We've heard it before -- developers and publishers whining about how they don't make a cent off of used game sales. Valid complaint, to be sure, since retailers like GameStop are making cash hand-over-fist by with its used games racket.
Well, online videogame trading Web site SwitchGames.com is looking to change all of that. While the site currently allows users to swap games between one another, plans are in the works for an upcoming buy/sell feature. To be added in the coming months, the feature will allow members to voulentarily choose to give a percentage of the transaction proceeds to a game's publisher and developer.
"As with everything else on SwitchGames," says founder and CEO Jason Crawford, "the gamer is always in control and it's up to them to decide if they would like to give back or not."
It's an interesting concept, and one that I'm sure will have publishers perking up at. But will gamers bite? When you sell and purchase used games, does the publisher or developer even enter your mind? Or are you simply looking for the best deal?
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Contest:
10:20 AM on 03.19.2009
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60$ due to used game losses? Hardly. Pubs will charge whatever they think we're willing to pay, that's that. Perceived losses are indeed a valid complaint, but there's no sense in complaining about it in light of the used books or used DVDs market.
As for this scheme. I don't see a problem in it. Like those experiments with some bands and restaurants allowing customers to voluntarily set their price points, allowing people the choice to support publishers/developers while STILL saving on a secondhand game will undoubtedly encourage some to behave in that way.
Not everyone will bite of course, but simply offering the choice is a step in the right direction, rather than banning or undermining the secondhand market outright.
On top of that they cost so much at the start of the system (as in launch titles) due to the low install base.
Plus you have the illegal pirate software bumping prices up a tad too.
Second hand sale of goods is protected under law (at least in the UK anyway), so why does the game industry think it has to be immune from it?
It is not hurting the games industry in the same way second hand books and films are not hurting their respective industries. If anything the game industry is being hurt by crippling prices of new games, ridiculous DLC and stupid DRM that only harms the consumer.
But companies like that don't care about the consumer, they just want to make as much money as possible out of us with the minimum effort (like Capcom).
Fuck the industry, they aren't getting a penny from me.
With Ebay, you are in control of the auction and the agreed ending price. Its mostly a gamer to gamer transaction, cutting out the middleman from making money off of us. I shop there frequently for gems I can't find anywhere.
These publishers moaning about their potential lost cut is pure greed and nothing else (ironic that the film industry do the same kind of thing). What next? Ford want a cut of the payment, for that car you sold second hand, 6 years ago. Give us a break, so devs and pubs, but you guys are greedily reaching and need a good slap. So Game, EB etc get a few $/£, they are just meeting a demand and saw a loop in the market, that pubs/devs wouldn't touch.
once you buy something(or a license to use software) it's YOUR choice to sell that item or sell your right to use that software. i dont even care that i lose this ability when i buy direct download games, but if i have a physical copy of a game, it's noone's business but my own what i do with it