Pre-Owned Games A "Critical Situation" For EA

[astaldodhol]

If they make us buy their games online, I would go mental, because a lot gaming companies don't let Iceland buy online.
EA has lost all my my respect for them. Which wasn't much to begin with.
Also, my spore has one install left.

 

[Liatach]

I'm pretty unimpressed with EA at the moment,
for the record I like to buy games online, its how i bought Portal and Phsyconaughts and incidentally the full version of the Spore creature creator (which i had to buy from New Zealand, because neither the American or Australian store would sell it to me, and i'm in Australia).
However in order to buy games online regularly data allowances are going to have to change in Australia. A topic to which i have devoted a thread here: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.70510?page=1
I think EA need to worry less about people passing on games they have legitimately bought and more about selling their customers a product that they the customer will then own until such time as they see fit to dispose of their own will. It's for this reason that i have not yet bought Spore even tho it is amoungst my most anticipated games in years.

 

[Gummy]

Maybe if so man new games didn't cost $50 bucks or so, more people would buy them new. Maybe the game publishers need to think of ways lower development costs. They could certainly save money if they advertized less. Do you have any idea what a full color ad in a magazine costs?

sure, they could cut their advertising budget, and save a lot of money. of course the downside is, no-one will buy the game because no-one will have heard of it. also. $50 bucks? get over it. Down-under, recent PRE-OWNED games, often cost upwards of $80.

IMO, EA can get over it too, what they sell is a product, like a DVD or clothing or a car. not 'the rights to play a game' I think this mistake is one of the biggest flaws of their business model. If i buy a dvd, and get bored of it, or decide I don't like it, I'll sell it second hand. pop it on eBay or something. that is NO different to a game. neither is second hand clothing as one of the examples used in the article. although games as a product don't decay as such, they do become outdated. They go out of fashion like clothes.

what EA should be (and seems to be thinking of) doing is developing games with lots of re-play value, not just in terms of future on-line updates. even single player games.
If i go down to EB and see a whole load of a certain game on the pre-owned shelves that says to me that this game doesnt have a whole lot of longevity, so I'll be damned if i pay full price for it if i want to try it out. wheras games that do have depth, re-playability, or even just good gameplay that makes you want to play it through multiple times. are usually a rarely seen on the pre-owned shelves, so there is little alternative to buying these games new. (apart from piracy, but I prefer to reward Good games with my money).