News Report: 87% of all video games released prior to 2010 are no longer commercially available. (up: the ESA is fighting VGHF over this study)

[Hailinel]

That's fine.

But really: KH1 (PS2) being the only 'functional' version is a hill I'm willing to die on. Have you seen a comparison of the controls?

PS2 version

Here's the PS3 version:




Notice a difference?

Now, if I know people on the internet, some of them are going to have a stroke when they see that KH1 (PS2) originally had 'tank controls' for the camera. The R-Stick was a secondary option for selecting commands, meant for avoiding have to do claw grips to while fighting.

But here's the thing: While R-stick cameras are normally the accepted "correct" control scheme for modern action games, that doesn't mean you can just incompetently backport conventional control schemes into old games and have them work.

KH1's levels and enemies were designed around shoulder button cameras, similar to Megaman Legends 1. Also, it was designed around a 4:3 camera, instead of a zoomed-in widescreen.

KH1.5HD's R-stick camera is not a true R-stick camera; they just remaped the should buttons to the R-stick, so it doesn't friggen work correctly. It's still a tank camera, but just much harder to use, and it doesn't function correctly because there's like no dead zone on the vertical directions. So the camera tends to veer wildly into the sky like a druken man falling backwards.

And then people make topics about: "WOW KH1 had really bad controls didn't it? I'm so glad they fixed the controls in later games!"

And it's like: No. People just bitched so hard about shoulder button cameras that SE botched the control scheme. And that somehow made people happy. Because they'd rather have a non-functional 'correct' control scheme over an abnormal control scheme that actually works in the game that was designed around it.

Here's my counter:

I played both and the PS1 controls are worse.

 

[Bomber Pepe]

Here's my counter:

I played both and the PS1 controls are worse.

I assume this is a typo and you mean PS2 but it also works as a dig against the controls of KH1. I personally didn't have any issue with the original or the remaster, though I am very well attuned to the claw formation of holding a controller.

As far as the original article goes, it seems to be making a mountain out of a monty molehill. It would be a completely unnecessary hassle for every single game to be available in perpetuity commercially. Or at least until it becomes public domain. I do not think anybody is losing sleep at night because they can't buy Lawnmower Man on the SNES or any of the Party Babyz games. Others have been dumping and preserving games for a long time now, I assume the vast majority of these games that were released commercially are not at risk of becoming lost media, if any even are.

Looking at their staff the founder/co-director and the other co-director both have a financial interest in making retro games more commercially available, so it makes it harder for me to believe that this is a real issue. It's not that these games are lost; it's that nobody can purchase them. I don't really have any issue with that, especially when so many publishers/developers have been long defunct anyway.

 

[Narroo]

Here's my counter:

I played both and the PS1 controls are worse.

How? How is a digital R-stick camera that veers wildly off-course at the slightest brush better than a stable camera that actually works? And that's not even if you actually use the r-stick properly in the original configuration.

 

[Hailinel]

How? How is a digital R-stick camera that veers wildly off-course at the slightest brush better than a stable camera that actually works? And that's not even if you actually use the r-stick properly in the original configuration.

The KH1 camera in general is awful but I'd rather use the R stick than the shoulder buttons.

 

[Narroo]

The KH1 camera in general is awful but I'd rather use the R stick than the shoulder buttons.

You...don't know how the R-stick works in KH1HD, do you?

This is kinda what I mean. It's not actually a proper R-stick camera. Because because it technically "is an R-stick controlled camera," people will claim it's better.

Also, what IS with people hating simple rotation on the should buttons? You just rotate while performing other actions. For games that are designed around it, it's perfectly fine. I've never understood the hate.

 

[Hailinel]

You...don't know how the R-stick works in KH1HD, do you?

This is kinda what I mean. It's not actually a proper R-stick camera. Because because it technically "is an R-stick controlled camera," people will claim it's better.

Also, what IS with people hating simple rotation on the should buttons? You just rotate while performing other actions. For games that are designed around it, it's perfectly fine. I've never understood the hate.

This is the most ridiculous tangent and it's throwing the thread well off-topic. But I already said the camera in KH1 is bad regardless.

