He's already taken on the internet over used games and digital licensing via Twitter - now, Gears of War co-creator Cliff Bleszinski has written up a lengthy blog to fully explain his thoughts on "this whole debacle," offering a "more surgical explanation behind some of my more...inflammatory posts on Twitter." The piece elaborates on Bleszinski's beliefs over new versus used games, makes predictions over the future of the games industry, and goes off on an interesting tangent over air travel and Richard Branson. The language is pretty full-on, but it's hard to deny that he makes some valid points.

"Microsoft tried to and ultimately couldn't have it both ways," Bleszinski wrote of Xbox One's now-cancelled online checks to ensure license ownership. "You can't still have discs and then expect everyone to embrace digital. And, fundamentally, if you take something away that a consumer has been used to without some seriously smooth handling they're naturally going to get upset."

(This echoes Microsoft's Yusuf Mehdi, who observed not so long ago that online DRM and limitations on game sharing would be "easier to understand" had Xbox One been designed without a disc drive.)



Bleszinski also shares a story about the Gears of War 3 launch in New York, explaining his perspective on used game trade-ins. After a successful event, he flew home to discover that leaflets had been circulated at the launch, encouraging attendees to "Trade in this game by November 6th and get more than you normally would on your trade in!"

"Motherf****r," he wrote, "We had done a lot of work to keep the disc in tray, but those retail practices are deliberately set up to create a revolving door of game trade in. Folks say "Yeah, but Gamestop helps out a lot of games by pushing them!" to which I quote Chris Rock 'Yeah, they're like the uncle who paid for your college...but molested you.'

"Capitalism? Sure. It's a free market and they've got every right to do this. I accept that. However when I see studio after studio closing and the aforementioned alluded titles failing I know something's got to change.

"It's up to the developer and the publisher to find a way to solve these problems... So here's what's going to happen now that Microsoft has largely matched Sony's (well played) move at E3. The shift to digital is still going to happen (FOR BOTH) but it's going to be slow and subtle. Suddenly more DLC will be made available.

"More microtransactions will appear. And Day One Digital will (hopefully) be cheaper and will have so many added bells and whistles that consumers (with reliable enough bandwidth) will have a hard time refusing the tasty downloadable edition over the disc based one."

The blog is certainly more eloquent than his Twitter account of late. I'd say it's good to see developers sit up, take note and offer very vocal opinions on the current events. Or have you had enough of Cliff's comments?

Source: Rheena.com