Buy Pre-owned? You're Killing The Industry
The great used game debate rages on, with the UK’s biggest high-street retailer, GAME, introducing pre-orders on used products. Is this a step too far? And should the average gamer care?
Used Or Abused?
If ‘videogames as art’ is the most tired debate in the industry, the popularity of used games runs it a very close second. The conversation has bounced back and forth between publishers and retailers for several years, the same points are made time and again, yet the situation remains the same. Gamers who don’t nourish their hunger with second-hand goods are now as rare as quality on ITV. And while trade-ins certainly help to fund the purchase of new products, if you’re looking for a game that was released more than six months ago there’s an excellent chance you’ll head straight for the used section – and it’s probably because the staff in the shop pointed you in its general direction.
However, the popular high-street retailer GAME has just upped the ante with a new scheme that will offer pre-orders on used games. If you’re willing to wait seven days after a new game’s official release date, GAME will set aside a used copy to sell you for as much as £16 less than the RRP of £49.99. Of course, the vast majority of games are widely available at £39.99 on launch day, so the actual saving is unlikely to exceed £6 on any given product. The scheme is in a trial phase, but it includes high-profile titles like Homefront, Crysis 2 and Dragon Age II.
Needless to say, the industry’s major publishers and developers are less than enthusiastic about the idea, and closer inspection only reveals more potential problems. For a start, the fact that GAME is guaranteeing used copies a week after launch is a strong incentive to encourage its customers to trade in their games. The industry’s main fear is that retailers will begin to promote used products more than new ones – an accusation already levelled at shops like GAME, and which it openly disputes. If this scheme is widely implemented, that fear will become an incontrovertible reality.
Publishers often speak of the responsibility retailers have to establish and preserve good relationships with the companies that make the products – a logical enough standpoint, but it ignores the vast difference between the profit margins on new and used games. It would be easy to brand the retailers as greedy, but representatives from the biggest names in retail suggest that second-hand sales are what keep their businesses going. “We don’t like being in the used games business,” GameStop Nordic’s managing director Niall Lawlor claimed during a Game Developers Conference (GDC) panel, “but we have to be there. We would have to exit the games business otherwise.”
So far, the industry’s response to what they see as a full-on crisis has been relatively constructive. Both EA and THQ have embraced DLC as an incentive, offering free day-one content to consumers who buy new games. Some still bemoan the idea as evidence of exploitation, but that view has little or no logical basis. If it is the right of the consumer to buy used games, and the right of retailers to sell them, it follows that publishers have the right to give their most loyal customers a reward. Granted, there’s very little else publishers can do to combat the problem, but it deprives gamers of very little they should rightfully feel entitled to.
Even so, the concept has a limited shelf-life, because it entirely ignores the problem that is behind the meteoric rise of the used game market; ‘Project Ten Dollar’ and its ilk exist to preserve the traditional videogame price-point of £40 to £50, when it’s the high cost that drives so many gamers to buy used products in the first place.
In a panel at this year’s San Francisco GDC, Epic’s Cliff Bleszinski claimed that, “the middle class game is dead,” and for the most part he’s right. The great majority of modern games are either very expensive or very cheap, with a paucity of options in between, and if the industry really wants to change the buying habits of the masses, this issue should be at the top of its list. Far too many publishers waste money on spurious features and unnecessary multiplayer modes to justify a £40 price tag, when they might have increased the chances of success by focusing their efforts and launching at a lower price-point. Would Singularity have sold more if it was single-player-only and cost £25? Would Medal Of Honor have been a greater success if it ditched its campaign and launched as a £30 multiplayer game? We can only speculate, but the results would at the very least shed new light on a situation that is steadily turning into a stalemate.
The industry hopes to combat both piracy and the second-hand market by shifting the bulk of its business toward digital distribution, but that misses the bigger picture. A digital future is an opportunity to develop a completely fluid pricing structure, so that developers can create games with any budget, and consumers can find entertainment for whatever they want to spend. If publishers can see past their own financial reports, all-encompassing behemoths like Call Of Duty, Halo and Gears Of War will soon be the only games to carry a £40 price tag, and our favoured pastime will be far cheaper to pursue.
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I’m not going to read this propaganda trash!
People like you are the ONES messing up the gaming industry!
Does buying game now feel like paying a monthly bill?
you can pay your monthly bills you sony, microsoft, nintendo and other publishers!
While gamers who don’t want to be ripped off by their greediness will not pay full price for a game!
$60 for a game yet we get no multiplayer or other content and you can banging on about preowened is killing the industry!
And I suggest you try some sales and marketing field and see just how much the publishers make money. Just because they complain about preowned doesn’t mean preown is hurting their sales. Preowned profit only goes to retails not publishers.
now stfu and stop typing and spreading sh* to gamers!
XINO is dead on. Don’t care if preowned is killing publishers bottom line – I care about my bottom line. It’s a video game business not a video game charity.
