Used Game Sales "Killing" Single Player Titles

[Blade_125]

I call shinanigans on this article. The person writing it, or the people making the claims, have no idea how economics work. Everything is worth what the buyer is willing to pay.

To state that without the used game market prices would drop with any certainty is a bold faced lie. Maybe pricing would drop, maybe it wouldn't It all depends on if consumers won't pay $60 for a game. Personally I very rarely buy a game at full price. Steam and Impulse have sales so often that there is little point in buying most games on the first day. I haven't even bought MAss Effect 3 yet since I am waiting for the price to drop.

I also chose not to buy used games. The cost of a used game is usually about $5 less than a new. I once saw a used game that was $2 less than a new. Now why would I bother buying a used game, that has a higher chance of having issues as you do know know what care someone took with their disk, for such a non-existant savings. This is the issue with the used game amrket and with the other points, will likely lead to it's death. I buy a game new for $60. Sell it for maybe $25 (I don't sell games, so maybe it's more, I don't know). The used game store sells it for $55, making more than a 100% profit. I won't contribute to that unless they lower the price, or give me more for the game.

Everyone needs to remember companies only listen when you speak with your wallet.

 

[vxicepickxv]

At the very least, letting publishers and developers have a slice of the used market would substantially cut down on the incentive for things like Project Ten Dollar and Online Passes, etc., which would be a win for all customers.

It would also create more sequels, because without a used market, a lot of original IPs wouldn't get circulated, which would reduce the demographic for a title. This would actually raise the prices of games, because they would need to make up for lost sales, because they can't sel titles to as many people.

 

[Cyrus Hanley]

Protip: Don't sell games at sixty bucks, then.

And don't sell them for $120 in Australia.

I bought a pre-owned Gold edition of Resident Evil 5 from EB Games a week ago for just $25. It's seriously made me consider exclusively buying older, pre-owned games for cheaper and playing them while I wait for the new releases to become old, pre-owned and cheap.

 

[Mr. Omega]

*Reads Title*
Yeah, because Nintendo and Bethesda are just losing money hand over foot making single-player focused games

*Reads Lede*
Yeah, because PC Gamers have been paying so much less for titles with the all-digital model.

*Reads Article*
Yeah, because used sales are the only thing that are killing single-player.

3 degrees of bullshit right here, man. 3 degrees of bullshit.

 

[Versuvius]

Shitty singleplayer games with shitty multiplayer, or okay multiplayer and shitty single player campaigns are killing single player games. With online activation now an industry staple (which i'm fine with, i loves me sum steam) how long can this excuse be milked?

 

[Soviet Heavy]

We buy used because retail prices are so high. But obviously its the used game sales fault, and it is they who have to change, not you.

Obviously it's no fault of the developer and producer, but the used market that drives up prices.

 

[Vault Citizen]

Protip: Don't sell games at sixty bucks, then.

Exactly. It could just as easily be said that if prices were lower there would be less incentive to buy used games.

 

[Vivi22]

You're more likely to give a game up if there's nothing to do once the story is done, especially if it's one you don't feel like experiencing again.

This is nothing new though, and the latter portion of this statement is specifically the developers problem to deal with. If gamers are selling a re-selling a single player game because it isn't compelling enough to warrant more than a playthrough then expecting them to pay more to buy your mediocre titles brand new isn't going to win more sales. I own plenty of compelling single player games I've played more than once. Those that stuck with series like Mass Effect until the end weren't doing it because of multiplayer either.

The whole thing regarding book swaps and yard sales isn't really analogous. From my limited knowledge, movies make their money on the silver screen (mostly) and from DVD sales (a only a little bit) from the fans who want home copies, so they're not really affected all that much by their rental industry. Books in the meantime seem to be doing better than ever, especially with the advent of e-publishing, and book publishers don't really have to compete with a "used book" market. The only thing vaguely similar are libraries, but those function in such a different way that the situation really isn't comparable. And (from what I've observed), book lovers tend to retain their products, even if they don't really care for them so much.

I don't think I've ever seen sales numbers for DVD and Blu-ray copies of movies (I'm not sure they're even widely available) but I doubt they're as meager as you imply compared to ticket sales. Regardless, used markets for DVD's and books are common. I can regularly go to the flea market every week and buy plenty of both, including an excellent selection of current titles not to mention that there are several brick and mortar stores dealing significantly, and even exclusively, in used sales of either in my area and I do not live in a huge city. The two are directly analogous to used game sales, and the real irony is you used book publishers success moving into the digital distribution realm in an attempt to show how it isn't analogous to games, despite games already moving that way and platforms like Steam seeing the sort of revenue growth that most companies don't even dream of because growth that high almost never happens. If anything games are even better suited to digital distribution than books and movies.

New game prices would have dropped long ago if publishers got a piece of the re-purchase.

