Used Game Sales are a "Bigger Problem Than Piracy"

[Brandon237]

If you can't afford a new game, then either:

A: Get a job.
or
B: Don't buy as many games because you don't need to play every game.

If money is a problem then I bet you have much more concerns then playing the next game, like paying rent/mortgage/bills, buying food and other basic needs. Honestly for all those who buy used games and complain that developers aren't doing their job right, go whack yourself in the head with a crowbar because you're probably why that happens.

F.Y.I. This doesn't go towards those games that you can't by new and used is the only option, like N64 games, etc.

Let me see, I can pay ****tons for a brand new game or pay less for a perfectly legal game trade. Here in third world countries, we like to preserve money, we aren't low on cash in my home, but were not exactly rich and frivolous spending will have repercussions. Besides, new games here cost a LOT. Also, when you are fifteen and don't get $500 a week, you can only afford one game a month!

Besides, half the profit comes from the first few days of selling when everyone flocks, so they shouldn't complain.

 

[squid5580]

I wonder if he is singing the same tune when people people use thier trade in value for his games?

 

[mazerrockham]

My solution is "If you can't by something new, then you have more concerns you should be worried about."

Lowering prices also means the developers get less money. Less money means less money to use for future projects and less room to expand. If games don't have room to expand, then how can you expect them to become better? Without expansion, we wouldn't have the Wii, PS3 or the 360. Hell even games like Crysis wouldn't exist today if there was no profit margin on the sales. It's not the industries fault that people can't manage their wallet and complain that prices are too high even slightly. The game industry may seem to be there for the gamers but they're there because there's business. If they can't get profit, they have no real incentive to stay in the industry and if that happens, there would be no new games.

Lowering prices means higher New sales, which means that the developers are likely to get *MORE* money over time, not less.

Leaving prices as they are, or increasing them, means higher Used sales. The developers don't get any money from those.

That's capitalism. If you aren't willing to sell me your Thing at a price I'm willing to pay, I'll go find someone else who IS willing to sell at my price. If I can't find it, I might come back to you. Alternately, you can meet me in the middle - you get the money, and I don't have to go hunting around.

You do realize that games don't cost, to make, the same in the future than they do in the past. So before, games on consoles were $50, let's say it was $45 to make it and $5 profit margin. But with the technology today to keep up with the times (it's like updating a PC to the maximum each time something better comes out), the cost becomes (just for example, not saying it is) $55 and they make it $60 for a $5 profit margin. By that, they lose money and instead of having the rights to the game as an asset, it becomes a liability and they would close it immediately. I wouldn't be surprise if the cost for a single game and standard retail price, in the future, becomes $100, but in the future the value of a single dollar will drop, that's to be expected.

You're forgetting inflation and the fact that programmers used to make games in lower level languages and less modular.

 

[khaimera]

If you can't afford a new game, then either:

A: Get a job.
or
B: Don't buy as many games because you don't need to play every game.

If money is a problem then I bet you have much more concerns then playing the next game, like paying rent/mortgage/bills, buying food and other basic needs. Honestly for all those who buy used games and complain that developers aren't doing their job right, go whack yourself in the head with a crowbar because you're probably why that happens.

F.Y.I. This doesn't go towards those games that you can't by new and used is the only option, like N64 games, etc.

This all works well in fairy tale land but in the real world people will never buy in such a way. When we have to pay rent/bills/alimony we can't afford to buy new games all the time. It will never be the case that taking care of game publishers will outweigh our desire to play games that we love and can afford. We will always take a product at the lowest price. Its capitalism.

Maybe game makers should just charge less for their product and then we wont have to buy used games. And when I see what each developer is making compared to, say, a teacher, I will never feel bad for the game industry.

If I had a friend who would let me borrow any game I wanted, I would never buy a game, and not feel bad about it either.

 

[Not-here-anymore]

EA's new online pass seems to be something of a raw deal for people using xbox live - as I understand it, you'll have to have the pass (or pay extra) to play EA games online? So, if you're on xbox live, having already paid £40 for the year's live subscription, you're then expected to pay an extra wad of cash to play that specific game online? I know these measures are to discourage used sales, but even then, this seems like a dick move...

 

[Brotherofwill]

I like EAs idea of offering incentives to buying the game new, and fuck trading games.

I'm with you on this. If you're going to buy used, you might as well pirate it (or spend the extra five or ten bucks for new). Same net effect for the publisher---in fact, one could argue that piracy is BETTER for developers than used games because if retailers can't sell used games, the model will die out.

What the hell is everyone talking about? Buying used games is absolutely fine. If you buy used you might aswell pirate it? What the hell are you talking about?

Now, I don't buy used most of the time because the prices are inflated in most stores, but doing so is perfectly fine and it's everyone's right to do so. Jesus, developers should shut up and just give more incentive to buy new (like they are starting to do) instead of whining and moaning about the evil video game sellers and buyers.

