Why is buying used games such a big deal nowadays?

[Michael-5]

Darc Requiem said:

Michael-5 said:

I definatly did not see SNES games sell for $60, and I have most of the expensive ones. Chrono Trigger was $50, Earthbound was $50, Tetris was $40....No games on a Nintendo console sold for over $50 until the Wii U, it marked a first for $60 games. The only time a game cost above $50 prior to now on a Nintendo console was if it came with a peripheral like a Super Scope or Wii Fit Board.

The number of debunk studios now, is much less then that in the 80's. You know what happened in the 80's? Games were cheap to produce, so we saw a lot of companies make utter crap, and the consumer just stopped playing. Competition is what makes games better, and there a lot more studios now then ever before, so we need to weed some out. It's sad that major studios like THQ have gone bust, but just like 3DO we will forget about them.

Plus it's not the smaller studios which compain about the used game market, it's mostly EA and Microsoft, and they are on top. EA is just plain greedy with online passes and exclusive rights to NFL, Porsche, etc. If you don't put the pressure on them after they keep making crappy games, then they'll just build a monopoly, and that will drive more studios out of buisness.

Actually SNES and Genesis games with large cartridges often sold for more than $50. The SNES port of SF2 went for $69.99 or more, Phantasy Star IV for Genesis was even more expensive. I remember my brother and I having to rent PSIV because my mother would pay that much for a game. This brings up another point. 

While games have a higher budgets now, the physical production costs are far cheaper now. Cartridgers were $25 or more depending on their capacity. Discs are less than $1 each. Game launches were riskier proposition during the cartridge era. If a publisher ordered 500,000 cartridges and their game sold 100,000 copies, they'd be looking at a 10 million dollar loss. Game publishers are using used games to divert attention away from their mismanagement.

Like what SNES games in particular? I think Donkey Kong Country Competition, and Star Fox Weekend sold for $60 new, and I don't remember SF2 costing that much. Are you talking about the price of the game new, or used years later on eBay?

As for the market, you're 100% right, I forgot about the cost of cartridges.

IMO studios like EA have no right to complain about used games, especially when they block competition by having exclusive rights to NFL, Porsche and such. NFS games nowadays, are crap, and so are a lot of EA games. If you can't make a profit off them, it's because you're making crap, and you shouldn't be. When I read about games which didn't turn a profit, it's 9/10 times a reboot of an old franchise, an old established IP which relied on name to sell, a "clone" of another established game, or just a bad game in general. I never see a good new original game make a loss. Dead Space, Vanquish, Catherine...they all sold meh, and made money.