Poll: Do you buy pre-owned games?

[KarmaTheAlligator]

Considering my budget options, yes, I buy pre-owned if I can find them.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I tend to buy pre-owed games if they are games that were out for a while. E.g. when the DS was first release I didn't buy it straight away. When I finally did buy a D (to play Pokemon Diamond) there were plenty of pre-own games after the DS release for me to buy cheaply.

 

[Snoozer]

I did not talk about morality. You are projecting that. I am saying that the 2 mediums are different. Apples and oranges.

I didn't mean to put words in your mouth, sorry for that!
I think books are along with movies the most simular medium to video games. Two things, but not entirely different.
Books are comparable in the second hand use, movies in the money and investment situation.

 

[bladester1]

As a college graduate without a job, Hell yes I buy used...otherwise i'd never get to play any games...The game industry needs to return to making great games for the sake of making great games; not making games to make a profit. Yes they should make a profit for their work, but that should not be the sole and highest reason for making them.

 

[krychek57]

I'm the devil reborn it seems.
Most PC games I buy new and via Digital Distribution but in very limited quantities. My Console games I buy almost exclusively are used and at least year or so old. Very few do I buy new. I'll buy Madden new every third year, and I'm a sucker for Final Fantasy Games in nice crispy wrapping but that's about it. Gamestop buy 2 get one free.. Yes Please!

 

[liquidsolid]

Yeah I don't usually feel like shelling out $60 for a title that came out months ago. The price just takes too long to drop and when there are copies of the game that are $40 used I go right for it. I don't care so much about the industry loosing profit as I do about myself not loosing profit. I don't buy on principal, I buy on what is the best deal.

I was going to buy Assassins Creed: Brotherhood used when I could find it, but I ended up finding a sale on a new copy for $25. I went right for it.

Also, I usually buy PS2 games at gamestops. They are all used copies obviously.

 

[The-Epicly-Named-Man]

Honestly? Yeah, sometimes. I generally buy new, but there are just some titles I can't justify paying 40+ euro for.

 

[Mistermixmaster]

No. I did buy Call of Duty 3 on the Wii as a pre-owned game, money that would be better spent elsewhere. Not because the game isn't good, but because the copy I got was broken. I was allowed to check the disc before buying it (no scratches or anything that I could see, it seriously looked like it was in mint condition), so I bought it, started playing it and had a lot of fun... until I got to the last few missions. The controls would randomly lock up, which resulted in me spinning, while staring at the sky in the middle of the battlefield way too many times...

After that I have never bought a pre-owned game, nor will I ever buy one.

 

[Soxafloppin]

If I'm making a decent saving and I won't lose a portion of the game (Online etc) by doing so, then yea.

 

[Xanthious]

The thing is you cant compare the mediums because Used games sales does cut into profit margins at much higher rate than any other type of medium.

It might be a pricing problem. If it costs 40$ and you only have 30$ then its buying it used. It might be a production being to expensive. It might be the product it self having very long physical lifespan while a very short useful lifespan. Now the movie industry has the same problem you might argue, however they have large amounts of extra income from Cinema and TV that may push the "used marked" away from being a problem. Games do not have this luxury.

I want to make that distinction because when people compare games then you draw false conclusion. Making copies is a none issue (to you use your example) for hammers so therefore copying is ok in other mediums. We both know that is not true. To claim they aren't being paid for their work is simply a lie. They have been paid, with the initial sale. To want a portion of second hand sales is to want something they have neither a moral or legal claim to.

If 1/3 of the sales of Heavy Rain (if the developer is to believed) were used, that is a pretty large amount of profit lost for the developer (even if a used sale doesn't necessarily mean a sale lost). How much does that amount of lost profit mean to the developer? What if it was the tipping point between success and failure for the project? Is it a wonder that developer wants to get a cut of this?

Its not surprising to me that games because of their very nature is moving towards a contract/ticket style of setup to safeguard themselves.

To keep it short thou. Yes it your goods. You can do with them what you want. But you should be asking yourself what effect it will have rather than if you are allowed to. Selling old furniture isn't having an effect on the furniture industry, but used games have an effect on the gaming industry.

No no no no no! Your entire argument boils do to "But games are special". Games are NOT special! Any problem they are facing is totally on their end and has nothing to do with preowned sales. If they can't turn a profit with the amount of new titles they are selling then that is their problem, not the consumers. It doesn't matter that the movie industry can fall back on ticket prices or anything else for that matter. The video game industry still deserves no special treatment when it comes to preowned sales. They'd like to think they do, but they do not.

First off, if there are to be preowned sales that means someone has to buy the game new, meaning they already got paid for that copy. Any other transactions that happen with that copy are of no consequence to the developer or publisher. They don't get to be paid multiple times for the same product. Show me another maker and seller of goods that gets paid beyond the initial sale. There isn't one and video games don't deserve to be the first.

