My opinion on pre-owned games
Games are expensive. Especially where I live, it’s around 100 USD when they get on shelves. Yeah, it’s value of money if you look on how many hours you can spend on a single game, but it’s still too much money to use at once for something like this – for me it’s a week of food.
Sometimes I buy my games used down in the local Gamestop store – there’s not many regular gamers that don’t. I just wished I were supporting the developers more then I am when I’m buying games pre-owned. One thing if I buy or just get a game from a friend, another is if a company is making profit off of it. And companies such as Gamestop, Games, Gamestation and Blockbuster are making huge money of it. They thrive on todays market with the financial crisis supporting them, because they get more customers – more people sell their games and consoles to them, and more people come to buy them.
I get the idea. Both as a consumer, but also the stores point of view – and even the developers point of view. As a consumer, I can save a bit of money by buying a game used. The store can make profit by purchasing used games for very little money and then sell them for a little more. And the developers don’t get a cent of those money, and recently Lionheads combat designer Mike West is quoted for saying that pre-owned console game sales is making them loose more money then piracy on PC games is.
As a consumer I would be happy to pay 5% or even 10% more for a used game if I knew that those money went into the pockets of the game developer. I know this isn’t as easy as I’m putting it right now, but it’s a simple plan and sketch. The developers deserve this money, and frankly I think this would save many developers for turning their keys in, and we would see many more different games hit the street. Granted we would experience crappy titles, but we do already, and developers quickly get they mark of approval by gamers around the world.
Is this as simple as I think it is? Do you know more about it, work in the industry maybe? Comment with your viewpoints and tell me if there’s any big problems regarding this.
Would you pay those extra money if they went to the developer and making that market stronger? What if you got the option when you buy a used game?
Get a chance to win Bastion for the Xbox 360 from Xbox Live Arcade – the best, funniest, weirdest or most insightful comment below this post will get a voucher code for Bastion. This contest runs until the end of August – 23.59 CEST, August 30. Courtesy of Microsoft Denmark.
[Update August 4th: And the winner is; Jonathan!]
Tags: bastion, blockbuster, butique gamestop, developers, game, games, gamestation, gamestore, opinion, own, owned, pre, previous, sale, sales, store, win, win bastion
Written by Twinkling82
I do not have any preferences in games, and I do not oppose to what others are playing. But it baffles me every damn time someone says; "I do not like playing video games" . People be crazy sometimes I guess... Popular Posts
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My opinion on pre-owned games
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14 Comments for My opinion on pre-owned games
9 August, 2011 at 23:35
I whole heartedly agree, “hey the new (insert title here) has been out for a little while. lets see how much it is used. what 59.99 with none of the bonus content that a brand new version for the same price has….no thanks”
9 August, 2011 at 23:44
I agree that new games is expensive – too expensive – so this is why I mostly wait until the game reaches a price point I want to pay – while trying to avoid buying it used.
I actually support what EA is doing – putting bonus content on the go for the people who buys the game from new, and take a small fee for the bonus content for the people who buy the game used – these games can still be played and overall still get the same experience.
Ubisofts method with always online DRM is doing more harm than good, and from what I’ve seen in their statements, they’re in denial.
9 August, 2011 at 23:44
Don’t worry about the .99 cents for the 59.99 that for the charge for the cover and artwork for the Disc. Your gaming experience is worth more than what you can afford.
9 August, 2011 at 23:48
Maybe the plastic in the cover and the paper with artwork costs 99 cents – but the artwork costs a lot more than that. They’re using professional designers and artists that lives from their work.
9 August, 2011 at 23:57
For a really long time I was a staunch supporter of used games. I would only buy used, even if it was a new release. Very few games piqued my interest enough to purchase day one.
Since I’ve gotten a better paying job I find myself with a little extra spending money, enough that I don’t have to worry about saving that 10% extra off a used title, or trading in for an extra $5 store credit. Now, I primarily buy new. I rarely will purchase from a game store, and make 90% of my purchases online.
The thing that has really driven me away from buying used is the effect it’s having on developers. I hadn’t really thought about them. I always figured, well, someone bought it in the first place, so they got their money. But why should Gamestop make a huge profit?
