GBC and GB games dont work because it requires additional hardware to get it to work. Same with all of those systems that you mentioned. The iPod games require a software updated, that's it, it's all software, the least apple could do is offer a paid upgrade not make us rebuy the games we already bought for every new iPod we get.
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iPod Apple requiring games to be repurchased for new iPods
- Thread starter mosx
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GBC and GB games dont work because it requires additional hardware to get it to work. Same with all of those systems that you mentioned. The iPod games require a software updated, that's it, it's all software, the least apple could do is offer a paid upgrade not make us rebuy the games we already bought for every new iPod we get.
The problem with this argument is that they specify which iPods the games are compatible with. With the songs it's different.
A)It's not sold as an "iPod song." (As in, the song can be played on your computer as well/burned to a CD, etc.)
B)A song is not a software product, it is a data file. Big difference.
Come on!... Can't you guys say "Apple does not have to provide the new versions of the games for free in a contractual sense of obligation, but it would be nice of Apple to do so to keep customers happy" and leave it at that? Then, it becomes a question of game development costs vs. the value of additional customer loyalty. If there are enough people complaining about it, I can see Apple changing tactics. You don't have to get into a shouting match.
But buying a 17" MBP at $2800 definitely shows your view of "value" and money in general is different from most people.
False? Prove it.
I, like many other people, bought the iPod games under the assumption that they would continue to work on new iPod models.
NOWHERE did Apple state that they would not work with future iPods. Nowhere.
Nor did they say they would NOT be compatible with new iPods. Being one of the more expensive items on the iTunes Store, and looking at the history of gaming in general, people were 100% right to make the assumption that the games would continue to work on new iPods.
What overall upgrade to the interface? The differences between the old and "new" UI are minor at best. You get to see album artwork, Coverflow, and a couple of coloring changes. Thats about the same UI upgrade Windows 98 received over Windows 95.
As for the OS changes.. well, again, games I bought back in the Windows 3.1/DOS days still work.
There is absolutely no reason Apple couldn't have included compatibility with the older games. None at all.
If thats so, then back up your own position and prove that it is.
Again, that is a different situation. The PS1 is 12 years old in the US now. The PS2 is approaching 7 years old. If Sony decided not to include backwards compatibility, that would be different because the systems and games are very old now. And the PS2 is STILL IN PRODUCTION and its still selling by the millions. It also costs all of $20 to buy a new laser for the PS2 and it only takes a couple of screws to swap out a dead pickup system for a new one.
The 5G and 5.5G iPods are no longer in production. Replacing the HDD in the unit is not exactly a walk in the park and it is very expensive.
The iPod games were all a year old or even less than that, with a couple of games coming just a few weeks before the new iPods were announced. Someone buying an iPod 4 months ago, when the iPod would have only been 8 months old, and buying a game for it 3 weeks ago, is a lot different than someone making the decision to buy a gaming console that is more than half a decade old, yet still in production with titles still being developed for it.
Another thing to remember here is that everything purchased on the iTunes Store up until this point has worked across all generations of iPods.
Why is it so wrong that someone would assume otherwise with the games? Especially when there was no indication that it would be otherwise?
Again, there was no indication made by Apple in any way, shape, form, hint, whatever that the games would not work on newer iPod models. Some of the games that no longer work are barely a month old now.
The model capable of playing these games was discontinued and no longer in production or easily available. Its very costly to repair when it dies and certainly not easy.
Gaming in general has had backwards compatibility for multiple generations.
$40, $50, $60 are not small amounts of money that can be thrown away easily. Apple needs to respect that.
They also need to respect the fact that people DID buy those games, and then just bought new iPods that cost 2x-4x more for the consumer to buy than it costs Apple to build them.
Thats true. If Apple doesn't offer free upgrades, then the people who bought all of those games for their older iPods will have wasted money and be stuck with nothing unless they're willing to shell out at least a couple hundred dollars to fix the old iPod.
Paying something like $50 for a piece of hardware that could read SNES, NES, GB, GBC, GBA, and N64 cartridges would be a lot better than what they're charging for the games now.
As it stands now, you can find working versions of the old hardware plus all the games you want for less than the cost of the Wii itself.
