Volition Dev Vs. Pre-Owned Games

[O maestre]

"People often don't understand the cost that goes into creating these huge experiences that we put on the shelves for only $60. They also don't seem to realize how much they are hurting us when they buy a used game and how pirating a copy is just plain stealing. Maybe something as simple as educating them could help solve the problem..."

perhaps you are the one who needs to be educated. can you tell me a single other medium that actively prohibits the buying and selling of used products?

can you imagine if you had to pop in a code every time you wanted to watch a movie or hear a song?

how the hell did developers (and publishers) get this delusional? or is it just greed? i cannot fathom what kind of sleazy people actually feel these draconian measures are justified

what the hell happened to "the customer is always right" philosophy? when i buy something no matter what it is i want to be able to do with it as i please.

Piracy i agree is a problem and a serious issue, but there is not one conceivable situation where used game sales are going to affect profits, newsflash the used games were once bought brand new? if you dont want people to re-sell their games than its a simple matter of making them worth keeping period Granted gamestop's practice of taking in used games and selling them for almost the same price, is also sleazy, but that is a separate deal that needs non of you involvement.

 

[Funkysandwich]

The only way people will accept this is if games become cheaper as a result. That's how Steam works, that's how this system should work too.

 

[acosn]

Only reason you see anyone going after used games is because going after piracy proved to be far more trouble than it's worth. Less than a decade ago you had Nintendo's official response to buying games they weren't putting into production was to go to second hand stores and the internet.

Used games ain't taking food outta your family's mouths, quite to the contrary in the middle of a recession the gaming industry repeatedly reported record sales. Used games were not killing this. Ultimately used games are a boon to developers and publishers alike because it can be the best way to gain exposure for risky titles. The alternative is a very ugly slope where consumers just stop buying games new because they know in a matter of months the price will drop. I mean, unless they seriously want to start a dialogue about how there's absolutely no reason for games to be sticking to the obsolete 50$ / 60$ price point publishers want to demand.

 

[RevRaptor]

@ Zom-B

Dude I still play and love my Sega MegaDrive games. My ps2 gets played on more than my 360, I buy a game I buy it for keeps. I don't see the point in spending money for something you are not even allowed to keep. Hell I almost lost all my dlc for my xbox and I did nothing wrong, all I did was return a faulty unit to the store and get a replacement console, had I transferred my dlc to the faulty console I would not have been able to transfer to my new console in till one year had passed. This drm bullshit is getting out of hand.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Gotta love the communist approach
It's ok people they know what's best for you, just let them decide.

 

[tunderball]

Its pretty hard to put into words how utterly outrageous ths idea is and not to mention utterly stupid. Why don't game developers understand that the majority of us do care about their work and the only thing shit like this achieves is making it harder for us the honest paying customer to access their product.

But its possible to look at it from a slightly different angle, used game sales actually fulfill a great purpose in our industry...... it keeps old games alive. It would be impossible to pick up a new cartridge of an N64 game today, without used game sales classics that changed the industry would be forever lost.

 

[rob_simple]

To be honest, I really hope this does happen, just because I'd be fascinated to see who breaks first: will the consumer give in and adhere to the new business model or will the developers realise the huge mistake they've made when they lose millions of sales and all have to commit ritual suicide.

Personally, I think I'll dust off my PS2 when the rapture comes; Timesplitters 2 still totally holds up.

 

[Strazdas]

good. very good. people will move back to PC.

also, this would efectively end the money train they are getting, as people wouldnt uby that console.
also, please explain to me how does the fastest growing business in the world can break apart if it wont remove used games sales?

 

[icaritos]

Piracy =/= about who pays or who doesn't. Piracy can also involve money payments, but none go to the original creator.

Your seriously going to say piracy and buying used games are the same. That's what your seriously going to do?
I do not even know where to begin on how wrong you are. If people actually think this, you and they deserve all the crap corporations currently and are going to dump on you.

News flash, they are. Fact of the matter is your desire to buy a game used, or the purchase in itself, did not in anyway influence the original buyer to purchase the game new. The guy that bough the game brand new would have done so even without the used games market, he is the customer and would have been regardless.

In the end of the day when you buy a used game you do not contribute any money to the industry, even if the copy was at one point brand new.

pirates = used games buyers

Just wow.People actually think this.
I hesitate to use the word stupid, but I honestly can't think of any word more accurate and fitting for people that actually think this.
I guess buying a used car is piracy as well!!Same with buying a used book, movie or any other commodities that are passed around used.
Your logic is flawless and clearly not wrong on every single level.