Here's an idea: A game that sticks with you will probably never get traded in. One that you might think about playing again and feel good about having in your collection. One that isn't done after a mediocre 10 hour campaign. One that knows its core audience and doesn't pander to a different audience for extra sales. Haven't played one of these games in ages.

 

[maninahat]

Oliver claimed that games can be traded as many as four times in their lifespan, effectively reducing developer and publisher royalties for some titles to a quarter of what they should be.

...Quarter...should be...? He's assuming I'd happily buy the game at full price if I couldn't get it cheaper at second hand. No I wouldn't, and I never do. I plain can't afford new, full price games, so I don't buy them at all. Period.

I suspect many buyers are put off by the high price of games. I usually wait at least a year before buying a new title, just so the preposterously expensive product gets reduced slightly.

 

[oppp7]

Why don't they just make the gamer retailers pay a sum back to the original game makers for each used game sale? Seriously, that seems like it would solve the issue...

 

[Cherry Cola]

Second-hand stores have been around for ages. What makes the video games business so special that it can complain about it when it is a system people have been living with and loving for a long time?

 

[Ewyx]

Hmm... so you people buy legal games because the law says so, not because you want to support the developers. Interesting.

 

[rockingnic]

My solution is "If you can't by something new, then you have more concerns you should be worried about."

Lowering prices also means the developers get less money. Less money means less money to use for future projects and less room to expand. If games don't have room to expand, then how can you expect them to become better? Without expansion, we wouldn't have the Wii, PS3 or the 360. Hell even games like Crysis wouldn't exist today if there was no profit margin on the sales. It's not the industries fault that people can't manage their wallet and complain that prices are too high even slightly. The game industry may seem to be there for the gamers but they're there because there's business. If they can't get profit, they have no real incentive to stay in the industry and if that happens, there would be no new games.

Lowering prices means higher New sales, which means that the developers are likely to get *MORE* money over time, not less.

Leaving prices as they are, or increasing them, means higher Used sales. The developers don't get any money from those.

That's capitalism. If you aren't willing to sell me your Thing at a price I'm willing to pay, I'll go find someone else who IS willing to sell at my price. If I can't find it, I might come back to you. Alternately, you can meet me in the middle - you get the money, and I don't have to go hunting around.

You do realize that games don't cost, to make, the same in the future than they do in the past. So before, games on consoles were $50, let's say it was $45 to make it and $5 profit margin. But with the technology today to keep up with the times (it's like updating a PC to the maximum each time something better comes out), the cost becomes (just for example, not saying it is) $55 and they make it $60 for a $5 profit margin. By that, they lose money and instead of having the rights to the game as an asset, it becomes a liability and they would close it immediately. I wouldn't be surprise if the cost for a single game and standard retail price, in the future, becomes $100, but in the future the value of a single dollar will drop, that's to be expected.

You're forgetting inflation and the fact that programmers used to make games in lower level languages and less modular.

That IS inflation I'm counting, did you even read the last sentence?

If you can't afford a new game, then either:

A: Get a job.
or
B: Don't buy as many games because you don't need to play every game.

If money is a problem then I bet you have much more concerns then playing the next game, like paying rent/mortgage/bills, buying food and other basic needs. Honestly for all those who buy used games and complain that developers aren't doing their job right, go whack yourself in the head with a crowbar because you're probably why that happens.

F.Y.I. This doesn't go towards those games that you can't by new and used is the only option, like N64 games, etc.

This all works well in fairy tale land but in the real world people will never buy in such a way. When we have to pay rent/bills/alimony we can't afford to buy new games all the time. It will never be the case that taking care of game publishers will outweigh our desire to play games that we love and can afford. We will always take a product at the lowest price. Its capitalism.

Maybe game makers should just charge less for their product and then we wont have to buy used games. And when I see what each developer is making compared to, say, a teacher, I will neevr feel bad for the game industry.

If I had a friend who would let me borrow any game I wanted, I would neevr buy a game, and not feel bad about it either.

Your first point is right, it's because everyone never lives WITHIN their means, it's the reason the US real estate market is in the crapper. People thought they can afford a six figure mortgage on a five figure income. You know that buying used is ALWAYS cheaper than buying new, so making games cheaper will NEVER work. The technology gets more expensive as time goes on so making games will become more expensive just to make, not counting the fact that developers need profit to make more games and better or they will stop because they have no incentive to keep making games. Say "goodbye" to the game industry. Teacher's don't make alot because most of them work in a public system that lives off of a budget only a small fraction on taxes that get collected, assuming everyone pays on time and correctly, they will only make more when inflation goes up because there is no profit in the school system unless you're private, but there you can name your own price (not saying you will get it though). But then they would only make about the same anyways because cost of living goes up. I'm not saying it's wrong to buy used games but I think people should buy games new over used when possible because the industry needs it, whether you like it or not, to survive.

