Poll: Are used games BAD?

[silenticecream]

Avoiding the anti- corporate diatribe bandwagon for one moment ;p. I generally buy one game, play it to death (eg Deus Ex), then trade it in for a new copy of a game that I want (in this instance, Dark Souls). I lack the resources to maintain a library of games, many of which I no longer play, and try to support developers that appeal to me as much as possible. I am by no means poor, but I do play a lot of games, and this limits the extent to which I can pay full price. I have also lost count of how much I have invested in various mappacks (though this is decreasing) and song downloads for rockband (equally so). Nothing wrong with buying second hand...just make sure that your ratio is healthy D

 

[thiosk]

If you sell a commodity product, which is what a console game ends up being, you can resell it. Sorry bout'cha.

Notice how when the industry was concerned so much with piracy they put their efforts behind consoles. Now the used game market-- which was always an important part of the games industry-- is whats attracting their ire.

The smart move for distributors is services like Steam. You don't have a physical product to resell, but they promise to provide it for you to work on every platform you install steam to. My steam games will last a lot longer than my physical disk games because thyere stored on a central server.. but ill never sell them to gamestop or anyone else.

This is an unanticipated problem created by the industry. And of course, they want to force the consumers to accept that a physical product should not be resold.

Horseshit. Sell a physical product, it can be resold. Sorry. Move to digital-only if you care that much, and go back to supporting the PC.

My prediction: everything will be digital only. It will take a while, but it will be.

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

used games wouldn'y be a problem if retailers gave the developers/publisher a cut of the proffit. you remember them? the ones that made and released the fucking product gamestop?!

Ok, how much is a fair cut in your mind? Because we have something called the "First Sale Doctrine" here. That protects consumers from having to pay whenever a product changes hands, as the makers ALREADY GOT PAID.

 

[Gmans uncle]

Used games are not bad by any stretch of the word. They are no different from used DVDs, CDs, Cars, or anything else pre-owned. Yeah sure, the developers don't get any scratch from the sale, but they just need to suck it up like all the other industries do. That's how capitalism works folks.

 

[Trippy Turtle]

Preowned not only supports the consumers but also the distributors. The only people that don't make money from it is the developers who already cashed in on the original purchase. It isn't bad for the industry at all.

 

[Voulan]

For people in Australia and New Zealand, the price for a used game is the SAME as the normal price of a new release in America and elsewhere. The price of a new release is double that. So in my opinion, I don't see them as a problem but as a call for change.

 

[Joccaren]

For those who are too poor to be able to buy games new: Not a bad thing. For those who are able to buy games new, but choose not to for meagre savings of $5 or so: Bad.
If games don't sell well enough, they are not going to get a sequel, and if someone liked said game but bought it used simply because it was a tiny bit cheaper, they are not adding to what are sales in the publisher's eyes. I doubt they count used sales towards a game's viability.

I know some will herald the 'Once the publisher sells it to the store, they've already made the money', but if the store has used games, does it need to buy from the publisher any more?

Used games are not entirely bad, they do allow for some people to actually be able to play and join in the fun, but buying a game because its mildly cheaper, with little reason other than it is cheaper, that is a practise I find bad for everyone, especially when 56% of people in one of the arguably biggest gaming countries buy used. I don't doubt that hurts the industry.

 

[gphjr14]

Used games aren't bad, as CM156 has already covered they're only entitled to the profits of the initial sale just like every other producer of consumer goods. RCA and Toshiba can't make profits off pawn shops and yard sells. Games like Batman Arkham City and Uncharted 3 will always have a following that will buy their game new. Developers that make shitty games can't complain when people recognize shit and don't feel like paying $60 (more in some countries) for their it.

 

[dessertmonkeyjk]

Until the retailers and the ones responsible for said video games reach an agreement then... maybe?

 

[Braedan]

Not sure how it could be bad. I buy game, it is my property. I sell game to store, it becomes store's property. They sell game to other consumer, it becomes their property. Round these parts we call it capitalism.

Problems?

 

[Veylon]

Used games are not bad. They are the market's way of compensating for games sold at a price above value. The major game companies have treated games as a disposable commodity to be created and then abandoned a few months later. Is it any surprise that consumers act the same way?

The argument against them is also predicated on a false assumption: that the money spent on used games is somehow "lost" or even "stolen". Really, though, it goes back into the gaming budget of the seller who can then buy another, different game new. The industry as a whole loses nothing but the tiny percentage needed to keep up the trading system. The real losers are those whose games are bad or short enough that players are readily willing to give them up, allowing them to pass through many hands.

In any case, I don't buy that the industry is anti-Gamestop when they produce Gamestop-only DLC and perks to drive customers to those stores.

 

[Astoria]

Well if you have the money to buy it new and instead go with pre-owned it's a little, sneaky is that the right word? However if you can't afford new or it isn't available new I see no problem with it at all. About half of my games are pre-owned but I buy new when I can. Gaming developers make more than enough money so they should stop their bitching and just accept it.

 

[The Code]

Personally, I think used games are a godsend for guys like me, namely fans of older systems with games that are no longer made or sold in mainstream markets. Sega Genesis, Gamecube, PS1, etc. are part of the reason the used game market is still around. Not only that, but what am I supposed to do with an old copy of Modern Warfare 2 when they cut the MP servers? Granted that won't happen for a while, but it happened to Chromehounds and several other games.

Also, as Jim Sterling said, look what happened with Crackdown. Because of people buying the first one used and enjoying it, they looked forward to the sequel and bought the ever-loving crap out of it. Honestly, I am one such person. I preordered it and got those nifty extra armor colors that were actually worth getting. The four original armor colors were Agency Blue and three shades of grey, and the preorder colors were Xbox Green, gold,white, and a darker, richer blue.

EDIT: Also, if a game has DLC that I think is cool, chances are good that my best friend agrees and buys it out of curiosity. (FO:NV, your DLC has yet to suck, IMO.)

 

[RevRaptor]

Down here in NZ the game prices are ridiculous, so second hand games are great. There is just no way I'm spending 120 - 150 dollars on a game, If they want us to buy new they gotta lower the prices and if a game has ridiculous dlc that I must download after already buying it, then I simply don't buy that game and go and find something else to play.

 

[Smooth Operator]

If games had no second hand value then I wouldn't be buying 90% of the shit I normally do, now if they want to throw that away then so be it.