My stance on used games

[SilverWarior]

The problem is that developers doesn't earn anything from used games infact it causes them losses.
Take next example:
Some person buys new game for 30$ and plays it for about month. The he sels that game to used game store for lets say 5$.
This store now sels this game to some other person for 20$.. This person then playes this game for about a month and sels it back to the store for 5%
The store sels this game again to another person for 20$. This can go on and on. And everytime the game gets resold developers lose potential ernings.

So should be selling of used games banned or not? On my opinion it shouldn't be generalized for everyone. I think tghat best solution would be that developers themself decide wheter the game could be lately sold to another person or not. You can simply state this in EULA (End User Licence Agreement). For instance just take a look at Windows EULA. From what I know the only way for a Windows coppy to change the owner is through inheritage. You can't sell it, you can't lend it, heck you cant even install it on another computer after it has been already activated. Maybe through some deactivation process I'm not sure.


As for in general I think that game developers should lower the prices of most of their games especially big gaming houses.
Who is prepared to pay 60$ or even 70$ for one game which he might turn it ower in a weak. If your game doesn't have much replayability it is "crime" to put such high prices. In such case I rather wait a year or two for prices to drop or even to get the ability to buy game second hand if the comany selling the game still insists with to big prices for to long.

Now I understand that it is hard to sell some game for small price especially if you spent a lot of money developing it. But to high prices only increase priacy of such games.
Why Indie comunity thrives so much lately? Mostly becouse Indy developers provide their games at reasonable prices. ANd the price of Indie games actually reflects the replayability value of the game and not how nice graphics and how many special effects the game has as it is with most AAA games.

[Darkhog]

Potential sales? Oh please... If they can't afford to buy retail version, they wouldn't buy it anyway. Buying used game is better than pirating it (which by the way will increase when you can't buy used game and can't afford retail price). Dev won't get money anyway and it'll just hurt them in the long run.

This tactic is very short-sighted. If I'd want to buy console (which I don't have money for as I'm facing foreclosure) I'd choose Wii U. Not only because I love Mario games, but also because Nintendo seems happy to let players sell their own games or transfer ownership when they don't play them anymore. Otherwise they'd stop used Wii games ecosystem long time ago.

I personally, when I'll develop game for sale will release it on Torrents (besides demo version on site or paid option) and without any "funny" business like Game Dev Story fake. If my game is any good, people will buy it anyways. If not - well sucks to be me, but I won't never, I say NEVER blame piracy for that. Only my own incompetence as developer.

[User137]

I personally, when I'll develop game for sale will release it on Torrents (besides demo version on site or paid option) and without any "funny" business like Game Dev Story fake. If my game is any good, people will buy it anyways. If not - well sucks to be me, but I won't never, I say NEVER blame piracy for that. Only my own incompetence as developer.

That's inspiring idea actually. There's way too many people who still believe that piracy is away from developers wallets, when it's actually the opposite. It is a method of free advertising and fanbase increase. Especially if you willingly allow piratism and let public know, it would multiply the effects.

[User137]

I thought it was on topic, that Microsoft reversed their thinking for Xbox One
http://www.techradar.com/news/gaming...-today-1160205
They propably received too much negative feedback from players, and bended to their will, to keep even some credibility. It seemed that PS4 would win the "console wars" otherwise, with their nonrestricted playing and trading.

[Darkhog]

Yup, they did, but they still sucks for indie devs (and devs in general). PS4 is still way to go.

[pstudio]

As I see it, prohibiting second hand sale or putting a fee on it is just a sign of how unhealthy the AAA market is. Way too many money is put into way too many (at best) mediocre games. Second hand sale is not the reason why these games don't sell well. It's because gamers are bombarded with all these average games that offers nothing new but yet cost $ 50+. It's limited how much mony gamers can/will spend on these games when they just get more of the same. The few AAA titles a year that really excels or have a big following usally don't have much problems with second hand sales.
However second hand sale may actually improve sales in a few cases. Gamers may pick up a game cheap they otherwise wouldn't buy. If they then like it they may spend money on DLC or on future games from that developer.

SilverWarior is on to something. AAA developers should look at the indie scene. Personally I've really only bought indie games on Steam for the last year. Why? Because they're cheap reasonly priced and they offer me novel entertainment. A buddy of mine is all excited about GTA 5 and is talking about it to me all the time. He has a hard time understanding why I ain't all hyped over it just like him (after all I study games on an academic level) but as I see it it's just another game with better graphics, bigger world, and generally just better of everything. That's fine I suppose but personally I can't see what's new? It's just more of the same.

AAA developers put way too much money into their games considering that they rarely offer anything new in their games. Yet the reason they don't experiement with new stuff is because they put so much money into development and will rather play it safe and stay with the old recipe. It's not good enough IMO and considering most AAA games don't even break even I guess I'm not alone in thinking that. The AAA industry should look inwards instead of blaming second hand sale and other things on their poor sales. That industry is in need of a revolution and a new way of doing their business.

Another issue about them forbidding second sale or asking for menoy again is that I doubt it would even be legal for them to do that. The EU recently made it clear that it is legal to sell digital software second hand (in the EU). You bought it once; it is yours to sell again if you wish to do so. I will expect the EU to do something if Microsoft or whoever makes second hand sales impossible or put a fee on it.

[Darkhog]

http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Top...try-40569.html