InstantAction CEO: Retailers Are "Parasites and Thieves"

[Atmos Duality]

Two things would happen...

1) Piracy would skyrocket to Brazilian levels

2) You'll see the industry implode as used games are sold at an exponential rate.

They might want to ease this one out instead of clamor to try to take advantage in one stroke.

Pardon my idiocy (or sleep deprivation, one sin leads to another as it were), but which situation are you referring to?
The publishers gaining control over distribution and killing the Used Game Market?

I'm just looking for the context of your response, that's all.

 

[Gindil]

Two things would happen...

1) Piracy would skyrocket to Brazilian levels

2) You'll see the industry implode as used games are sold at an exponential rate.

They might want to ease this one out instead of clamor to try to take advantage in one stroke.

Pardon my idiocy (or sleep deprivation, one sin leads to another as it were), but which situation are you referring to?
The publishers gaining control over distribution and killing the Used Game Market?

I'm just looking for the context of your response, that's all.

If the game companies decide to use the law to make their customers criminals, it's not going to go well. What happens is that they effectively try to hold onto monopoly prices. This leads to a black market on gaming goods or people find other alternatives (in this case, I'm ignoring game sites such as Newgrounds or Kongregate)

The second part is just restating the first part. As EA goes down or changes how they do business, I believe that they won't make as much money as they used to in regards to profits. It'll be more nickel and diming as they try to take advantage of the new reordering of law.

 

[gl1koz3]

No, you just need to do more for less. It's not because the resale is bad; the resale is because your products have gone _that_ bad.

 

[Idocreating]

Dear Publishers.

Sell directly to the customer via delivery.

Say you have a $40 game. Delivery costs would be about $5 at most.

Sell it for $25 via the mail order, and sell the copies to the shops for more.

Should dent the used market sales if your customers know they can get a legitimate new copy for peanuts.

 

[Racecarlock]

Tell you what, game industry, why don't you just hire some guys to go and steal our wallets? Oh, and if you manage to shut down used game sales, how about you up your prices to 2000 dollars a game and see if you still have any customers that aren't rabid fanboys.

Seriously though, how DARE we save money! How DARE we not pay 60 bucks a pop for game. Seriously, game industry, two new games cost $120. You wanna get more people buying new? How about lowering your damn prices? How about not treating us like thieves for being a little stingy with our wallets? How about not charging 60 DOLLARS only for us to find out we got half a game and we have to pay 20 or more dollars to unlock just the basic full game? Bottom line, don't treat us consumers like we're the problem with your industry, because without us, you wouldn't have made any money in the first place. Also, game retailers aren't your problem here. Polish the damn game and release it complete, then tack on an extra DLC storyline if it feels safe enough. I don't know about you, but i've never payed full price for half a bottle of milk, then had to pay an extra third of the price just to get the other half. We as customers don't owe you shit. You're not entitled to our money, so quit friggin' gouging us.

 

[MR T3D]

Lrn2DepreciateGoods
Software != any physical good some poster compare to talking about used sales here, because the software doesn't lose its quality over time, unless the disk is damaged, and that just ruins it. As such, other industries don't have to give a fuck about used sales.

BUT SOFTWARE IS DIFFERENT.

It stays the same the first time its played as the 1,000,000th, so the product is no different new or used. But by implementing something like EA project $10, you create a difference between new and used copies of software. Then the consumer choses between the full product, all features and the like, or a used one, which won't, unless you pay a relatively nominal fee, if you don't play online, then its usually no biggie. Bitching about it just reeks of "entitled little ***** with no sense of respect"


DLC-ing 1/10th the game for 1/5th the price is still a dick move though, but then, ubisoft is shit pub/dev releasing shitty games/screwing up classy franchises as of late.

 

[jonnosferatu]

I got about halfway through this thread before giving up, so I'm just going to summarize my thoughts and move on.

It seems to me that most of you are unaware of a few crucial facts:
1) Companies do not act arbitrarily or without foresight.
2) Rational self-interest in purchasing does not stop at simply taking the lowest price.
3) Products involving risk will not be produced for a market structured to reward caution.

A recent episode of The Game Overthinker covered this more effectively, but my underlying point is that this a hell of a lot more complex than most of you - including the people supporting Castle's statements - appear to understand, and that you may want to start doing your homework on how this industry actually works before telling the people at the top of it to stop complaining.