David Braben, founder of Frontier Developments has hit out at the practice of selling used videogames, claiming that it's "not tolerated by other industries" and that something needs to be done to stem the tide of what he suggests are "essentially rentals."
"More than half their floor area is dedicated to pre-owned and that is something as an industry we don't see," Braben said of UK retail chain Gamestation, who have some great pre-owned prices and good part exchange rates, I must confess. "Those same retailers are only carrying new copies of games from the past few months – if it's a game that's been out for two months and you want to buy one from a shop not Amazon and you don't want pre-owned, it's very hard," he explained.
"This is essentially rental, and it's not tolerated by other industries... Why can we not introduce special 'for rental' copies?"
Of course, Braben is right, other industries have zero tolerance on the sale of pre-owned products. Apart from, of course, movies, cars, televisions, clothes, everything you find in charity shops, computers, in fact most home appliances ... actually, everything apart from food, although I'm sure you could buy some pre-chewed sausages in some dark corner of the Internet.
Let's face facts here -- the sale of secondhand goods is not unique to the games industry, and it will continue to be part of it until digital distribution takes over, or we no longer run the risk of shelling out fifty quid on a game that could turn out to be crap. Rawr rawr rawr, indeed.
Contest:
3:22 PM on 07.30.2008
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NEEDS MOAR PIRATE BAWWW
great writing Jim ;)
Only because you give them a big amount of the money you could make if you just cut the middle man out.
I buy used from amazon. Direct from gamers who I would rather give the money to.
Other than that, I love buying used. Never had a problem with them. Then again, I do pirate hundreds of dollars worth of programs, so my opinion is a bit unvalidated.
I can see it now.
Super Mario Brothers 4th Edition! $60!!!
Twat.
If they want me to start purchasing games brand-new, then they need to start lowering the prices. Until then, I'm more concerned with my bank account, than meeting their company's needs.
If you have a problem with the buying and selling of used games, then don't buy or sell used games.
Again, I may hate GameStop, but there's nothing wrong with trading used items. If game publishers are mad that they're losing sales to the used market than they out to make some better games people aren't so willing to sell off for 45% of their purchase price.
Then there are even more consumer-unfriendly methods potentially in the works. Remember before the PS3 came out and there were rumors and worries about the PS3 automatically locking games to the console once they were played on it, so that no other PS3 would be able to read the disc? Thankfully I doubt such a blatant tactic would be tolerated by consumers, but the mere whiff of that possibility was enough to make me stop and consider whether I would give up gaming as a regular hobby.
Used things...they is intolerable.
Now, let's get to the argument. One, there are a lot of people who sell their games to GameStop, on eBay, on Dawdle, or wherever else to *buy new games*. It was quantified as over a billion dollars at the GDC convention. (Like ATM machine, sue me.) Two, there are people who can't afford $60 for a new game, and the sale of used goods lets them enjoy your work, buddy. The car analogy is a great one - no one is going to suggest that banning used car sales is a good idea. Why should it be the same for entertainment? We have the right to pursue happiness, and if playing games makes someone happy, who are you to stop them from doing so in the same manner that someone who needs a car to get to work gets one?
OK, I'll stop my rant now. But I am sick and tired of people putting up roadblocks for people to do the things they've always done just because it suits some narrow special interest.
I think to begin with, if you can buy and sell cars onto second and third owners, why should this be any different for games? Now, I know Gamestation get a lot of money from preowned, and this is why I never trade in my games. If I did want to sell any, I'd use ebay or amazon, or even an ad in the local newspaper. For such sales, we should be looking to cut out the middle man. Maybe then, Braben would zip it.
We should consider ourselves lucky, to be able to rent games, as well as buy and sell our preowned games. In japan, this kind of activity is more or less illegal (to push new sales more, greedy buggers that they can be). If the west is trying to emulate this draconian model, its just not going to happen.
I admit, when hunting for preowned games, I just use ebay.
The game industray makes more money than the movie industry.
A game does not cost as much as a movie to make (in most cases) and even if it did... to buy a game new it is like £45 where to see a movie at a cinema or to rent it is like £6 or something (huge price difference).
So therefore... WTF?
His argument boils down to "I make enough money now, but I could make so much more if we could only take away the rights of consumers!"
If you wanna be greedy, the rich/hardcore will pay more for special editions, which they probably won't sell to Gamestop in two weeks. Try taking advantage of that and leave us poor saps with budgets alone.
1 - In the case of AAA (usually with a year in the) titles going pre-owned in a matter of weeks means they're just not that good to keep. Either not long enough (Halo 3), Not advanced over the previous enough (MadWoodsFL 2007), or just plain bad (Lair).
2 - In the case of older games, it shows people are willing to hunt down and play games that aren't the next big thing. They're the last big thing. Either because they should be cheap, or because they are classics.
Braben can bitch and moan all he wants. But he's part of an industry that's fuelled this market by releasing poor games, and refusing to keep older titles in (even limited) print, or allow other methods of purchase.
As soon as I got my Wii, I went and got about 12 Game Cube games (beyond Twilight Pricess and Wii Sports, Wii talent was pretty weak for a while). Is it wrong I wanted to expand my library; to experience the joys of Metroid Prime, Pikmin, Wind Walker? I Would have bought new, but The Game employee told me they were getting rid of their GC titles.
The GC titles prompted me to follow up my purchase with a PS2 and again, a shed load of pre-owned games; PS3 is out, clear the shelves for Lair!
Basically, Used Games are worse than Piracy. There, I said it. Pirates aren't going to pay for shit. You know this, they know this, so if a pirate downloads something, it's not a lost sale, because they most likely wouldn't have bought it anyway.
Used Game sales on the other hand, take money directly from paying customers, diverting the income from the publisher/developer and straight to the store. EB, Gamestop, these places are not video game stores, that's a front for selling used games where they make their real money, by ripping you off and by ripping off the publishers.
Can you stop it? No. Can you stop piracy? No. Man up and get the fuck over it. Create games people would gladly pay for if it means getting a sequel.
craigslist is surprised.
Funnily enough, PC Games are the ONLY products (besides food and clothing) I buy new. Huh.
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