Developer calling Used game sales #1 issue in the industry..

[Hazerd]

Heavy Rain dev says used sales cost studio millions

HEY Guillaume de Fondaumiere! FUCK YOU!

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6333786.html

i swear im done gaming when it all goes to digital sales.

[Gamerforlife]

He's not entirely wrong, though he sounds like a whiner in that article. I don't know what it is, but it just annoys me hearing people complain about their products not making enough money. That whole, "playing my game without giving me a cent" just sounds so douchy. And who the hell actually tracks gaming trophies? Wow

There's a time when I would have laughed at people making such a big deal about used gaming, but Gamestop really does push this used game thing pretty hard and they do seem to have damn, near a monopoly on gaming sales these days. I don't know if it's so much used gaming hurting developers as it is GAMESTOP hurting them. I mean they practically shove used games down your throat when you try to buy something. "We have it used. You can get a discount with your card too". Hell, they make you feel like you might as well buy used when you try to get a new game and they just give you an already opened copy anyway

I say stop bitching about the "used game industry" and start complaining about GAMESTOP. They've taken what once wasn't much of a problem and MADE it into a problem

As a consumer though, I like having the option of buying used games. I don't like Gamestop though, but there are other places you can buy used games too. They don't push it so damn hard though. It's just an option if you want it. Gamestop has made it their mission to make people buy used though and I think used game sales have gone up a lot over the past few years specifically because of them. There was a time when developers didn't really care so much about used game sales and we, as consumers, were happy to have that cheaper option always available to us. Gamestop really changed the game though

[Hobie-wan]

Whee, none of those people that rented the game or played their friends to try it out bought it either. Oh no!

Seriously, you sold 2 million copies, go cry in a corner why don't you?

[BurningDoom]

I say stop whining all together. You don't hear the movie industry, music industry, novel industry, or comic book industries whining about used sales, do you? And all those things have secondary, used markets. That's the nature of selling anything that's non-perishable, it can be sold second hand.

They sound like a bunch of whiners blaming their low sales on this and asking us to feel sorry for them because of it. Well as far as I'm concerned if you have low sales then that means you need to make a better game, and/or lower costs on production.

[DinnerX]

I hate it when companies about used game sales and other practices they view as some kind of bizarre immorality. "Secondhand gaming" is a new one to me. Is he trying to make us look like smokers or what?

Some days I think if companies had their way we'd all have chips implanted in our brains the minute we were born preventing us from enjoying any snippet of copyrighted material until we paid for it. And we'd only get so much enjoyment before we'd have to pay again...and again...and again. Of course they couldn't let you really remember the material either. Just enough fuzzy memories to pay again. Gotta protect them "rights" ya know.

[Flake]

Hmmmmm...practically every new game at retail costs $50 on the Wii and $60 on the PS3 and Xbox360....regardless of whether the game warrants that price or not....

The industry created this situation. Developers release big budget, high profile games one after another after another after another, often times multiple huge games all crammed into one month. Then the next month happens. The month after that. The month after that.

Who the hell can afford this? What does this dipshit think his target demographic is? Are all gamers supposed to be Rockefellers?

Two solutions for this guy:

Solution A: Lower the price on most games thereby undercutting gamestops used game market

Solution B: Get out of the business if you cannot compete and make room for those who can. A company's success should come on the strength of its product and its ability to market it.

[Gamerforlife]

To be fair, he did acknowledge that game prices are a bit too high

I'm not getting too angry at him, because I can kind of see how used gaming actually IS a problem in this day and age. Not only with Gamestop pushing it so hard for their millions and millions of consumers, but also with every game being roughly 100 dollars when you factor in all of the DLC. That makes people buy used or wait for price drops

Now, we can point a finger at developers for this BS with DLC, but I imagine it's the publishers pushing this kind of thing.

Don't get me wrong though. I don't want used gaming to go away because I lose an option as a consumer, but I can kind of see both sides of this the more I think about it. I think what once probably took away a small amount of sales from developers is now taking away a huge chunk due to Gamestop pushing used gaming so hard, as well as this whole stupid DLC crap that is the norm now and days and makes people not want to buy new just so they have enough money to pay for THE REST OF THE GAME, which comes in the form of DLC. I think publishers should consider how much money they LOSE by making games so expensive now, particularly when you factor in DLC

The Gamestop thing on the other hand, don't think anything can be done about that.

[Flake]

I'm not going to hold it against Gamestop for seeing an opportunity to make money and saying to itself "Gee, what's the best way to pay the bills, make payroll, please the investors, and have some profit?".

Gamestop isn't the disease, it's a symptom. People forget that there was a time when there was no baseline for how much a game cost. The trusty old supply and demand chart was used to assess what the correct amount to charge was.

But in the late 90's and early 2000's this went away and this artificial baseline pricing scheme came into use where all games received the same MSRP no matter what the demand was.

It smacks of pride that companies will complain that prices are too high for every game EXCEPT FOR THEIR OWN, which is essentially what the dipshit in question is doing.

Heavy Rain? Sorry, dude. No brand name recognition. From a company most people have never heard of. Be glad you sold as well as you did. Most developers would sell their souls to have gotten that many sales with a brand new IP. But I betcha if they'd lopped even $10 off that price, a LOT of money would have found its way into the publisher and developers pockets instead of gamestops coffers.

[flamepanther]

You don't hear the movie industry, music industry, novel industry, or comic book industries whining about used sales, do you?

Yes.

Actually, it used to be a lot more common for those industries to complain about used sales. Book publishers have tried a few times to ban public libraries. However, these industries have had more time to get used to it and give up on fighting it.

[neilencio]

make more games that have a lot of replay value, a lot of people wouldn't be selling their games if they still had use for it.