Poll: Do you buy pre-owned games?

[Sonicron]

It's becoming less and less viable, what with online passes, activation codes and retarded DRM measures and whatnot, but yes, I do, though not often. I think my most recent purchase was a bundle consisting of Uncharted 1 & 2 and Afro Samurai, for around 40 Euros.

 

[SarcasminBloom]

It depends on the pricing differences for me. If the used copy is about 5-10 dollars less than the new one, I'll usually opt for the new copy to avoid scratches, damage, etc. If the used copy is significantly less than the new copy, then I'll go ahead and buy the used copy.

 

[Jelly ^.^]

Nope, I live in Australia, so I buy my games online and new.

That way they come region-free, have spoogy DLC codes with them for free and are cheaper than retail used copies.

I haven't bought a game retail for at least 3 years.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Yes alot of them, just never from retailers because I'm not retarded.

 

[Rawne1980]

I buy used for the Xbox.

I wait for prices to come right down for my PC games most of the time, unless it's a game i've been waiting for.

I refuse point blank to pay £40 for every game that I want. If the industry wasn't such a rip off in the first place there wouldn't be a market for used games or people waiting for prices to drop.

It's their own damn fault for being greedy bastards.

 

[Hollock]

Sometimes, but most games i get are new

 

[Gazzoid]

No. When it comes to new releases I always prefer buying my games brand-spanking new. I have bought pre-owned games in the past and discovered the discs were faulty whilst playing. It's all thanks to the previous owner not taking care of them.

However, some games I have no choice but to buy pre-owned, such as old, rare games that have gone out of print. They're usually the sort of games you have to buy from eBay...

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Pre-Owned is the only way I can get my old-school games without spending 50 - 200+ on those games. Granted, I came close to dropping $70 on Harvest Moon on the SNES but that was pre-owned. When it comes to current games though I try to buy new more often than used. I also try avoiding digital purchases.

 

[Findlebob]

I do as a protest if the devs have annoyed me.

 

[staika]

Unless its one of those brand new games that came out I usually buy pre-owned because it's cheaper and I have one of those gamestop cards which get me a discount and get me points in their reward system so I can get cool shit. And I also don't care about all these online passes for the new games because I don't play online that much anymore and the ones I do I don't have to get that little card to do it.

 

[glyn]

£60 for preowned for wait a few months and play it for £20...no real competition really.

As for Extra credit's plan for games to have half on the disc and half as DLC do that the developers get something from everyone who ever owns the game, forget that idea. Terry Pratchett keeps most second hand book shops open (at least in the UK) and never sees any money from all those second hand sales, same with films, why are games developers so special?

If "the medium" wants to be taken seriously, then maybe "the medium" shouldn't be pillocks.

can I make a point that the cost of writing a book is a lot smaller than making a game. Its the same reason you wont hear that piracy being the same problem with written media. You cant and shouldn't compare the 2 different mediums.

And a game costs a lot more than a book to buy new (for now). And most books don't sell as many copies as games do (unless you've got symbologists, wizards or tattooed girls in it)

With the kindle and whatnot, will the piracy of books take off and kill literature off altogether, especially as you don't own a kindle book, you merely own a license to look at a copy on that brand of bookreader. Want to read your kindle book on a sony reader, you've got to buy it again.

Once someone hacks and distributes the next Dan Brown via bittorrent, will publishing houses which are struggling already bite the dust?

 

[the.gill123]

Not really, I find that second hand games, bought in shops in this country, are still more expensive than buying them brand new off Amazon, hence why I usualy go to Amazon. Saying that, though, I do occasionaly go into a game shop in Falmouth, it's quite cheap compared to HMV, also they sometimes sell 3 for £20 on decent second hand games, not just crappy ones they can't shift.

 

[Fetzenfisch]

no, for my old consoles maybe, but never for the pc. And as far as i know its never got a big thing here in germany. We dont trust used discs.
Plus i only know very very few gamestop stores in a 100km radius and the only used stuff i saw there were lots of old PS1 PS2 and XBoX games. the new generations of retro gaming
so yeah the only market for used stuff here is old console games that arent sold anymore

 

[DracoSuave]

£60 for preowned for wait a few months and play it for £20...no real competition really.

As for Extra credit's plan for games to have half on the disc and half as DLC do that the developers get something from everyone who ever owns the game, forget that idea. Terry Pratchett keeps most second hand book shops open (at least in the UK) and never sees any money from all those second hand sales, same with films, why are games developers so special?

If "the medium" wants to be taken seriously, then maybe "the medium" shouldn't be pillocks.

can I make a point that the cost of writing a book is a lot smaller than making a game. Its the same reason you wont hear that piracy being the same problem with written media. You cant and shouldn't compare the 2 different mediums.

However, movies DO share similar costs and they also don't have as much problem with used sales.

Entertainment media has this thing tho... the large scale chains that sell movies OR books don't sell used movies or books. This is something that is strictly restricted to video games, and as a direct result, they have a problem with this.

It's almost like if the manufacturers actually did -something- about their distibution chains they might solve the issues in the industry resulting from their distribution chains dicking them over.

 

[varulfic]

Yes I do, and for all your game developers out there losing money:

I get the anger directed at pirates, that's completely justified. But pre-owned games? Cry me a river, you greedy bastards.

 

[interspark]

almost exclusively, i see no point in buying a game new when there's one of identical quality only cheaper, i only buy new games when i really really want it as soon as possible, so pokemon games mostly

 

[Snoozer]

I only buy some console titles preowned and most pc games on steam. If I'm interested in a new title I still buy it new, the used price wont drop that much in a year (maybe 10?) so it's not worth waiting for that.
I only buy used titles if they are aready old (2-3 years) and you can really a good price buying them used. Around 80% of the games I own are bought new, only including titles of the current generation (god knows how many old games I still have lying around here)

I still think that pre owned games are not a threat to the industry, just because they get pretty statistics and such that they interpret that way.
Piracy should still be a problem, but it's probably easier for the industry to make people feel guilty who actually want to own legal copies, to raise their earnings.