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

But it’s not just that game stores are closing. We also found that classic games are sometimes only re-released for a single platform, meaning if that platform goes down, those classic games will disappear too. The worst offender we spotted is the Commodore 64: Most classic Commodore 64 games are only available through a single service, Antstream Arcade. If Antstream shut down, the availability rate for Commodore 64 games would plummet to an apocalyptically low 0.75%.

so uh, remember the note in the study about Antstream being the sole resource for the vast majority of C64 games. which would lead to issues if they suddenly shut down?


the service is now starting to get games removed from it, starting with the Warner Bros catalog.
of particular relevance here is that one of those titles is the Arcade version of Mortal Kombat, with the service being the only official place to play it currently.
the closest still available alternative is the MS-DOS version, which while certainly closer to the arcade original than most of the other contemporary ports of the time. still isn't 1;1.

 

[BassForever]

so uh, remember the note in the study about Antstream being the sole resource for the vast majority of C64 games. which would lead to issues if they suddenly shut down?


the service is now starting to get games removed from it, starting with the Warner Bros catalog.
of particular relevance here is that one of those titles is the Arcade version of Mortal Kombat, with the service being the only official place to play it currently.
the closest still available alternative is the MS-DOS version, which while certainly closer to the arcade original than most of the other contemporary ports of the time. still isn't 1;1.

How in the year of our lord 2023 are the classic Mortal Kombat games not available on everything? Even just a lazy rom dump collection would be nice.

 

[JazzyFuture]

How in the year of our lord 2023 are the classic Mortal Kombat games not available on everything? Even just a lazy rom dump collection would be nice.

Very simple reason.

 

[Pillydillsy]

We really need an agency for this like how an agency exists for movies

 

[BassForever]

Very simple reason.

That doesn't answer the question though

WB themselves does not have to invest resources in a quality MK1-U3 collection to fit their "live service give us all your time/money model" for them to outsource the project to a company like Digital Eclipse or Hamster who I'm sure would froth at the mouth to do a collection.

 

[Deleted member 645]

The future.

 

[JazzyFuture]

That doesn't answer the question though

WB themselves does not have to invest resources in a quality MK1-U3 collection to fit their "live service give us all your time/money model" for them to outsource the project to a company like Digital Eclipse or Hamster who I'm sure would froth at the mouth to do a collection.

Does Warner Bros removing everything from their own streaming service and cancelling multiple finished movies for tax write offs in order to chase more profits explain it then?
Even a tiny emulated port job is more than enough effort WB is willing to put into their back catalogue because they are terribly run right now.

 

[Krvavi Abadas]

During the call, multiple solutions to address the ESA's concerns over remote academic access to older games were proposed, but all shot down by Englund. He was not satisfied with either proposals to restrict access to those with academic credentials (implying many institutions would set up simple rubber-stamping checks to allow wide access), and derided the idea that limiting the exemption to collections with physical offices would be a satisfactory requirement.

On the latter topic, he said that any online-based library could set up a physical office to meet that standard, and allow for the creation of what is effectively a free-to-play arcade hosting a huge library of classic game titles.

To him, the worst thing for a non-profit organization (or anywhere with an online archive) would be to put a preserved game with "few restrictions" online. That kind of remote access would be "insufficient progress" when it comes to preservation.

this is part of a legal briefing about potentially allowing libraries to provide digital lending of video games, which is probably the best solution to the problem raised in the study.
Kendra Albert, one of the lawyers siding with the Video Game History Foundation on the matter. put it best….

Harming scholarship and teaching because there might be an interest in recreational play...doesn't feel fair to them which put a lot of effort into making these works available.

 

[Pillydillsy]

It’s so sad that emulation is the only way of playing so many games without spending an arm and a leg. If you wanna watch a movie or show you can just buy a subscription service. If you wanna buy a book it will surely be available digitally. Games on the other hand? Good luck trying to flesh out a major library without tons of money and or an emulator. And what’s worse is that the few games that are preserved are often made worse. Look no further then the battlefront remasters that ended up significantly worse then the original!

 

[Razgriz]

this is part of a legal briefing about potentially allowing libraries to provide digital lending of video games, which is probably the best solution to the problem raised in the study.
Kendra Albert, one of the lawyers siding with the Video Game History Foundation on the matter. put it best….

