Publishers and their used games gripes.

[Flake]

You want to know what I can't stand? Stories like this.

But don't bother clicking that link; I'll save you some time.

"It's not fair that gamestop makes money and doesn't give us money for the business it does."

Nothing irks me more than when a publisher or developer gets up in arms about used game sales. It's like they pretend that video games are in some special protected armpit of capitalism where people shouldn't retain the same rights they have with ANYTHING else they purchase. If I sell you my microwave does General Electric whine about not getting to double-dip? NO, they don't.

I'm not going to defend Gamestop (or any other Mega Games Inc chain) in their business practices, their pricing, their marketing decisions, or their tendency to buy out the competition. I WILL defend their right to make money as a business, though.

If developers and publishers can't stand the idea of people re-selling their games, they need to do one of two things:

1) Digital Distribution only

2) Get the hell out of the business and make room for others

/rant

[slowslow325]

That story sucked. Don't all used games stores not give money back. Even just minor ones. Why not complain about those?

I mean, let's think how many times an NES game could be resold in its lifetime. Game stores could STILL be giving money back to a developer that isn't there anymore. Like Wisdom Tree or LJN.

[jfrost]

Movie distributors at least have elected torrent to blame for their declining profits.

Video game companies know how to pick their battles, on the other hand: they choose to fight a perfectly legal and extremely beneficial activity to consumers that is practiced throughout the world since time immemorial.

[AppleQueso]

Well if game publishers would revise their pricing scheme then folks might have less incentive to buy used, hmm?

[Barry the Nomad]

I always have to laugh when I see these articles, as I have no idea WHY they complain. No other product is put into question when secondhand sales come up, as of course if one buys a product NEW they have every right to resell it USED for their own profit. So why exactly does a video game become the exception?

The one factor I can think of is online play and server costs, so why not just use a passcode system like Phantasy Star Online did on the Dreamcast or what EA is considering?

Beyond that element, games should be sold used just as anything else.

[BigTinz]

What an asshole. He's leaving out the part where the game being traded in was originally purchased for $60. They've made their money...

Good point about the microwave..

[jfrost]

Most games are P2P nowadays, aren't they? Publishers don't even have server costs.

[t0yrobo]

Yup blame the consumer for your problems, genius. These truly are the greatest business minds of our generation.

[Frag Mortuus]

To justify the Developers stand point: If more customers were to buy a new copy of, lets say, Okami; then Clover may have been able to keep their studio open. Instead they had to shut down. Now the gaming community has lost one of its most promising developers.

To justify the customers stand point: Its my game, I should be able to do with it what I want. Enough said. Its your property, you can decide what you want to do with it.

HOWEVER, I think Gamestop is an evil, evil corporation. They buy your games back for pennies on the dollar and sell them at a 1000% markup, they pay their employees crap wages, they harass their customers by offering them any thing and everthing they can think of at checkout to make your ring amount higher. They pester you to death for a reserve. They wont shut up about that shitty Game Informer magazine and the bullshit 10% discount card. I really really hate them.

I actually hate most corporations (i.e. Walmart, Gamestop, etc) because they pay their employees sub-standard wages and offer them a bit of a discount on merchandise to entice them to spend their paychecks at their stores. They win twice: Once with cheap labor, and twice with someone to buy their merchandise.

I think that the mega stores like GS and Play n Trade should be required to give some cash back to the developer. Actually I think that if a certain percentage of your products sold are used games (say 75%) then you should be required to give a little back to the developers. This will do two things: 1. Give fledgling developers more revenue to continue making games that we all love and 2. Hopefully drive business to the smaller mom and pop independent stores and help them to grow their business.

Now, Im not one to have the government tell people where to put their profits (except for taxes to support the people), but I think that profiting off of someone elses work is scum bagish.

[noiseredux]

HOWEVER, I think Gamestop is an evil, evil corporation.

to quote Luke: we already have a http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 83&start=0 for that.