Nintendo will be around forever in some form or fashion because they control the most valuable IPs in the video game universe, they have world wide name and icon recognition. They dominate handhelds and have lots of cash on hand. They are not going anywhere, anyone who says otherwise is an arrogant fanboy who didnt have the pleasure of spending their childhood with Nintendo.
I say block used games if and only if, all games will continue to be printed and available for the life of the console or all games after a certain amount of time after release are available digitally.
Either do a Prequel where you are a Prothean soldier when the Reapers arrive and use the memory shards to move between characters over the centuries of the war, or they need to have a Prequel during the First Contact War / The Blitz where you play as Hacketts Son/Daughter and you meet Shepard to tie it together
Non collectors editions will be pushed almost primarily in digital format if the next generation of consoles supports it (which they probably will). While the most popular franchises will still be available in whatever format (DVD, Blu-Ray, flash drive) for sell at major retailers, the rest will be strictly digital to cut out the middle man.
I see most games going to release collectors editions in physical form, either ordered direct from the studio or for pre-order at retail.
This is fine because it streamlines the process while still allowing people, for games/franchises they care about, to be able to get that physical copy with all the extras that are reminscent of the old days, when instruction manuals were 300+ pages and everything was part of the experience.
Today unless you buy a collectors edition, in most cases, all you are getting is a case, the disc, and a mapping of the controls which has replaced the instruction manual. For most games the enjoyment of collecting a physical copy isnt there anymore, its just me liking to have a physical copy of things I own, same reason I still buy cds.
If everything goes strictly digital, then a major part of the experience will be lost.
I mean it certainly cuts out the middle man, but a free reign digital only app like store leaves the next generation open to being flooded with so much shovel ware.
Either two things will happen. MS, Nintendo and Sony will either clamp down hard and make every game an exclusive to their service, or we will see an explosion of content, most of it will be absolute garbage like what floods current app stores claiming to be games and the only survivors will be the big brand names who can stand out from the crowd and then all we lost was a physical copy of the game and gained nothing.
@demonic_85 I think we could agree that offering both methods would be fine. Unless there is a quantum leap in TV technology, which after 10 years there certainly could be, but for now, I still want my box
I think streaming through televisions is the 100% absolute wrong way to do this.
Keep a dedicated gaming box you buy in a store. All it has to be is a a piece of plastic with a logo on it and a hard drive with an internet connection, video out and controller sensors. Then it doesn't matter what television I want to play video games on and you retain the biggest advantage consoles have, dedicated and uniform hardware specs.
You avoid worrying about specs for your TV, and avoid very expensive problems. What if the year before the companies start working with TV manufacturers to introduce this type of gaming you go out and spend $4000 on a 100inch 3d 1080p razor thin kick ass TV. oops its now obsolete if you want to play games. Your kid wants to play on his TV? Sorry gotta buy two new televisions to support your gaming app, and that app costs what? $300
How hard would it have been to make 4 main endings with several side endings.
Example: Ending A: You failed, not enough resources made it to the final battle, cycle begins again, you see characters you know fighting a desperate battle before faling.
Ending B: You sold your soul to the illusive man to defeat the reapers, the fate of humanity is in his hands now, the other races now see humanity as the greatest threat. Who recovers first may dominate the galaxy. Depending on your playstyle and choices, this may be good or bad to you.
Ending C: The reapers are destroyed through sheer determination, you and your team make the ultimate sacrifice. The galaxy is devestated and without anyone left alive to lead, the hope for a golden age free from reaper threats is far from certain.
Ending D: You really won, Shepard is the greatest thing ever, war is obsolete... and now so are you.
Then you throw in other cutscenes that tackle if the geth and krogan keep the peace, what the party members who survived do with their time off and Mass Effect 3 concludes the greatest trilogy of this generation.... but no, they f***ed up
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