Writings of Mass Deduction

Here’s an article I wrote in 2010, in the very early days of the site. Apparently I was authoring up a storm, but not posting them. No, I don’t know why.

I am frequently surprised when video game publishers complain about used game sales. I worked on the front line of used game sales at “EB Games” from 2002 to 2006, and what I saw strongly suggests that the game publishers benefit from it more than they realise. Here are my unaltered throughs on the subject from November 2010 (complete with no real introduction, to speak of):

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The margin (percentage of the shelf price that is not your cost of goods sold) on game consoles has been essentially non-existant since the days of the NES.

The margin on new games is also incredibly small, something like 15-20% (in retail, it’s not usually even worth getting out of bed for margins like that, because you haven’t paid your rent, power, staff, insurance, etc. yet and you’re already making virtually nothing prior to those expenses).

The only thing that’s even halfway decent margins are accessories, and even then it’s usually on the third-party accessories (Mad Catz, etc.) where the margin is even close to something that you could theoretically cover all your expenses and still possibly have a small profit at the end of the day.

The only reason department stores sell games is because of the traffic it brings in. To them it’s akin to a loss leader, something they have to have, but they hope to sell you game accessories and also things unrelated to gaming. Dedicated game stores don’t have that second luxury (high margin stuff in all the departments surrounding the video games area). If you’ve ever bought toothpaste (or whatever) when you bought a game at a department store, then you know why they have to have a gaming department even if they make very little on the games.

Every single store I’ve seen that focuses on games, and games alone, has survived on one (or both) of two things: used game sales and/or (more…)

I guess I’m buying all the numbered Halo games again, and I’m looking forward to it. With today’s official announcement of the “Master Chief Collection” of Halo games, which I absolutely plan to purchase, it’ll be the third time I buy the original Halo, the third time I buy Halo 2, the fifth time I buy Halo 3, and the second time I buy Halo 4.

Now what I’m *really* looking forward to is the follow-up collection of the Halo titles that didn’t star Master Chief. And the remaining Halo games have their fans: “Halo 3: ODST” has arguably the best singleplayer campaign of all the Halo games (especially when played solo), “Halo: Reach” has a lot of fans for its take on multiplayer and has arguably the best co-op campaign, and finally there’s “Halo Wars”.

Ah, Halo Wars. It was recently decreed to still be a “viable franchise” by the head of 343 Studios, the people behind Halo. If there is to be a collection of all the *other* Halo games, I expect Halo Wars to make the cut. It’s sold over 2 million copies, unheard of for a console real-time strategy game. Whenever I go into the game there are typically 1500-2000 people playing concurrently at any given time, which probably adds up to something like 100K individual player over the course of a month. Most console games are a ghost town 6 months after release, but Halo Wars soldiers on, despite new consoles pulling people away from their Xbox 360s. Finally, they released four games for the Master Chief Collection, and they’ll want to get as close to that number as they can for a follow-up. Perhaps they would include Spartan Assault in such a collection as a fourth game, or even the “Forward Unto Dawn” film.

But when? Microsoft has had annual Halo releases each “holiday” for several years now. Most people point to 2009’s “ODST” as when this began, but if you dig a little deeper I would argue it spans a little further back.

While there was a three year gap between Halo 2 on the original Xbox and Halo 3 on the Xbox 360, The PC version of Halo 2 came out in spring 2007. To me, this is the beginning of the “modern era” of Halo releases. Halo 3 then came out in (more…)

There are no shortage of “Halo: Spartan Assault” reviews out there, but I suspect relatively few reviewers have played it on “phone”, “tablet/desktop/laptop”, and “console”. Hey, it should have made the list of “Games I’ve Bought Twice” (or more).

But I have played it on all of the above. I first purchased it on (more…)

Wow… I had totally forgotten that I had written this piece back in early 2013. But I read some fans complaining about how the proposed (and still unfilmed, last I heard) “Uncharted” movie was coming along. It reminded me a lot of fan reaction (mine included) to the plans for a reimagined Battlestar Galactica series, and how wrong many of us felt when it came out and it was amazing.

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Sometimes you just have to trust the creative team behind the show, especially if they have a strong track record, and hope for the best.

Case in point: Richard Hatch wanted to make a sequel to the classic Battlestar Galactica (BSG). He wanted to write a multilayered story about (more…)

I’ve had an Xbox One since near launch, but not played a lot of games on it. Not because there aren’t good games on it, there are, but because I’ve been using the Xbox One for other things, such as controlling my TV and Xbox Fitness.