I don’t think you’re seeing things clearly, xino or StankyFngr. The people who make these games, who you think make “millions upon millions of dollars” each, only make about $30k a year, and these people all have college degrees to some expensive-ass art schools and programming academies. Most studios, such as Activision, have histories of withholding pay on these people, with companies such as Infinity Ward, and after they developed Modern Warfare! These monsters that make your games, huh, such terrible people, right? These talented individuals spend 3-4 years dedicating themselves to a game that should really cost somewhere between $100-120. To play these games, you’re basically paying them less than minimum wage. If you were to gauge how long you spent on CoD–7 hours campaign, 8 hours to prestige and endless playtime after that with your buddies… that’s what, already at a total of $108.00. If you had any idea of how long it takes to produce, or how much work it is to make a game, and how much shit these people take, you’d NEVER buy another used game again, or pirate shit. You are killing the very talent who wants to develop you, the consumer, games, every single time you buy a used game.
Plenty of people want to be working in game developement, only to find out how much more they could make elsewhere with their nice degree.
Look, buying games pre-owned is damaging the games industry. That’s a fact, every time you buy a pre-owned game – all of the proceeds go straight into the retailers pockets and not to the developers, where it belongs.
The trouble is, some games just aren’t worth the price. The best example is Enslaved; if the publishers sold the game at £30 instead of £40, and sold a Limited Edition version at £40, with a statue and some goodies – the game would have sold 100 times better than it did. The game has no multiplayer, and not much re-playability compared to games like Call of Duty: Black Ops and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 that sell for the same price.
Nobody buys Call of Duty pre-owned, only the games that don’t seem worth the price tag are usually bought pre-owned. And for that, you have no-one to blame but the developers themselves.
So, price your games respectively and maybe more people will pre-order them, or at least buy them new.
Either that, or you’re going to see a lot more games using online-activation codes.
Speakindatruth has it dead on. Seriously. Try to make a game. A simple mobile game that is sold for 1.00 or even free…. then you will STFU about developers wanting money from sales their games make from retailers selling pre owned copies. Which btw, the retailers that do that totally rape the customers who sell them the game. You go to gamestop and give them your 1 day old game that has been played once, they give you 40 maybe 45 bucks for it. then turn around and sell it for 55. Once I actually started to persue my dream job being a game designer and actually started making games i realized how hard making games acutally is. It really is one of the hardest things anyone can do. Just put yourself in the shoes of someone working at a game studio, lets say BioWare. You spend 3 years working your ass off with a team of extremely smart people working 50-60 hrs a week at times. To make a game that you love and you hope others will love. Then once the game is released you see the game has only sold less than 1 million units over the major 2 consoles and PC in a period of 3 months. Because gamers who think that the companies making the game is making millions upon millions of dollars just because they have a marketing department and other things. But in reality they spend all of the budget money they get from the publishers to create the game engine, cut scenes and pay actors to voice the characters and act out scenes. The only money they get to pay the 100+ employee’s comes from the game sales. And even 1 million games sold doesn’t do much for developers today. You constantly see game company’s firing employee’s after games are released, if they were making crazy money they wouldn’t have to fire all those employees. I don’t see how gamers can buy a game by their favorite developers from a retailer used, where none of the profits go to the people go to the people who spent countless hours making it for you to play. Your pretty much saying “thanks for making the awesome game I’m going to spend 60+ hrs playing, BUT you don’t deserve to be paid for your hard work that I get to enjoy!”. I do agree tho that $60 is pretty steep though. I only buy games new now, and I can only afford 2-3 games every 3 months. It pisses me off that I can’t just buy a game now that i think looks cool from a new developer because I want to buy 3 other games that are 96-98′s that I haven’t been able to buy yet. Either way. the industry needs to figure out how to price games for everyone. Back in the glory days of the PS2 I could buy every game i wanted and others I wanted to try out (new) and still have money left over. Working part time too. Anyways, there is my (and the people who make the epic games you play) opinion, and I am sure there are going to be gamers who won’t read a thing i say and just start saying “BS! THEY ARE RICH BITCHES THAT DON’T DESERVE AS MUCH AS THEY MAKE!”
jesus is spot on. price games based on merit. a good game and a good service should always be worth more than something unfinished requiring patches etc
games have increased in price over the years because of the pre owned market they used to be 30 then everyone downloaded and bought pre owned which means the developer sells less copies which means you end up paying more for games
anyone who complains about the price of games and then buys pre owned has themselves to blame for the increasing price…
So you’re saying that people with less money shouldn’t be able to enjoy the same games as other people? So because I have a family to support I shouldn’t be able to play dragon age 2? Seriously? I’m sorry but I’m not gonna cry about Pre owned games killing the industry. Pre owned games have been around forever and they’ll continue to be around forever and I for one am happy about that. In 10 years time the “industry” is still gonna be here, no amount of used games will stop games from being produced. If you personally don’t like Pre owned games, buy new. Leave the used games for people that need them and quit complaining.
Speaking as someone with quite a bit of experience in this regard I take a neutral standpoint regarding all of this here are a summary of pros and cons to buying used or not.
Pro for used
-You can buy a much larger selection of games for a much cheaper price
-You can get an “average” game you have no intent of buying at launch for a cheaper price (this is the primary way I get used games (which account for maybe 25% of the games I buy if even and I buy a lot of games (not rich at all just obsessed with games often don’t take care of neccessities to buy a game new ><) If I game is ranked between 50-75 I am not paying full price for it this doesnt even neccessarily mean I buy it used I may just wait for it to go down in price regularly.
