End of used games. For or Against?

[Deleted]

All it will do is make consumers think a lot more carefully about their purchases, which might end up hurting the developers of games pretty seriously if a whole load more people are iffy about buying a game. It also hurts consumers who make wrong purchases, and doesn't even let you sell your unwanted games off to a close friend, never mind taking the game back to the retailer. I'm against it.

[conscript]

How are those pros? It's clear by now that developers get very little if any of the profits from game sales. Publishers will never reduce prices on new games while they're selling as they are now, recently EA confirmed this by attacking Steam's sales saying that they reduce the value of IP; EA would rather have less customers paying more for the game.

Digital distribution (Steam sales, Humble Indie Bundle, gog.com and anything similar excluded of course) sucks because you don't get manuals, soundtracks or any interesting stuff like you do with boxed games and yet the prices are the same if not more for than buying a boxed version from Amazon.

Games don't come with manuals anymore lol. Almost every single console game has the full manual on disc and the inside of the case contains four things: The disc, a sheet for online activation if EA, an advertisement of some sort, and a 1-2 page "booklet" with the games cover picture and then warnings printed inside. You onyl get soundtracks if you buy CEs and Steam is almost never even close to the same price as the boxed version.

[Truhan]

See? Didn't play :P

---------- Post added 2012-06-13 at 02:58 PM ----------



Extra new sales do go to developers in the form of royalties. Granted its only a percentage, but it's there.

It can't even be described as a percentage, it's certainly not enough for a development studio to remain sustainable. The extremely bad royalty deals developers get is the reason why Iron Lore tanked and why XCOM (a strategy franchise) is now being rebranded as a shooter franchise to make money off Call of Duty. Screw publishers.

[Castle]

Games don't come with manuals anymore lol. Almost every single console game has the full manual on disc and the inside of the case contains four things: The disc, a sheet for online activation if EA, an advertisement of some sort, and a 1-2 page "booklet" with the games cover picture and then warnings printed inside. You onyl get soundtracks if you buy CEs and Steam is almost never even close to the same price as the boxed version.

A lot of the games I've bought lately have started coming with manuals again. I think some of the devs actually listened when people were upset about this.

[Deleted]

Games don't come with manuals anymore lol. Almost every single console game has the full manual on disc and the inside of the case contains four things: The disc, a sheet for online activation if EA, an advertisement of some sort, and a 1-2 page "booklet" with the games cover picture and then warnings printed inside. You onyl get soundtracks if you buy CEs and Steam is almost never even close to the same price as the boxed version.

The games I buy do i.e. Witcher 1 Platinum Edition, Witcher 2 Premium, gog.com games, Legend of Grimrock (came with printable graph paper too!), some Humble Indie Bundle games. All cheaper of the same price than had I bought them from Steam. Even Prima's guide for Witcher 2 is more expensive on Steam, it annoys me because digital distribution costs are so much lower than with physical items in brick and mortar stores.

. I don't think that EA or Activision has monthly quota of DLC they force upon their developers.

So many people seem unwilling to blame the developers for their mistakes and greed and focus on the nameless, faceless corporation. Place blame where it belongs: on the people making the game.

All of these publishers, EA, Activision, etc. are businesses. They're going to do what it takes to make a profit

They do what it takes to make a profit at the expense of consumers. EA wouldn't let the Amalur devs fix bugs, they were forced to create/release the DLC first. Even though Fallout New Vegas sold well Obsidian did not get their bonus because they were 1% shy of a target on Metacritic. Why would the developers want to cheapen their games when it doesn't give them any benefit?

[Truhan]

A lot of the games I've bought lately have started coming with manuals again. I think some of the devs actually listened when people were upset about this.

Yeah, I was super happy with the Endless Space manual.

http://cdn.steampowered.com/Manuals/...f?t=1338994325

[Ciano]

I see that comparison so much, but it couldn't be more wrong. The useful life of a car vastly, vastly outweighs the useful life of a video game. It is a comparison of a product meant to last weeks to months as compared to a product meant to last years to decades. It is an absurd comparison.

I think I would be fine with the entire used games thing if Gamestop didn't exist. If it was just gamers selling to other gamers on eBay, Amazon, etc. that would be fine, but Gamestop makes billions of dollars by acting as a middle man between people selling their games for too little and people buying the games for way too much.

What you just said could not be any more wrong. Just like I would have bought the car in the car example, I bought the video game. I bought it, I own it. Let's say I buy an ice cream bar for a dollar. It is now my ice cream bar. It is only supposed to last a short while. I have the right, though, to sell it to a kid on the street for 25 cents after I've eaten half of it if I damn well want to.

If I buy a game, I should be able to do whatever I want (legally) with it. This includes reselling it to Gamestop, giving/trading it to a friend, and even putting a pube on it and sticking a corndog through the hole in the middle of the disk if that's what I choose to do! There should be no DRM to stop me from doing it.

[Mirishka]

For it.

