Would You Pay $20 to Beat the Final Boss?

Kris Erickson • Nov 11, 2008 • Comments ()

In a week when game developers are set to receive record cash bonuses, publishers are looking for more ways to charge gamers for their products. Last week a coalition of European game companies successfully lobbied the country of Belgium to outlaw game rentals. Now, the President of Epic Games, Mark Capps, says he would like to find a way to extract money from game rentals here in the United States. Epic is responsible for hit franchises like Unreal Tournament 3 and Gears of War. His idea is to withhold content at the very end of games (such as the boss) unless players cough up a fee to download the content. This fee would only apply to those who rent the game or buy it used.

“The secondary market is a huge issue in the United States. Our primary retailer makes the majority of its money off of secondary sales, and so you’re starting to see games taking proactive steps toward that by… if you buy the retail version you get the unlock code.

I’ve talked to some developers who are saying ‘If you want to fight the final boss you go online and pay USD 20, but if you bought the retail version you got it for free’. We don’t make any money when someone rents it, and we don’t make any money when someone buys it used - way more than twice as many people played Gears than bought it.”

Look, we enjoyed Gears of War 2. A lot. But that doesn’t mean we are willing to stand behind ridiculous proposals like this. Especially when Epic is on track to earn record profits with this release, having already sold about 2 million copies of the game since its release last week. Next time Mike Capps streams a movie over Netflix or borrows a CD from a friend, he would do well to remember that we swim in a soup of media, and there are a multitude of ways to enjoy content that don’t involve being bent over by major corporations.