David Braben, founder of Frontier (Lost Winds, Thrillville) has some interesting ideas that developers can use to avoid consumers from trading in their games to get newer ones. In an interview with DevelopMag, Braben proposes that “struggling” developers should utilize unique box codes or create single-use incentives.
Another option would be to offer extras - or even part of the game itself - packaged in with the game as a unique code on a scratch-card. If you do this, then those extras could only be obtained once.
Braben ultimately concedes that downloadable is really the only route to go in terms of avoiding pre-owned sales, considering that consumers can do nothing with them other than keep them on their hard drive. Personally, I utilize the pre-owned system at popular retailers heavily. Without that sort of system, I wouldn’t be buying the amount of games that I do. And I have to say, it’s not like the majority of the games that I own are real champions in their genre. I’m still ticked off that I bought
Puppy Luv: Your New Best Friend.
What do you guys think about this? Should developers try to black out retailers with their product with special codes and giveaways? If every developer were to start doing what Braben wants, how would it affect you?
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Contest:
9:25 AM on 08.03.2008
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If we're going to try and figure out why new games aren't selling, we might as well talk about the cost. The average new game is around 50 dollars, 60 if you're on the PS3 or 360. Even if there's a chockload of content, that's still quite a bit of money your average consumer is throwing out the window. And if there's not that chockload of content, or it's not that grand? Ohhh, there will be blood...
@Tuxy: Even the best games end up on the resale shelf. Typically, those aren't the ones affected here. It's the ones made by new or small developers, who don't have the kind of cheese to just grind through a monetary slump until they perfect their game-making prowess and make a "huge hit" of a title. They have to eat, and sometimes they need all the sales they can get in the first run before the "next best thing" lures your attention elsewhere.
@Cartman: You're only half right. The developers only get the money on the first sale of each copy of the game. They've gotten their money from that one person. Then that person trades in the game and a second one buys it. They get none of the money from that sale, and worse, that's one more person who was interested in the game who that won't be paying them a dime for their efforts. It can cut their share in half, or worse.
Next thing you know, that developer gets absorbed by EA while they're on the rocks, or worse, just goes under altogether. Do you really want to see another developer fall victim to companies like EA? I think we both know you don't.
Not everyone can afford to pay £50 for every game they want so this 'a used sale is a lost new sale' theory holds about as much water as piracy to lost sales is a 1:1 ratio.
This cunt can go fuck himself. Restrict games to one buyer through lame tactics like using codes? How about releasing something people want to buy at a price they can afford and then offering top notch support and content updates that are value for money after the fact.
Dickheads like this are what is wrong with the industry, instead of asking "How can we come out with something people want to support" they are busy coming up with schemes to force people into handing over more money. Always out to penalize the customer.
If publishers weren't so concerned with retail shelf space digital distribution would be way ahead of where it is now anyway (Call of Duty pricing being a perfect example). If they want the money that badly why not enforce a royalty scheme for used sales?
Make games cheaper and then pre-owned games will likely sell less. It's all about the cost for the consumer. $60 for a game is fucking ridiculous. I buy maybe 5 new games a year because they're so highly priced.
I forgot all about them but one day I wanted to buy Pokemon Snap and didn't have enough points, just swapped my star points and I downloaded the game ^^.
I think I'll boycott Frontier now, I didn't like LostWinds anyhow...
Well, they don't rent out a game just once, and then you're nullifying an audience who wants to try your game before you buy it, potentially losing a lot of business.
Tsk tsk. The only way to combat re-sale is to eventually go digitally distributed (which we're on the way to), but it's going to be some time especially with a company like GameStop that makes 7.1 billion dollars.
People get hysterical over the Wii threatening "hardcore" gaming, but people who buy used aren't helping to support it.
@ Timmeh - Exactly. They charge way too much as it is, and now there trying to take away a system that is helping us afford new games?
If i was a dev, as long as i was making enough profit to carry on making games, i would be stoked that people were buying my game in the first place. But thats just me.
Another thing i just thought of is, what happens when the game becomes discontinued? Is that all the time we have to buy it? I know, at least here, the first cooking mama for DS (which sold out instantly the second i opened the box) was discontinued maybe 2 weeks after release, wtf is that?