But I couldn’t resist trying “Max: The Curse of Brotherhood” because the normal $14.99 (or 11.99 pounds, or whatever) price is axed for Xbox Live Gold members for the month of June. And while I haven’t completed the game so far, I’m impressed.

The thing I like about it is (more…)

Don’t worry, more reviews are coming soon. For the time being, though, I’m enjoying trolling through my “Drafts” folder of un-posted articles.

I wrote this in 2011. Not sure why I never posted this one. At the time I was pondering the question… “Why Microsoft did Indie Games first – will others follow?”

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If you think about it, it’s a huge endeavour. To roll out indies Microsoft had to:

– make easy to use development tools, that were powerful yet sandboxed just enough to prevent abuse

– create a peer review infrastructure so that Microsoft didn’t need to participate in the approval process

– create an infrastructure so that indie developers can get paid (there are over 1500 XBL indie games available now, and some developers have as little as one game on the service, so that’s a *lot* of cheques going out to developers every quarter)

– create the game and title update distribution infrastructure (built on the Xbox Live backbone, but with some modifications)

It’s not just something you do overnight. No one’s done it quite like Microsoft either: both the iOS App Store and Steam require submitting it to Apple and Valve, respectively, for approval. Only Microsoft, to the best of my knowledge, has provided the distribution and payment infrastructure, while keeping themselves out of the review/approval process. The peer review process is extraordinarily democratic and, frankly, just really cool.

I would love to see Sony and/or Nintendo do something similar, the more opportunities for indie developers the better IMO, but I really can see why Microsoft (with its background in operating system and network software) did it first when you look critically at what had to be done to make it happen.

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I actually thought I had posted this. I authored it in January, but here it is. What I like about…

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…the Transformers live action films.

I’ll go see almost anything that’s science fiction in the theatre, so I’ve seen my share. I don’t go see anything that’s action, but I’ve seen a fair number of them. And they’ve helped me see what it is that I like about the live action TF films.

I’ve decided that I like (more…)

Here’s a post I started authoring on November 20th, 2010. I never completed it, let alone posted it, but it sadly seems to be coming true.

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DDR went from a chart-topping phenomenon to a cottage industry that’s a reliable profit driver for Konami, and for third-party peripheral makers like Mad Catz.

What will be interesting to see is how Dance Central changes that, if at all.

The music games have the problem of too many entrants, whereas Konami hasn’t had to share the dancing game genre much until now (there was Pump It Up Exceed, but it wasn’t exactly significant competition at retail).

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It’s an interesting time capsule to look back at my thoughts on (more…)

Or more than twice, in some cases.

With strong indication that a Halo collection (bundling up games 1-4) will be coming to the Xbox One later this year. As a big Halo fan, I’m almost certain to purchase this collection. That will be at least the second time I’ll have bought all those games. It’ll be the third time I bought the original Halo (having previously purchased it on disc near launch, and on Games on Demand for the Xbox 360, and soon in this collection if it indeed comes out). I purchased the deluxe, and Legendary editions of Halo 2, which would make this the third time I purchased it. I purchased the deluxe and the Legendary edition of Halo 3, to make sure I got all the bonus content, and snagged it again on Games on Demand; I also bought the regular edition with the intention of re-gifting it, but never did, so I guess I’ve purchased it a total of four times. Halo 4 I purchased on Games on Demand, as I’ve gone entirely digital distribution in my game purchases, so this would be the second time I picked that up. It led me to think about what other games I’ve purchased multiple times.

– I bought Hydro Thunder twice (DC version and then as part of Midway Arcade Treasures 3, all the while continuing to play it whenever I ran into the arcade cabinet… yes, it’s a sickness).

– I bought Uno twice (XBLA, and then as part of a retail XBLA collection).

– I’ve bought Halo Wars on both disc and through Games on Demand as well (I’d trade in my disc… but I can’t find it; take that you digital distribution haters!).

– I bought Gears of War on the 360, and then bought it again on the PC (there was a PC-exclusive chapter, plus the ability to get all the achievements again).

– Then there’s Klax. Ah, Klax. I have bought you more times than (more…)

A game I reviewed waaaaaay back on Day 617, and one deserving of a second look, “We Are Cubes” is a game that reminds me a bit of classic shoot-’em-ups. Some of the more challenging classic shmups limited the number of shots you could peel off until they landed on an enemy or obstacle, or managed to make their way all across the screen. “We Are Cubes” brings this feature back, and its effect is (more…)