In related news, developers are now bringing out the “online passes” and “season tickets” and whatnot. This is a practice I severely disagree with, based on the Xbox Live model. Why should I (anyone) have to pay $40 per year (buy in bulk and save!!) for Xbox Live AND pay the developers $10 for an online pass to experience the rest of the game I paid for? This is pretty much a non-issue for me, since I buy new, and don’t play online much, but still a bad practice.
Thanks to Amazon, I can now experience the world of new game sales at the used price. I’ve bought 7 or 8 games, all of them new, from Amazon within the last 3 months. I bought Bulletstorm on day one for $40, thanks to a $20 credit, which I applied to a wireless switch controller, which was also on sale for $44.99. I paid a total of $85 for $125 worth of product. That’s even better than the used prices at Gamestop.
Instead of giving my money to Gamestop, I’ve now found a new venue to get rid of games I don’t want, and a pretty lucrative one at that. Goozex. 10 dollars will get you 5 trade tokens. You send your games to other people for the cost of shipping, and you get a predetermined amount of points. You then use a trade token and those points to “buy” other games from people.
Goozex makes $2.00 on every trade. There are around 5,000 trades going on at any given time. That’s a significant amount of money being made without ripping anyone off. A used game business practice that is honorable and respectable, the way they should be.
10 August, 2011 at 00:06
I haven’t dived into the season ticket model, so I can’t really comment on that – but as I said in the article above, I like what EA is doing with the online pass model. It can’t really be compared to the Xbox Live Gold membership that you’re pointing on.
Xbox Live Gold membership fee is going in the pockets of Microsoft while the money for online pass is going to EA wallet – I imagine with a fee going to Microsoft.
31 August, 2011 at 06:13
Yes, I see your point, however I don’t feel that it’s right for consumers to be charged a fee to play online from Microsoft for Xbox Live service if the game company (primarily EA) is going to charge you to use their servers as well.
This has to do with the way the Xbox Live is tiered more than the developers being greedy though.
I think Silver should allow you to play online and chat in-game only, similar to PS3. This option should be free, as people are paying 10 dollars to play each used game online.
Gold should allow you cross game-chat, parties, and the other features. Everyone who wants gold still gets the options they want for the same price, but the people that don’t use the extra features (me) can play for 60 dollars less per year.
/rant
10 August, 2011 at 01:19
When will these people get it through their heads. They are not loosing any money from second hand sales. Second hand sales are sales to those that won’t buy the product at full price.
does the author of a book get anything from second hand book store sales? No We are dealing with the same thing.
10 August, 2011 at 12:26
Authors of books have begun to complain about piracy on ebooks, so the problem has started to occur in that field as well.
Besides, you can’t really compare books with games – yes it takes huge amount of time for ONE person to write a book, and a companys time and effort to print it, promote it and send it out on the street. Games take a huge amount of time for MANY people (it takes millions of dollars for tech and pay for work hours) and I am pretty sure much more money are used for promoting games than on any book.
And yes, they are actually loosing money on second hand sales. The price is still decreases over time for a new game, and the developers gets a share for that – if I buy a game from new, play it, sell it at gamestop and you go down to gamestop and buy the same game that I dropped off, the developers will only get my money – gamestop will take yours 100%.
17 August, 2011 at 17:31
Even if this destroys any chance I have winning Bastion. I have to say I couldn’t disagree more.
There is a psychological term for this behavior you and every other video game journalist show. It’s called transference! Your sympathy for the people in the video game industry lead you to a double standard that is completely irrational and hypocritical.
The free market is already heavily dominated by the interests of the big companies everywhere. As a consumer you don’t have much freedom / rights left. Selling the stuff you own and buying others used is one of them. Gamers have proven that they happily waive their rights goodbye as a consumer in favor of laziness by accepting Terms of Services left and right that don’t give you real ownership of anything anymore in the digital world.
If you get banned on XBL everything you bought is gone!
If you decide to take advantage of globalization like big companies do all the time and order a Steam key from another Country, Valve will ban your Steam account, and once again all your stuff is gone.
EA’s Origin goes so far only guaranteeing you that you can download their games at least a year. Should anything happen to that game due to license disagreements and it’s pulled from Origin you won’t be able to download it again.
Not to forget that not a single DLC service out there gives you any right to your games in case they shut down their service!
