Sneaklemming said:
rokkolpo said:
someone already paid for said game.
they shouldn't care.
Every pirated game/sold used copy is a lost sale - apparently.
Except in the case of a used game that is more likely to be true, since used games dont tend to be much cheaper then new ones.
Shouldn't and don't are different - seen in EAs new measure to stop used copies being useful.
Well, not really true on this point at least. Buying a used game of a brandy new title probably only saves you $5. However if you buy one of last year's games, it can be signifigantly cheaper.
The industry is incorrect in that every used game sale is a lost sale, unless of course the game companies were lowering their prices to the used price levels at the same time.
Though technically it can be argued that when the company lowers the price, and releases say a $60 game for $30 as a "platinum edition" the used prices also drop to be between $5 and $10 cheaper, so by their nature the industry can't catch up with used games.
HOWEVER, there is still the false assumption on the part of the company that given the lack of a used option "Joe Gamer" would have, and willingly spend, that extra $5-$10 to get the game. It's the cheap price itself that makes the used deals attractive.
My basic arguement is that for every new game coming you, you typically have 2-3 people for everyone buying it that say "meh, I'll wait to get it used" and buy it for like $20-$25 a year to 18 months later. Gamers tend to be selective, buying only their favorite-seeming games for full price, and being less prone to taking "leaps of faith"... that's what you do with used games.
Indeed with all games going for the same, high, price being a consumer with games is very risky, especially seeing as developers keep their cards close to their chest until after release. Any gamer with experience will tell you that no matter how much hype there is, there is no way to tell if a game is any good until you try and play it. On a lot of levels game developers rely on "blind marketing", and the assumption that since noone laying out money knows when something is a cra@p product, they can always fix it later. Truthfully I sort of feel a lot of garbage games were known to be garbage when they were released, but were simply put out with good marketing.
Now if the Game industry was to say lower their price to $20-$25 a pop things would change. They might find people far more willing to take those risks in the initial sales. They won't ever get "a sale for every copy our statistics show was pirated" but would probably wind up with a lot less people waiting a year to get a game cheaply. However, loweing prices is not an option for the game industry.
I find it ironic that the industry apparently spends millions of dollars on developing "Special DLC", verification servers, and killer DRM, when they could just sacrifice the profits they spend on that R&D in terms of lower prices and probably meet with better results.
