EA's Strategy to Counter Used Games Sales

[c0rd]

JaggedSac said:

c0rd said:

Eh, Nintendo seems to be doing well in this department. Hell, I just sold Wii Sports, a 3 year old game bundled in every Wii in the west, for $20 2 weeks ago. Kinda shocking.

As for people acting as if second hand customers are doing nothing for EA, I disagree. People always seem to overlook this. The used game sales does have an effect on new games. Buying a copy depletes the used games supply, which effects the demand (the price).

The funny thing is, the people that really get screwed over for this are the new game buyers that end up selling the game. Since the worth goes down if they used their DLC code, people going for the used copies will take this into account and pay less for it.
(I guess this is assuming you're not buying from some crappy place like Gamestop)

Or I could make up an equally plausible situation on the other side of the coin.  People will be less likely to sell their games when they have the possibility of getting extra content down the road.  Now that Mass Effect 2 folks know they are getting some stuff in the coming weeks, they probably will not be selling it before then.  And then after that, EA might announce some more DLC, making people wait even longer.

Well, that sounds more like the PC route, which I don't mind. Most of the PC games I get constantly come out with new patches, content, mods, etc. long after release, so I'd always buy with the assumption of holding onto it forever (who sells PC games anyway?). Then again, they also tend to be online / local multiplayer games...

Still, I don't think the upfront DLC code deal is necessary for this, as it feels like they're unfairly devaluing your copy of the game. Wouldn't the promised content in the future be enough for people to hold out? It just seems like they're trying to screw us over with all this DLC nowadays.