You clearly have no knowledge about how the market works, what the market is and what your rights are as a consumer and how devs like Volition want to erode them. Since you clearly don't understand, stay out of all conversation regarding used game sales, since anything guys like you say only helps to hurt us as consumers.

You are the fool for trying to assume that all commodities are created equal. Digital media is not the same as physical media, and even among each category the market functions differently.

I find it funny how you go through great lengths to overtly call me stupid without saying so while trying to compare a car purchase to a game purchase. Dear god the amount of silliness is overwhelming. To begin with a car is not even the same type of merchandise as a videogame. Games are a luxury but for most, cars are a necessity. What this means in economic terms is that when one sells a used car they will most likely be buying a new one, as the item itself (like a house, or microwave, or TV, or refrigerator) is necessary for daily living. This is not true for games. And this is just one of the implications.

Lastly I never once said or implied that buying used games is in anyway wrong. You just assumed it. I was just trying to illustrate that from a developer and market perspective there is no significant difference between pirating a game or buying it used.

 

[remnant_phoenix]

Every. Other. Industry. Has. A. Secondhand. Market. Period.

Do authors, publishers, and sellers of books go out attacking independently-owned secondhand book stores because "buying used hurts the author and publisher!" No. No they don't. At least not in any profound public way.

Does Hollywood attack secondhand DVD sellers? No. No they don't. At least not in any profound public way.

I understand that video games are expensive to make and tend to have bigger teams of employees compared to books, but the gap between production team for a movie and game isn't that different.

Other industries have adapted to the existence of a second-hand market, and video games should too. The secondhand market is a perefectly valid thing. If someone in the industry can't adapt to it, then they perish. That's the nature of the free market. Deal with it.

EVERY OTHER INDUSTRY HAS A DIFFERENT SALES SYSTEM THEN OURS.
FIlms have box office, reruns, dvd (nd in the case of disney, merchandising)
televsion has both the original run money and dvd
books im discounting for the sheer a fact a good book shouldn't cost more than 50,000 , which is 5000 books sold, which is a non-issue.

Games don't have any secondary or tertiary income. So protecting that source of income, a bit of a larger issue.

I'm not saying that the game industry is no different than the other industries. I'm saying that the other industries have adapted to the existence of a second-hand market, and gaming should follow suit. Is it more difficult for gaming to adapt to the second-hand market? Sure. But that doesn't mean that it shouldn't have to adapt.

If I buy a book/DVD/hard copy of a video game, then it is my property. I have the right to sell that property at my discretion. Thus, the secondhand market exists. Developers want to believe that they're not selling a copy of the game, but a "liscense" to play that game and that the trasferability of that liscense is under their discretion, not mine. Currently, that's not how the law works.

Unless the laws change to create a MASSIVE regulation to take away consumer rights and give more power to businesses, the consumer's right to resell their property will continue to exist and thus the secondhand market will exist. I'm against such a transfer of power. Businesses and corporations have enough power as it is.

So, in the end, a business must adapt to the secondhand market or perish. That's the principle of evolution, and it applies to the free market. Is a "no used games" console an adaptation? You bet it is. You can also bet that I won't be buying something that impedes consumer rights.

 

[Zom-B]

i did not forget them, physical items have wear and tear, a second hand physical item is of inherently lower value than the first hand one, so the markets can co-exist without any trouble.

I could go on eBay right now and find hundreds, if not thousands, of items selling for more than they ever did at retail.

Comic books, art, vintage bicycles and parts, classic cars, Nike Air Jordans and 1st edition books are just a few of the things I can think of off the top of my head that have more value now, than they did new. Developers like this goofball in the article want to take away some of the value of the products we buy. Imagine you had a huge collection of NES games and your NES console broke and all those games could only be played on that console. Your collection of games has just become worthless on the collector market without it's console.

Used doesn't always mean "used". It can just mean pre-owned, but still in good condition, or collectible or vintage or classic. Not just used up, ruined and janky.

 

[Zom-B]

@ Zom-B

Dude I still play and love my Sega MegaDrive games. My ps2 gets played on more than my 360, I buy a game I buy it for keeps. I don't see the point in spending money for something you are not even allowed to keep. Hell I almost lost all my dlc for my xbox and I did nothing wrong, all I did was return a faulty unit to the store and get a replacement console, had I transferred my dlc to the faulty console I would not have been able to transfer to my new console in till one year had passed. This drm bullshit is getting out of hand.

That's all well and good, and I know you guys are out there, but you are a minority. Most people do not replay old games over and over.

I agree that DRM is getting out of hand and digital games and DLC pose problems, but I think a lot of them are overblown and in the "sky is falling" realm of things.