I like CliffyB, he makes some pretty good games, and seems like a cool guy. But this? This seems a little silly. This is movie studio logic he’s venturing into. What I mean by that is that I’m sure the movie studios feel this way about used DVDs and Blu-rays, but we all know how reasonable those people are. (Hint: Not at all!) Imagine this logic applied across the board. Want to buy a used car? You can’t because the Ford corporation only got a cut the first time it was bought. How about a house? If you buy a house that wasn’t built for you the people who physically built that house don’t see any money off of it. I guess we can’t buy a previously occupied home now. I don’t know how the games industry works in terms of royalties. I imagine if you’re a higher-up in the development chain, like Cliff you get some sort of profit-sharing deal, making more as the game sells more. I’d be willing to bet that the grunts who programmed the game, QA testers, etc were already paid a flat rate for their work. They don’t make more or less depending on how the game sold. All more copies sold means is there’s a good chance you’ll have a job on a sequel. Gamestop sucks, but they aren’t doing anything wrong by selling used games. This comes across as rather greedy.
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I like CliffyB, he makes some pretty good games, and seems like a cool guy. But this? This seems a little silly. This is movie studio logic he’s venturing into. What I mean by that is that I’m sure the movie studios feel this way about used DVDs and Blu-rays, but we all know how reasonable those people are. (Hint: Not at all!)

Imagine this logic applied across the board. Want to buy a used car? You can’t because the Ford corporation only got a cut the first time it was bought. How about a house? If you buy a house that wasn’t built for you the people who physically built that house don’t see any money off of it. I guess we can’t buy a previously occupied home now.

I don’t know how the games industry works in terms of royalties. I imagine if you’re a higher-up in the development chain, like Cliff you get some sort of profit-sharing deal, making more as the game sells more. I’d be willing to bet that the grunts who programmed the game, QA testers, etc were already paid a flat rate for their work. They don’t make more or less depending on how the game sold. All more copies sold means is there’s a good chance you’ll have a job on a sequel.

Gamestop sucks, but they aren’t doing anything wrong by selling used games. This comes across as rather greedy.

Your Feedback Matters – Update on Xbox One

Wow, all the negative feedback about the Xbox One resulted in Microsoft making some changes. Namely, dropping the need for a broadband connection, games phoning home every 24 hours or they’d stop working, and their dumb policy on used/lent games.

I guess when they realized the public wasn’t interested in the console’s limitations as announced, they realized they had to change or become this generation’s Atari Jaguar, Sega Saturn, etc. Between the reaction to E3 and that Amazon poll about the PS4 vs Xbox that came back 17:1 in favor of Sony that got quickly yanked, I bet some heads were about to roll in Redmond.

It’s good that consumers have sent a strong message that we don’t want restrictive DRM, the inability to sell or lend games, and being forced online to play a single-player game. Companies are less prone to pull nonsense when they see that people won’t put up with any crap.

They still need to cut $100 on the price to compete with the PS4 though.

Fierce opposition to online gambling fades, but don't bet on legalization | The Verge

Personally, I believe the people that are against allowing online gambling are uptight assholes who should give up on their desperate need to tell other people how to live their lives.

On the other hand, I’ve completely given up on the idea of legalized online poker in the US. Even if (and that’s a big if) it does happen, it’ll be awful compared to how things were when sites like PokerStars were available to US players. It’ll most likely have a limited and restricted to US vs US players only player pool and prohibitively high taxes. It just won’t be worth it.

Amazon Cutting All Ties To Minnesota Business Before Online Sales Tax Law Kicks In – Consumerist

Amazon explained its stance in an email to affiliates, via the Pioneer Press. Basically it doesn’t want to have to deal with online sales tax laws on a state by state basis.

“While we oppose this unconstitutional state legislation, we strongly support the federal Marketplace Fairness Act now pending before Congress,” Amazon told its affiliates in an email. “Congressional legislation is the only way to create a simplified, constitutional framework to resolve interstate sales tax issues, and it would allow us to reopen our associates program to Minnesota residents.”

That makes no sense at all. The stupid law in Congress isn’t a national sales tax for online purchases. All it is, is allowing states to force online purchases to be charged state sales tax. In addition to that, Amazon has deals in certain states already to charge sales tax: California is one, and starting in November both Massachusetts and Connecticut will start charging their state sales taxes on Amazon purchases. (Something I hate as a Mass resident.)

What this is really about is that they don’t want to charge sales tax on Amazon Marketplace Sellers, which they currently don’t have to do in the states that they do charge sales tax. (For instance if you live in CA and have to pay sales tax on things you buy from Amazon, if you buy from an out of state seller via Amazon but not Amazon itself, you don’t get charged tax.) I suppose the reason they mention the MFA, would be that the proposed law would allow sellers to not have to charge tax as long as they make less than a million a year in sales. I’m sure MN wants ALL online sales taxed, regardless of the amount the seller makes.