Why do people buy used games?

[an annoyed writer]

Ever try to find something like Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes for anything resembling a reasonable price? How about a physical copy of Psychonauts? I've gotten both for under $20USD, thanks to this small used game shop in my area called Mega Media Exchange. If these new policies that Microsoft are trying to push on us succeed, mom & pop stores and small chains like this are going to die, not Gamestop.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

You can't compare the price of a used recent game to the price of a new old game and say it's roughly the same so why bother. But anyway, my reasons:

1. So you can play it when it stops being produced.

2. Because Australian prices are ridiculous.

3. Because sometimes I want to play a game without necessarily supporting a publisher.

4. Because they make the industry go round. I don't think, based on the buying habits and those of my friends, that used games take that much away from new sales. At the end of the day I think used games make it possible for a wider audience to enjoy more content. If there were no used games there'd also be a fair few less new sales.

 

[ModReap]

I buy used games when I see a great game in the past that I never played, and there seems to be no one stocking said game or they are stocking said game at double the original price.

 

[piinyouri]

I've only ever gotten one bad game from Gamestop and that was back when they still carried PS1 games.
Since then I've bought a good number of used games, and I've never ever had a bad experience.
They resurface the disc before you walk out with it.

I assume the big reason most people are concerned about it so much is it's an alternative, it gives customers choice, and now it's trying to be taken away for no real good reason.

 

[Ghaleon640]

If it wasn't for used games, I could not have been a gamer all my life. Getting 10 dollar games and 20 dollar games allowed the hobby to be cheap enough that it was worth my time.

 

[Tribalism]

I buy used because I buy old. My recently bought list includes "Vanquish", "Metal Gear Solid 4" and "Stranglehold". I can't hope to buy them brand new in most stores. For the games that are newer than those titles, I buy them used if I save a decent amount doing so. I'm more reserved about buying second hand 360/Wii games, but PS3 blu-rays are much more scratch resistant, so "getting a better product" stops being an argument.

 

[Saltyk]

Well, several people have pointed it out, already, but I have a small story.

Probably around 2006 or so, I was looking around in Gamestop, and decided to look at the used games. Now, I NEVER buy used games. I'd rather spend five dollars more and avoid any nasty business with the previous owner using his disc as a Frisbee before he sold it.

However, I found two games. Suikoden and Xenogears in the used game section. Now, I had played Suikoden 2 (one of the best games on the PS1) and was interested to play the first one for several reasons. I had heard good things. The sequel has several returning characters taking place just two years after the first one in a nation just north of the first one. And there were all sorts of bonuses if you loaded save data from the first game.

Xenogears was also tempting as I heard so many good things about the game.

The games weren't cheap at $30 and $50 a piece, but both also still had their instruction manuals. Still, I didn't buy them. I took some time to decide if they were worth it. A few weeks later, I did return to buy those games.

I never could have done that if the used market was crushed by DRM.

Plus, they are my games. I have so many problems with the idea that Microsoft can just say, "No, you can't play used copies." I was the one who bought the game. It is my game. I can do what I want to with it. And that includes using it as a Frisbee, if I want. It's my game after all.

 

[Elberik]

Used games are cheaper. I either pre-order or I buy used games months to years after the initial release.

 

[Mr Fixit]

Why do I buy used games? That's simple, I have other more important priorities in my life that I have to take care of before I can play. 99% of the time that $60 for a new game has to go to bills so i'm left with very little money to blow. I love my games, but if I don't take care of those bills, then I don't eat or can't afford gas to get to where I need to go or I don't have the electricity to run the games to begin with. So if I couldn't get used games, or bum them off a friend, I'd be stuck playing the same game for most of the year until I could save enough for a new one.

It sucks being a responsible adult...

 

[Tribalism]

C) People want to play a game made by a company, but not support that company in some paradox if brain failure. "Your game is good enough for my to want to play, but not good enough for you to make any money off of it." Wut?

This makes sense. There are some purchases that players feel bad for funding. My dad casually plays EA sports titles and buys used, which I support because I despise the business model for EA sports games (yearly updates which rarely change much at all). I enjoy pokémon games, but realise they have had very little change to the formula overall. If I was ever to cave into the online CoD FPS scene again (which I enjoyed from Modern Warfare 1 until Modern Warfare 2), I'd buy used because I hate what the games stand for and I'd only be buying them due to "peer pressure" (since about 10 of my friends actively play such shooters but refuse to play any other title for any other system).

Before you retort with "but if you buy it, they deserve your money", imagine living in a town with no place that sells burgers except McDonalds. You might love burgers and have a craving for one some day. Does that mean it's a good thing to give in and give them your money for a bad product simply because that's all there is? Because to me, that sounds like you'd be another "happy customer" in their statistics.

No, I pay for games brand new if I like to see more of that. I bought Mirror's Edge brand new and look what that gave us. Millions of other gomeless twats bought Call of Battlefield 4: Modern Warfighter and look what that gave us.

Edit: Also, here in England, the price difference for used is generally around £5-£8 in retail stores. That's about $8-$12.50. Since our games retail at £40, that's between 12.5% and 20% for new games and more for older ones.

 

[mezorin]

Because usually I am looking for older, out of print games that otherwise would not be in the store. Since I'm mostly a PC gamer, when I do go consoles these days its later on in the life span of the game system. This means hunting around used games bins, Amazon, EBay, and even the game trades/exchanges if I want to get my hands on something. What I find is the ultimate irony is there is at least 200 to 300 dollars worth of games for 360 that I would cheerfully buy for 40 to 60 dollars each new if I could actually find the damn things on the shelf, but publishers are constantly whining that their games do not earn their expected quarterly results because they did not move 6 million copies in three months. No shit, Sherlock? How about keeping game discs being printed for years instead of months, and simply lowering the price after a while? Its not as if those DVDs and jewel cases cost a fortune to stamp out.

