THQ is claiming that UFC: Undisputed 2010 has confirmed its suspicions about the used game market. Using the amount of sales of online passes as evidence, the publisher has reached the no-brainer conclusion that secondhand games are popular.
"What we saw when we did the online charge for the second purchaser of UFC was we found a pretty good attach rate - it confirmed our suspicion that there are a lot of people participating in used games," says CEO Brian Farrell. "It is one of those things of how much money could you have made if it wasn't for piracy or used games? It's a tough question because you don't know."
Farrell says that THQ is trying to work with retailers on DLC and the like, but that there needs to be more "give and take" from outlets like GameStop.
It's gotten to the point where I almost wish that publishers would get rid of used sales somehow, just to see the look on their CEO's faces when a black market opens up, or gamers buy less products overall because they can no longer get trade-in credit. Wonder if they'll have the stones to blame themselves for something at long last?
UFC 'confirmed our suspicions' on pre-owned games - THQ [CVG]
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Contest:
3:00 PM on 09.16.2010 | 
I played '10 a couple of times and then realized it is the same game ('cept for the menus, which they made a little better).
The reason I sold '09 and bought '10 was because I played '09 to death and got sick of it....I bought '10 hoping it would be something fresh, but it's the same game, so I traded it in, which is probably the mindset of most of the people who did the same......Thats why THQ has seen so many of these sold used, because no one wanted it, especially if they already played '09 to death.....THQ should spend more time investigating why their game sucks and fix it, as opposed to investigating used game sales.
Strange Jim, seeing as how your such a super business and marketing wiz that can predict the future climates and outcomes so accurately I'm surprised your stuck working at a gaming site instead of for one of these multi million dollar companies helping them actually make these decisions.... strange....
It's not an immoral thing to buy used games, it's just not developer friendly. You support gamestop and such versus supporting the companies.
Hell no, they won't. They'll just move their focus back to piracy, in this case dealing with the oddly-coincidental explosion of piracy that occurred just after used games were declared illegal.
Regardless, though, I disagree categorically with his statement about piracy. FOR THE LAST TIME PEOPLE, 1 GAME PIRATED DOES NOT EQUAL 1 LOST SALE!!! The vast majority of the evidence points one direction: pirates pirate what they don't want to pay for. If they can't pirate it, in the vast majority of cases, they still won't pay for it!!!
they'll just keep trying to pass the buck they make by bitching about the buck they don't make. a common practice only the greediest of slimeball ip whoring companies do. but strangely, capcom is missing out on all this action.
If you guys keep getting suckered into slimy schemes like paying for online pass, then you're going to pay. Just boycott these games, buy them used and never buy the pass, show them that you're not giving them money for trying to screw you.
Jim had the right idea in his Jimquisition. BONUS content, not fundamental parts of the game like multiplayer should have a pass. It would keep trade-in value slightly higher to help with new game purchase and a lot of people would get it.
Also, here's a news flash to the people hoping/expecting publishers will reduce their prices if used gaming were eliminated: they won't. But Flea, you ask, how can you know that for sure? Allow me to explain:
We're in the middle of the worst economic period in decades. Consumers have less money than ever to spend on luxury items like video games, and the publishers haven't reduced their prices yet. Instead, they seek to bolster their flagging profits by charging more for existing services and trying to take a bite out of the profits of other businesses.
They don't want to compromise on the issue. They want everyone even tangentially related to their sales for fork over money that they feel they are owed.
And I don't EVER see EA or Activision actually adding features via their "Project $10" now or any time in the future. Instead of adding incentives for new game purchases, they just decide to gimp it. It won't be long before they use the old shareware model.
Everytime I see an article like this, I always for some reason imagine these publishers as being run by a bunch of spoiled, crying infants. I just want to tell them to shut the fuck up, shut... the... fuck... up!
The used game market exists because people can't afford to buy your crappy games. That's it. Make your games affordable, or make them suck less. Hell, do both - but I can guarantee, you'll do neither.
Used game prices already have been lowered to take codes into account. Next time you're up at one, check the used price on Tiger Woods, NCAA, or Madden 11, and then garnish your foot to your taste.
^This.
Gamestop gouges the hell out of the consumer by buying back games for a laughably small amount, and reselling for a massive profit while not sharing any of that with the developer. This is a problem.
The used market is important for generating and maintaining consumer interest in games, and making games more accessible to people of varying income brackets. The problem isn't that the market exists, it's that the middlemen have basically a monopoly and are doing a lot of bloodsucking, at everyone else's expense.
I'm not against retailers either - I like being able to go to a brick-and-mortar place and talk to the experts there about what's going on with games lately. But Gamestop is a crapshoot when it comes to that - sometimes the employees are awesome, and sometimes they are just beyond useless. They also throttle the supply, so that you can't be guaranteed a new title unless you pre-order, which is BS. Close half your outlets and pay your employees enough to take their jobs seriously. You've got the money for it.
