By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Sales Discussion - Quantic Dream - €10 million lost from second hand Heavy Rain sales

Jereel Hunter on 15 September 2011
thekitchensink said:
Jereel Hunter said:
thekitchensink said:
Brainslug said:

This is also lost revenue do to us evil customers lending our games to our friends - how dare people not pay them to lend their games to their friends! --



You, sir, officially have more sense than this guy.  And I suppose if multiple people in the same household want to play the game, he'd like them all to buy their own copy?

By the way, somehow the book, furniture, and toy industries (along with pretty much every other one) has survived for thousands of years despite people having the audacity to *gasp* SELL SOMETHING THEY OWN!

This isn't a fair comparison, as physical products are very different. If you have a couch, or a toy, it's worn and used when you sell it. You are buying what's left in it's usefulness and lifespan. When I give my old couch to someone who just moves out, they are getting an old couch to use for a year or two until they can afford to buy one.

Sell a used game, and person #2 can get the full value from it. $60 game, still a $60, for less than $60. So can person 3, 4, and 5 if the game is traded in and resold later on.

Also, I can get a really nice couch from a quality store for $2000 and it'll still look great after 5 years, or I can get a cheap $300 couch from a discount furniture store. The $2000 couch store got paid for their quality product. If one o fthese games had a $10 Million budget, or a $50 Million budget, they have to sell it for the same $60. So the fact that it will continue to sell and resell in the used games market, with almost no advantage of buying a new copy (vs a VERY clear and huge advantage of buying a new couch) gives them valid reason to be unhappy.

Not true--a used video game has just as much potential to be damaged or otherwise not in perfect condition as ay other item.  What if the disc is scratched?  What if the logo is completely faded?  Or in this day and age, what if the DRM that allows it to be installed on five computers only has one of those left?  There are plenty of ways in which a used video game can be worth less than its new counterpart.

By the way, I never saw the games industry complain about used sales until this generation, when they gained the ability to watch and scrutinize us, Big Brother-style.  Just sayin'...

Video games get lost or scratched due to misuse. Take care of them, and most of them never use their value. And computer games are not the discussion, as they generally use CD keys and what-not. I don't know of major retailers dealing in used computer games. used game sales in this topic are about console games, which, assuming you don't use the discs as coasters, can be used by person after person to full effect.

I don't think the ability to watch us is what lead to the problem though, it's budgets. Nowadays, games cost the same, but top tier games cost substantially more to make than they did last generation. When your budget goes up by 500%, suddenly a bunch of people making money off of your hard work becomes more of an issue. I mean, there are games that barely break even, but have been sold and resold many times via used sales, killing their profitability.



Around the Network
nitekrawler1285 on 19 September 2011

Make a game people want to keep playing. What a douche.



scottie on 20 September 2011

Probably should have made the game longer, and with more replay value then...

 

Edit - this guy also falls into the same category as those who claim that if people didn't pirate, they would have purchased everythign that they did pirate. For every game bought 2nd hand, there must have been a person who sold it. The person who sold it thus has more money to spend on other games. If you stop the sale of 2nd hand games, then you effectively raise the price of new games, thus lowering sales.

 

Additionally, if game retailers couldn't sell 2nd hand games, then they would have to raise their margin on new games in order to stay in business, further raising the price of games (or lowering margins for devs) and thus lowering sales.

 

The truth is generally not as simple as those with vested interests make it out to be.



Untamoi on 21 September 2011

Well, if you have a physical product you should deal with second-hand just like every other industry. If you don't allow second-hand then you should say you are renting games. Because a product you can't sell further is always a rental, even if rental is life-time (which is why I call digital sales as rentals). And because you are losing resale value, they should drop their prices.

I don't buy second-hand games but I practically never buy games (or DVD's) at full price either. With almost all games I wait until they are on sale. Most games are just not worth full price so I wait until price is dropped. That also hurts developers and retailers...