Exactly. The 80GB PS3, and 60GB models outside of Japan and the US, offer backwards compatibility through software emulation. Sony had to basically make a PS1 and PS2 emulator for the PS3.
The PS2's compatibility with PS1 games was achieved by a combination of hardware and software emulation.
And as you said, Apple already released versions of the games that are compatible with all three iPods.
Why is it so hard difficult to offer free upgrades? Free upgrades for older games to maintain compatibility with newer hardware and software is something that has been going on in both the console and PC gaming industry for years now.
But the vast majority of them do. http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/backwardcompatibilitygameslist.htm
You might not be able to play the Xbox version of Bad Boys 2 on your Xbox360, but does that really matter? Again, its a different situation. YEARS old now for hardware that is also years old. The game isn't a year old, or much less, relying on hardware that was discontinued and taken out of production when it was only approaching 1 year old.
Not different at all. To get the games running on the new iPods requires a software update. Nothing more.
Everything purchased on the iTunes store, up until this point, has worked across all newer generations of iPod. Why should the games be any different? Especially when backwards compatibility has been key in the gaming industry for many many many years now.
I honestly can't believe some of you are defending Apple on this one, let me guess all of you who are defending apple haven't bought a single game on the iTunes store. Come on you guys should realize this is ridiculous no matter the company, I love Apple as much as the next person but this is just not OK.
I didn't buy it myself. I got it as a graduation present, and as a tool for university. Cue argument about me being spoiled.
Pretty sure I did. The games still work with the iPods specified in the compatibility section listed at time of purchase.
You know what they say about assumptions....
"History of gaming in general?" What does that even mean?
Some may. Most won't. Out of the box that is. I don't know if you've actualy tried running them, but believe me, I'm a big fan of classic games, they bring back old memories. And getting a DOS game or even an old Windows to boot and run smoothly in XP isn't as simple as you'd think. I don't even want to know how bad Vista is for this sort of thing.
You can't possibly have enough knowledge on the topic to make this decision for them.
Back up what? A company isn't obligated, morally or otherwise to give you something for free.
True, but they do have a warranty. I realize it won't last forever, but when was the last time you heard somebody complaining to Nintendo because their Super NES broke and they can't play any games they paid for on it?
You do have a point here. I think Apple should give credit if people purchased their games within the last short while.
Because like I said before, games are software, which can have compatibility issues. A song or a video is just a data file, which can be played by anything.
Once again, you have a point. Once again, I think credit should be given for the month-old game.
And look how much it ends up costing the companies involved.
Isn't one game like $7.00? I know people bought multiple games, but don't try to skew this by making them seem more expensive than they are.
I was going to ay you have a point but you had to bring up the absolutely stupid "OMG iPODS ONLY COST APPLE $100!!!!"
Material cost is ONE aspect of a product's price. It's far from the total.
Did everybody's iPod suddenly break when they bought a new one?
Shorties said:
Actually I've bought 5 games for my iPod, though I don't plan on upgrading to the classic, so it's not really a problem to me.
Definitely. I'm not being a jerk or flaming you, but you're what? 18? 19? And you just had a computer that costs nearly $3000 handed to you for free?
Yeah, you really don't understand the concept of money yet, nor the value of it and what it takes to even earn it in a way that is required for you to have a place to live, eat, etc.
Your entire argument is pretty much null and void at this point. Come back and talk when you've learned the value of a dollar and you've purchased that $3,000 computer for yourself.
That doesn't prove anything. The games were made immediately obsolete and the hardware required to run them taken out of production and out of retail circles.
Again, nowhere did Apple ever say the games would NOT be compatible with future iPods, and they never once even hinted at the release of the new iPods that you would have to repurchase.
People had every right to assume that the games they purchased would be compatible.
Again, especially considering that every item on the iTunes store has been compatible with future generation iPods up until this point.
That console gaming and portable gaming, for years, has been backwards compatible with older games at no extra charge. And PC gaming, on the Windows side anyway, has gone through great lengths to ensure compatibility with upgraded operating systems and hardware.
