Used Game Sales "Killing" Single Player Titles

[Matt King]

but... to sell a game second hand it has to have been bought first hand (unless i'm missing something) so surely it can't be that bad (still bad i know but) so develepors if you want to not lose money on second hand sales make a game that is so good no one will ever trade it in

(although i personally have no problem with dlc, none of this wah wah it's ripping us off bullshit, you're paying for extra stuff)

 

[Allthingsspectacular]

PC doesn't have used game sales and the price went UP.

I think someone is BSing.

 

[Allthingsspectacular]

PC doesn't have used game sales and the price went UP.

I think someone is BSing.

No they didn't (well maybe in brick and mortar)
but on average its at least 25% cheaper to buy a new game on pc than console. Thats not even including crazy steam sales.

New titles went from 50 dollars to 60 dollars. :\

 

[ElPatron]

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

This is what children actually believe.

I don't think Acti-"you should be now paying $500 for each game"-vision would drop prices at all.

 

[Thoric485]

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

Hahaha, right. I just imagine John Riccitiello sitting in his office one day and deciding "damn, our company is making too much money, we should drop game prices", and then his entire stockholder board agrees, just because they love us gamers.

Seriously, it's sad to see so many people from the industry jumping on this bandwagon. Used game sales are the same type of non-problem as piracy - they're a fact of the market. Taking any sort of largescale action against them is a foolish endeavor. And they haven't even exhausted other options first.

One of the main reasons games are so resellable is that they don't really degrade in quality between resells. A good measure to take would be to make appealing physical editions again - a cardboard box with beautiful art (not a dude walking forward with a rifle), a nice big manual with lore snippets and concepts, a random goodie. Shit that gets lost and damaged between owners until someone thinks "fuck that, i'll buy a new one".

But no, instead they grab us by the throat with online passes and DLC.

Also, daily reminder why CD Projekt are our lords and saviours in these trying times:

Our players - gamers - they make their choices. they want to keep with us because they believe our product is worth it, is worth keeping on their shelves, even if they ended the game two or three times already.

We don't want to force anyone.It's like we did with DRM-free: we give them freedom and we believe they will stay with us.

 

[Valdus]

Or they could make the games good enough that people don't want to return them. There's a reason why Generic Shooter 3 get's sold back to shops once Generic Shooter 4 is released. Inversely games which keep people wanting to play don't.

I don't know a single person, for instance, who returned a single Final Fantasy game the moment a new one was released.

 

[lRookiel]

This is why I don't buy new games for full price, I prefer waiting a while.

I just get old forgotten titles from GOG since they never disappoint. (Steam too)

 

[Royas]

Waah, cry me a frakkin' river.

He can go ahead and say that publishers getting a piece of the used market (that they have no moral, ethical or legal right to) would lower prices, but there is no proof, just this one blind statement. This isn't a complicated issue. Used games are legal, publishers have no leg to stand on, and even without the used market I'm willing to believe that the games that aren't thought viable today still wouldn't be thought viable. No one thing causes entire genres to become "no-go" for a publisher.

This guy may be a veteran developer, but that doesn't mean he has any better idea why the market is the way it is than anyone else. I'm just not buying is opinion here.

 

[Sylveria]

"Prices would have come down long ago if the industry was getting a share of the resells," Braben stated.

Bull-shit. If used game sales weren't around to provide competition to new games, the price would sky rocket cause there'd be no other option. You pay $60, 70, maybe even $100 for the game or you don't get it. Period.

 

[Jodah]

Sure. And the price of new cars would have dropped if they got a slice of resale.

Oh wait, it wouldn't. Because shareholders would just consider it extra profit.

Ding ding we have a winner. The publishers aren't going to lower the prices just because they get a share of used sales. That isn't how it works and it never has been. They will sell at the best possible price to maximize return. They know they can get away with sixty dollar games and have no reason to change it. If they get a slice of used sales they will just laugh as they pocket the extra money.

Look at PC gaming if you don't believe me. There is virtually no used game market and production costs for them has decreased with digital distribution. Yet are PC games significantly cheaper (outside of sales)? Of course not. Triple A titles are still 60 dollars like they are on every other system.

 

[TConti]

The most simple solution available to publishers is to no longer use gamestop, or their regional equal, as a market to sell their games. sure there are still online markets and other retailers but face it the one place most people get their used games, at least in the US, is gamestop.

 

[Aprilgold]

And why do PC games cost 60 Euros now? There is no resale market on them.

Well that and the fact that they go on sale quite often, so used games don't really matter when a week after a new release the title could drop down to 20$ from a 60$ blockbuster.

---------------------------

Just develop for Steam if its really that big of a issue, oh wait a minute, they want to be able to gain more money instead of just 60$ per purchase. They want all the money that they can get, including sales of used copies. Here's a idea, try to hide the fact that your a greedy fuck next time.

 

[mysecondlife]

I swear if someone makes used game = used car comparison..