That's not my point entirely man, there will come a time when the value will no longer be there at all and dealers might start to lose on those transactions instead of making mad bank like they are now. This will force them to either stop accepting used games en masse or change their tactics altogether. In the end, unless we do something with our wallets (and that seems to be a long ways off) the publishers will always get their way.
I hope something does happen soon, because all this is pretty pedantic.
Am I the only person who gets a little annoyed when they link used games and piracy? Any arguments about wither piracy might have qualities aside (I mostly fall on the no side) buying used product is completely legal and part of our rights to out property. If I own something and no longer want it, and someone else wants it, don't make me feel like a criminal for selling the thing that I own. This isn't about what is good for the business, this is about my rights to my property.
I agree with that statement being bullshit but that's mostly because I don't think it's true. Many, many times I have gone to GameStop a few days after a "hot" game has come out and they had copies. As a matter of fact, I hardly ever pre-order games (it's against my religion to covet items) and have no trouble getting games.
Also throttle is a bedroom word. Let's keep it clean.
I hate to defend Activision, but what Kotick actually said was something closer to "Let's take the game's engine, write a movie out of it, and sell it digitally to customers for $20 or $30! It'd be the biggest box office hit ever!"
It's clearly more of Bobby Kotick being completely unaware of the market his publishing firm is trying to sell to, though. No one in their right mind would spend $20 for "an hour and a half of linear footage". I sure as hell wouldn't.
Hey, I get WHY they do it. It's not illegal, and there will always be someone out there willing to trade in an old game for a fractional discount on a new game. But I find that, taken as a whole, their aggressive business model is set up for them to profit at others' expense.
They're such an omnipresence now that we don't have many options for selling a game EXCEPT to them, and they will turn that $7 around for $29.99 or so, netting themselves a 300% profit or so. I don't think the customer gets a fair value out of that type of transaction, and Gamestop then has less incentive to keep new copies of titles in stock.
Definitely just my opinion, and since I am not a rich businessman, it's probably the wrong opinion depending on how you look at it. :) It just doesn't seem responsible to me, even if people are willing to participate.
Some people say that the developers should get some part of the money out of used sales, would anyone even think that with anything else? Oh, I'm gonna sell this lamp at a yard sale, but first, let me go to my walmart and give them like a tenth of how much I bought it for so they're happy.
The money the developers are getting back is the trade in value the customers use to buy new games with, though sometimes customers end up buying different used games.
It's getting ridiculous, they control how we use our downloadable games and they want to control how we're going to use the tangible games we games we buy. If something is bought, we should be able to do what we want with it, and if we sell it, the person buying that used game should be entitled to the same features we payed for, it's simple.
It doesn't apply to me so much now, I don't really like buying used games, fortunately. Some people don't know how to handle a disk.
1. Reduce the cost of the games. They'll make less per unit but make greater over-all profit through increased sales...sort of like selling games in bulk.
2. Get the used game shops to pay them a portion of their profits per unit sold(re-re-stocking fee?), a kick-back, if you will, to allow them to continue to eat off of their plates (full of caviar). That way,nobody's harddrive accidentally end up blanked or no overheated game systems cause electrical fires that burn down anybody's stores...got it?
No no - RELIGION belongs in the bedroom. Throttles belong wherever you can stick them.
Wait - scratch that last part.
I don't think I can effectively debate whether or not people have trouble getting new copies of things they want at GameStop without hard data (I just cannot keep it clean at all, can I?). I know that I have had issues with this, and so have a lot of people I know, but ymmv of course. Definitely is more of an issue when you're hunting for "niche" titles rather than "hot" ones. (It just gets worse.)
Many have been the times when I've walked into a Gamestop a few days after something I wanted was released, been told they just got rid of the "last" one, and simply walked across the street to a Best Buy or some other chain store where they've got loads of the title on the racks. I don't see why that should happen at a store that ostensibly specializes in the exact thing I'm looking for. Maybe it's worse here because I'm in a major metropolitan area, though?
Now, good games are a different beast. I've lost count of how much I have spent in the halos, Gears and Burnout, etc., DLC's included.
I'm all for people having the right to resell their games, but anyone who's aware of this issue with retailers should be selling on eBay instead of trading games in.
A truly ignorant statement if I have ever read one. First, this asshole is suggesting piracy and used game sale are in the same category, when one is a crime and the other is a legit business. Second, it's simply ridiculous to hope something that cuts into your sales to just go away. Why doesn't THQ go wonder how much money they could've made if their games were the only games in the world? It's a tough questions because you guys are irresponsible idiots who can't admit your games not selling is your own fault.
If anything you'd think they'd work against the retailers, instead of teaming up to screw the customer over from both sides.
Wouldn't it be splendid if their own tactics led to more used copies on shelves?
Game publishers: If you want to at least slow down the used market on your game then make it worthwhile to keep the fucking thing for more than a week after purchasing it. You should target your game release for a solid three months worth of enjoyment. After three months then let the used game wolves have it, but if your game can't even offer anything worth playing after a week then you've already lost the war.
I do feel bad for second-hand buyers who bought online passes not knowing how unstable the online for that game is.