Used Games Controversy

Aztec Triogal

Aztec Triogal

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To check out the full story, watch this video starting at 5:30 in.
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/43447.html

To give a brief summary, the problem is that the profit from retail games go back to the publishers while the profit from used games go directly to the retail outlet (EB Games, Gamestop, etc.). Because of this, publishers are getting screwed out of money on every used copy of a game that is sold... while the retailer gets profit for doing absolutely nothing. Apparently, Epic Games has even considered the possibility of making the endings of their games downloadable content so no one who purchased a used copy of a game could finish it. Again, check out the video. It's very interesting. Let me hear your thoughts.
 
It is quite ridiculous. I know places like EBGames or Gamestop purchase your used item for an incredibley low price (think 2-5 dollars) and then sell them for prices ranging from 10-30 dollars. It's very silly.

I see the moral ethic is quite unfair here. Publishers should get the profit from the selling of a used game, just like how music artists should probably get the profit from the people merely downloading their songs. As a consumer however, I'm not going to stop buying used games so long as it's an option. Why should I pay 50-60 bucks on a game, when I can get the same thing in relatively good condition for half the price? It maybe "wrong" in a sense to do it, but at the end of the day it's really just about the extra amount I'm keeping in my wallet. Same thing goes for downloading music, so long as I have the option I'll continue do what's necessary to cut my costs. Selfish it maybe, but I'm sure many people feel the same. Otherwise, it just comes to a point where things become simply unaffordable.

I'm not too positive, but I'd also like to mention that selling used games is one of the main reasons video game stores stay in business in the first place. From what I understand, profit for the retailers is very minimal in systems/games sold and they actually make most of their profit from used game and accessory sales. Like I said, I maybe completely wrong about this.

That said, if they figure out a way where used games can still be sold while allowing the everyone to proft, then that'd be great. If used game were banned, it wouldn't be the end of the world per se, I'm sure if I was already intent on getting the game I'd buy it regardless... but I'm not sure how well ceasing used sales would pan out, the industry would probably end up suffering.
 
publishers deserve a profit from every copy of a game sold, wether its used or new, retailers already make absurdly high profits from selling new games at absurdly high prices.

imo im afraid im gonna keep buying used copies of games anyway, im cheap :) what else can i say :D
 
Omg downloadable endings sounds ridiculous xD

What if you don't have the means to download said ending?

I know they want to make their profits and rightly so - but what about the public that might not be able to AFFORD new game prices? I weep at the price of new PS3 games it's shocking - what if your game breaks and it's rare or just hard to find and then you can't get hold of a new copy?

What about the people who BUY the games complete them and have no use for it anymore? They just expected to rent? My brother buys his new games buy selling his old ones, I think it probably in the long run balances itself out. People like my brother BUY these games new - but has to sell his old ones in order to do so, so in the long run he will be buying less games less often because he won't be able to afford to buy a new one beacue he can't sell his old ones :gasp:
 
All of these gaming companies are all about marketing and making a profit. I think selling used game in the store for a such a cheap price is the way to go these days. Majority of the Wii, PS3, and Xbox games don't come cheap at all, selling at $60. Even PS2 games that are still being released are selling at $30 when the system isn't as popular like it was 8 years ago. The DS games aren't any better being sold at $40 which I think is a bit ridiculous since your mainly paying for the tiny cartridge.

This is why people buy and sell old used games at a very cheap prices because no one wants to spend $60 for a PS3 game when it should be at $30. This is why I refuse to buy Soul Calibur IV for PS3 right now. The game has been out since July and the price hasn't dropped much since then.

Not only that, most of the games I look for (mainly Dynasty Warriors) are very rare to find at the local electronic stores like Walmart and Target, which is why I end up finding all my game at Amazon at a better prices especially if they were used and in mint condition.
 
I'm about five pages in on the same heated debate on another forum right now, so I really don't feel like repeating my thoughts... but I am going to add this little contribution:

People who say companies that do not make a large margin of profit do not understand business. Of course they don't. Profit is all relative but if the company is doing its job, there's never a lot of profit. It all goes back into the system. Profit is money that is not spent to improve the business or pay people, it's wasted cash. Banked money is useless to businesses. So don't make the argument that a company has a small margin of profit because that's the way its suppose to be... all that means is that they're running a tight ship and spending money they earn on development and betterment of their product.
 
Aztec Triogal said:
To check out the full story, watch this video starting at 5:30 in.
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/43447.html

To give a brief summary, the problem is that the profit from retail games go back to the publishers while the profit from used games go directly to the retail outlet (EB Games, Gamestop, etc.). Because of this, publishers are getting screwed out of money on every used copy of a game that is sold... while the retailer gets profit for doing absolutely nothing. Apparently, Epic Games has even considered the possibility of making the endings of their games downloadable content so no one who purchased a used copy of a game could finish it. Again, check out the video. It's very interesting. Let me hear your thoughts.
Click to expand...

It is ridiculous that developers and publishers are losing money but Epic's idea sounds ridiculous too. That would basically mean that once you buy a game that you did not like it? You would basically be stuck with the game as no one is going to want to play a game you can't complete (Well maybe some good online games like Call of Duty, Halo and Gears of War can get away with it) but still a ridiculous idea in my opinion.
 
i think that that one guy is right you payed the 60 for the game it's yours what you do with it is your buisness not theres whats next wil they want a part if i sell my game to my friend i think the game puplishers are just money hungry and want every sent that they can get out of us.!!!!! and as for making the endings downloadable content will really bite if you dont play online or have an internet connection and you eill have to pay more for the ms points to buy them it's just a rippoff
 
People who say companies that do not make a large margin of profit do not understand business. Of course they don't. Profit is all relative but if the company is doing its job, there's never a lot of profit. It all goes back into the system. Profit is money that is not spent to improve the business or pay people, it's wasted cash. Banked money is useless to businesses. So don't make the argument that a company has a small margin of profit because that's the way its suppose to be... all that means is that they're running a tight ship and spending money they earn on development and betterment of their product.
Click to expand...

