The age of game collecting is almost over...Walmart wants cardboard game packaging...

[heybtbm]

What Walmart wants...Walmart gets...

http://kotaku.com/5043305/walmart-su...ing-save-games

I like game packaging. I love the whole "library" feel of game cases stacked neatly side by side on shelves in my game room. Cardboard isn't going to cut it. I'm imagining something along the lines of the terrible Warner DVD packaging from 5 - 10 years ago. Fucking Walmart.

Also: Gotta love the "save game" comments...lol

[theChad]

I lol'd.

[dao2]

I'm sure it's not going to change just cause walmart want's it so

If they do go on with that I think there's gonna be a big riot with gamers ;p And how the fuck are they gonna make it tamper proof o_0

[Capybara554321]

i hate hate hate cardboard boxes. they should just put the games in cases that are slim cd cases. the only problem would be manulas wouldn't fit.

[YoshiM]

Wal-mart wanting to go green by having game companies replace plastic cases with cardboard? Yeah, right. It's more like "go with cardboard, which may reduce the cost which mean we [Wal-Mart] can come back to you in a year's time and demand you sell it to us for less than what we paid before or we don't buy as much as we used to." Or perhaps this is a way for them to sell consumers 10 packs of slim DVD cases.

[willowmoon93]

Most of the newer and more expensive games are secured inside locked glass display cases, so in a way it would be tamper proof. At the WalMart's around here, only the cheap ($19.82 and under) games are out on the shelves for anyone to pick up.

But personally I hate the idea of cardboard packaging. Not to mention they don't stack well (check out the DVDs of "There Will be Blood" at WalMart -- they're all over the place and don't display well at all.) Plus there's the concern of the discs getting scratched as well inside those things.

[Captain Wrong]

Back in my day, videogames came in cardboard boxes and we liked it! Of course, that's probably why the Master System is the oldest system I bought games for new that I still have all the original packaging. Hmm...

Anyway, I'm more than ready for the all download era. Yes, I know a lot of you are collectors, but the more time I'm spending with HDD and flash based options for gaming vs. discs and carts, the more I like it. I like not having to store the stuff, I like the "jukebox" aspect of having an entire library accessible without leaving the couch and I like not having to leave the instant access of buying a download and having it ready to play a few minutes later.

[MrSparkle]

walmart is a HUGE player so this will hold some sway. However plenty of generations of games were distributed in cardboard before this. However the going green argument isnt really valid as games are not a non-durable good. I generally dont throw my games out after a play-through. maybe they should try to focus on the 800,000 other products they distribute in plastic containers that DO wind up getting thrown out on a regular basis.

*edit* just read the article. They really cant be fucking serious about the save function. Really walmart, REALLY? save a games progress so i dont have to leave the system on...? That will never work, i know everytime i play a lengthy game i leave the system on for weeks at a time. and im not exactly sure how manufacturing plastics vs cardboard compare in carbon emmisions but saving 9000 cars worth isnt really a big deal! seriously think about the volume of games being compared to the volume of cars!? I say we collectively protest this idea!

[SegaAges]

Did you know that there were around 101 Million games sold in plastic cases last year, which translates into green house gas emissions equal to over 9,000 cars? Apparently we're killing the planet, and Walmart had some helpful suggestions on how to stop our vile murder spree.

Wait, how many cars are driven in the world today again?

101million games comparing to 9000 cars?

EDIT:
Site my source first:
http://www.emercedesbenz.com/Jul08/0...June_2008.html

Mercedes Alone has sold 668,100 cars this year (and that is only 6 months of the year. One company. )

If my math is correct, that means that it will take 11,222.22 games to be one car.

As for energy and the greenhouse effect:
Site my source first again:
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3169283

Uh, yeah. This article from 1up goes into depth alot about this subject.

This is the important part

Even more surprising, however, is how much power per year an MMO player may be consuming. According to a Wired column from back in May, Julian Bleecker of the design think tank Near Future Laboratory calculated the power use of having a Second Life avatar, concluding it takes 1,248 kilowatt hours per year (1,095 kWh on your PC, 153 kWh for the servers). In terms of the amount of carbon dioxide that amount of power emits, it comes out to 1,685 pounds -- roughly equivalent to driving 1,800 miles in a BMW 750Li.

Doing the math, that comes out to 862,118,400 kWh a year for Second Life alone to have shape.