It’s making me sick to my stomach that developers and publishers use every aspect of the free market that is working in their favor, but are denouncing every other aspect that is standing in their way to reach the illusion of a 100% maximum profit!
Everyone here who has the opinion that publishers and developers should get a cut from a used game sale is a hypocrit, because no one here who buys anything else used thinks about the “poor” companies that don’t get their cut from that sale.
You don’t give a damn about the company who spend millions and millions developing a new car, when you buy your first car used or lease it.
You don’t care about the hard work people put into building the house you just bought for cheap thanks to the real estate bubble that broke due to toxic CDOs.
And you specifically don’t care about all the children and foreign factory workers that produce every bit of shit you are buying off of eBay for a loan you spend daily on your Starbucks coffee!
The video game industry is raking in more money than the Hollywood movie industry is doing better than ever so please stop writing and discussing such stupid and totally irrelevant issues.
Instead of supporting your favorite developer, why don’t spend the energy on supporting the charity of your choice by at least spreading the word for them?!
You know there are real world issues happening right now, e.g. 10 million starving east Africans, who by the way can’t afford their food because we decided to make it a trade-able commodity on Wall Street and because we rather put it in our tanks as fuel than into the mouths of hungry people worldwide.
Get your priorities straight!!!
@neo_metatron
17 August, 2011 at 18:05
[Even if this destroys any chance I have winning Bastion]
Everyone has their opinion and they are entitled to. You don’t loose your chance of winning because of it – you actually make a few good points.
[There is a psychological term... completely irrational and hypocritical.]
Don’t generalise and drop the raging tone. I’m entitled to my opinion and I stand by it. Sure, I wouldn’t mind selling my game or buy one used from another private, single person. The problem is the stores like GameStop, who makes a big business out of it.
[The free market is already heavily dominated by the interests of the big companies... don't give you real ownership of anything anymore in the digital world.]
When it comes to something digital, this problem has always been there, and not only for games, but also common computerprograms.
[If you get banned on XBL everything you bought is gone!]
Then don’t get banned on Xbox Live, accept their terms of service.
[If you decide to take advantage of globalization... all your stuff is gone.
This is again breaking their terms of service, which entitles them to stand by their rules given and ban your ass.
[EA's Origin ... it's pulled from Origin you won't be able to download it again.]
There’s much hate going on when it comes to Origin, and I agree with what most people complain about.
[Not to forget that not a single DLC service out there gives you any right to your games in case they shut down their service!]
This is pretty common when it comes to digital downloads, not just games. Programs, music, html sheets, wordpress themes, I could go on. Always save the digital copy on your own PC if possible.
[You don't give a damn about the company who spend millions and millions developing a new car, when you buy your first car used or lease it.]
I can’t really argue this issue, never heard of car companies having problem with used car sales – in one way or another, they most likely make a profit of the sales, that being from the dealer or from all the repairs.
[You don't care about the hard work people put into building the house you just bought for cheap thanks to the real estate bubble that broke due to toxic CDOs.]
This is an entirely other matter, this is due to inflation.
[...supporting the charity of your choice by at least spreading the word for them?!
You know there are real world issues happening right now, e.g. 10 million starving east Africans, ]
This is a gaming-related website, thus why I don’t write articles about starving children in Gambia.
31 August, 2011 at 06:15
You should start up a new website about African kids starving, and we’ll split the money Lea.
31 March, 2012 at 18:55
This is not new. This have being happening in history since ancient times. Theres always someone who’s going to get rich with the work of others in this world of human laws and trickery. That is why the world (I mean the society) is falling appart piece by piece and no one wants to make something productible or a great invention becuase they are not going to get what they deserve and someone out there unkown WILL.
18 October, 2012 at 04:21
I kinda agree. I buy used games, if its more than 6 months old.
But mostly I buy games as a pre-order. Like if its a new game coming out in a few weeks, and I’d would love to own it, Imma pre-order it.
But ofcourse I would support the companies more, but with those prices, I just… I can’t afford it in the long run, then its cheaper for me to buy them pre-owned. And (depending on which company) those companies got way enough money to make more games, if I don’t support them. xD
Millions of people buy their games, so I’m sure they’ll get buy.