Why do people buy used games?
- Thread starter zelda2fanboy
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I don;t have a lot of spare money, and I'm not interested in theft or piracy, so I pretty much have to make do with sales, bargain bins, used games and gifts. I simply cannot justify buying a full price game at the moment
I buy used games because I like getting what I want for as little effort as possible. And the less I spend on the things I want, the more things I can ultimately afford. Is this a trick question or something?
Hastings Entertainment recently offered shoppers a coupon code for an additional 30% off of used media if you bought 3+ items. Buying three items saved me enough money to buy a fourth item. And I got all of them for far less than one would have cost me if I'd bought it new. So... yeah. It works! Try it.
Hastings Entertainment recently offered shoppers a coupon code for an additional 30% off of used media if you bought 3+ items. Buying three items saved me enough money to buy a fourth item. And I got all of them for far less than one would have cost me if I'd bought it new. So... yeah. It works! Try it.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
It sucks being a responsible adult...
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).Desert Punk said:
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-$12.50. Since our games retail at £40, that's between 12.5% and 20% for new games and more for older ones.
Because usually I am looking for older, out of print games that otherwise would not be in the store. Since I'm mostly a PC gamer, when I do go consoles these days its later on in the life span of the game system. This means hunting around used games bins, Amazon, EBay, and even the game trades/exchanges if I want to get my hands on something. What I find is the ultimate irony is there is at least 200 to 300 dollars worth of games for 360 that I would cheerfully buy for 40 to 60 dollars each new if I could actually find the damn things on the shelf, but publishers are constantly whining that their games do not earn their expected quarterly results because they did not move 6 million copies in three months. No shit, Sherlock? How about keeping game discs being printed for years instead of months, and simply lowering the price after a while? Its not as if those DVDs and jewel cases cost a fortune to stamp out.
I wait to buy most games until I can do so for 20$ 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.
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.