@Inexile: Please enlighten us on where you're finding almost brand new releases for $5.00

As long as there's physical media second-hand is here to stay, and as people have pointed out it's going to be a fair while before -if- digital downloads become the norm. Another reason there's a thriving second-hand market: It may seem anathema to what you might call a 'hardcore gamer' (yikes!), but the vast majority of gamers - the people that make up the bulk of those 100+ million PS2 console owners among others - tend not to keep the games they buy. They don't eagerly await dozens of releases every year, they don't lovingly remove the shrinkwrap and keep the game in pristine condition while they replay it time and again over the years. They come in for the latest release because it's something to do, play through it - or play as much as they want to - and get rid of it. To a lot of people the idea of keeping most games they've finished doesn't register.

I'll echo some of the comments above about profit margins for new games. They're pretty much non-existent. A high street retailer typically makes about £5-10 on an EA-published game - and that's if they sell it at the RRP, which they usually don't because of price wars among other retailers. We usually make no money at all on EA sports titles, for example, we're nothing more than part of the delivery process to the consumer on those. If your local game store stopped dealing in second hand goods it wouldn't be there much longer.

Finally, there's the age-old problem of how the industry tackles its own history. Now we've got virtual console and XBLA, and Steam, but with a handful of releases each week how long it is going to take to build up any kind of impressive catalogue? You'd be pretty annoyed if it was no longer possible for you to hunt down a copy of Secret of Mana, or Mega Man 2, or whatever your retro choice is, and instead wait on tenterhooks for someone to get round to a digital release (if ever, in SquareEnix's case). I can walk into a large bookstore and buy a new printing of a novel I read 20 years ago, I can buy a reprint of pretty much any old favourite album I can think of, but I can't walk into a shop and buy a new copy of a SNES game I'm after - I have to scour the second-hand shelves for it in hope, or go to ebay.

You know what I say to saying no to used games?

FUCK YOU I'll buy you and if you don't like it go fuck yourself.

I but most of my games new.


Or jsut wait till it goes to the platinum hits edition or something similar to taht.

God, you people are fucking retarded. Used games aren't helping anybody. Developers do not make a ton of money and their job is really fucking hard.

Please, I'm not kidding, if you can, pirate or trade with other people instead of buying used, if you're going to buy used. Gamestop needs to fucking burn like the pissant pawn shop it is.

Until the law says otherwise, I very rarely buy a new game. If I can get it for $5 less-then use my gamestop card and get another $5 off-great. There is no moral or illegal dilemna here-just a disgruntled person.

there wouldnt be any used games to buy if the games were actually that good that they are worth keeping

how about that for a concept?

a game worth keeping would mean no one would be trading in their games leaving no used games to buy..

Instead of developers asking us not to buy used games they should be having meetings discussing how they can make their games worthy of lifetime ownership...

there are about 10 games released a month, out of that usually 1 game is worth keeping, 1 is iffy, the other 8 are most likely rentals at best..


ask every developer what games they made that are worth keeping and not trading in.. and ask for valid points as to why we should..

@Artadius Cash converters 4tehwin

If you don't hate ebay or graigslist for turing console launches into a joke they're a much better option for selling games. You'll get a fair price for any used games that may be rare. I got $150 for panzer dragoon saga a couple of years ago.

But I guess my point is unless the game sucks or you suspect there will be a greatest hits version of released you're probably better off keeping it for awhile, you dont get crap for it by selling it to gamestop and it may end up becoming rare.

What a silly, irrelevant request.

1. Games are MORE profitable than ever. Not less.
2. Creative Devs are finding ways to increase the number of revenue streams so that the sale of a copy of a game is just one of many factors: Downloadable content, in game ads, subscription fees. Any of those can be abused, but each of them can also be tastefully done and offer more services to the gamer. The used market incentivises devs to make their offerings to consumers more robust (Gears of War and Halo 3 are harder to find in the used bin than Peter Jackson's King Kong).

3. Money from sold used games rarely goes into the piggy bank, it goes back into my entertainment budget. How often do people sell off their old console and games so they can buy the new hardware and Halo 3?

