Fallout:NV-dev vindt online pass een gimmick

De tweedehands markt is een "groot probleem" volgens vele publishers. Fallout:New Vegas-developer Obsidian komt met hun eigen kijk op de zaak en volgens hun is het effectiever om eerstehands spelers langer te vermaken met een game, dan een gimmicky online pas of een vergelijkbaar system in te voeren.

In een interview met GameSpot laat Feargus Urquhart weten dat ze vinden dat het belangrijk is om spelers vast te houden aan hun eerste kopie middels genoeg content. Zonder verkopers is er namelijk geen tweedehands markt.

"I think you have to go in and forget those gimmicks, and say, 'How do I make them want to keep the game on the shelf?' I think each genre has a way to do it. Battlefield and Call of Duty have it in multiplayer with maps, rankings, leveling up, and unlocks. There are different things, but the idea is making people feel, 'I want to keep on playing it.'

"With a role-playing game, it is the same thing. We come up with things to make players want to keep on playing it. By having a good and evil track, like Knights of the Old Republic II, I can play as a light or dark Jedi. I may play through as a light Jedi, but I know that I could play through as a dark Jedi. So I think, 'I'm gonna do that some day.' So I put it back on my shelf and I don't take it back to GameStop."

Urguhart voegde er aan toe dat het aanbieden van goede post-launch DLC ook een goede manier is om er voor te zorgen dat gamers hun kopietje niet inruilen voor een andere game.

"If I play Fallout: New Vegas for 50 hours, but there are all these other quests, and there's this whole other area I didn't go to, and online there are people talking about all these things that you could have done all these different ways, I'll feel like 'Wow, I could play this game again,' because there is all this stuff I didn't get."

"And knowing that, publishers announce DLC plans the day the game comes out. And now, as a player who hasn't experienced everything yet, I know there are these new stories, and I'm going to be able to level up my character and get better stuff, be more of a hero. The game is going to go back on my shelf, not back to GameStop."

De grote titels (o.a. Uncharted 3, FIFA 12, Battlefield 3) die deze november in de winkel liggen hebben vrijwel allemaal een online pass.