John Riccitiello gave an interview to Industry Gamers today, this time clarifying his earlier views about games going all digital in the future. He says that discs will not be going away any time soon and not just because consumers like to have physical media they can hold onto, but because they like their games to work, taking a stab at OnLive along the way and I'd like to think more than a passing jab at Ubisoft. In a long explanation of his view point he goes on about how a mixture of digital and physical media depending on the circumstances of the game is the best way to do things. OK, but then this tidbit jumps out:
"Pushing that off to the side for a minute, we make services, we don’t make products…"
I'm not being unfair where I cut it off. He then goes on about how customers don't want a streaming service. The point here is Riccitiello thinks games are not a product, but a service. The thing is with a service is they are temporary and they can be stopped once the service has been rendered. This is just further proof that the industry doesn't think anything we buy is owned by us. No it's just on loan. Our 60 dollars is a renters fee because EA owns every copy it sells.
A game is a product, always has been. Game companies have always been weary of cutting the umbilical cord. Look at Nintendo and their proprietary cartridges and how long it took before giving those up. Now that modern technology allows game makers and company accountants to hold on to their product for longer it feeds that notion that they still own it. In a way digital media is only a loan, especially if it is possible to revoke that ownership. Like Amazon taking away purchased Kindle copies of Orwell's 1984. (Still makes me laugh to this day.) No one can take away my ownership of my books, my movies or my games on older consoles. They are mine, I paid for them I still own them and can still go play them. They are not a service rendered, they are a product from the result of a lot of hard work. A service is where you pay for the work, a product is where you pay for the end result. I don't know about you or Riccitiello, but I pay for an end result in my games.
