Sega Will Now Charge To Play All Their On-Line Games, Except PSOv.1 (1 Viewer)

[Kelley_B]

Yep Sega announced today that SegaNet use will now cost $9.95......so there goes playing NFL2k2 for free, NBA2k1 for free, hell there goes playing any of their games except PSOv.1 for free.

 

[Joel Mack]

Well, that's one way to drive that final stake through the heart of Dreamcast...
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"The internet is a place where people from all over come together to
bitch about movies and share pornography."

 

[Kelley_B]

Oh forgot to post, this is for all systems! So if a Sega release is on Xbox and it has an online feature, you got to pay the $9.95 a month to use SegaNet.

 

[Michael St. Clair]

Ack, I thought that Microsoft was going to charge $10 a month for all online gaming. Does it not include 3rd party titles?

 

[Kelley_B]

From what I understand MS's $10 fee is just for their games. I can easily see this getting to be very expensive, with MS charging money, Sega charging, Square charging, etc......

 

[BrianB]

I thought all MS network stuff was pure conjecture - have htey formally announced their online gaming plans? I didn't think they had...
And yes, if you're going to play online on different platforms, it /is/ going to get expensive. Which is why Sony etc want to tie you into their portal & content...
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Nothing In Particular

 

[Jeff Kleist]

I'm pretty sure that Daytona and NFL/NBA will stay free. There's nothing in the software for a pay system. All 2K2 games and on are undoubtedly pay though
MSNet will probably be SegaNet, and they are encouraging everyone to put their games through that.
Jeff Kleist

 

[Graeme Clark]

It doesn't sound like it Jeff. They all run through SegaNet servers, so they can restrict access to those who aren't paying customers.
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[BrianB]

There's nothing in the software for a pay system.

"Hey Mr.Programmer, make a slight change to our server code..."
"Okay, I've added a:
if(!paidcustomersList.checkForID(customer.UniqueDr eamcastID))
{
printf("Screw you, loser, I've got a moneyhat to pay for.");
exit(0);
}
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Nothing In Particular

 

[Michael St. Clair]

I thought all MS network stuff was pure conjecture - have htey formally announced their online gaming plans? I didn't think they had...

Something I saw in a magazine somewhere. Might have been rumor or conjecture, my assumption was probably just wishful thinking on my behalf.
I'm not paying 10 bucks a month to play Bomberman Online...I'll get out the Saturn and play my friend Pat across town for free on the Netlink modem...and it'll work years from now when the Dreamcast servers are all shut down. The ability to do direct-dial or point-to-point TCP/IP without a matching service is something I wish all the new games would do. Fat chance. As a classic game collector, the idea of buying games that will be unplayable in a few years kinda sucks.

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Well, I don't think that they'll bother, given the small amount of people playing over Seganet. I'll test it sometime soon tho

 

[Kelley_B]

Yep BrianB is right, Sega has a big money hat now and they want it bigger as they have a lot of people who work there, personally I think many people at Sega deserve money hats.
BrianB,
MS has not released any online plans, everything is just speculation, but I have a feeling they will fall in line with everyone else. Whats strange is that this Sega bit came out of nowhere, just like them canning the complete ShenMue 2 for the DC in North America. With all these pay to play services its going to be real hard to get the true online gamers, PC gamers, to switch over to consoles, especially if they have to pay to play, which they can do with a lot of games on the PC for free.....it shall be interesting to see what comes of it all. Hang on guys its just starting to get exciting.

 

[John Thomas]

Kelley: Is this the news that you alluded to in another thread that would have DC owners "loving their little white boxes"?

 

[Dan B]

In related news, the future of EA.com is in jeopardy:
Link Removed
-Dan

 

[Andrew Grall]

I don't see online gaming taking off as long as people have to pay extra to use it. I, for one, am unlikely to use the online capabilities of any console if they are charging me in addition to my cable modem service...
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View Dr. Grall's DVD collection

 

[AndyVX]

Forget this! I'm NOT paying each console maker per month to play online games! And then pay 3rd parties to play their games also. This just isn't going to happen...sorry gaming industry, but you better come up with a better online strategy or you can count me out totally.
Then thing is though, even if you only had to pay a fee to the console maker, and every online game on the system was run through their network it would still end up costing too much. Let's see, $10US for each console ($30US...$45CDN for me) per month. And how many new games will be coming out each month that I want to play?... I know that I would be going through a lot of cancelations and reactivations every couple of months, which would just be a real pain in the ass.
Add to that I will already be paying $65-$70CDN per game before our 15% tax rate. Why should I want to pay another $15CDN after coming home with the game just to play it?
Andrew
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ICQ# - 119869807

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Since I have read up on what Square is doing, let me explain (you'll see why MS should do the same):
Square will make more than one online game, but will only charge a small fee for using PlayOnline. So if you own 5 PlayOnline games, you pay the same price for a month to play them all instead of paying that price per game. Also, the games will be cheap (FFXI is rumored to cost $35). So for the price of one regular game ($50) you pay for the game and a month or two (or three) to use it online.
This is stuff that I heard as rumors, but I heard it several times from different websites and magazines, so I suspect it's either true or has some truth to it. From what I have heard, MS is charging people to use the online stuff through their servers, plus whatever the developer charges for you to use their game, and then MS sends you a bill of all the charges for each online game every month.

 

[BrianB]

Morgan, you've just described Sega's scheme which people are criticising in this thread
And Square's PlayOnline plans are a little up in the air in the West since Sony's plans are different here. PlayOnline was planned/launched before Sony announced their umbrella service plans.
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Nothing In Particular

 

[Adam Nixon]

I'm beginning to believe that console online gaming will be stillborn. Consumers just won't pay extra for games they've already purchased, no matter how cheap the software is. With the all the talk of the "massively multiplayer" game boom, I'm surprised that no one in the industry has addressed the issues of an oversaturated market.
Consoles have always thrived because of their simplicity. Just pop in a game and go: no worries of hardware configuration issues, system requirements, or online configuration. Consoles online add a complexity that this market has NEVER accepted -- with all of the refusal for console upgrades historically, how can anyone feel that extra fees for anything will appeal to consumers?

 

[Kelley_B]

Kelley: Is this the news that you alluded to in another thread that would have DC owners "loving their little white boxes"?

GOD NO!!!! This makes me hate the little blue and white Service and Games logo.