Hey all, I figured I would try my hand at the blog so here goes nothing.
As you all know we are in the early stages of a new console generation and with that comes the ever so common drought of games for the first year or so. I am happy to say I still very much enjoy playing my PS4 and Xbox One despite the limited library at the moment (speaking purely of AAA games).
Now earlier this year we received an HD definitive edition of Tomb Raider from the previous generation of systems which provided a visual overhaul as well as an FPS boost on the PS4. Now there has also been talk of other developers porting over previous generation franchises like Metro and Mass Effect. This has seen mixed results (I will give my opinion later on), but suffice it to say some people are very excited to possibly have these ports while others are less than enthused.
We have also had a fair bit of controversy surround another game that released earlier this year as well. Yes I am referring to none other than Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes. It received quite a lot of criticism for being"too short" and "a $30 demo that should have been free." Despite these criticisms though, Ground Zeroes has sold undeniably well for a Metal Gear game. If you add up the numbers across platforms on VGChartz Ground Zeroes has sold roughly 1.2 milion units as of April 12th.
Link here (http://www.vgchartz.com/gamedb/?name=metal+gear+solid).
Now as some of you may know, I am one of the few people that defended Ground Zeroes and its $30 price point. I have talked to some people who have disagreed and that is fine. In my eyes Ground Zeroes is a very well made game with a high replay value that makes up for its small offering of content. Now I understand that not everyone is me and does not think Ground Zeroes is worth it, but it irritates me to see people claiming that Ground Zeroes will start awful industry trends that will kill gaming, yet when they hear about a remade Mass Effect trilogy that may not even have all the DLC for current gen platforms at $60 they are jumping all over it in anticipation.
Conveniently I am on the opposite side of the fence here. I played all the Mass Effects on my 360 and I enjoyed all of them (except the third's ending, but that's not what this is about), but I would not want to spend $60 again just to have them with updated graphics and potentially all the DLC. I would rather Bioware dedicate time to a new IP or use that talent to help Inquisition or ME4 more with its development. I already played all the Mass Effects, I don't want them all over again just prettied up. Similarly, if I want to play the Metro series I would go back and buy them for cheaper on last-gen consoles (visuals really aren't that important to me), but again, I know not everyone will agree with me.
Which brings me to my entire point of this post. What is and isn't acceptable in the gaming industry? That's a good question because what you think and I think are probably different, same as you and your friends and most other people you meet. For many topics there is no real"acceptable" and "unacceptable." I can tell you I supported Ground Zeroes, but a similar situation would not guarantee a sale from me for a game like Call of Duty. In fact I would probably laugh at that. Similarly I did buy the Definitive Edition of Tomb Raider for my Xbox One since it was 50% off and having the better graphics was nice, but otherwise, I probably would not have gone for it.
It is a case by case basis and rarely ever is clearly an acceptable or unacceptable deal (unless it is Ride to Hell in which case just never buy it...ever...). It all comes down to personal preference, yet all the time we see people attempting to speak for others of what is right or wrong in the industry when the truth is that everyone has different tastes.
What do you guys think? Please try to keep it clean down below if you are going to comment and thanks for reading!
-Benti