If I could mod this up any farther I would. How, on Slashdot of all places, this point isn't made in the first five comments (after the obligatory sarcastic first comment) is absolutely beyond me.
The concept of owning the game as a component of it's purchased value is the single major argument against this type of blatant money grabbing. Recently, Tycho recently made a point
on Penny-Arcade that no one seems to complain about Steam having this exact same business model. And that in fact, digital distribution has an even more unforgiving consumer contract. You cannot resell digital copies AT ALL, even handicapped versions of them. Where's all the internet vitriol for Steam?
I believe the answer to that lies in the comment above. You can get good games on Steam at MUCH reduced prices. Sure, if I want Skyrim on release day, it will be $59.99. But six months later? We can likely pick it up, un-handicapped, for likely half the cost. A lot of these price reductions are done according to demand (shocking I know), so maybe Skyrim wasn't the best example. But still: try going into Walmart a year after an A1 title is released and see how much the price as come down.
And lastly, Origin is like some horrific mutant child of the worst of both models. Want to buy the vanilla Sims 3 on Origin four years after launch? Congratulations! It's been reduced to only
$30! This makes me wonder, how much of this is ALL game companies, and how much of this is just EA?