If you care about trophies/achievements its a good way to increase your numbers quickly (I could care less personally but I know quite a few that do for this exact reason.
Con for used
The money isn't going to the developers.
The DLC and exclusive content has a 99% chance of already having been redeemed
Odds of being able to buy a game in the first week are practically nonexistant and even if you can its not worth it. There is one thing here I am not neutral on one big pro and con.
Con
If anyone buys a game used for 54.99 instead of new for 59.99 thats just retarded. There is no deal there and the developers aren't getting any of that.
Pro
Much Much Much Much larger selection of games to choose from used as opposed to new, on average 5x+ more I speak from experience working in retail we keep our games in stock anywhere from 4 months – 2 years after that they are out of the system (unless greatest/platinum/first party titles) And you can no longer buy them from that point on EXCEPT used or online.
Just some straight up facts.
The used game market is not putting the video games industry out of business.
Piracy and Gamefly are but a used game? was already purchased they already got the money for making it, and now with the dlc which I would say about 80% of people take developers up on? They make additional profits off of those games. Out of all my gaming friends I would say maybe 1 in 10 buy ONLY used the vast majority of them are somewhere between a 25-75% split.
In addition I don't know where you are getting your facts but games have rarely ever been 30 dollars.
Playstation 1 games were on average 40-50 as were PS2 games
Whining about the 60 dollar price tag makes me laugh.
I used to have a dream of being a video game designer then future technology innovations happened and although I may make apps eventually its sooooo difficult to break into the game industry now.
lets see here
When I was 5 I played sonic the hedgehog about 30 people worked on that and it probably cost them way under 50,000 to make probably a lot less I am just saying better safe then sorry.
Fast forward about oh…16 years or so?
GTA IV game completed tiny credits scroll incredibly fast for about 15 minutes
Thousands of people across multiple game companies located in multiple countries using multiple game engines. Cost over 120 MILLION to make.
So in conclusion?
Quit whining about the price be glad they are 60 now cause I doubt they will be 5 years from now.
Sincerely,
George
Right ok this is my first reply to some of the nonsense that is written here sometimes. Don’t get me wrong i adore this site as it is all gamer knowledge. I gotta say tho, second hand market killing the industry?? lmao the second hand games market has been around for some years now. So how can it be killing the industry? What you need to do here guys n gals is read between the lines. what is really being said is, we’re not making enough money here so we will take it from the second hand market by implementing pre-purchased online key-codes for cretain titles!! not to mention the biggest rip-off by charging the customer again(after already paying £40 or so for the game) for some unlock key for content that is already on the disc. The industry might not see it but they themselves will no doubt destroy their own industry. I thank you!
Kids. It’s a video game. I’m not spending more that 40 or 50 bucks for it. You produced 100,000+ copies of the damn thing, I’ve sure I can find one for 15 bucks somewhere. Sorry, but you made it that easy. Especially if, after two months of me having said game, you release a whole bunch of downloadable sh** that I have to BUY (I.E., spend more money) if I want to keep playing it. Which is what I bought it for.
This article and every other of its ilk is garbage. When exactly is pre-owned going to kill the video game industry? I ask because as a 43 year old English male I have seen pre-owned games for the last 20 years and more. Yes that’s right, 20 years… and yet in all that time of publishers and the like complaining and pathetic media blogs backing them, nobody died, nobody of value lost out and games are still going strong.
It is simply, rubbish.
And for the record, who pays top price for a game? I buy the latest games for way under $40 from online and actual stores. I often wait a month, maybe two and buy games for $20 too. How can they do this is pre-owned which are often more than these games are killing the industry? As I stated previously, garbage!
The fact of the matter is that we need to see a return of middle class games. AAA titles are becoming ridiculously expensive so that retailers can profit from their hard work and money. What we can see from success of games like minecraft is that people are willing to accept terrible graphics and animation in return for originality and fun. I dont feel bad for terrible games that lose money. We need to see the market adjust to supply and demand. A game should be released to the best fans for 100$ maybe a month early. Then $60 and then to 25.
Also people dont seem to release that buying a new game doesnt mean that the developer takes a cut. Most of their sales will be when they ship it out originally and a short while after that. Beyond that its just inventory that retailers are selling out.
One thing is real dont sell pre-owned…thats way i allways buy them new brand new cuz they always bring some stupid scrash ore whatever u want to call it that make them unplayeable
I have two things to say about this.
1. Used games are not killing anything. Maybe they would be, except nearly every game has DLC of some kind, and the big ones have a lot. I’m pretty sure if I’m putting 5 packs’ worth of money into their hands, they’re not hurting.
2. For the people who’ve tried to pull a pity trip about the poor devs, hey, nobody has a problem with the devs. They don’t set the budget. They don’t set the price. It’s the publishers that are the problem, and I think players and devs are a lot closer to being on the same side than either side will ever be with pubs. I know a lot of devs would like to do fun little games with little risk and little payout, but all Activision and EA can see is “Big money big money big money.”