 

[Bix96]

Others have said my main reasons, so I'll post my other reason why I buy used.

Sometimes a shitty publisher *cough* EA *cough* releases a game I actually want to play. I'd like to obtain the game legally, but I don't want to support the publisher, so I buy it used.

While I'll concede and say at least you're not as bad as a pirate in that regard... I still don't follow the logic of wanting to harm EA even if it means the developers are harmed in the process. Seems pretty petty and shortsighted to me.

Wanting to harm EA and not wanting to support them are two different things.

 

[Echopunk]

I wait to buy most games until I can do so for 20$ or less. I have a lot of other things going on, so day 1 unboxings aren't important to me. If a game makes a good enough impression on me, I'm much more likely to buy its sequels/other games from the same company at launch.

In the last few years, there have been a lot of games that just weren't worth buying at full price. 60$ for 8 to 10 hours of my time isn't a good trade. 60$ for less than 6 hours of entertainment is just insulting.

I buy games to play them. More and more, that PLAY part of the equation has been disappearing into a cloying fog of expanding cutscenes, pseudo-interactive QTE sections, the belief that including a multiplayer option (which doesn't interest me at all) makes up for a pitifully short campaign. If they want to minimize the thing I'm buying the game for, I'm going to minimize the money that I'm willing to spend on it.

Also, if I only spend eight dollars for a game and it doesn't live up to my expectations, that doesn't really bother me. Now, if I drop 60 bucks for a game and finish it in a couple sessions over the course of a weekend, I'm going to dump that piece of trash as fast as I can to try and recoup the money I wasted on it.

If developers want more/all people to buy new games, they should focus on including content that justifies those purchases (online multiplayer doesn't count), not blackmail and extortion.

 

[Avalanche91]

I am a metal gear solid fan. I haven't always been; I got on the bandwagon 2 years after the release of mgs4.

But I found a used copy of MGS Twin Snakes on NGC and decided to give it a try....then I bought a secondhand playstation with MGS2 and MGS3 so I could play those too...Then I let my friends play it. Then we bought a copy of MGS4 and Revengeance in the stores with our money. Games we wouldn't have given the time of day had I not bought a second hand copy of Twin Snakes.

In short; Second hand sales are a good way of saving money, lowering the cost of entry for games you aren't sure you'll like, and creating customer loyalty.

 

[TheWanderingFish]

What happens when a publisher stops producing a game? No other option except to buy it used if you ever want to try and play it.

This is my exact reasons. There are a lot of games that I didn't or couldn't get (stupid ESRB) when they came out. Bioshock comes to mind immediately; I picked it up 4 years after it came out. Firstly, The game is great and I wouldn't have been able to play it without the used game market.

Secondly, it let me experience Irrational's work, and now I look forward to their games. Really, the used game market allowed me to become a customer of theirs.

 

[Ren_Li]

Used games are a buying and selling of your property. Restricting used games are restricting what you do with your property, within the basic property laws. That's... sort of something to stand up for.

As for the money side of it- to some gamers, that slight price difference can be the difference between buying the game or not. Or, perhaps, (as has been the case with me), buying the game without DLC, or buying the game AND DLC.
It's also a way to know that, if you spend money on a new game and find that it's either really bad, or really doesn't appeal to you personally, you can then trade it in. Of course, you can't get a refund- but you can get some money back, or better yet, more credit than cash towards a new game. Again, some gamers can't afford to buy a game new if they're not absolutely sure they will either like it, or they can get some of their money back if they don't. (And, once more, I've been there.)

I probably wouldn't be a gamer if it wasn't for used games, used consoles, used controllers. And I make a point of paying the developers back by being very generous with my assumptions on their DLC- which, it's worth noting, never goes down in price as the game does. I bought Dragon Age 2 for pittance last year. After discovering I liked it (despite it's flaws), I bought most of it's DLC- most of which cost more alone than the game did. So not only am I able to keep gaming- I'm still doing what I can to support the people making these games. Take that how you wish.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

Usually because I can't find the game new, especially these days since a lot of times used is the only way to find games that are over a year old.

 

[Bashfluff]

They're cheaper. In no other industry are we "supposed" to worry about the effects of used products. The MPAA, despite their shittiness in general, do not warn people against buying used, lest no movies come out that you want to see. Car companies are much the same.

It's because if they had a problem with used, they solved it themselves instead of trying to pressure the consumer into doing things that just flat out are bad for them. Why should we be pressured into paying more for a product if we don't have to? Why should the public be held to ransom for publishers not knowing how to make money? If publishers wasted half as much effort on finding a new source of revenue from games instead of trying to convince the consumer to pay more money for the same product, they would have discovered new ways to monetize their products.

 

[Rebel_Raven]

I'll be blunt. It's largely 2 reasons:

A) The game isn't in production anymore. I've an extensive backlist of games I want, and one day, might get around to actually getting! If those games aren't in production, I've gotta find the rare unused copy, or a used copy.

B) I'm generally in the area of broke most of the time. Price drops, used sales, and so forth really help me out at times.

Nothing I'm proud of, really, but reality is reality.

 

[Tom Waits' hat]

Why would I pay $60, If I can get it for less than $60. Still the same content and same enjoyment.
Also, I have a huge backlog of games. I can't to play every games on launch date.