Second hand trade hurts developers as much as software piracy...

[dunno001]

NJ5 said:

RPGJock said:
What if you want to play a game but don't agree with the price for it?

What if you don't like a developer/publisher and that you don't want to support their business model?

What if you bought into the hype of a game and it was complete utter bore/crap and you want to be compensated for part of the $60+ you were ripped off for.

But don't worry, I will be "out of the game" when you young kids accept the gaming overlords digital distribution model and it become the only option to purchase media.

If you really want to hurt the publisher or developer, buying used is not the answer alone (for reasons given by several people earlier in this thread).

The answer then is either piracy (if you're not against it), borrowing the game from a friend, or waiting really long before getting a used copy (then you'll be contributing a really minimal amount, if it can even be measured).

But waiting can also backfire. Some games tend to go up in price relatively quickly due to limited print runs. I guess the best example right now would be Marvel vs Capcom 2. It's just from last-gen, and Gamestop still sells (and takes) PS2 games. Yet the game still routinely goes for above-retail prices in the used market. Waiting for the PS2 to be dead might not help either, in fact, that could further drive prices up, see Suikoden 2. (My getting a complete copy for $135 isn't too bad.) As for your other reasons, piracy has the whole legality problem, and if a friend doesn't have it, then you still do have one more route: rental. Be it Blockbuster or Gamefly, there's still a way to try out games.

As for the original post in the thread, no, the used market is not worse (or as bad) than piracy. Say that there are 4 people still interested in a game in 1 area. 2 people who had prior interest have traded in their copies. Now, these 4 people go to the store to buy the game. Assuming that price is important to all of them, the first 2 will get the used copies, and the second 2 will get new copies. Yes, this case results in a loss of 2 new sales at face value, but we don't know all the circumstances, some possibilities of which have already been posted in this thread. (Trading in to buy another new game, wouldn't have bought without resale, bad game, etc.) All we can say for certain is that no more than 2 sales were lost in this microeconomy, it may've been less based on sales reasons for the first 2 who traded them in.

Now piracy is a different problem. I'll keep the town setup the same as before, 2 used copies in stock at the local store. However, again, with price being important, they all download the game, instead of going to the local store. Said game sees 0 more sales, and the 2 used copies still sit there, waiting for another repeat of this scenario. Piracy has the problem of that it never runs out of stock. Hypothetically, if 1 billion people wanted to download something, they could. Conversely, if 100 million people want to buy something (allowing for 90% of piracy to be deadbeats who should be gone), then 100 million copies of this game need to physically exist. Needless to say, there won't be 100 million used copies convienently scattered around in exact distribution to where the people who want the games are. So some new sames must be made, which is something that piracy doesn't see.

Oh, and numonex, as for your post about pricing, yes, $60 is a justifiable price. Games can't maintain the $50 price forever, as the value of the dollar drops from inflation. Not to mention that back in the days, most N64 games ran $70, FF3 (6) and Chrono Trigger had new price tags of $80, Phantasy Star 4 saw prices of $90-100 depending on where you went, and Neo Geo games just blew those prices out of the water, starting at $150. So this means that even ignoring inflation, FF13 is cheaper than FF6 was at first release in the US. Sure, it stings in our wallet seeing the price go up, but that's because we've been getting spoiled these past few generations with cheap games. I'd love to see the price remain at $50, but as the cost of games goes up and the value of the dollar goes down, I can see why the price needed to go up.