It's an interesting balance to strike. I can definitely see the difficulties on both sides of the equation; video games are, at least once made, sold on what's essentially a post-scarcity market (like, there's some costs in terms of hosting the games download page but functionally speaking, once you sell a game online, you can keep selling it forever since keeping it running is theoretically free; not talking about modern multiplayer or always-online games here - those have different issues. Old-school multiplayer doesn't have this issue since you can just run the servers yourself, some food for thought).

The good side of that equation is that preservation is, for the most part, really easy; post-scarcity means that if you do control-copy and keep it for yourself, you have it preserved at no cost (this is legal pretty much everywhere except I think in the UK?). The... bad side of the equation is that if you do control-copy and send it to someone who doesn't own it, you've done a piracy if you keep your own copy afterwards. (We have all sorts of rules and laws surrounding this but that's the short version; and yes it's piracy, even if there's no literal theft involved, we've defined that this by law is a crime.)

There's basically no way to do preservation of purely digital works without also enabling mass piracy; you'd need some sort of god DRM and I can tell you from the past 30 years or so we've seen DRM schemes here and there - the god DRM doesn't exist. Some jackass will make it their life's mission to break that god DRM, just because they can (and they'll be proud of being called a jackass so don't see that as an insult).

It's basically an irreconcilable issue unless you make a concession against recreational play. I don't really think that legal briefing will go anywhere although I'd be quite interested if it does.

 

[lexony]

It’s so sad that emulation is the only way of playing so many games without spending an arm and a leg. If you wanna watch a movie or show you can just buy a subscription service. If you wanna buy a book it will surely be available digitally. Games on the other hand? Good luck trying to flesh out a major library without tons of money and or an emulator. And what’s worse is that the few games that are preserved are often made worse. Look no further then the battlefront remasters that ended up significantly worse then the original!

A few months ago we had quite a discourse in the Yuzu Shutdown thread about Emulation in the context of Game Preservation and how little interest most game companies show in it compared to for example the movie industry.

It surprised me how little some people seem to care about this even here and that many seemingly don‘t even know that other forms of media are well preserved and depending on where you are looking available for you to lent at any bigger library.

I know this is impossible/harder for games (software often not having the same legal protection as an art form, Online Functionalities, Hardware etc.) but preserving those games independent from the companies should be the overall goal to be aimed.

 

[fiendcode]

Is downloading content from internet archive that you don't own piracy? Sure

Should you feel bad about downloading a game that isn't legally available anywhere anymore so that you can experience it? Not at all, just don't flaunt it.

Also lets be real, when you look at any rom site/set, a good % of the most downloaded games do fall into that 13%. Just using a random rom site I looked at for SNES roms and looking at the most popular, out of 23 games (front page has 24, but I'm removing the romhack)

10/23 are on NSO
1/23 is getting a remake soon (mario rpg)
5/23 are available in other collections

The remaining 7 consist of

2 Mortal Kombat games (which is surprising that there is currently no official way to buy the classic MK games on modern devices)

1 BS Mario title, though we do have the all star version of Mario 3 on NSO, but the BS remix features aren't available

A konami soccer game, the Japanese only Bomberman 5, Goof Troop (I'm pretty sire this hasn't been in any of the capcom collections), and Top Gear.

Ideally they should all be available, but most people aren't downloading games they can't easily obtain legally, they're downloading popular stuff "for free".

The SNES Top Gear trilogy (1, 2, 3000) was recently renamed and collected in the Top Racer Collection.

Top Racer Collection for Nintendo Switch - Nintendo Official Site

Buy Top Racer Collection and shop other great Nintendo products online at the official My Nintendo Store.

www.nintendo.com

So actually it's just 6/23.

 

[BassForever]

The SNES Top Gear trilogy (1, 2, 3000) was recently renamed and collected in the Top Racer Collection.

Top Racer Collection for Nintendo Switch - Nintendo Official Site

Buy Top Racer Collection and shop other great Nintendo products online at the official My Nintendo Store.

www.nintendo.com

So actually it's just 6/23.

More proof for my point, though it's crazy we're getting Top Gear (even with a rebrand) before Mortal Kombat.

 

[kasparov77]

buy physical media
dump your games
emulate them

fuck companies
support small developers

 

[Felony]

buy physical media
dump your games
emulate them

fuck companies
support small developers

While I agree with the general sentiment, this practice doesn't actually push game preservation on a large scale forward. Preserving one's own library is great but does nothing for the overall picture; without a means of legal redistribution it's moot.

