End of used games. For or Against?

[Gandrake]

10 years ago, I would not have cared.

Today, entire walls of games in your local gamestores are cesspools of mediocrity. Half-assed stuff that was not fixed in the game's beta. And for some reason, the prices on these incomplete products have gone up, rather than down.

And then there's just plain piss poor, like Final Fantasy XIII-2. If nothing else, it is a perfect example of how terrible the industry is right now.

[anyaka21]

how about publishers require sales records on used games and demand a 5% cut on each used game sold. Somehow there would have to be some kind of rule stating that the Game Store is not allowed to jack up the prices just because of the cut. would that be fair? why punish the gamer when it's the stores that are selling the product?[COLOR="red"]

I don't see how you could punish a store for selling used games. The company has already made the money off the game in the first place. What you're suggesting is that they make an extra cut off a game they already got their profit from.

Bottom line is there is a market for used games and that shouldn't ever go away until there everything is completely digital. Basically going the way of the tablet/smartphone, no used there, just charge less, sell more copies.

[Duridi]

Would just mean that a lot of games would never enter this house.

---------- Post added 2012-06-16 at 11:10 AM ----------

I would prefer for people to be able to sell used games - it helps money flow more since they can then take the money they got from the sale and perhaps buy another game or something.

This really. We've had a lot of games come into this house used, just to go out again used... Traded into another used game, or a brand new one because we've saved money through selling used. Making the cost for the brand new one more reasonable for us.

[Deleted]

Retail chains need to make money too. Used games is typically the only way they can make a profit from the games they sell, which is why they keep pushing for you to bring them in every time you pick one up. I don't buy used games myself but I support keeping 'em.

[Deleted]

10 years ago, I would not have cared.

Today, entire walls of games in your local gamestores are cesspools of mediocrity. Half-assed stuff that was not fixed in the game's beta. And for some reason, the prices on these incomplete products have gone up, rather than down.

And then there's just plain piss poor, like Final Fantasy XIII-2. If nothing else, it is a perfect example of how terrible the industry is right now.

This sums up my thoughts as well. I used to get my money's worth a lot more frequently when purchasing games during the last decade. Now I find that intriguing titles are few and far between. Even then, they could have been so much more. I stand by the firm belief that the vast majority of games are now being rushed, with most download content simply being stuff cut out of initial development instead of something moving the game's story forward.

[DeeEss]

This sums up my thoughts as well. I used to get my money's worth a lot more frequently when purchasing games during the last decade. Now I find that intriguing titles are few and far between. Even then, they could have been so much more. I stand by the firm belief that the vast majority of games are now being rushed, with most download content simply being stuff cut out of initial development instead of something moving the game's story forward.

I agree. I don't know how many reviews I've read recently where it said the game was something like 6 hours long. Granted, that's a relatively small sample (no sports or RTS games here), but it's still a little disturbing that I have to pay more a few months down the road for the rest of the game. Of course, that's if it goes that long and isn't day one DLC which just seems like a desperate play for extra cash.

[Shanks120y]

Someone said earlier in the thread that games here in Australia, new ones are sitting at around $80-$100, higher for the "better" games. Now don't quote me on this but if I recall correctly, at this stage of the Xbox and PS2 lifespan new games were now being released at $60-$80. So why has it not followed suit with these consoles, games quality in my opinion hasn't gotten a great deal better, if at all.

Over the past couple of years I have found myself skipping buying games in favour of renting them reason being I don't see $100 being a fair price for a game that can be played through in 5-8 hours. The replay value for me at least is becoming less and less and games companies are pushing more for games to have shitty short single player campaigns and it's all about online multiplayer. This might suit you if you are all about multiplayer, if you are about story and single player experience then sorry buddy you are shit outta luck. Companies seem to be finding other avenues to get more money through DLC which mostly seems over-priced and rarely worth getting (I'm looking at you Fable 3 and the DLC being ON the damn disc already).

Sorry for the rant I will get back on topic, I believe getting rid of second hand sales is not a good thing, to many games are coming out that don't deserve the $100 price tag and many people are unwilling or unable to pay that amount.

[pickley]

I like used games. If I want to sell on something I paid for I should be able to...

[Drekker17]

Against. if you want to reduce used game sales make excellent games people don't want to get rid of. I still have my favorite ps games, and the only reason I am planning to sell them is because I'm going to get digital. A used game sale indicates the world only wants a certain number of that game.

