Joelcool7 said:
Problem is it is broken, when a perfectly good high quality title loses money when it should have at least broken even you know there is something wrong with the way the industry works. Psychonaughts is a perfect example the game was easily a higher quality title then the majority of software from other publishers and even first parties. Yet the game failed to break even, there is no excuse for its failure other then their is something wrong with the industry. Especially when I know the title was selling very well used at EBGames. As for the loss of some upset customers, honestly the loss is not enough to justify not cracking down. Sorry Galaki but software sales for EAGames titles have grown since they implemented these forceful measures! Proving either a ton of people just magically realized how great EA titles are or there recent measures to boost sales are in fact working. It would appear what ever customers did leave EA more were brought in. Also the only reason you can avoid EA is because other publishers haven't taken these measures. UbiSoft began taking similar action to fight pirates and they too haven't seen a huge hit if any. In the end you will not stop buying games if these measures are introduced across the board by every publisher. In the end gamers will still buy the games and the benefits of eliminating the used game sales out weigh the cons. I have plenty of ideas that could reduce used game sales while barely effecting the consumer. The first is to have the title only playable on five different units. This would allow the consumer to lend his copy out a few times but prevent him from selling it used through GameStop. After it has been used one five different consoles a demo version is playable on all future units. Meaning the sixth person to borrow the game could indeed play the game just not the whole thing. This would drive that consumer to purchase the full game once he has a chance. Then there is the finances argument. That argument doesn't fly with me, I make so little money yet I still buy a new game every month or so. I know of many gamers who still buy brand new games each month despite being on poverty level incomes. Then say you are thrifty well game retail prices drop in most cases within a year of launch, often games drop as low as 39.99$ by the end of the first year, if you include Black Friday and Boxing Day sales then poor and low income consumers can still buy all the great new games and probably cheaper then they could used in the first place. The price difference for a used title is usually only 5-10$ if someone wants the game badly enough to buy it used then they want it badly enough to spend the extra ten bucks. As I said they could also go on BlackFriday or Boxing Day and get the games brand new cheaper then they sell used.
If publishers had another option they would take it, but GameStop/EBGames controls the industry and without their support the publisher will lose out big time. Not to mention as I said GameStop wouldn't stop selling the game used so it would accomplish absolutely nothing for the publisher! Also the only way this harms their games in the eyes of the consumer is because the consumer can choose to support a publisher who does not crack down. However with UbiSoft and EA both starting to crack down Activision is next and all the other publishers will begin to do so as well. It isn't smart business to allow used sales and lending to cut into potential sales. |
1) You say Gamestop/EBGames rules the market, but most of their profits come from used game sales. You eliminate that from them and they start to lose money, then they ultimately decide to withdraw from the market, thus having one less option for publishers to sell games (which is definitely their biggest market in the US).
2) Psychonauts sold poorly because of the used game market and lending? Just because the used copies were selling well at one Gamestop, doesn't mean all the stores saw increased sales of used copies. Maybe there was a lack of advertising? There are many factors for a game not selling well besides the used market.
3) Having a new copy of the game only usable on up to five systems? Let's say it's a very popular local multiplayer game and the person who owns the game has more than 4 friends. They take turns going over each others' houses and all five chances are used. Now, two of those people have their systems broken down and they buy new systems. Now, they can't play that game on their new systems because the five chances are already used.