Downloadable games are great, sure, but people would need big hard drives that would sport enough space for both the game and all the saves, not to mention the additional content. I like downloadable games on my PC because i have to install the game anyways, so I'm not wasting space at all. But my console is awesome because, all i have to do to play Crackdown at my friends house is bring Crackdown.
Wouldn't it be smarter to zero in on piracy? Who cares about the small percentage of people that buy pre-owned games, what about the mass amount of people that pirate games? Let's look at the Wii alone. Theres a book, that's sold in retail stores THAT EXPLAINS HOW YOU MOD A WII. My store actually sold this, right beside the wii games (i argued it was ironic to sell it beside the games), before Nintendo noticed.
If all games became downloads I think it may stop me from getting consoles.
New games are (in my opinion) extremely expensive. I don't often buy a game when its first released unless its something I have been really anticipating.
Respectfully choke on your fist-fulls of cash. Thanks.
The used games business is such a double-edged sword. If I were a developer, I'd likely feel the same way about money being taken out of my pocket. I'm sure every publisher offers big cash bonuses to the devs if their game sells a certain amount of copies, after all. At the same time, if I were a developer, I'd probably be glad someone was enjoying my game, even if they bought it used.
The used game market definitely allows games to be more accessible to people who generally wouldn't have played certain titles. Go into any Gamestop and check out their selection of $19.99 and under titles. There are a lot of quality games available at that price.
I think the real ones getting shafted are the ones trading games. Gamestop gives the trader $15 for a game that they turn around and sell for $50. That markup is insanity, especially when places like Blockbuster Video and F.Y.E. give upwards of $35.
I pirated your wonderful Elite, but I actually bought your equally wonderful Frontier (the game, not the company).
I was 12 years old and I could have NEVER afforded to buy more than one game a year.
GameStop is ONE side of the business, but there are a LOT of games being sold to friends or on ebay (or Amazon Marketplace).
I buy (now, because I can afford) 3-5 games a month, and sell 2-3 of them afterwards. If I couldn't sell them, I would only buy 2-3, which is about 3 games less.
One of the games I don't buy will be a Braben game :)
You see? I buy more games because I can sell them later... And yes, please make Elite for PS3 :)
You know you should reaaaaaly do your research before posting.
GameStop does NOT make nearly from 100 to 150 dollars profit from selling a used system. At tops.. it's about 50 bucks profit they make from selling a used system.
And trust me they NEVER give 15 dollars for a game and sell it for a price of 50 dollars.. that's just ridiculous.
In terms of this post.. if pre-owned didn't exist.. companies like GameStop wouldn't exist either.
They make maaaaaaaaaybe about 5 dollar profit on new game sales so they push used games because those are purely profit.. it's a super dick move but it's also business.
GameStop is a shitty corporation but I've been there for 4 years ever since it was EB and well.. someone has to put food on the table :)
Some games I've traded in: God of War, God of War II, Gears of War, and Bioshock. Great games, but nothing to do after beating them once or twice (especially when it only takes few afternoons to so).
But what's the big deal anyway. They made their initial dollars off the title...go fuck yourself 22 billion dollars a year industry, you don't need any more money!
just a little story:
My 360 broke the 5th time and I wanted to trade all my 360 games for a PS3. They were about 30 games, all top condition, all new, some of them collector's edition.
I grabbed a big bag and piled them all up at GameStop.
The StopGuy was really delighted to see so many great games and after some scanning he told me, he could give me 110 EUR for the whole pile. 110 EUR? Halo 3 legendary edition alone would be worth that!
I had a very hysterical laugh attack, then another one.
Then I sold the games for 460 EUR at some big internet book and everything store. I bought a PS3 and 2 games.
At GameStop, because the other big store around the corner was sold out. GNARF! :)
On one hand, a lot of the used video game stores don't offer fantastic prices until the item is 1+ years old or out of the regular "new release" cycle. (I saw games in GameStop that were $5 less for used than new. WTF? I'd rather buy the new one to get no scratches.)