All of my old DOS games run fine in XP and Vista. I can fire up the original Doom, not "Doom 95" without a problem. Mechwarrior 2? It installs the Windows version. MYST runs fine. Games that are almost a decade old will install and run fine, like Half-Life and Unreal. They run better with patches, but the fact remains that they still run, Microsoft made sure they would run, and the developers have kept the games up to date over the years to make sure they would run.
Yet Sony and Microsoft have made updates available, for free, to ensure compatibility with older games on completely different hardware and software. Yeah, I don't see why Apple couldn't do the same thing for a piece of hardware they are generally making more than $100 worth of profit off of and games that were just released.
Aren't you the one who just received a free computer costing nearly $3,000?
Anyway, this isn't about me, or other iPod game buyers getting anything "free". This is about us getting what we PAID for.
The SNES was released in the US what? 16 years ago? Thats different than games released a month ago for hardware that was less than a year old that can no longer be played unless you pay, again, for something you already purchased.
So while Apple can upgrade their hardware and program software to maintain compatibility with music and movie files, they can't do the same for games? Why not? Thats ridiculous.
And look how many iPods Apple sells in comparison to game consoles every quarter. Apple generally sells more iPods at Christmas time than all of the game consoles combined. Apple generally makes what? $75 and more depending on the iPod model (not counting the shuffle). They'll sell as many as 25 million this holiday season.
You really think it'd be a bad thing for them to have spent the little bit of money to ensure compatibility, keep customers happy, and as a result, have them buy MORE Apple products?
Generally, when you go to great lengths to make the customer happy, the customers will buy more of your products. Make them unhappy and that customer is likely to not buy any more of your products and persuade others not to as well.
The whole point here is that people bought multiple games and are getting shafted by Apple. It's not just one game. It's that ALL games that you have purchased.. you need to buy again. Right now thats $15 for people like me. But as time goes on and all the games myself and others have bought, that will add up to even more money lost.
Considering that Apple is using cheap Chinese slave labor to build the iPods, I doubt the "total cost" is much higher than the material cost.
Nope. But many of those iPods, like the original 5G, are out of warranty now. The 5.5Gs are beginning to come to the point where they will be out of warranty. The hardware required to play these games is no longer in production.
Who is "we"? It definitely seems that there are far more people who believe this is a bad move on Apple's part than anything else. Even one of the guys in control of ilounge, one of the biggest Apple fanboy sites out there, has come out against Apple on this and a few other recent moves.
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/customers-ask-is-apple-going-rotten/
This isn't some little fanboy with a blog. This is the editor-in-chief of one of the largest Apple fansites out there, and one of the bigger sites on the web in general.
When someone like this comes out and says Apple has made some bad moves, then you know something is wrong.
Handed to me because my parents were happy with my high school performance and knew it would help me get through university. We're not a wealthy family by any means, both my parents are teachers.
Wow, you really are a presumptive *******. Believe it or not, I know how it feels to work to earn money for myself. Getting a graduation present doesn't mean my parents pay for everything. I own a PS3, Wii, 360, and DS, all of which I paid for using money I earned at a job. (And not a good job either, I worked for the corporate overlord that is Wal-Mart) Not to mention the other things which I pay for with my own money, including my cell phone contract and everything else I have. No, I haven't had to earn my living paying for rent or food, but last time I check a $7.00 game doesn't buy much food or pay much rent, so that really has nothing to do with anything.
You did get what you paid for you whiny little baby! For the love of God, you bought games for your Ipod 5G and that's what you got!
For one thing, labour in China may be cheap, but the fact that it costs anything precludes it from being slavery. They don't make as little as you think.
Also, assembly is once again only one aspect. What about shipping it thousands of miles to where it is to be sold? What about the actual DESIGN of the product, which takes a long time and a lot of people? Yeah, Apple makes profit from it's products, but that's WHAT A BUSINESS DOES.
I think I'm done with this argument. All you're doing is rehashing your own flawed arguments and insulting me personally without having any knowledge of me other than one tiny aspect of my life. Have fun whining to anybody who will listen how you were robbed, and how your life is so hard because you feel you wasted a few dollars. Hopefully you'll eventually grow up and shut up.