This type of archiving/accessibility is going to take a lot of legal discourse and willingness from the companies making and publishing software to achieve anything remotely sufficient. And that's not looking good right now. ):

 

[AlwaysOnDeck]

Digital argument aside, why would anyone think 14-15 year old products would be commercially available?

 

[MusicProposition]

Fortunately Xbox cares a lot about older titles. Can’t say that about Sony or Nintendo

 

[Lozjam]

Digital argument aside, why would anyone think 14-15 year old products would be commercially available?

Right now, I can easily buy watch or stream Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. It's one of my favorite movies and I love rewatching it. I can watch it on my phone, or my TV, or my streaming stick, or my PC, or my switch, or on my blueray player. Despite it being 23 years old.

It's not that hard. Gaming companies are just obtuse.

I can still purchase, and read books from the 1950s as well. I can do so both digitally and physically, and it is still up. Hence why I can still purchase and own Lord of the Rings. I can even buy a brand new copy too. But it's not just lord of the rings too. Even more obscure books from the 1950's such as The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, are still easily purchasable brand new today.

As for why games should do this? Well here's why. I was too young to watch lord of the rings when it came out. It's something that my parents introduced to me like 10 years after it released. If the movie industry was like the game industry, I literally would have no way of watching LOTR, wouldn't have become a fan of the series, and wouldn't purchase the variety of new products and projects in the LOTR universe.

Making older games unavailable truly kneecaps the medium, makes it so that younger generations cannot get into older IP, and it makes games worse if developers cannot study these older works.

Lord of the Rings, despite being an antique book had a huge hand in inspiring countless series, some even 50 years after release. It inspired D&D as well, along with countless fantasy projects. Let's imagine if Tolkien forever shut down and made LOTR unavailable 15 years after it first releases, what kind of world that would be.

 

[Aether]

Digital argument aside, why would anyone think 14-15 year old products would be commercially available?

Same as movies and music: a handful of products sell forever (say old Zelda or mario game), partially nostalgia, partially newer gens being curious or in search for a specific experience. Would it mean millions in sales? No. But for something that cost me 1000$ to put it up (rim + commercially available emulator or one the right holder has) and I sell 300 units it's a clear win.

95% of ROMs will not sell, but 95% of old music or movies or books don't sell either.

 

[TrashMarket]

Digital argument aside, why would anyone think 14-15 year old products would be commercially available?

in addition to what other folks said, I'd imagine the survey is phrased this way partially because the ESA and others are actively fighting against these games being available by non-commercial means

 

[AlwaysOnDeck]

Same as movies and music: a handful of products sell forever (say old Zelda or mario game), partially nostalgia, partially newer gens being curious or in search for a specific experience. Would it mean millions in sales? No. But for something that cost me 1000$ to put it up (rim + commercially available emulator or one the right holder has) and I sell 300 units it's a clear win.

95% of ROMs will not sell, but 95% of old music or movies or books don't sell either.

They don't release new music on cassette tapes, and not everything is released on records or CDs, nor are they continuing to produce OLD music on extinct/endangered media platform.. Likewise, movies aren't being released on VHS, and not all movies are being released on DVDs (not even all are beinf released on bluray anymore).

The music/movie argument answers WHY old video games aren't going to continue to be produced on old platforms.

 

[Brock Reiher]

They don't release new music on cassette tapes, and not everything is released on records or CDs, nor are they continuing to produce OLD music on extinct/endangered media platform.. Likewise, movies aren't being released on VHS, and not all movies are being released on DVDs (not even all.on blurry anymore).

The music/movie argument answers WHY old video games aren't going to continue to be produced on old platforms.

This is about old video games on new platform

 

[AlwaysOnDeck]

This is about old video games on new platform

That further negates the movies/music argument. The majority of old albums and films are not available on current physical OR digital platforms.

 

[Brock Reiher]

That further negates the movies/music argument. The majority of old albums and films are not available on current physical OR digital platforms.

That's not true, most are available via CD or DVD which run on modern hardware. If not then digital.

 

[AlwaysOnDeck]

That's not true, most are available via CD or DVD which run on modern hardware. If not then digital.

Many are. Mostly popular ones. Monkey Trouble (1994), Dennis the Menace (90's), and Drake Bell's "College" (2008) have NO bluray listings available. Good luck finding blurays on THE MAJORITY of films ever created.

