Sminky
Registered User
The way the gaming industry reacts to pre-owned games is ludicrous. Second hand purchasing exists everywhere. Cars, TV's, DVD's, SOfas, clothes......you can't really call it lost income, as people who buy pre-owned may never have bought the original product in the first place.
A good piece here on the very topic.
NukeZilla said:With the recent comments from THQ’s Cory Ledesma and comic and news posts on Penny Arcade, the discussion on multiple publishers’ decisions to charge an extra fee for multiplayer to people buying used copies of their games has elevated from minor bickering on forums and in comments to a full fledged gaming cultural debate. Developers are saying that pre-owned game sales hurt them, and they have a point: They don’t receive anything from used games sales. But the problems with their arguments are in tone and logic.
First, the way some developers are addressing used game sales makes it sound like any gamer buying used copies is, as one email posted to the front page of Penny Arcade said, “some kind of delinquent.” Game companies: the people buying pre-owned games aren’t your enemies, they are your potential customers. Attacking them makes it cool to not buy your games new. Like with anti-piracy measures, announcing how tough it will be to pirate a game only serves as a challenge to the pirates to get it done faster. Complaining that people aren’t paying full price for your games, especially in today’s economy, doesn’t exactly make you the most sympathetic figure. It makes you look like a dick.
Second, there seems to be some misconception among developers that each used game sale is money out of their pocket. I would honestly be surprised if even half of the people buying used copies of these games would pick up the new copy instead if the cheaper option wasn’t available. And if they’re worried about first week or first month sales, the only reasons there even is a pre-owned copy of the game available for resale are:
1. Someone bought it at full price and hated it.
2. The game is only ten hours long with no replay value and the gamer in question would rather have the $15 in store credit than your game he just paid $65 for (after tax).
3. A meth-head stole it from Wal-mart
Which brings me around to my point: what makes game developers so special? Cars, real estate, DVDs, CDs, books, clothing and really just about everything else has a resale market. The only three things I could think of that don’t fall under this basic economic model are food, condoms and diapers and what you guys and gals do isn’t nearly as important as any of those three.
One developer whose -mail was published as part of the debate on Penny Arcade‘s front page brought up the used car analogy in defense of the new charges, saying that the wear and tear on a used car was a similar penalty. I completely disagree. If we are going to use cars as the example than the charge for multiplayer access would be like removing the back seat and windows. The car (game) still works, kind of, but a major component and selling point of it in the first place is now missing.
Another part of the car analogy that applies to games is that of resale value to the consumer. The only way most people can afford to buy a new car or house is by selling their previous one. The collapse of housing resale values (due to a glut of foreclosed properties and questionable lending practices) is what lead the recession we’re currently in. Our economy relies on the option to sell or trade possessions off to offset future purchases. Hell, some publishers, like Atlus and NIS, even benefit from this because they have such small print runs of many of their games they sell out quickly. Between fans wanting to make sure they have a copy and speculators hoping to see their $50 turn into $80 in a few months, it’s hard to find a copy of many of their games within a few weeks. Because the resale value is so high, gamers make sure to track down a copy early.
Should everyone buy new games, at full price, the day the games comes out? Sure, and in the magical fairy land where everyone can afford to do this I encourage the ideal. But I can’t, so I don’t. I wait months or even years to pick up games because even $20 is out of the question a lot of the time. By then there aren’t new copies of some games readily available. Plus, the upcoming multiplayer charges wouldn’t be a deterrent because by the time I get my hands on most games the multiplayer community is dead and buried, often even having had its servers shut down.
While I completely understand developers’ aversion to GameStop’s practices, what about gamers who use sites like Goozex or GameTZ? Are they opposed to us working out trades amongst ourselves? I guess it just boils down to developers complaining that this isn’t a perfect world, and the gamers refusing to wax philosophic on things that will never be.