Topic: Are second-hand games killing the industry?

My GS still accepted Gamecube games not too long ago and it's a limited edition game, should it might be still worth something.

College? Expensive? We get paid to go... until June, then they take it away. Dam government.

Anyways, I'll buy it if its something I really want (like Zelda, Mario etc.) that I know will be really good and worth the money. But if its something that I can do without for a few months, then I will wait for it to reduce in price. I'd rather save money than spend money on a game that I can get later for a much cheaper price. And in the current money climate, I'm saving my money at the moment.

Which reminds me, I saw Metroid: Other M for 9.99, and it hasn't even be out for a year. Went from 32.99 to 9.99 in a couple months...

But is buying games used ruining the industry? I doubt it, they're still getting their money either way, even if its not via a new game. And bargain games will always sell.

Anyways, I don't think second-hand games are killing the industry because gamers need to buy the games first for there to be second-hand games to begin with

Yeah, this is the truth. The reason games are priced as they are is so the publisher can make a small (let's not make the mistake here to think publishers make much profit at all from individual unit sales) profit on the full price of a game sale. Retailers make around 25% margin on what the publishers sell the game to them for, so when there is discouting it typically comes from the retailer margin.

Publishers themselves only start discounting much later, usually when they need to clear out inventory.

In other words, an "upgrade path" (which is a crazy idea when not applied to sports games anyway - Red Dead does not "upgrade" to LA Noir, the two are as different as Mario and Sonic) would mean a publisher is providing the service at a loss.

I dunno about other people here, but I personally don't want to see EA go out of business so I can save myself $20 on the next Fifa release.

As for EA and their Online Pass Code Stategy. I'm all for it, especially when it's a great game like Need for Speed Hot Pursuit. It didn't hurt my feeling a bit to activate my online pass, and if I grabbed the game used I wouldn't mind paying the extra to play online, not that I would because I don't play too much other than shooters online too often.

Ok, but If you are dealing with a company directly there is no retail mark up. the publisher sells a $60 game to retailers for $40-$45 at launch and a few months later a game drops in price and in a year it can be in a $20 discount bin anyway. $30 trade-in for a customer loyalty program is not unreasonable. A $10 to $15 loss is not unreasonable for a guarantee sale on a new game when released. You can take another $5 off the top of that loss if you include the fact that you won't need to provide a cheap pre-order gift.

Also when I said $30 trade in value I said it as a place holder value. All they have to do Is match the trade in value of the local store and that changed per market. Gamestop in the past said trade in 3 and get one free. that would be $20. Meanwhile here in Winnipeg something change this past year and they can't trade in more then 1 used item for 1 new item so they increased the value of trade-ins.

The L.A. Noire upgrade path was only suggested from the point of view to keep players playing with in the publisher and to encourage people to try new ip at the same time. it can still work.

The less used games still means more new sales. To deal with decreasing value of the game over time they may only offer the game "upgrade path" during the launch period.

I don't think second-hand games are killing the industry any more than second-hand dvd stores are destroying the home video industry, or used bookstores are destroying their market or (going back a bit) used record/cassette/CD shops destroyed the recording industry. There's always been a place for second-hand media sales, regardless of the entertainment medium.

Americans, you can't complain about game prices. New games can cost over $100 here (not that I'm ever dumb enough to buy them, I always import when I can...). America is the cheapest place in the world to buy video games. Check out prices on Amazon for stuff like MGS4 or SSFIV. I can tell you, you wouldn't be able to get those games for under 20 bucks where I live.

You can find almost any game for under $20, after a fairly reasonable amount of time that is. I bought the new Medal of Honor game in December for $10, then traded it in at Futureshop for $40 store credit. I even got a fair bit of playtime out of it and did not care to see it go. You just have to keep your eye out, sometimes hundreds of eyes help

Yes we can. We're Americans. Our number 1 export is complaints.

(rimshot)

Can Canadians complain? We start at the same price as Americans but the prices don't drop as fast. In fact first party Nintendo titles never seem to drop at all. It's kinda funny because you can tell what the strength of the Canadian dollar at the time of launch for games. Twilight princess is still $59.99 where Mario Galaxy is still $49.99 never to change.

Watch me.

PRICES ARE TOO HIGH!!! There, another argument shot down

Wait....Americans can't complain about game prices? To hell with that, $60 is still a lot of money for a game.

That's when it's new and HD. Prices go down quickly there. I've seen USED copies of Super Smash Bros Brawl in EB for $88 over here. Count your blessings.

@Big A2: everything is relative. if you want to start the 'b-b-but it's more expensive heeeeere~' whine-fest, you also have no room to talk, $88 or not -- there's always someplace where things will be far more expensive, and that's even if the people there have the time to think about video games as opposed to basics like food, water, and shelter for the night. Let's all count our blessings we have the luxury to complain about the price of video games at all and continue with the discussion without attempting to silence one another, please.

Very interesting point there Raylax. Are games becoming too costly (or "valuable") to make ends meet? Assuming a high quality title costs multiple millions to produce, it requires a huge amount of sales (thus requiring even more money pumped into marketing) at relatively high prices to break even on the production costs and to keep the middle men happy. When customers are not willing to pay that price for a piece of entertainment and wait for price drops - even though they are savvy enough to recognise the inherent value and quality of the product - does it just end up being a recipe for business disaster?

There is, of course, a limit to how much most people are willing to spend on a game. Even if it's one of the best games ever made people still need to be realistic about their purchases.

On the other hand, and coincidentally, we also have the recent surge in low-priced games distributed digitally such as indie titles, Steam releases and iPhone/iPad games. Very interesting.

Digital download isn't a holy grail solution yet either. You need to have fast broadband and high download allowances, which comes at its own price. I'm running a pretty budget line here, I can download the smaller games on Steam without much issue, but once it's above or around couple of gigabytes' download, I'd have to look for it on a higher-priced retail DVD. You end up in a situation where in order to get things cheaper, you need to have more expendable money in the first place

And the devices where the digital download can be seen at its strongest - smartphones, iPads, high-end computers and games consoles - aren't exactly cheap themselves

Agreed. I'm fortunate enough to have a relatively fast connection with "unlimited" upload and download limits per month without any significant traffic shaping. I've actually downloaded several GB of games from Steam and GOG in the past couple of months with no hitches. I know others aren't so lucky. The ISPs in the UK were appalling. (Except for ADSL24. If you have access to them I highly recommend them.)

What's fortunate is that a lot of these "budget"/"indie" digital PC titles are relatively small downloads, often hundreds of megabytes or less. They usually don't require powerful hardware to run either.

As for the portable devices - they're entirely optional. I don't have any besides my DSi. There's no logic in buying an iPad or whatever in order to save money, lol. You have the high up-front cost of the device and then you have the App Store or whatever in your face telling you to buy even more stuff. Sheesh.