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UncleScrooge on 22 February 2010
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papflesje said:
@ scrooge: I understand your point, but I understand that of the devs too. FF XIII for example sold gangbusters and then basically doesn't sell at all, because all of the potential sales are raped through second hand sales.

With cars, I think it's slightly different, 1) because of the higher money they make on cars as it is 2) the market in second hand cars is not as big as it is in games. Dvd's and the like are also relatively safe because of the rental-option they have and the money they get from that (and they get multiple sales: movies => video (not anymore) => dvd => blu-ray => online streaming => rental => whatever else they invent)

I wouldn't compare it to cars as it is an entirely different market and a different product.

I'm quite sure that if devs get the same kind of cash flow as what movie makers get from all the different setups, then this wouldn't be required.

I see your point, too. But in the end this is only going to save them short-term but not long term.

If a customer sells his game to get some money back that most likely means he didn't like the game. So quite a lot of those FInal Fantasy copies you can buy used exist because one of the customers just wasn't happy with the game. Granted some people are also selling it because they only play through games once or because they try to re-sell it for profit or anything but a big bunch of those games comes from customers who didn't enjoy the game. In the short term stopping people from reselling their copies may help the developer (Square in this case). But what about their next Final Fantasy game? Customers who didn't like Final Fantasy XIII most likely won't come back when the next main game releases so they will lose money anyways. And that's exactly what currently happens in Japan with Final Fantasy sales decreasing with each new release.

So instead of trying to find short-term solutions developers should try to look at the long-term effects and take the huge used gaming market as what it is: A sign that a lot of people just aren't happy with the current games. (Especially in Japan where software sales decreased dramatically during the Playstation 2 era... which was probably what Iwata was talking about when he said the gaming market was shrinking. I have a graph somewhere to prove this, by the way).

So instead of seeing their sales decrease further they should try to adapt to new market segments. This is where the whole "hardcore vs casual" thing comes into play, by the way. If the industry stopped popping out "casual games" and instead developed games everyone can enjoy not only the "casual gamers" but also the hardcore gamers would profit.

Basically the current business model is hurting hardcore gamers the most because hardcore gamers have never really been shy to try out new and intense gaming experiences. The whole "core vs casual" thing has a lot to do with companies being afraid of new markets and change in general and they are using core gamers to fight this one out. If they would just adapt to the new markets and business models and support Nintendo it would help the industry in general. Sure it would be bad for fans of Sony and Microsoft, I know that and I don't want anybody to feel like they bought a console that doesn't get a lot of support. But in the long term Sony and Microsoft would adapt to the new markets and business models, would rank in way more profit again and developers, too. Thus we, the core gamers, would be getting more games and even better: When you have games everyone can play being a core gamer is not bad anymore but actually cool because other people will look at you in awe and ask you "Heck! How did you just get through world 8? That was awesome!" That's how it was back in the NES days when people thought being a great gamer was pretty cool. Today they'll just look at you and say "well yeah, you're crazy..."

So again what I'm saying is this will help us core gamers to get healthier companies, better and more games and a more socially accepted hobby you can be proud of. Because it IS possible to develop games core gamers and casual gamers can play alike.