Atari issuing cease and desist letters to websites – huh?

Posted Monday, 5th September 2011 under Soapbox rants
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This.

My feelings over Atari recent spate of cease and desist letters to websites pertaining to the Atari 2600 are reflected in a far-more articulate response at Atomic PC’s website. I merely wanted to add my voice to the chorus.

Given Atari allegedly gave the community their blessing to develop for and celebrate the history of the Atari 2600 more than a decade ago, it seems a bit petty to go after websites covering the platform. It’s certainly within their legal right to do so, but it does beg an ethical question. Given the enduring value of the brand “Atari” is attributable in part to the ongoing development, discussion and celebration of its legacy by fans, it seems unusually short-sighted to tarnish this reputation by attacking the very people who have assisted in building the ongoing awareness, and by extension value, or Atari.

Hopefully this is the last of such tomfoolery for 2011. It rounds off a trio of arguably anti-consumerist measures by some of the big names in the gaming sector (Sony removing Linux support from the PS3; Capcom’s unoffocial “DRM” for Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D on the 3DS; and now Atari and their IP battle for URLs and websites), so hopefully we can all move on from here.

I think Capcom hates gamers (Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D and DRM)

Posted Wednesday, 29th June 2011 under Soapbox rants
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Capcom’s Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3D continues to question how much Capcom actually appreciate their market, or if they plain-old hate gamers. Here’s a snippet from DVICE:

It’s been confirmed that Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D for the Nintendo 3DS is a game that once finished, cannot be reset for complete replay. According to both the U.S. and U.K. game’s instruction manual “saved data on this software cannot be reset.”

Basically what Capcom has done is make Mercenaries 3D a one-time play affair. Once you’ve unlocked all the goodies and played the entire game, you will not be able to erase the game’s save data and start fresh as if it were a new copy. Consider this: lending Mercenaries 3D to a friend, a little brother or sister will be worthless because they’ll only be able to continue playing the game with your saved settings and create their own.
(Source [via Tiny Cartridge, via Eurogamer], and GameStop’s follow-up)

Capcom have made some terrible decisions with DRM in the past (Final Fight Double Impact and Bionic Commando ReArmed 2 need to “phone home” before you can play them on the PS3), and its disappointing to see them acting in such a hostile way towards consumers. While some may argue that this is potentially an act to sabotage second-hand game sales (as they derive zero profit from the on-selling of games once they’re past the first run at the retail counter), it’s important to consider the dependence many gaming stores have on second-hand sales in order to make up for the relatively slim margins offered at retail. Mind, I won’t go into that topic in more detail here, as it’s beyond the scope of this post and has probably been argued more intelligently elsewhere.

Returning to the topic at hand, I think this hurts a little more as I genuinely have a soft spot for Capcom games, having enjoyed so many of them over the years (during the Saturn and Dreamcast era, my purchases [at retail no less] led to many gaming sessions). This is the kind of move I would expect from some of the more aggressive players in the market, but not from them.

It also seems incredibly short-sighted in terms of being able to enjoy your purchase over time – I still crank out Atari 2600 cartridges every now and again, and the notion of anti-consumerist DRM would render this kind of thing impossible in years to come for new games. This means that, in the case of Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D, I can’t reset the game back to factory settings to start it afresh; or to give another skew on this topic, in the case Bionic Commando ReArmed 2, I probably won’t be able to play it in 10 years time despite having paid money for it in 2011.

It marks a very dangerous point on the slippery slope of DRM and anti-consumer licensing enforcement on behalf of gaming publishers. Whilst only a handful of games on consoles are toying with the concept of DRM that is ultimately detrimental to the gamer, it’s a dangerous path. I hope Capcom is taking stock of the reaction from consumers to what they’ve tried slipping through with Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D and don’t attempt this kind of tomfoolery in the future.

WTF is with the DRM on Final Fight: Double Impact Capcom?

Posted Friday, 30th April 2010 under New old games, Soapbox rants
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So, Capcom recently added what I previously thought was a great release of the arcade versions of Final Fight and Magic Sword as a two-game pack on PSN and XBLA. Owning a PS3, I was tempted to grab it as I really like both games and thought it would be fun to play them in the main living room of the house.

However, I just found out that the game pack has DRM built into it, part of which requires you to have an internet connection at all times when you want to play the game (thanks to Kotaku for the great writeup).

What… the… #$%@?

So let’s get this straight – I’ve bought the game, I’m using it on my PS3, my internet connection drops out (very much a frequent thing in Australia, despite the hard work of ISPs like iiNet and Internode, there’s only so much you can do given the infrastructure), and BAM – no game for me.

Or what happens if my ADSL modem kicks the bucket and I have to wait a couple of weeks between grabbing a new one – I can’t play a game I legitimately downloaded?

Or, as one of the comments left by a reader on Kotaku pointed out, in 5-6+ years time and PSN changes or whatever (or for the sake of retro gaming, 10+ years – the PS3 won’t be Sony’s primary platform forever), I can’t play the game?

It’s… beyond rational.

For the record, I have Final Fight on Mega CD, have previously had it on the SNES, enjoyed playing it on the Capcom Classics Collection releases on the PS2 and even own an original CPS1 Final Fight PCB. Despite this, I was still happy to launch more money over at Capcom (and I am a big Capcom fan) to grab this so I have the convenience of being able to play it in my living room with Wifey, who loves a good scrolling fighter.

But not now. No way am I supporting this kind or behaviour from a company that should know better.

The worrying thing is if this viral attitude that presupposes every user is a pirate starts to infect other PSN releases – I actually have quite a few titles I’ve happily purchased over PSN and think it is such a fantastic service, and as a platform it is fulfilling a niche market of simpler, old-school and retro-inspired titles that aren’t commercially viable via a packaged release.

But this is the wrong way forward.

I respect the rights of a developer and publisher to protect their IP. But in return, I expect the developer and publisher to respect me as a consumer. I also expect that, despite the game being a digital release, that I’ll still be able to fire up my PS3 in 10 or 15 years time and play it. I figure that if I can still fire up my Atari 2600, where some of the carts are probably around 30 years old, why shouldn’t I have that same expectation of a game I have purchased for my PS3?

Capcom have some interesting titles on the way, one of which includes a new entry in the Bionic Commando ReArmed series. I bought Bionic Commando ReArmed within minutes of playing the demo because of impressed I was with it, and thoroughly enjoyed playing through the game. The sequel will potentially be a day-one purchase. However, if there’s even a hint that this kind of draconian DRM is going to be present, I’m walking away.

Shame Capcom, shame.