4. Used games compete with rentals more than they compete with new games. If I really want to play Heavenly Sword (too short to buy for $60), I can rent it for $8 or buy it used for $30. Buying it new for $60 isn't an option.

Here's a radical idea: Stop trying to make other people do what you say.

I'd just like to see some honesty in the used game market.

Wayyyyyy back in the day my first job out of high school was selling comic books. If someone came in with a stack to sell us we would pay them 1/2 of what we could sell them for in cash or 60% in trade.

If I were to run a game store today I'd run the used game model the same way... except that I wouldn't be charging 90% retail for a freakin' used game.

New games - $60
Used games - $30
We buy used games for $15 cash or $18 trade.

For the $50 model it would be the same deal.
$50 new, $25 used. Buying games for $12.50 cash or $15 trade.

The reason for this is simple... Games drop in price pretty quick. God Of War II just recently dropped to $40 so in my hypothetical game shop the used price would drop from $25 to $20. That's OK though because any used copies I would have paid $12.50 for at worst so I'm still making money. The price cut would come out of my share because the customer is long since gone.

I'm sure there would be some people whining about paying $12.50 for "a game that just came out", but I'd be charging an honest price for used media and splitting the money 50/50 with the customer. Do you think Gamestop is going to do that?

This must be a joke...

The price of a new game is often $60 and they want us to pay that everytime we want a game???

I stopped buying new games years ago and as a result am able to play tons of more games for little cost.

I don’t even know why people would buy a used game from from stores like gamestop. They are a rip-off and insult gamers with their "buy back" price. If you want games for cheap without doing anything illegal, trade games on the numerous trading sites or buy them on ebay/half. Pawn shops/yard sales are also a good deal - but don’t support brick and mortar stores like gamestop.

I always buy used games, unless I know they're quality. I'm not wasting $20 (or more) on, say, a title like Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction or The Bard's Tale. If it's Halo 3, or Gears, then I'll buy a new copy.

@ pogoli-

Exactly, and how are they supposed to lower prices without the sales to support them? They're just supposed to count on gamers to decide to buy new over used, and hope they'll actually do so while lowering their prices? As I said earlier, if you're worried about saving $5 on a game, you'll likely buy the used no matter what the new price is.

Everyone bitches about game prices, even though with multiplayer, longer campaigns, etc., you get more value from games than ever before. Especially considering that cartridge games for older systems were not much cheaper than games are now.

Yes what you are saying is very true: But if you change the way used games are sold you have to change the methods of selling anything else used. Books, dvds, tv's, computer parts, cars, etc.

Good point but there's no chance of a change.

david braben doesn't work at free radical.

Well there's no more FunCoLands...but who knows preowned games will always be around until everything is hard-drive based...which who knows if it will ever happen.

You know what I see here? A bunch of cheep bastards, I say this as a college student who manages to pay for his own Apartment (albeit with 2 other people,) as well as car insurance. I think that you're all missing an important part here- the crazy profit margin that Gamestop or wherever MAKES on selling you a used game.

By principle, if something is opened, the value drops immensely in the "collectors" value, doesn't it? Why should that change with this here? Why SHOULD you pay three times what the store took the item in for? No one has stated a suitable answer except for "Lol, money".

I know I'm late on this, but as another former GameStop employee, I completely agree with him. They pay employees the least amount they can legally and then treat the employees like shit.

I always did my best to satisfy the needs of the customer because I was hired to be a Game Advisor. One day, a person from the nearest corporate office had come to the store to speak with the manager. She ended up talking to me with my manager because I wasn't pushing enough used games/consoles, replacement plans, magazine subscriptions or even extra merchandise on the customers. They told me that if my sales of those items didn't pick up, they would fire me. They kept a chart behind the counter that we had to mark for each sale of that nature. I always offered the options to customers, but never tried to persuade them to get what they didn't want.

After two years, I was fired right after Christmas that year.

Another good video game trading website is www.gametraderdirect.com They provide you with the envelopes to ship the games so you just pay for the games you receive and you don't pay to ship your games like those others. and there's no points like those other sites, buying points to get a game sucks just as bad as spending 40 bucks.