the media making it
totally worthless financially. So the companies are trying in their
own little ways to restrict access and distribution of the content so
they can control the supply and demand, but are finding that harder to
do in an e-world where there is no physical media to control.
As for the issue of cross-platform games we've been over that before,
and I can say little I haven't said already. There are technical
issues with creating cross-platform games, extra costs involved, it
takes more time and manpower, and most companies simply do not want to
invest time and money into a platform they don't think will sell as
well. If we say Windows has roughly 80% to 85% of the PC market, Mac
OS has 10%, and Linux the remaining 5% its clear that the majority of
money will be had in making a Windows game where Mac OS and Linux
would probably not return as high an investment for the company so
many choose not to do it unless there is some other incentive for
doing so.
Those who do develop cross-platform versions of games such as a
version for XBox, another for Play Station III, and another for Wii
can maximize their investment by creating platform exclusive content.
That's why a version of the game for platform x might get an expansion
pack and the version for platform y gets something else. The companies
believe if you like the game that much, want the expansions etc
enough, you'll buy both versions and play them. Its just another way
to get you to pay twice for something you already have.
Cheers!
On 6/15/12, Michael Gauler <michael.gau...@gmx.de> wrote:
Hi Thomas,
That might be true for books or music.
What I never got was the why all things had to be limited.
For example, one of my friends bought the complete Outlander Series (at
that
time six books) as an audiobook series on a few MP3 CDs.
They didn't use DVD discs at that time except for movies in Germany.
That was around 2006.
Other media like DVDs or Blu Ray discs have more storage capacity than
your
average CD ROM, but the only thing they are used for is either games or
HD
movies or TV shows.
But you also could store a high quality (lossless) music archive on such
a
disc and sell that.
But apparently no one is thinking of that.
But it seems to be easier to cry for help because "pirates are the cause
for
not getting enough money".
But one reason why people might use file sharing services could be that
prices for audiobooks or music have been rising (at least in Germany), or
because lots of music from smaller labels can't be found on Amazon, or
Itunes.
Or the other problem someone might encounter is that your favorite book
or
CD is no longer on sale in your favorite store or onlineshop.
And when it comes to games (mainstream), I still can't get, why so many
games have to be released for one platform only.
While it might be expensive to get awhatever library or tool set to
program
for game consoles, once you have said tools, you can rdevelop your
product
and release it.
And theoretically you don't need to edit content for porting the product
to
another platform, but you would have to change your code.
But if you released one platform version first and if your title was a
success, you could use the gained money to cover cost of porting, if you
didn't start cross platform from the very beginning.
And if the console creators or apple set high quality standards the games
have to follow before release is allowed, then that should be no problem
for
a PC (Windows or Linux) release, because your content and basic game play
mechanics follow the required standards at the release date, because they
wouldn't get out if they weren't...
And while we are at it, I still don't get, why several games get
expansion
packs, or some other downloadable content exclusive to platform x while
platform y users get something different.
I heard some rumors that Mass Effect 3 and Max Payne 3 are getting some
downloadable content.
But since the PC version of Max Payne 3 is to come out somewhere around
the
end of this month while the console versions are already out, no one
knows
if extra content is being released or not.
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