You might want to read the many responses above. Music and movies are files with a standardized format so they can be played on multiple platforms. The iPod games are applications designed to work with a specific hardware and the hardware has changed from the last gen to the current gen. The computers and gaming systems you referred to have large operating systems to allow backward compatibility (emulation). The iPod does not so they were forced to write / compile different versions for the different revs. You can complain all you want but games written for the new iPod will never be able to run on the previous iPod and games written for the previous iPod will never run on the new iPod.
Interesting... there are plenty of games I can't play any more these days, because the hardware and OS has changed too much. Maybe I played the wrong games...
I can even go back further in time - there were games for the Amiga 500 which couldn't be run on the Amiga 1200. Sometimes the developers released a special version for these systems (A1200/A4000), and guess what? No matter if you already owned the A500 versions, if you wanted to play them, you had to BUY THEM AGAIN!
Interesting... there are plenty of games I can't play any more these days, because the hardware and OS has changed too much. Maybe I played the wrong games...
I can even go back further in time - there were games for the Amiga 500 which couldn't be run on the Amiga 1200. Sometimes the developers released a special version for these systems (A1200/A4000), and guess what? No matter if you already owned the A500 versions, if you wanted to play them, you had to BUY THEM AGAIN!
Then you just didn't research how to play them on the new systems. Most old DOS games need a proper DOS emulator to work correctly(since modern dos is just a line command shell for windows) and sometimes you need a special audio driver to emulate the old soundblaster cards. but pretty much any OPC game is playable on modern PCs as well as macs.
wow buddy, get some perspective. Slave labor is any labor where the worker is grossly undercompensated and forced to work in dangerous/unconciable conditions. This can include Extremely low wages, long hours, little breaks, few safety concerns, and no possibel path for promotion. China does have slave labor.
Ok, show me - get Frontier: First Encounters running on a PC or Mac either with DOSBox or natively.
If you guys are upset that Apple is shafting you do this:
1.Buy iPod games, because you can ONLY get them from iTunes
2.Download all your music for free, so Apple doesnt gain money
Apple screws you, you screw them even harder, because 1 game costs $5, but let's be honest. We listen to a lot more than 1 song
An eye for an eye
1.Buy iPod games, because you can ONLY get them from iTunes
2.Download all your music for free, so Apple doesnt gain money
Apple screws you, you screw them even harder, because 1 game costs $5, but let's be honest. We listen to a lot more than 1 song
An eye for an eye
If you guys are upset that Apple is shafting you do this:
1.Buy iPod games, because you can ONLY get them from iTunes
2.Download all your music for free, so Apple doesnt gain money
Apple screws you, you screw them even harder, because 1 game costs $5, but let's be honest. We listen to a lot more than 1 song
An eye for an eye
Apple makes 33 cents per song and that only covers operating costs of itunes. it won't really hurt them unless like 30% of thei usual buyers do it.
from wikipedia:
also:
which explains why it would have trouble running with dos box in the first place.
Exactly - it won't run in its original version and someone had to write some sort of patch to get it running on modern day hardware. Nevertheless, thanks for that info - I will check it out.
So, what about those games for the Amiga 500 you had to purchase again for the Amiga 1200? Same company for both machines, not too different hardware, but still not compatible to each other regarding some of the games.
Do you think software is free?
And Xbox games on Xbox 360 are software based, as are PS3s playing PS1/PS2 games...and all the other consoles could have emulated their past brothers...but they didn't.
This is all very sad, I have 5 iPod games, which I can no long use...boo hoo.
Exactly - it won't run in its original version and someone had to write some sort of patch to get it running on modern day hardware. Nevertheless, thanks for that info - I will check it out.
So, what about those games for the Amiga 500 you had to purchase again for the Amiga 1200? Same company for both machines, not too different hardware, but still not compatible to each other regarding some of the games.
Thats what I've been saying. My point is that apple won't give people a deal and they will legigate any attept to emulate their code into destruction. Yes people may have bought a version tetris specifically for ipod <5gen. However no matter what apple states in their TOS we purchased teh code for our personal use and have the right to use it how we please as longa s it doesn't infringe on apple's copyright. SInce they deny one right they should at least support the need for proper comensation between versions of the software.
The hitch with teh amiga games is now you run one program to emulate both amiga platforms.
Disagree, this is more like buying a games for a PS2, then pourchasing a PS3 and being unable to play it.