On the other hand, what are the companies doing to add value? One of the greatest things about the Ultima series was that you got a cloth map of Brittania and a token item that was relevant to the game. That's made you want to hold onto it. They even had contests here if you got a special item, instead of the token item, you were a winner and got some prize of considerable value.
Why aren't companies doing this any more? Even if it's a game card with a chance to get another one of their titles for free, that would at least be something to give an edge over a used version.
The problem with lowering prices is that no matter how low it is there are people out there who will always want it cheaper and will go to used stores. That's not a criticism. It's just a fact. (Hey, I remember what it was like in college. Even a few dollars mattered back then.)
Game companies are putting more time into bitching about the used game market than they are coming up with legitimate incentives (unlike this "lock the customer in", scratch card BS) for people to buy their games new. That's the real problem that they should be working on.
I cannot believe people stand behind this idea.
On the other hand, I need used game sales to boost my ability to buy more games. I tend to avoid buying used games, but I sell a sizable quantity every year so I can afford the new games that will be coming out (Fable II got payed off this way). Otherwise I wouldn't be able to afford all the games I want, and give money to those who make great games.
#1 you can fake codes: I can't tell you how many times I have gotten a coke or pepsi code during their contests with a "win free item" under the cap and when I go online to claim it I get "sorry that code has already been entered"- that is crap, and what will you end up with? people returning the games to say that they couldn't get the content-
#2 if you want games to sell more new you should learn a little bit about economics- supply and demand- games are sold b/c ppl want them for the price point- Imagine if you went to a clothing store and everything that was there was $80 - $80 for a nice leather coat- not a bad deal $80 for a pair of jeans- well not so sure about that $80 for a pair of socks- go fuck yourself- that is what the industry is doing- if you sell well produced high end games for $60, they will sell- that is a given- but if you sell every game for $60 not all of them will sell well. As well you have to take into consideration the fact that retailers are not given the opportunity to promote games by price dropping them- so you can't say hey it is $60 @ gamestop, but wal-mart is selling it for $50- so instead you end up waiting for the price to drop overall when the game is out of popularity or doesn't sell well(like I did with rainbow 6 vegas that dropped recently to $19 and I am doing w/ resistance waiting for 2 to come out so the old price drops)- which hurts not only initial sales , but overall revenue. Honestly, if there were some amusing, or well done short $20 games when I walked into a store- I wouldn't stress on just picking them up at random- but @ $60 it becomes a bigger decision since if you buy a few games you are looking @ a couple of hundred dollars.
#3 By not allowing resale you are boosting piracy, since you are taking those that can't afford the full price for a game and saying "no" to them, they will usually instead opt to get it for free, and at least in the world of handhelds where you either purchase a cart or rewrite the firmware, and the games are small and easily obtainable- you are pretty much giving up future games rather than just the ones at the time
My opinion: bad move.
Personally, I think this issue is deeper than New-vs-Used; the overinflated prices of retail games is to blame here. Should publishers realize that charging X% less for a game opens it up to an entirely new marketbase of lower-income people, the sales would sky rocket and profits would remain high considering the price:sale ratio.
If most games were $30, I'd be paying a lot more overall than I do now.
This is a tactic on which the PC industry is scraping the surface, but since they have the highest install base, they should be doing much more on the competitive-pricing front.
There's a split following of Goozex here in Dtoid, and there's always Ebay.
Both seem like better alternatives considering their prices.
With regard to this proposed "save the developer" system, I think that this idea isn't super great, cause as other people have mentioned before, I think code pirating would be WAY too rampant.
However, imo, digital distribution is the way to go to save developers. I don't know how many of you use Steam, but it is THE best way to download your PC games, because you can install them on multiple computers, and your only limit is that the account can only be "on" on one computer at a time. It's kind of like iTunes authorization, except I don't believe it limits how many computers you activate.
Original Half-Life copies still sell today because of Steam - those who want to play counterstrike can't just pirate it. The game MUST run through Steam.
Also, I believe that prices are very fair on Steam - I just bought a "new" (although digital) copy of Bioshock for $15.
And look what happened to Crysis sales because it wasn't offered through digital distribution (or at least through Steam).
My point is that if you force digital distribution, there will be less pirating and, because the game is selling more, the price will go down faster.
Right of first sale, cunt.