 

[qbanknight]

the film or book industry never had a problem with people buying used copies, but the games industry does? fuck these guys, and they say games are art when they try to squeeze $60 for every copy we get

 

[Worgen]

devs need to give gamers a reason to keep games, nice instruction books, extra stuff on the disk, personally I love a bestiary in a game, being able to look tho all the cool monsters and shit is reason enough for me to keep a game altho a nice manual helps too, most of the games I refuse to trade in have really nice color booklets and also the word altus or working designs on them

 

[duchaked]

whoo I'm so scared, not like I play sports games anyway
or online that is lolll
but if they do start forcing us with other genres' online mp...

 

[Cherry Cola]

So Piracy is 90% of all lost game sales, and Used Games are bigger... That's at least 180% of sales...

Did these people ever take math at school?

Not at all!

You see, when people wrote about Modern Warfare 2 being the best selling game of all time, they made a slight typo.

It didn't sell 7 million the first day.

It sold negative 7 million the first day!

And it was supposed to be "best selling game in opposite world", but they ran out of space on the headlines and stuck with best selling game.

 

[Snotnarok]

Yeah, and fuck you too, Andy.

Making sense is nice. Unforunately, you don't.

On Topic: I don't understand how someone not paying for a game at all is worse than someone who pays for it then trades it in. To, me some money is better than no money. I mean aren't there used movie stores? Blockbuster sells used movies, and you don't see Movie companies getting all in a huff.

Game developers get NO money for used games, so they still make no money off that.

Seriously they can whine all they want but people have bought used things for a LONG, LONG time, used books, used cars, used VCRs, used DVDs. Do they think because multimillion dollar companies lose money, when we the customer can sometimes barely afford a game will care? They make PLENTY of money most of the time. And when they don't it might be because uhh...the game is crap or too short so they get traded in fast?

Especially when you have game companies like activision pushing the consumer as far as they can to see if they'll pay more and more expensive content and DLC. And bastards like capcom who charge for content already on the disc. And Ubisoft with their incomprehensibly stupid DRM that requires you to be online 100% of the time in a single player game.

No, I think I will buy your games used when I can, because you guys are trying ripping off the consumer as much as you can while you're already swimming in millions (in activisions case BILLIONS) and we're scraping together change sometimes to buy a game.

 

[RvLeshrac]

You do realize that games don't cost, to make, the same in the future than they do in the past. So before, games on consoles were $50, let's say it was $45 to make it and $5 profit margin. But with the technology today to keep up with the times (it's like updating a PC to the maximum each time something better comes out), the cost becomes (just for example, not saying it is) $55 and they make it $60 for a $5 profit margin. By that, they lose money and instead of having the rights to the game as an asset, it becomes a liability and they would close it immediately. I wouldn't be surprise if the cost for a single game and standard retail price, in the future, becomes $100, but in the future the value of a single dollar will drop, that's to be expected.

This makes... almost no sense. I don't mean that your premise is flawed, just that I can't work out what you're trying to say.

If I'm hearing you right, you're saying that each copy of a game costs $55 to produce. That makes sense if you're looking at physical goods, but when you're talking about software, there's no need for a physical item. Additionally, it only makes sense if you can't produce an infinite number of an item - it doesn't cost me appreciably more to sell 10,000 copies of a word document - perhaps a few cents for the bandwidth, and another few cents for payment processing. It DOES cost me substantially more if I need to sell 10,000 copies of a check-valve, because I need to spend money on materials, energy, and time (employees).

My point is better made <a href=http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2009/02/20/valve-steam-is-making-us-rich/1>here. A choice quote:

Discount offers over short periods have a huge impact too, apparently. That recent half-price weekend on Left 4 Dead? That caused a 3000 percent increase in sales, plus a 1600 percent increase in Steam registrations.

50% discount leads to 30x the number of sales. Even if that number had been "1", would you rather make $40 from a single person, or $600 from 30?

 

[chronobreak]

Why don't they make all DLC free then, and continue support for games beyond the initial experience so people won't want to trade it in? Or lower the price of games so more people can afford them? There are many options availible to them that would benefit the consumer, but they are not interested in any of that. this is what you get when you want to nickle and dime people.

 

[UnusualStranger]

This type of statement coming from people has me concerned. What I got from it is

"We are not making the mountains of money we possibly could be making!"

This is a huge problem with businesses as a whole. I understand you want to be profitable and make money and all that stuff, but wanting to make a fifty billion dollar profit with every game you make is damned ridiculous.

I think this is just an example how all businesses now want to make a ridiculous amount of profit on everything they produce, and that nothing should cut into it. Sorry, but used games has already turned into a business, and not wanting it to exist is like wanting no one to buy things second hand.

Just ain't gonna happen.

 

[-Torchedini-]

Let me see, what was his name again. Andrew Oliver.

Now mister Oliver all your games I want to play will be pirated. Just because I can and because your stupid comments

My pc is mostly used parts anyway. I love used. (if its treated right that is)