Fable 3 Dev: Used Games Sales are "More Problematic" Than Piracy

[JediMB]

That's right, kids, carting the old crap that you're never again going to play down to the store so you can afford to buy the hot new EA Sports release does more damage to the industry than simply downloading it from some skeevy torrent site. Or something like that.

No. [/Arishok]

Selling back the still-hot game you picked up less than a week ago and rushed through in three days is what is damaging to the point where it can be compared to piracy. But only because it means that someone else will soon buy that still-hot game used rather than new in order to save $5.

 

[JasonBurnout16]

Overall: Lower your prices in accordance with Preowned prices. I don't believe it's that people dont want to buy new, its simply the price.

But then the shops will just reduce the cost of the pre-owned so the company end up losing money both from Used Game sales and a reduced new price.

I respectively disagree with this idea. Game companies want to make a profit too and they will gain little from lowering the prices of Pre-owned games even further. I believe a balance could be found, probably around the £20-£25 mark.

And I wouldn't expect the New game costs to fall straight away. But they do need to fall and the stubbornness to reduce the price is the reason people resort to Preowned sales.

 

[Xanthious]

Selling back the still-hot game you picked up less than a week ago and rushed through in three days is what is damaging to the point where it can be compared to piracy. But only because it means that someone else will soon buy that still-hot game used rather than new in order to save $5.

. . . . and there is absolutely nothing either morally or legally wrong with that. Every other maker and seller of goods has to endure the same thing and they manage to do it without acting like entitled, spoiled children who think the rules that are in place for everyone else somehow shouldn't apply to them.

Honestly if the game industry is so set in it's ways that rather than attempting to adapt they choose instead to throw a temper tantrum and punish the paying customers then I'm more than happy to keep "buying" pre-owned and rushing that damn game back as soon as I beat it for my full refund (You too can game for legally and for free kids, learn to game that system). If this is the way the gaming industry wants to act then I say the faster they come crashing to the ground the better.

 

[ascorbius]

It's a tricky one..

In this economy, I generally don't buy full priced games unless they're really special.
I get them pre-owned if it's a popcorn game.. I buy brand new games sometimes, but these are the epic games I truly look forward to like Mass Effect, Dragon Age or Portal2. I don't feel guilty about getting a cheap 2nd hand game though.. They're normally old, the person who sold it doesn't play it anymore and I get to enjoy a game I wouldn't have purchased at full price and perhaps I'll fall in love with the franchise and get the sequel at on release day. As long as the pre-owned market is mega cheap, then it's OK.

What is a problem is when the pre-owned games are almost as expensive as the New games.. this does deprive the game maker of a real sale from someone with the cash to spare for a new full-priced title.

Tescos have started getting into the used games market and their used games are almost as expensive as the new games.. (last time I checked) that's totally not on.


If the game is mega cheap, then the person who buys it probably wouldn't have brought the game at full price so nothing is lost.
If it's almost as much as the new game, then the person is choosing the 2nd hand game to save a couple of quid and would normally buy a new copy - depriving the game maker.

So basically, it's only a lost sale if the full priced sale was there in the first place.


Businesses who re-sell 2nd hand games at near retail prices should be made to a) ensure all disks are of an immaculate quality and b) send money to the publisher if they wish to justify the cost. Otherwise, the customer and the publisher are being duped out of cash, the customer is getting a sub-standard product and this is considered legal.

 

[Busdriver580]

I don't know what it's like elsewhere, but Gamestop's business model is deliberately designed to screw over developers, so comparisons to used automobiles or books are unfair at best. The idea that the games industry is being whiny is ridiculous, no other industry deals with the level of used trading that video games do.
To clarify: used games aren't some great evil, but companies are justified to complain.

 

[laserwulf]

Publishers are just frustrated that the free market isn't working out in their favor. Used car sales haven't killed off the market for new ones, nor are used book stores (or public libraries) driving Amazon.com or Barnes&Noble out of business. Give me a positive reason for buying a new copy of Game X, and I will; collectors' editions with unique swag are a good example. This whole 'Project $10' BS that EA is trying to force down our throats will ultimately backfire for them, since "VIP Passes" to enable multiplayer punish you for not buying new and such are a slap in the face of the very customers that they need to survive. I have no problem waiting until a game is on the clearance isle if I absolutely, positively need a brand-new copy.

 

[MolotoK]

I don't see the logic behind this.
I'm sure most people, who sell used games, use the money they get to buy new games.
The second hand market probably increases revenue because second hand gamers might not buy game systems and games at all if they had to pay full price for every game.

 

[Racecarlock]

Take it away, sterling! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqNRBm0szc4