Could it be inferred then that retailing stores can actually go out of business by not selling used games? Otherwise, in the event where they could not sell used game, wouldn't they have to theoretically up the prices of new games even more in order to keep the business running?

That is, keeping in mind my previous claim (retailers make most of thier money off used games) is actually true - which it very well may not be. Now that I think about it a bit it probably isn't, but I'll wait to see what people may have to say.
 
Kain's Lance said:
It is ridiculous that developers and publishers are losing money but Epic's idea sounds ridiculous too. That would basically mean that once you buy a game that you did not like it? You would basically be stuck with the game as no one is going to want to play a game you can't complete (Well maybe some good online games like Call of Duty, Halo and Gears of War can get away with it) but still a ridiculous idea in my opinion.
Click to expand...

As I stated before, I'm not really going to get into the debate too much on here because it's pretty much already over on the other forum I visit... and it's now just down to a mod and me flaming some fat kid for pirating Rise Against music.

But, this post did catch my attention... I'd made the suggestion in the other thread that, like with all PC games, there was a serial number that had to be entered in order to play the game. The serial number would basically unlock the "New Game" feature from the start menu and without it the game would be useless. Thoughts?

The other major point of discussion in the forum is whether a game is a license of the master copy of the game or an an original copy. If it's a license, intellectual property, you should not be able to resell that. If it's an original copy, physical property, you should be able to.
 
The whole thing is silly. They sell USED games, the publishers already have the money from that particular copy when it was sold as NEW :wacky:

As a side-note, Rise Against suck balls.
 
Ok firstly, I think we can all agree that Rise Against suck balls.

Now as for the whole used games thing. I think that the original buyer has every right to sell his/her games to stores like EB. It is rather unfair that these stores will buy it for $10 and sell it for $60, but that is a different topic IMO.

Once someone buys a game it is their right to do whatever they want with it, which includes selling it to a game shop. Now that the game shop has bought it, they should also have the right to do whatever they want with it. The publishers make money when the games are sold as new. Even though some people may buy used games, plenty of other people will choose to buy a brand new copy.
 
yeah... Rise Against does suck.

The whole thing is silly. They sell USED games, the publishers already have the money from that particular copy when it was sold as NEW :wacky:
Click to expand...

Technically yeah, but the person who bought the used game would otherwise have to buy a new copy, so the developers lose out in that regard.
 
Unless that person doesn't buy the game at all.

I feel like they overestimate how much consumers care for them. I like video games, but I'm not going to bend over and let them rape me in the ass for a few measly hours of entertainment. I can just as easily drop the controller, and go to the library to read a fuggin' book instead.

When I spend money on a game, I expect to be buying that game, not renting it. Meaning I can do whatever I want with that game, including selling it to eBay or Game Crazy, or giving it to charity. Right now, I buy mostly new games, because I like new things. I do, however, buy the occasional used one, and appreciate the fact that the option is always there. If that option were taken away, it would just piss me off, and I'd more than likely stop buying games altogether.
 
That may be your opinion but it certainly isn't widespread enough of a belief to intimidate developers. If they say "buy our game with this condition or you don't get it at all", people will buy it with that condition nine times out of ten. And you can argue they're losing sales on ever tenth person... but the losses they would suffer would be negligible compared to the profits they'd get from stopping used game sales. I think the statistic is that one sold original accounts for four or five used game sales. In other words, even though they'd lose one out of ten sales... they'd still literally double their profits because they stopped used games.

And honestly, how much do you really lose as a consumer for that? You go to buy a new game and the cashier asks if you want new or used... and the difference may be four dollars if it's a new release but no matter how old the game is, the savings is never more than never more than thirty bucks.
 
I bought DMC4 the other day. It was used and ten bucks cheaper :wacky:
Who would sell back something with such a pretty tin cover... I don't know. Yes, I am a sucker for such things like nice packaging :sad:

On a personal level, I'm like Franice in that I only buy used games occaisionally as I like pretty shiny new things. I still like having the option of buying them used though, it comes in handy especially when you're looking for Christmas/Birthday gifts. Plus, the whole trade system works well with video game stores where certain games are ridiculously hard to find in-store. It makes a larger library. If it weren't for that I would have never gotten my copy of Xenosaga episode II. I also saw an old N64 copy of Pokemon Snap, which isn't very good game but hey... I was tempted because of nostalgia. Even I wanted to get it some other method, I'd still be buying it used from someone, unless I got it off Wii channel.

I'm sure there are incredibley cheap gamers who rely on saving that extra five-ten bucks. It could buy them food for the day D:
 
The thing is, developers would have to resort to a different tactic than just forcing game outlets to stop selling used games, because the majority of them are sold on ebay or the likes, and it would be fairly difficult to stop it. I doubt codes would work, since it takes a ten second search on google to find a key gen, and it would probably end up being something complete asinine like Windows where it can install to only one machine or something. This would piss more customers off than the few anal retentive ones like myself.

I find it's usually about $15 savings buying used instead of new. For me, the cash strapped college kid and target market for most games, that isn't a negligible amount.
 
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