Sure, you will find popular films (but not all popular films), and it's even worse for TV shows - the VAST majority of television shows cannot be streamed or digitally purchased.

Edit: I fear many of you underestimate how many music acts from the 90's who had a hit record that charted have NO music available on any streaming platform.

 

[Metroid]

That further negates the movies/music argument. The majority of old albums and films are not available on current physical OR digital platforms.

This is an excellent argument in favor of expanding preservation efforts to music and movies as well. Good point!

 

[AlwaysOnDeck]

This is an excellent argument in favor of expanding preservation efforts to music and movies as well. Good point!

I agree that it is an excellent argument in favor of preservation. However, it is extremely unlikely, as the film, television, and music industries are very for-profit, so if it can be forgotten by the majority, it's ultimately deemed forgettable.

 

[Brock Reiher]

Many are. Mostly popular ones. Monkey Trouble (1994), Dennis the Menace (90's), and Drake Bell's "College" (2008) have NO bluray listings available. Good luck finding blurays on THE MAJORITY of films ever created.

Sure, you will find popular films (but not all popular films), and it's even worse for TV shows - the VAST majority of television shows cannot be streamed or digitally purchased.

Edit: I fear many of you underestimate how many music acts from the 90's who had a hit record that charted have NO music available on any streaming platform.

DVDs and CDs are playable on modern hardware. Everything you listed is on DVD or CD and plays on a machine you can buy at target or best buy today.

 

[AlwaysOnDeck]

DVDs and CDs are playable on modern hardware. Everything you listed is on DVD or CD and plays on a machine you can buy at target or best buy today.

The MAJORITY of DVDs (and CDs) that have been produced are not currently commercially available.

I feel like you keep making my point, for me, while negligently trying to argue it.

Edit: Further, if you take television shows into consideration, the vast majority of television shows that have been produced and aired are not available on DVD, bluray, or digitally - and of the series that ARE available, many series have episodes that have never been released commercially (to use a popular example of a series that has been rebooted twice in the 21st century and is currently on-the-air: Beavis & Butt-Head has a list of episodes that have never been included on any of the commercial releases, physically or digitally).

 

[Lugia667]

only way I can see this happening is if the publishers get paid government money yearly tbh

 

[Brock Reiher]

The MAJORITY of DVDs (and CDs) that have been produced are not currently commercially available.

I feel like you keep making my point, for me, while negligently trying to argue it.

Edit: Further, if you take television shows into consideration, the vast majority of television shows that have been produced and aired are not available on DVD, bluray, or digitally - and of the series that ARE available, many series have episodes that have never been released commercially (to use a popular example of a series that has been rebooted twice in the 21st century and is currently on-the-air: Beavis & Butt-Head has a list of episodes that have never been included on any of the commercial releases, physically or digitally).

Most of them are and can be purchased online. For example the movies you listed can be purchased on DVD on Amazon. I'm sorry, it's not a good comparison.

Now. stuff that is newer and was streaming only is a different situation.

 

[IsisStormDragon]

They don't release new music on cassette tapes

Are you talking about a specific kind of music or cassette tapes? Because cassette tapes are having a comeback; pretty sure Taylor Swift's released a bunch of stuff, and even if I'm remembering that part wrong, Barnes & Noble has a section for them and there's plenty of artists on Bandcamp selling them (some artists are well-known and others are more obscure).

-

On the broader topic... I wish every industry, including video games, cared more about preserving their history. Sure, there's a lot of trash, but even trash can be someone else's treasure and have historical/cultural significance. And it's a shame to see people's work go up in (sometimes literal) flames.

 

[Aether]

They don't release new music on cassette tapes, and not everything is released on records or CDs, nor are they continuing to produce OLD music on extinct/endangered media platform.. Likewise, movies aren't being released on VHS, and not all movies are being released on DVDs (not even all are beinf released on bluray anymore).

The music/movie argument answers WHY old video games aren't going to continue to be produced on old platforms.

First as other mentioned, I was talking digital... I'm not of the illusion that it would be feasible (financially, technically, economically, ecologically) to release old games physically forever. I'm talking digitally (which is why I mentioned official emulation...)