I used to work at an EB Games, I've seen firsthand what a scam used games are. Good riddance I say.

[Laize]

What you just said could not be any more wrong. Just like I would have bought the car in the car example, I bought the video game. I bought it, I own it. Let's say I buy an ice cream bar for a dollar. It is now my ice cream bar. It is only supposed to last a short while. I have the right, though, to sell it to a kid on the street for 25 cents after I've eaten half of it if I damn well want to.

If I buy a game, I should be able to do whatever I want (legally) with it. This includes reselling it to Gamestop, giving/trading it to a friend, and even putting a pube on it and sticking a corndog through the hole in the middle of the disk if that's what I choose to do! There should be no DRM to stop me from doing it.

Games are different from cars.

Cars depreciate and wear. Games do not. There is no benefit to buying a game new as opposed to used.

That's the entire reason developers are MAKING benefits to buying games new as opposed to used.

[ComputerNerd]

Instead of seeing used games as a lost income, the developers should instead question why they are traded in so readily.
Too expensive, lack of re-playability, misrepresented etc.

A game that is traded in within a week of release obviously has something very wrong.

[Thage]

Used games are the way I get to experience EA and Capcom games, as many of their business practices have left me refusing to buy anything directly from them (I'm considering breaking my personal boycott for TOR, though that remains the exception to prove the rule). If used games go, then tough cookies, I'll just watch playthroughs of Resident Evil 6 and whatever else Bioware puts out on YouTube.

This kinda stuff doesn't promote more customers, it drives away potential customers--I've lifted a personal boycott on comic movies after watching Iron Man on YouTube and then buying the DVD, for a movie example. Without being able to see Iron Man without paying for it, I probably wouldn't have given them the time of day--nor become the comic movie fan I am today. The tighter businesses try to regulate an industry in the name of profits, the more often people will pirate just to spite them.

In the context of used games, without used games, I wouldn't know whether or not a company has stopped putting out crappy reheated copies of the same game for the fortieth time or whether they're worth buying from again. Get a game used, and like it? I'm back to buying them new to support them. Get a used game, it sucks? I'll see what their next offering's like and trade the game I just bought in to recoup some of my losses.

[Deleted]

I'll be glad to see anything that hurts the gaming industry dissapear...

[Deleted]

Fuck people are dumb... Why would you not give money to those that made the game? People just want free stuff, they don't give a rat's ass about the developers lives. Yea, fuck them for making a game that I love and want to pass on. Used games is like pirating, or it should at least be treated the same way. Developers get nothing, publishers get everything. Does that seem fair? It's a real scam.
Now, I havn't specified my opinions and thus execusements can be made, but I'm too lazy, and this is what I generally feel.

[grandpab]

I voted against since I'm a big fan of trading in my games.

[Deleted]

Fuck people are dumb... Why would you not give money to those that made the game? People just want free stuff, they don't give a rat's ass about the developers lives. Yea, fuck them for making a game that I love and want to pass on. Used games is like pirating, or it should at least be treated the same way.
Now, I havn't specified my opinions and thus execusements can be made, but I'm too lazy, and this is what I generally feel.

Do you feel the same about all preowned items being sold?

[Eorayn]

Its my game, I can do whatever I want with it.

[KingHorse]

Obviously not true %100 of the time, but if all companies in a given industry get together and decide to do make the same change without being forced to do so by the government, usually that's a bad thing for the consumers, and a really good thing for the businesses.

This is one of those times.

[Olocan]

If they do this it will simply hurt there profits not help. i don't buy used games but if they think it will help them they need to lower the price tag for new games to $50 to make it better for the consumer. IF they do this without anything helping the consumer it cause a backlash that will set back the gaming industry for years to come.

[Chireru93]

the thing is, companies are NOT dying because of used game sales, no matter what they may say. they might be able to say they are "losing money", but they aren't dying. all in all, it only hurts the consumer, because of how overpriced some games are (MW2 was still $60 until MW3 came out, and some games that released last November are still $60). I buy used games because I can't afford new. What companies should do is just go the route of PSN, where if you buy used you have to pay $5 extra to get an online pass code to play the online content. I'm fine with something like that, because buy a $20 game is cheaper than a $50 game, and then $5 extra for online, that's $25 compared to $50. Of course if I had the money, I would buy it new, because you run a risk with used games where they might be close to not working. I bought Soul Caliber IV many years ago, and after about 2 weeks it stopped working because it was already so scratched up.

[nixcookies]

I like purchasing used games, I haven't done it in such a long time but occasionally if I have some spare cash and I walk past a gamestation or CEX (UK game stores) then I might buy a few used games.

There are two main reasons why I might buy used games the first being the game is too expensive, £50 - £60 for a video game is ridiculous and that's one weeks worth of shopping or a months phone & internet bill or just some new clothes. The second reason being I mightn't have thought the game was worth buying at it's current price so I wait for a second hand version to play it and sometimes after playing they aren't even worth it and I'm somewhat satisfied I never purchased it.