Another source:
http://www.holon.se/folke/worries/oildepl/energy.shtml

A second large energy user of this four person family is the car. Assuming an average use of the car of 15 000 km/year, using 0.6 - 1 litre of gasoline per 10 km, the difference in energy use in the two types of cars is about 6 000 kWh/year. (The more energy-efficient car uses about 9 000 kWh of gasoline/year, the other about 15 000 kWh. Assuming the same indirect energy use, the difference is about 6 000 kWh/ year.). Thus, the potential for increasing energy efficiency in the car is about 6 000 kWh/year for a family of four.

Now for only half of the year, and rounding way down, let's say that a mercedes consumes 7000 KWh a year (rounding down by 2000 kWh in case Mercedes has insanely good energy consumption), this would mean that for one car company for only the first 6 months of car sales (assuming that somehow magically nobody bought another mercedes for the rest of the year), they are consuming 4,676,700,000 kWh a year through just the first six months of car sales, and this is just company. This is a difference of 3,814,581,600 a year for a very extreme example. This is not counting companies that sell a buttload of cars like Ford, Chevy, GMC, Honda, etc.

Uh, I used Second Life even though it is not talking about video game plastics because it is easy to get an extreme example from that. I was trying to get a very extreme example for showing video games vs cars since that is what wal mart is doing

I am not trying to twist number in my favor. I was actually trying to bring out solid proof.

So wait. What was their argument again when comparing games to cars?

[Clownzilla]

Actually, I do like the idea of a universal "save state" function. If not for the environment, it would be nice for the gamer with a life other than gaming.

[MrSparkle]

savestates are a double edged sword. It takes away the developers ability to choose how to handle saves. The choice of when to allow saving is part of the balance of a game. It has a direct effect on the difficulty of a game. that being said they can make that impossibly hard shoot em up beatable (you god damned cheaters!)

[heybtbm]

However plenty of generations of games were distributed in cardboard before this.

The analogy doesn't hold for the simple fact that cartridges protected the media inside. The cardboard packaging was just that...packaging. DVD/Blu-ray cases actually have a function beyond packaging. Discs scratch easily unless their held in place with some sort of protective housing. Anyway, do people really want their entire game collection contained in a 128-disc CD folder? I don't.

[MegaDrive20XX]

Has Wal-Mart been talking with Al Gore? Seriously, this is the most retarded idea since Global Warming and Ice Caps melting. Screw the grandkids, I'm cold now!

[Nophix]

I don't know about you, but I don't own a single next gen console that allows me to save games, and I KNOW my 360 doesn't go into a power-save mode! BLASPHEMY!!

[Clownzilla]

savestates are a double edged sword. It takes away the developers ability to choose how to handle saves. The choice of when to allow saving is part of the balance of a game. It has a direct effect on the difficulty of a game. that being said they can make that impossibly hard shoot em up beatable (you god damned cheaters!)

Lol, I don't think game saves should be regulated but I Do think that game companies should have a suspend system on their consoles like some handhelds do. Stay on the same game but go into a suspend mode to play the same game later. It's like using a DVR on a TV. It's the same show, but you just watch it later. Game companies would be wise to start to take this mentality of shaping a game system around the fact that people DO have jobs, school, spouses, kids, etc.. This approach could only help the game companies, not hurt them.

[Rob2600]

DVD/Blu-ray cases actually have a function beyond packaging. Discs scratch easily unless their held in place with some sort of protective housing. Anyway, do people really want their entire game collection contained in a 128-disc CD folder? I don't.

Instead of using the traditional plastic DVD cases, what if game discs came in recycled cardboard/plastic Digipacks?

Wikipedia - Digipack

"Manufacturers have sought to reduce environmental impact and improve functionality by introducing recycled components into its trays; one has announced a 100% post-consumer tray made from recycled water and/or soda bottles... Many printers use recycled or sustainable material for the board stock."

[kewlrabbit]

Walmart has done so much to fuck up the enviorment that they have no room to talk.

[Trebuken]

Do they want all the other media types (CD's, DVD's, etc.) to come in cardboard as well?

Don't they know that all the money-hungry business men want to move exclusively to digital distribution?

[TonyTheTiger]

There are pros and cons to everything. I still have fond memories of the styrofoam containers Big Macs used to come in.

Regardless of the fact that I have a preference for cases that are more solid than cardboard, I don't see how this will impact collecting in the least aside from possibly increasing the number of loose discs on the market.

[DigitalSpace]