[Temp name]

No benefits to buying used games means digital distribution becomes the primary mode of game sales.

could also go in the Cons list if people have bad internet, but i'm totally for this

[danaabare86]

I have bougth both used an new games. My ps3 I bought a mixture of both new an used. My wii I bougth mainly used. My nitendo 64 I bougth gaian over the last sevral years of course all those games are used. i lost my orginal nitendo 64 stuff a long time ago. I even have gotten used games for the pc. I bought some used games for the pc of ebay an a couple diffident places. The thing is there sevral reasons why people buy used games. Like if buy a new game at gamestop an decide you don't like it. if you trade it in you lose money on it. If you bougth the same game used you can go back an exchange it for a different game . Rigth now i have bougth some ps1 games an a gamecube game off ebay. I allso bougth a used game cube. I know I have a wii but my brother has it since I let him borrow it plus i wanted another one when I do decide to update to the wii u.

[Lothaeryn]

Used games tend to help people find older games that are no longer being produced on the market, a personal experience of mine was when my brother found and bought a copy of Medieval II: Total War last year, which would normally not be found in a store shelf today.

So I am for used games, it helps bring new experiences to other people, even if that experience is an old one.

EDIT: it also may be of note that I never sell my games away, I see no need to give away a game for short cash when I might have a nostalgia trip in the future yearning for the game again.

Plus, a collection looks somewhat decent on an Organized shelf.

[Deleted]

instead of that they should try to make games that you want to keep or make you want to play a sequel.

[Lollis]

The company has already received the money for that item, it is nonsense for them to believe that they are entitled to seconds simply because another person has bought the game second hand, the first person in most cases no longer has the copy and therefore using server maintenance as an excuse is redundant, it is still just one person playing the game.

[Rotted]

I always get used games, star trek armada 2 ftw

[Tinykong]

I like the idea of license transferability, and I think that could be folded into a platform like Steam pretty easily. They can turn on/off access via the server side, so you should be able to move licenses around at will.

Also, please bring back older abandonware. I wanted to play my old copy of Crusader: No Remorse the other weekend, and the disc has a huge scratch on it and doesn't load. I'd pay $10 to have that series again, come on EA take my money.

[Dariela]

I tend not to buy a lot of games, and the ones I do I play forever, so it becomes a non-issue for me.

But... If the game is not an account based game such as an MMO, I see no reason to stop second hand sales, and no reason the developer should be able to double dip on them.

MMOs and such are a different matter.

[Deleted]

[*]Them getting more money from their own games opens the possibility (but obviously not the guarantee) of reduced prices on new games.[*]No benefits to buying used games means digital distribution becomes the primary mode of game sales.

How exactly are these Pros?

I hate digital distribution, I don't think it's reliable. I have nothing against other people using it, but don't take away my prefered method.

Also, they will never reduce prices on games. You'll sooner see the prices go up instead.
Remember what happened with Call of Duty? They wanted to add $10 on top of it because it's a 'premium' game.

---------- Post added 2012-10-08 at 05:47 PM ----------

They have nothing to lose by preventing used game sales and everything to gain.

Except they're basically insulting legitimate buyers as well.
Instead of coming up with a solution where only the pirates suffer (however hard that is) they choose to let everyone suffer.

Most DRM and such also hurts legitimate buyers more than it hurts pirates. So I don't see how another insult to the consumer is a good thing.

It seems like companies have a higher priority than consumers in your mind.
But if you piss off the consumers enough, you won't sell very well either. Try to remember that.

I've heard a few people from other game companies say that DRM and other protections only hurts the business.
And I can understand that, because it undermines the trust between company and consumer. It makes consumers criminals before they have even done anything wrong.

[Lethey Alexandros]

This is an issue that could be easily solved if the companies selling them second hand such as Game stop, EB, Best Buy gave a % cut of the resold second hand games to the developers. So you sold 6 copies of MW2 at 35 bucks each? ok that cool, give us 20% of the money made.

[Seirith]

If they stop allowing used games people will stop buying new games. I know my husband and I have bought games new and then ended up not liking them so we sold them on Ebay right after buying them. We actually sell all games we buy unless they are online or an MMO. We play a game and then sell it. If we could no longer sell games when we were done with them we probably wouldn't buy many games at all because we aren't the type that go back and play them again.