As the article rightly points out, anyone interested in console gaming will have broadband at home. People have mentioned data caps but another point is that not everyone has the ability to hook up the console hard wired to a cable.
My Xbox connects via wifi and that's fine for, say, signing into Xbox Live but download and streaming speeds are not fit for purpose; it once took me 10 hours to dowload a 10GB movie. Takes ages to download demos. I play mainly single player, so no big deal right now. But will I need to reconfigure my house wiring to take advantage of the new console? No thanks.
I note from the slides that they don't say 3.4million copied of TR sold, they say 'expected to be sold'. So that probably means the 3.4 is still a forecast.
@ClaudiusCaesar It's an odd statement. Price protection means that if you buy Tomb Raider for $60 and then it goes down to $40 a week later, you're entitled to walk into your store and ask for the $20 difference. It usually only applies to retail outlets and purchases paid for by credit card (plus there is an obviously time limit, usually 30 days). Hard to imagine that making a big difference (unless they are talking about something different)
Blocking pre-owned will only work if the price of games comes down to the same level as pre-owned. People buy pre-owned because it's a cheaper option. If new games start out at the $60 price point but then started to drop so you can pick up for, say, $20 after 3 months, who cares about whether it's preowned or not.
Sadly, I don't think anyone can trust that happening - look at the ridiculous prices you have to pay to get 'old' content on the Xbox marketplace.
It all comes down to price - no-one moans about the lack of pre-owned marketplace on iOS but then the price point is so much different for apps.
Someone mentioned GTA below. I really liked GTA3 and Vice City before they brought in the TomTom-like navigation. Even with a map in hand, you really were encouraged to learn the layout of the city and it made getting around more fun once you mastered the main routes. I remember going up and down Ocean Drive in Vice City because I knew all the right side turns. Kinda lost that with GTAIV where you just had to follow the yellow line. I never really got to appreciate how the city was laid out and the environment lost a little sparkle as a result.
@watchawant Very reasonable viewpoint but your 'car theft' analogy is flawed. In the case of someone having a car stolen due to leaving it open, the only person affected is the car owner. In this case, Sony are acting custodians of their customers' data. So part of their 'contract' is to take care of it. Would you be so forgiving if the same happened to MSFT who charge $$ for the Live service? What about if the same happened to your bank and all your money was taken - you might curse the thief but you'd go after your bank.
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