The main advantage of cloud gaming to the industry is the full control over consumer's game purchases,and your option,while postive towards consumers, would seriously undermine that effort on many levels...
True,iOS Rock Band isn't a true "cloud game",but I picked it because it's a good example of publisher having a total control over the product you payed for(being able to fully shut it down at any time,and make it unplayable for you),and same things would be fully possible in cloud gaming.As I said,it's a reminder how badly a consumer would be treated if cloud was a standard...
I agree how your example is better,though.Must've missed it,else I would've brought it up...
Can you be more specific about the flaws I said directly about Battlefield 3 as a game?
Are you refering to BF series milkage part,perhaps?
Could you honestly say BF isn't as badly as milked as CoD,with all the releases and spin-offs?
And I don't play neither BF3 or MW3,I find both products unappealing.As I said,there are many other developers whose products I value much more,and give them my money and support...
The idea itself isn't anti.consumer,but the realization is.Do you remember the original EULA that was saying how Origin is a spyware,with access to many parts of your PC?
Now sure,Origin changed EULA,and the issue was mostly forgotten,but not by me.I can't trust or use a service that could be a potential security and privacy risk to my PC...
Also,Origin has a good share of other problems,which makes it hated in a good part of PC community...
And those day-one DLCs you listed,which are often also cut/locked from the game(The Exiled Prince in DA2) such form of Pass happens ONLY in SP games,since there is no on-line component to lock.They're excatly the same thing as Online Passes,they are locking out parts of the game that should be availible to you at release...
Spiderman and Tony Hawk is little,compared to Battlefied games(yep,they're going the way of the milkage too,check the Wikipedia),EA sports games(let's not go too deep,there are a bunch of them),and Need for Speed games(sometimes even TWO releases per year).And there are also potential future milkages in MoH franchise,and possibly even Dead Space...
Activision does have its fair share of flaws,I obviously admit that,but they're not as nowhere as bad as EA with their anti-consumer strategies(Online Passes,Origin on PC,disc-locked content,server shutdowns,always on-line DRM on a few occasions,etc).Also EA is much worse at their milkage,as I said in last paragraph...
All I'm trying to say here is how majority of Activision "hatred" is misguided,many "hate" them just because it's cool to bash them,while I'm also sure even if CoD radically changed,many would still find reasons to keep up with the "hate".It's just turned to a popular thing nowdays...
Other than CoD,how many franchises are being overly milked by Activision at the moment?
Why would they introduce radical changes to CoD when there's still a huge market demand for it,and why would they put DLCs at sale,or stop making them if they sell very well among CoD fanbase which are ready to pay a lot for them?
I'll give you the last point,though,you're right about these devs being run into the ground,but compared to the number of devs ruined by EA,Activision has almost nothing...
In the end,while Activision,like every other big name gaming corporation is far from perfect,but it's not as nearly as bad as many "haters" make it out to be...
This developer is useless,only recognition they ever got was simply because CoD "hate" was extremely popular at the moment of their forming,and Activision was being vilified for every single move they made...
In the end,Activision is a much more respectable company than EA,they only found a perfect FPS formula,and are fulfiling the market's demand for it.They don't force you into anything,map packs,Elite,etc,nothing is shoved down your throat,all is optional.Ppl pay for that only because they find CoD very fun,and enjoy playing it...
Activision constantly pushes CoD's biggest strength,accessibility.They don't bother you with any crap,for example,there aren't even Online Passes for used CoD copies.You just jump in and play...
Oh,and for those who consider Zampella and West some sort of "heroes",keep in mind they are a part of a legal battle you know very little about,except for some news articles released to the public...
Lastly,before "Ur a CoD fanboy" repllies start pouring in,I'm not a CoD player,I don't play the game,but I don't "hate" on it either.I simply give my money to other developers whose products I find appealing...
Here's something to remind you all what kind of power cloud gaming gives to developers.Sure,EA backed down and the game will remain playable in offline modes,but only because of a lot of negative publicity they stepped down...
Make no mistake,cloud gaming gives developers total control over your purchases,they can easily control how and when you play,after all,you own nothing more but a simple permission to access a game that is stored on some server far away from your reach or control...
Is that the future we want for ourselves as gamers and consumers?
Rocker6's comments