Flappy Bird and the Problem with Digital Only Games

Flappy Bird and the Problem with Digital Only Games

 

Hey guys, Jim here, and today’s blog won’t be as long as the others, but is definitely more topical as far as the state of gaming goes.  Before this current (next) generation of games, a big controversy going around was the prevalence of digital only downloads for video games.  In fact, before they changed their mind after public outcry, the Xbox ONE was planned to be digital only, forsaking the physical copies we all know and love.  

Before I go into digital only games on consoles, I want to talk about Flappy Bird for a second.  For those that have not heard by now, Flappy Bird was recently removed from the App Store and Google Play.  It was a very simply designed, yet extremely difficult and addicting game that drew the ire of both critic and gamer alike, but was played by many people.  Basically, the player uses their finger to guide a bird through a series of pipes.  It sounds simple, but was extremely twitchy and difficult.  Gamers all over the world uploaded angry reaction videos, and there were reports of multiple devices being broken because of the game.  

This past Monday, February 10th, the game was removed from IOS and Google Play by the developer.  Even though the game was downloaded over 50 MILLION TIMES, it wasn’t enough for the developer, Dong Nguyen, who couldn’t take the constant ire he received through email and social media.  As of this writing and it’s removal, it was one of the most downloaded games in the world.  And now it’s gone.  That, my friends, is the problem with digital only media.

Say you are an average gamer, who is now interested in this.  How are you going to play it?  Well, for one, if you have a friend who had the game, you can play it off their device.  Then again, if you are a collector, do you know what you need to do now?  You need to buy a device that has it.  As of February 11th, over 4000 listings are now up on EBAY for devices that that have the game.  The highest bid is now close to $100k.  I severely doubt that anyone will pay that, but God damn.  We are now in the age of collectable apps, which is a phrase that I would have never thought of until yesterday.

This, in turn, is the biggest problem with digital download only games.  Luckily, this game was free, so anyone who downloaded this didn’t lose anything.  Still, if I had a phone that had this game, I would never update my phone again, because there will come a day when an OS will not agree with the game, and it will be useless to you.  There is no more support for it, this moment in time is the last way you can play it.  All because a guy said, “I can’t take this anymore, I’m done.”

While I had never played the game, I too have been bitten by the removal of digital content.  Last week, while hanging with Brian, we decided to play some old school arcade games that I had on XBOX LIVE.  We played Contra, X-Men, and some others, but one game seemed to be missing.  A game that I had paid 10 dollars for.  What game was this?  The Simpsons Arcade Game, the Konami classic.  Apparently, both this and X-Men had been removed from the PSN, but only the SImpsons was removed from XBOX.  There was no warning, Microsoft never made an effort to contact the owners of the game, they just removed it.  As of this writing, I am seeing if I can get my money back, but the issue remains….the game is gone.  

This is an image you will not see on XBox Live again

With the PSN, it turns out that the license ran out.  The X-Men game had a 3 year license, but the Simpsons game had only been out for about a year.  It is crazy to think that, one day, an entire catalog could potentially be gone from a major media outlet for any number of reasons.  Whether it be the developer, creator, publisher, or someone else, there are so many ways that we could potentially lose out on games that we paid for, with little to no explanation at all.  What happens if a developer goes out of business, doesn’t get bought out, and there is no one left to pay for the license?  While the game companies and publishers may hate the used game market, it is a mecca for gamers and collectors alike.  Why?  Simple, there will be copies of games to be found.  Some may be priced out the ass because of rarity, demand, or both, but they will still at least be around in some form.   

I don’t have the biggest game collection in the world, not even close, but I do have over 300 games that are on display in my game room.  If everything is digital only, then I have no game room, and I lose a big piece of the hobby I love.  Don’t get me wrong, there are more people than not who only want it digital, because honestly, there is more you can have with way less hassle.  It is the way of the future, I just fear many of the ramifications that can come from it.  I’m butthurt and I only lost a 10 dollar game.  I don’t want to think of how bad it could potentially get.