Secondly, lets look at the case of Heavy Rain. Ok it sold 2 million new copies. Another 1 million copies have been bought on the second hand market. That means they have gotten paid for 2 million copies. If they aren't turning a profit off the money (over 100 millon dollars) they bring in from that then there is a serious problem that couldn't hope to be fixed by eliminating used sales. They either need to look at producing fewer physical copies to reduce the amount of copies they have wasting away in some warehouse or lower production costs.

Thirdly, to try and claim people should care that buying used it hurting the industry is simply insane. It shouldn't fall on the consumers to make up for the producer's inability to fiscally manage their product. Every other industry makes due with used sales without whining and crying like a spoiled baby so why can't the game industry. Again, any problem that may be caused by used games (and I doubt there is one that isn't wrought from greed) is totally at the fault of the game maker and the consumer should never be looked towards to fix it.

Finally and most importantly the simple truth is what I've been hammering away the entire time, games as a good to be bought and sold are not special. Any other issue as to why they are claiming to be hurt by second hand sales means fuck all. They are nothing more than another good to be bought and sold. If every other maker of goods in the history of goods being bought and sold has been able to live with preowned sales there is no reason games can't do the same. They simply don't want to. They have grown far too greedy and far too entitled and would rather whine and cry than try to adapt.

 

[RemuValtrez]

I rarely buy preowned games. I just like the idea of buying something brand new, and having the fun task of taking off all 3 taped parts on the cover without messing it up. Also, I just like knowing that the disk won't be messed up. Only buy preowned if it's a really old game that I can't find anymore for a not so ridiculous price.

 

[esperandote]

Hell yes, all the time, unless it's my favorite game ever and I cant wait to play it.

 

[Michael Hirst]

Yes, always if I can get the game significantly cheaper and I resent the implication that I'm to blame for the industry going wrong because this is a legal option and as a consumer it only makes sense for me to pay less when the option is given, if I seriously want a game badly I'll get it new when it comes out like Metal Gear Solid 4 or Deus Ex Human Revolution but unless I'm in great anticipation for a game I'll wait a while and get a cheap pre owned copy.

We live in a capitalist society where money is king, anyone who tries to bring morals into games sales is ridiculous, at best I have meagre amoutns of money and can't afford ot be picky about "supporting the devs" besides we know that publishers take a huge poriton of the money anyway

On the Flip side I frequently use Steam to buy games but guess what THOSE ARE AT A GOOD PRICE THAT I CAN AFFORD and a greater proportion of the money does reach the people who actually made the game.

EDIT: Also even though I'm not exactly well off with money I don't stoop to piracy as an excuse I still buy my games one way or another.

 

[DuelLadyS]

I buy almost all of my games used. I have put a lot of thought into the impact of that, but there's one simple truth that stands out for me- I wouldn't pay full retail for these games. The small handful of stuff I genuinely want right away, I do buy new. Everything else is a year or more after release and in the $20-25 range at most. If I couldn't buy these games used for a discount, I wouldn't buy them at all.

While part of me likes the EC idea of having used buyers pay a bit for unlock the whole game, I'm really leery of that approach. For me personally, all it does is drive me away from buying the game altogether. Like I said, I don't pay much more than $20 for these used games... if unlocking cost $20 on its own, then the game will never be cheap enough for me to bother with (unless developers have the good sense to lower the unlock price over time.) Also, what happens when the game is no longer supported? I play a lot of retro titles, I'm well aware that sooner or later servers get culled. It's one thing if it's just multiplayer- that'd be going away anyway- but I hate the idea that I could learn about a game a generation or two too late and never be able to play the whole thing becuase some guy was worried about used sales.

I defintely think price drops should be more consistent... if more games dropped to $20-30 dollars after a couple years, I'd buy more games new. I could even justify spending a bit more becuase 'it's not used'. (I'm looking at you, $60 copies of Sin and Punishment: Star Sucessor in the local Wal-mart...)

 

[kickyourass]

Unless I want the super collectors edition of a game (in which case I buy new, so I know that there's nothing missing or no suspitious stains anywhere) I buy used. But it's usually through a place like Amazon, where I'm buying it from a specific person, and they are the ones getting my money instead of Amazon who just gets payed for the shipping. It's only when I can't find at a good price new, or at a good price there, that I go to places like Gamestop.

 

[RollForInitiative]

The only time I will buy used games is if I literally cannot find a game anymore. Even then, I'll sometimes just go without instead. I don't support used game sales in the slightest and, even after a major theft cost me much of my collection, I still paid for new copies again.

I figure: hey, if I liked the game enough to warrant buying it again after it was stolen, then I liked it enough to warrant giving more money to the developers.

 

[Sylveria]

I try not to. Unless the game is too old to find new at a reasonable price, I usually get new.

 

[Mikeyfell]

Only in certain situations.

For instance I'm going to buy a used copy of Dead Island because it looks like it's going to be pretty good but I don't want Techland to get any money for figuring out that Borderlands and Dead Rising were both good games and duct taping them together.