Second: vinyl pressing plants are booked for up to a year in advance, many indie artists and micro labels shifted to cassette tapes... Until the big labels also started to pick those up. Currently there seems to be a movement to bring CDs back in fashion (I think it's 5 years to early but whatever).
Difference here is, production of those is rather easy, unlike something like games, and if it's good quality you don't miss much in terms of fidelity (obviously high Res > cd > vinyl / MC but all of those are good enough and more collectors items with fancy design, while the music gets streamed from Spotify.

In regards to movies:

Evil Dead II is getting a re-release on VHS tape

Time to get your top-loading Goodmans video player out of the attic - Sam Raimi's Evil Dead II is getting a VHS reissue...

filmstories.co.uk

It's rare, and will only be down for specific classics ( or indie productions), but not unheard of. I think the problem is more that it's more work to master a movie then just audio, and people come back to movies less often then to music. (+ The collectors culture is more engrained in the music sphere)

Then we have books. Reprinted all the time.

 

[AlwaysOnDeck]

Most of them are and can be purchased online. For example the movies you listed can be purchased on DVD on Amazon. I'm sorry, it's not a good comparison.

Now. stuff that is newer and was streaming only is a different situation

When the arguments are "Lord of the Rings" and "Taylor Swift," it leaves me to believe that nobody actually cares that many films, and even more artists who have charted in the past, but never really had a successful follow-up, are NOT on ANY streaming platforms, and that their films and music and are inaccessible commercially.

As someone whose industries ARE film and music, and who has worked for network television, I can assure you that cherry-picking popular titles and acts is not going to change the fact that the majority of films and music are not accessible today.

And, once again, it is ridiculously worse for television, where I would argue that 90% of the television series dated before 2010 are accessible digitally, let alone physically.

 

[Brock Reiher]

When the arguments are "Lord of the Rings" and "Taylor Swift," it leaves me to believe that nobody actually cares that many films, and even more artists who have charted in the past, but never really had a successful follow-up, are NOT on ANY streaming platforms, and that their films and music and are inaccessible commercially.

As someone whose industries ARE film and music, and who has worked for network television, I can assure you that cherry-picking popular titles and acts is not going to change the fact that the majority of films and music are not accessible today.

And, once again, it is ridiculously worse for television, where I would argue that 90% of the television series dated before 2010 are accessible digitally, let alone physically.

You picked the titles! You can buy Monkey Trouble on DVD now.

 

[Lozjam]

When the arguments are "Lord of the Rings" and "Taylor Swift," it leaves me to believe that nobody actually cares that many films, and even more artists who have charted in the past, but never really had a successful follow-up, are NOT on ANY streaming platforms, and that their films and music and are inaccessible commercially.

As someone whose industries ARE film and music, and who has worked for network television, I can assure you that cherry-picking popular titles and acts is not going to change the fact that the majority of films and music are not accessible today.

And, once again, it is ridiculously worse for television, where I would argue that 90% of the television series dated before 2010 are accessible digitally, let alone physically.

That goes to show you how fucked up the video-game industry is. We do not only have a problem with obscure small games, we have a problem playing big giant games.

Players purchase Mariokart Wii, a game that was successful beyond imagination, and sold over 30 million units, and broke sales charts. It was also the Cornerstone to many peoples childhood.

You cannot purchase Pokémon Fire red and Leaf Green. Again, a massive game that sold over 12 million copies.

You cannot purchase Metal Gear Solid IV, a massive AAA game and a Cornerstone of an exclusive for Sony. Again. This game was super successful.

In the movie and film industry, you at least get a sense that people are trying. Also, comparing rates for over a decade ago and now is vastly different too. Of course almost all film and TV is preserved now, because we have better technology. I'm a big Dr. Who fan, and I can understand that a lot of episodes are completely lost. But the thing is, the industry got better.

With videogames, preservation has been getting worse. There was a time, where you could play every single generation of Nintendo's home console, and purchase almost every Nintendo published game. That has gotten far worse to today. Same with Sony as well, you used to be able to play and purchase every single PS1, PS2, and PS3 game and play it on current hardware.

If publishers are unwilling to put out their mega hits on current markets, what hope is there for obscure games? And, it goes to show that the industry doesn't want people to have access to so many mega hits, so they can figure what made them successful. Or worse. They fear that old games that are complete, have fair pricing structures, and are far better serve as far too much competition to today's micro transaction sludge. This actually happened with Angry Birds btw.