Epic's Capps joins the 'noble' fight against used games, suggests bad idea

What a bullshit ridiculous idea. Have I ever told you guys how much I hate the world?

Making critical parts of the game DLC is definite BS. Still I am not suprised to here more developers complaining about the second hand market. Given the current economic situation in the world I'm betting we here more complaining like this in the future.

Mmmmm....I love the smell of unchecked capitalism in the morning.

Look, I understand the used market is cutting into sales, and believe me, despite wanting a cheaper pricepoint, I have no desire to give my money to Gamestop instead of the people who made the game. And I have to praise EA, Microsoft, and Sony for finding ways to get you to buy games new and at launch like Burnout Paradise, Rock Band 2, Gears of War 2, and LittleBigPlanet and get exclusive content for buying it early/new or prevent you from trading it in because either they keep giving you free DLC (Paradise) or you don't want to have wasted your money on extra DLC (Rock Band 2). It got me to pick up two games this fall I wasn't even planning on getting right away or new.

But: If I have to buy a game new to unlock the final boss, that is going to be bullshit and I am not going to buy your game period. Tread carefully, developers.

ugh, and people wonder why I envy the dead. If shit keeps going this way I'm going to have to find something besides video games to occupy my time.

This is a bunch of corporate bullshit. These are multimillion dollar companies complaining about each dime and penny while real people are struggling to pay there mortgage let alone keep/get a job.

Terrible idea. I like the idea of giving DLC incentives to encourage gamers to skip the secondhand market, but the game should still be complete. Extra multiplayer maps, skins, bonus modes, sure. Cutting out part of the single player campaign? Welcome to boycott town.

You don't see movie companies bitching about used sales and rentals do you? what about CAR companies want to talk about percentage of people who buy a new car compared to used. WTF?! I used to respect epic as my favorite game company (not because of gears I've loved them since Jill of the jungle in 1994) ub not after statements like that. I think he needs to read up on stardocks 10 rules again.

So I'm suppossed to feel bad that I rented Gears 2 because I didn't have the $65 laying around to buy the thing? Fuck off.

God damn if games were resonably priced, they would sell twice as much and destory the used game market that admittedly is very shady.

$34.99 or even $39.99 seems to be the sweet spot..make it happen please

It's a business Jim. People aren't making games to make your life more complete, they are making them to get your money. What would be so bad about these developers that make things you love so much making more money? Are you worried they could make more games? Worried they could expand the industry further?

I'm not even saying its morally wrong to buy used games. I've done it, if I'm in a store and I see a game for $50 and the same game for $35 I'm gonna buy the cheaper one. The industry is just getting smart enough to stop that.

And as for "this isn't the way DLC should be used" that is ridiculous, anyone who thinks DLC isn't solely a way to milk more money out of consumers is a fool. Even if they give you something cheap or free they are only doing that to build brand loyalty, not because they like you.

Grow up, stop whining, STFUAJPG.

@Drack

It's not shady, you have to understand that companies like gamestop do not make profits off of new games. They make maybe $2 off of a new sale, and once that developers company decides to drop its MSRP, the retailers take the hit. I remember how much bullshit I heard from my friends @ SwapUSA. They bought 150 copys of some crappy yugiyo game for ~48$ and 3 days later they dropped the price to $20. Basically killed them

Exactly Jim. Also, I wonder if they realize that in the chunk of people that bought their games new, that they most likely traded in alot of games to actually BUY it. So in a sence, used sales helped them make a profit in NEW sales

The solution is really simple. Do like the car industry. Buy back your used games with a voucher included in the retail game explaining the program. Then under cut your software sales outlets by selling direct with guarantees.

Problem is, developers/publishers want to make money, not spend it to purchase their own product.

I'm for hire if anyone in the game publishing community needs a sound business model!

