Well the implications they seem to be making is that the second hand trade shouldn't exist because it's losing money for the games companies which is fairly ridiculous if you ask me.
Why, are they not losing money? If someone buys a used game, that's a paying customer - except he doesn't pay the publisher, he pays the second hand market because it undercuts the publisher by a few quid. The obvious thing to do would be reducing new prices to compete with the second hand market, in a combination with exclusive free DLC for new purchases, but we all know that big companies like EA or Activision simply won't consider the former. Still, that doesn't change the fact that their claim is valid - the second hand market cuts into their sales big time. At this point half of my xbox 360 games are second hand. I paid decent money for them but not a penny went back to the publishers.
And you can apply the same argument to playing games at your friend's house; they aren't generating any revenue from it.
Also when buying a pre-owned game the person selling it will often go onto purchase another new game with the money. The same claim cannot be made about pirates.
No, because you're not getting a copy of the game out of it, are you? It remains in your friend's posession, he just shares it with you. I'm assuming we're talking local multiplayer here?
Waits for: "OMG! DOING THAT IS WORSE THAN FILESHARING!!!!!!" article Honestly, this is just ridiculous, they get the money in the first instance so why complain? the 2nd hand market's been around since before I can rememeber, most of the companies that make games haven't... Any that had sense would be able to figure out that competitive pricing with the 2nd hand market would help increase revenue and would have a pricing strategy laid out as such (See also: Bad Company 2)
It's simple, it's because people who are clearly willing to pay money for the product are doing so but not a penny of that is going to publisher/developer.
I buy a lot of games used. Why? Because I like playing games, and I don't like paying 60 bucks for what often turns out to be trash. Do I buy new games? Yes. Certain franchises I always buy new. Gotta have it first. I have a rational, reasoned response for buying used as well. I purchase from GameStop. Most of their profit is in the secondhand sales. So, if I buy used, I support them. They order me games, offer help with ones I'm having difficulty with and trade Pokemon with me. The game companies keep shoveling out drivel by the asston and keep demanding money. I don't really even buy very many games that would be "newer" anyway. Still hunting another copy of FFVIII. Tell me THAT's a lost sale. BTW, when my game finally does release, if you wanna share with your friends, do so. Enjoy the game-that's what it's there for. If people wanna donate, that will be their prerogative. I got into game design to tell stories, not make money.
Tends to be Ebay action for me. whilst i appreciate the work developers put in, i appreciate mine even more and know im not paid enough to be spending 40 quid a time on games, so generally i pick them up for a good deal less on there
Maybe so, but like I said, if they reduced prices to near- 2nd hand levels they wouldn't have this problem
Not generally. If you lower your price then the prices in the second hand market gets lower too. Thats why luxury products remained expensive throughout the recession (Rolex put up their prices 20%). At the end of the day it is not only the published who are making money out of the games industry. By making profits out of the second hand market retail distributors will me increasing their profits, which means that they don't need to take such a big cut out of the profits from the publishers. At the end of the day the value added never really changes that much within the industry its just the areas of the industry that want to take it all. As I said most people who trade in their old games use that money to buy new games. Most people who buy second hand games do so because they can't afford/won't buy new games, but it means that there is a demand for the second hand games, so the orginal trader gets a good price and keeps buying the new ones. Circle of life style. Its the same with cars and all other areas with second hand markets. The second hand market is also good as a loss leader to get people interested in the next release in the range. Portal is currently free, but Portal 2 is on its way and now most steam users will recognise it as a game worth playing and paying for.
But they never would have gotten money from you in the first place, unless you pay your friend to come round and play his games. BIG difference.
and here is the start of the rational of xbox live becoming a Steam style system where every game is linked to your account, therefore meaning you will not be able to sell on your game or buy second hand (as already linked to someone elses) kill of second hand sales in one go, meaning you either have to buy new or pirate, and then use the pirate arguement to increase the use of speculative invoicing (ACS:Law style) where they send out letters to people saying they have evidence that their internet connection was used to download said copyrighted games and then bring in the wonderful Law from Germany in which people will start to get fined if they dont secure their wireless connection - to make it harder or expensive to argue that your wireless must have been hacked scare a large portion of people into having to pay full price, then increase the price of the new games to maximise profit god i am cynical today
i buy new if i really want the game but most of the time i buy used with the economy the way it is who can pay 60 buck for a game
Exactly. Four bros sittin' at a couch playing Halo 3 is actually part of the gameplay which the owner has payed for, he's simply sharing the experience of the game with the three others. Like buying a car with four seats: one owner, but meant to be shared to some degree. Cars actually have even more in common with games than that. Auto companies have also made plenty of complaints about the used car market hurting them quite a bit. It's a problem that every company must face when their product is something which is non-consumable. Theoretically there only ever needs to be one copy of any game, it can then be sold in order to every other person in the world second hand. That's a completely unrealistic scenario, but remember that just selling a game second hand once means cutting the profits for the developers in half. Pre-owned games are not just a small nick in profits hurting a company's greed, cutting a $60 new console game down to $30 is very steep and puts the pressure on developers after publishers and retailers get their cut. Personally, if I ever buy second hand it's through friends or sites like craigslist or ebay to cut down on profit for third party companies. If I'm not paying the developer, why pay anyone but the previous owner? I'm perfectly capable of selling and purchasing used games, don't need to pay $10 per game just to have someone else do it for me. Generally not a fan of middleman businesses of any sort, though. Feels like it's just trading money for time.
Personally if I buy new, no matter what the format, it means I really want it. If I buy second hand it's always games that I would never have bought new so there is no loss of sale from me. In fact all i'm doing is supporting my local games and swap stores. If you were to remove the second hand market all I would do is have less games and, in all probability, drive me towards the pirates.
+1 (apart from the aforementioned Madworld incident, never again) I really hate the whole Game/Gamestop etc ethic of giving you maybe a fiver in-store for your game then reselling it for £15. The one item I would almost rather buy second-hand is a book. I freaking LOVE 2nd hand book shops. There's an Oxfam book shop very near my second job (which incidentally affords me plenty of reading time) and I buy a book almost every shift. And I love how lots of National Trust properties now have 2nd hand bookshops. Mega win
