News Pre-owned games blamed for falling sales

i cant think of many games that i want on PS3 / 360

back in the ps2 / xbox there where loads of games i wanted on both platforms

 

I don't think second hand sales are having that much more of an impact than they ever have. What has changed is multiplayer, someone that enjoys playing MW2 over Xbox live for hours at a time for months on end is not going to buy as many games. Same for Halo and BF. Why bother buying short repeats when you have get all the gaming you need from a few titles.

They really need to start writing quality single or co-op games that are of reasonable lengths and back off the multiplayer. Games like Batman: AA and ME1/2 show it can be done.

That said, they'll go for any excuse won't they? If it's not dirty PC gamers stealing everything, it's limey console gamers buying games on the cheap.

 

Yet another attempt to paint the second hand games market as being almost but not quite as immoral as pirating games.

I buy new and 2nd hand.... which ain't no crime.

 

And there wasn't a second hand game market back is 2003 was there????

Try reducing the price of your games and making better games.

 

Go into any local game or gamestop (We've two of each in Belfast center) and all you see is second hand games. Apart from wii games they don't sell new xbox or PS3 games apart from chart titles. What makes matters worse is you can go next door into HMV and buy the game new for the price of a second hand game in either of those stores. Also what happened to the "deal of the week" or the 2 for £30 platinum ranges? Game only does "2 for" offers on certain games but the icing on the cake is you can buy any game from Tesco, Asda or Amazon for considerably less.

In reguards to the study, did they look at the fact that there are 3 major competors and that most kids are probably buying overpriced wii games and can't afford PS3/xbox games on top of it? Also with PC gaming being in the reach of even the budget PC I wouldn't be surprised if quite a few people have jumped ship to that and left their console gathering dust. Im among that crowd for one as is my next door neighbour. PS2 and xbox where around during the spend imaginary money era. People have tightened their belts not to mention government pressure to get obese kids out more. Buying games is the opposite of that. They base it on consoles sold, how many people bought a PS3 for blu-rays rather than games or the 360 as a media extender or replacement for their previous console that died? While all these things are small each together could explain the drop in games sales.

 

Those that are saying new titles cost more now than they did generations before must be the current generation of kids that have no clue about what they are saying. Otherwise they are just adults that didnt pay any attention.

I was born in 1981 and been gaming since I could use a keyboard.

New 360 or PS3 titles have a RRP of £39.99. Yes there is the odd occasion some shops launch at £49.99 for its first week like CEX tried with Red Dead Redemption, buts its because they are trying their luck in getting that little bit extra. But the rest of the shops will be at £39.99 or less for the same title. Within a month or 2 the games are down to £17.99.

Back in the day of the megadrive, the RRP was £49.99 with Snes games going for £60. The NEO GEO was the most expensive ever as the games were in excess of £100+ But they held their value alot longer than theses days. You could be waiting a very long time for a price drop on games back then.

In addition, if they were todays prices, they would be alot more today considering back then 25p got you a Mars Bar which is now 60p.

When I had my previous consoles 90% of the games were second hand and id only have around 5-10 games on each platform during its entire life cycle.

I have a 360, PS3 and Wii at the moment and now 90% of the games are bought new and I have over 150 games across all 3 platforms and plenty of years left in the life cycle.

Reason? because the games are alot cheaper these days because new titles drop in price very quickly compared to back then. I dont pay anymore than £25 max for a game and I have alot of big titles in my collection.

I dont think the second hand market is having much of an effect. And high retail prices do not exist. Only to people that refuse to shop around.

 

Also if they reduced the price of the new game then the second hand price would obviously drop making it less attractive to sell on....people would be more inclined to keep their copy just incase they wanted to replay it.
The games industry is just too greedy.

 

I never buy new console games.
Buying second hand PC games is a pain with drm, steamworks games etc which encourages people to buy brand new. Maybe it would be good for publishers to implement something similar with console games?

 

At the end of the day, they are having a go at the second hand market because they know they can, whereas the piracy market is much hard to stop.

 

I used to buy 2nd hand games for my Master System...and my Megadrive...

2nd hand games aren't a new concept, but it is quite common for a new title to not interest me in the slightest, or at least not enough to want to buy it there and then. Start pushing the boundaries with your new releases and you'll have my money. Keep releasing near identical Modern Warfare titles with borked features and you can shove it up your rear end.

 

Corporations aren't going to change. It's all about profit. The last new game I bought @ launch was L4D2, on Steam. However I've added 75+ games to my steam account in the past 2 months and paid less then $100 USD.

 

More anti second-hand propaganda!

Since I don't think second-hand sales are published by any shop then they are just making up excuses for poor games sales.

 

I don't buy many new games as I'm not interested in the 18th sequel to a franchise.

 

As far as I'm concerned; when I buy something I own it. All money from selling it should go to me, not who/whatever I bought it off.

If games were had a glimer of originality I'm sure they'd sell just fine. As above; pricing is way too high on release.

 

Is it legal for these game publishers to cripple second hand copies of games (remove multiplayer). I mean I can't recall any other major industry that does it and I am guessing they would have if they could.

 

I've had a console(PS3) for about a month.

I went into a shop, and I could buy one brand new game for £39.99, or FOUR preowned games* for slightly less than that.

If the new game had been £19.99, then I may have bought that and two preowned games. At £40 they can jog on - I'll wait until the price drops.
Having that brand-new, must-have game isn't important enough to me to get a quarter of the playtime for the same amount of money.

*Fallout 3, Burnout Paradise, Chronicles of Riddick and Dead Space, if you were interested.

 

I only buy used games for my PS3. I can get at least 3 used games for the price of a single new one. Its very rare that I actually keep games either so once I've played them I trade them in and get some money back. If the PS3 had Steam on it then I would probably buy more games new (although I would still wait for the sales) as I do buy new games for my PC, or at least I did when my PC was still 'current'.

Some people like have things new and can't wait to get them but I am not one of those people.

 

This topic AGAIN? It's like a scab and the games industry keeps picking at it.

 

It is to the games industry what piracy is to the music industry: it's easier to target second-hand games/music piracy than it is to accept that your business model is the real reason for falling sales.

It's always easier to think that some outside force is responsible for your misfortune than it is to accept that the source of failure is you and actually do something about it

 

Just to play devil's advocate for the publishers, something that's often overlooked by gamers when discussing second-hand games, and comparing it to other industries, is online fees. While they're relatively small by themselves, as the second hand market grows, they begin to quickly add up which, in turn, creates a nasty dent in the publisher's bottom line.

It costs money to maintain multiplayer, distribute updates, provide free DLC etc - all of which is funded by game sales. When a gamer purchases a second hand game, their cash doesn't go towards any of those overheads.

As Joe already stated in his article, initiatives like Project Ten Dollar are trying to tackle the problem and so far publishers like what they're seeing. Expect to see a lot more games with a similar system and don't be surprised when it's applied to some of the single player content in the very near future.

Ironically, none of this is anything new to PC gamers who have put up with CD keys for decades.