I've said it before and I'll say it again... This gargantuan boner everyone has for DLC (all shapes and sizes) is going to cost the industry. As long as the devs and publishers realize that people are willing to download software, the more they're going to push for it, and the more control over the product you purchased they are ultimately going to have.

outrage the point was they want to sell you half a game, not extra stuff. Basically if you want to fight the final boss or whatever to actually finish single player, you have to pay extra for them to unlock it

I still can't understand - How the fuck is it in any way your business, how the retailer makes his fucking money.

He paid for your game just STFU and let it go unless you want to start opening a chain of gamestores with no rentals.

Good luck with that.

@RestingSound: are you defending the notion of companies releasing incomplete games and charging you additional money on top of the $60+ so that you are able to complete it? Are you high? Maybe you need to be high? You're telling us not to complain about this?

YOU WANT TO PAY FULL PRICE FOR AN INCOMPLETE PRODUCT!? WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU!

@juggernaut: Lamborghinis? Come on, how can you expect the board of directors to buy themselves a fleet of private jets with all those people renting or buying used? Be reasonable.

You wouldn't want them suffering the trauma of jet-envy when their friends turn up in a shiny new Gulfstream G650 and they're still rocking a GV or something would you?

Also, why can't they get it through their heads that every other market has second hand sales and rentals, what makes them so special that they need to combat it?

Worst idea ever

Jim I think I will have to kick back into reality. The reason Valve does not complain about second-hand sales is not because their customers are so loyal and because they treat them with respect.
If anything Valve are the worst of the bunch because they already developed the perfect way to eliminate the second-hand market and it is called Steam. Once you download a game with Steam you're stuck with it and you still payed full price although Valve didn't even have to produce the disc.
And don't you tell me now that Steam does not work with the consoles. Valve couldn't care less about that. Their games are traditionall very PC-heavy and the PC is where Valve gains it's most income because they: a) do not have to pay licensing fees on the PC
b) most of their fanbase comes from the PC and PC-gamers usually stick with their superior platform (strictly speaking about raw graphical power).
So don't tell me that Valve is the nicest developer our there, they are not.

If anything like this gets implemented, I'm throwing my 360 out of a window and never buying console again. This is bullshit that if I buy used, I get boned over. It's as bad as PC copy protection.

@ RestingSound

What's so bad is that, as technology improves and gaming becomes more mainstream, maybe our hobby should become affordable. DVDs are cheap enough to be a commodity, while games are so expensive that any non-blockbuster title will inevitably wind up costing a premium on eBay because of small print runs to maximize returns on a costly niche title. Making the consumer pay even more money for a complete game when a game is so expensive in the first place is ridiculous. There's no backing down from my hobby now, but if I was at all financially sound in the head, I would have picked up movies as my obsession years ago, just for all the money it would save me.

Added DLC can be wonderful thing for the consumer, as seen in the case of Valve and Epic back on Gears 1, who were forced to charge initially by MS but let them go free as soon as they could. Sure, Harmonix is making tons of cash from Rock Band, but it can't be much of a profit per song, considering an iTunes download is $1 and that leaves only one more dollar with which to add lots of note charting, tune animations, certify, and make a bit of profit. While some DLC is just shameless money grabbing, and it's certainly all for profit, it's just another form of developers continuing support for a title and giving you the option to give it new life. PC gamers have been familiar with a different form of this notion for years.

@ CelicaCrazed

Because unless you're a big player like Microsoft or EA, no Best Buy customer is going to give two shits about your creative near-indie game or your obscure Japanese RPG series. Plus, I'm sure games like Persona would go over wonderfully at Walmart.

@ falinter

Keep in mind that the used DVD market is a difference of, what, $10 off a $20 DVD, while used games cut into a $60 profit much more, not to mention the fact that games are more costly in general, especially since it's not like they make money in theaters before being purchasable in a store. Not justifying anything, just felt like pointing out something.

DLC has the power to turn into quite an evil beast if thats the way they wanted to take things. But hey, if paying for DLC to beat bosses somehow gets me a 2D HD Castlevania on my PS3... I'm game. Sign me the fuck up >:-)

That would be just one of a few game series that I could see myself biting the bullet for if thats what it came down to. I doubt it will ever come to that, but I'm just saying.