I'm going to call bullshit on this as well. If publishers and devs suddenly got a cut of used sales then they wouldn't give ground on new game prices unless they absolutely had to. If they could suddenly exploit a new revenue source while maintaining the old one at similar levels of growth then you'd have to be pretty naive to think that many of them would give that up.

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

Im pretty sure there was a news piece on this site not too long ago about Game actually offering to do exactly this but no publishers took them up on it.

 

[oldtaku]

Do you really think Activision-Blizzard or EA would drop prices if there were no used sales when they're already charging $60 for PC games which have zero resale market?

 

[5-0]

Fucking bullshit. The reason I often buy games used is because the price isn't justified when I only get eight hours of gameplay from them. Make better, longer, single player campaigns with replayability and people will a) be more likely to buy the game new, and b) be less likely to want to trade the game in after a week. Case in point: Red Dead Redemption. £40 is a hell of a lot, and I'm only gonna pay full price if I will get my money's worth.

 

[Xanthious]

Prices would have come down long ago if the industry was getting a share of the resells

Gee so if they were getting money they have neither a legal or moral right to then the prices would go down? Well you may as well say if people just started mailing us envelopes full of money then we might thinking of lowering game prices. Get the fuck out of here with that nonsense. Developers need to man the fuck up, shut their mouths get the sand out of their girl parts and make games. If they can't do that then maybe they should find a new line of work.

In the ENTIRE history of people making and selling goods has there ever been a single maker and seller of goods that enjoys this perk. Why in the blue hell do video game makers think they are all of a sudden special? I'm sick and fucking tired about hearing developers and publishers ***** whine and moan about something they, again, have no legal or moral claim to. Fuck em, fuck em all. They can go bugger each other with rusty railroad spikes for all I care before I will ever think they deserve a single penny from used sales.

Here's the thing, the video game industry is posting record profits in an economy that's one of the worst we've seen since the great depression and they have the fucking gull to ***** about used game sales. Again, fuck each and every last one of them. I'm sorry they aren't making big enough piles of cash but the fact of the matter is most any other industry would gladly trade places to be where video games are right now.

Let me be clear as a fucking bell. If somebody works in the gaming industry and feels this way then they deserve to lose their fucking job and go work someplace they can't inconvenience me and people like me anymore. I hear McDonalds is usually hiring. Barring that I'd imagine jizz moppers have a high rate of turn around. These arrogant fucks don't realize how good they have it right now and if they can't learn to start appreciating just how good their industry is then they don't deserve to work in it.

The bottom line is this, use games and piracy aren't the things killing gaming right now, greed is. These publishers and developers see and treat gamers as nothing more than an piggy bank that they can nickel and dime to death. They need to stop blaming the people paying their bills for their problems and start looking inward at any one of hundreds of fucking cancers killing them from the inside.

 

[Tanakh]

*Reads Lede*
Yeah, because PC Gamers have been paying so much less for titles with the all-digital model.

I have, Skyrim was 50 bucks, Battlefield 3 was 20 bucks, Two Worlds II, Batman Arkham City, The Witcher 2, Kingdoms of Amalur, ME 1, 2 and 3 all much cheaper than 60 dollars on PC a couple of weeks after launch.

If this is due no resells or due the war between Steam and Origin I wouldn't know; but that the new games are on average cheaper on PC digital than for consoles is a fact, and they also go on sale faster. Read most PC fanboy threads, one of the benefits they include is that the (new) games are cheaper!

That said, David Braben is seriously delusional if he thinks companies will reduce prices just because they are making more profits, just looking at someone like Apple makes you know it doesn't happen.

 

[twm1709]

funny they say this considering digital distribution are full priced just like the originals (sometimes even more) as well even though that can't be re-sold

 

[darksakul]

I have to admit this is the first time I am disappointed with Greg Tito.
The trade and resale of media including video games is stated in the first sales doctrine, part of copyright law. A little part of the law that states your copy of the media of you choice, book, magazine, news paper, video tape, CD , DVD and so on is your property not the publishers.

That the owner of said copy of media can sell, trade or even destroy of give away his or her own leisure. The First sales doctrine even protect your rights to make note or back up copies of said media (not not distribute said copies).

If anything the current models digital distribution and DRM is violating the First Sales doctrine. The MPAA, RIAA, Video game companies, and big name software companies are trying to circumvent such owner rights by calming we paid for a license not the product, but still treat the sale as a sale of product. That kind of "wave-particle" duality should have no place in the market place.

Greg you are agreeing with a ancient and draconian ideal of ownership that should of ended with the start of the American revolution. That the publisher dictates the rights of the copy holder, not the copy holder dictates he rights to his own property.

 

[VonKlaw]

*snip*

Oy! Quit making me panic by generating another "What if Valve went bankrupt tommorow" in my head!

In all seriousness, governments do need to look at the massive loop holes when it comes to digital sales and consumer rights.