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

[GSZX1337]

I'm surprised no one in the industry [that I know of] has suggested a Net-Flix/Red-Box type agreement. Make a deal with GameStop and maybe some other big retailers to not carry your game used to 28 days.

Good luck getting anyone to agree to that!

"Dear Gamestop,

I noticed recently that you are making money by exploiting my mistakes. Please stop doing that for 28 days and thus lose said revenue to a competitor with whom I will not make this agreement with. In return I give you nothing.

Sincerely,
A bunch of people without a clue who think their product is somehow special"

I see you missed how I said "deal" meaning: $$$$.

[Flake]

Nope I saw it. But let's do some critical thinking:

Game company wants to make more money and the only way they can do this is to get Gamestop to stop making money.

Obviously Gamestop isn't going to go for this unless they receive compensation equal or greater to whatever amount of money they'd be losing.

Game company knows that its biggest day to day sales are always in the first 4 weeks of a games release. Gamestop knows this as well so Gamestop will obviously insist on a large sum of money.

What are the odds, do you think, that the Game companies will actually make any additional revenue off of Gamestop with this deal?

[GSZX1337]

I'm lazy, so I'm just going to say this:

What are the odds, do you think, that the Game companies will actually make any additional revenue off of Gamestop with this deal?

About the same as movie studios and NetFlix coming to a deal.

[flamepanther]

I'm lazy, so I'm just going to say this:

What are the odds, do you think, that the Game companies will actually make any additional revenue off of Gamestop with this deal?

About the same as movie studios and NetFlix coming to a deal.

Sadly, no. Netflix made a deal because they need the studios' perpetual permission to stream movies to their customers. Since Netflix doesn't send their streaming customers the original medium, they are not protected by the right to rent, lend, or resell those movies--a prerogative that GameStop not only enjoys but relies upon for their entire business model. If Netflix was still only renting movies by mail, they would not strike any such deal with movie studios, nor would they need to. This is one more reason the media industry loves the DDL model.

[ATARI800XLfan]

I think greed is a nebulous concept mostly used to put down those who have more stuff than you.

Greed:
"An excessive desire to acquire or possess more than what one needs or deserves, especially with respect to material wealth."

People sometimes misuse the word and may tend to point out greed only when it annoys them, but the word still has clear meaning. It is appropriate in this case. The man wants to make more money by removing an individuals right to resell an item. He wants something that is not his so he can acquire more wealth. It's greed.

Exactly. I am currently taking business and Information systems classes and that is a companies basic motive. To do more with less. To replace or get ride of as many people as possible and make as much money as possible. Though if no companies hire anyone and do everything by robot then not one can afford there products or games. Also it is documented(at least in the college book I am using) that a company is only considered successful if they make a certain percentage more then the previous year no matter what. It also has to be by a good percentage. Sounds like Greed to me.

[Flake]

I'm lazy, so I'm just going to say this:

What are the odds, do you think, that the Game companies will actually make any additional revenue off of Gamestop with this deal?

About the same as movie studios and NetFlix coming to a deal.

Not at all an equivalent example since Gamestop is a company that buys and sells both new and used video game software and Netflix is a company that doesn't buy or sell anything.

The only way game companies can get out of this trap they have created for themselves is to finally admit that there is too much competition in the marketplace to keep their price points artificially high. They are subject to supply and demand just like everyone else. Until they realize that not every game can command the same price that top selling franchises like Halo, Call of Duty, Super Mario, Zelda, etc and start cutting their prices, they will never be able to stop Gamestop from making money off of used sales.

To be honest I find it bizarre that this situation exists in the first place unless the platform holders have somehow mandated a price point for their 3rd party developers. Why anyone would have this kind of unrealistic business model is beyond me.

[TEKTORO]

Something I wonder?

NES era-Was there masses buying mostly new games?
How many games were developed during that era?
When and What was the first used videogame store?
How was the gaming industry before used sales arrive?

[flamepanther]

To do more with less. To replace or get ride of as many people as possible and make as much money as possible. Though if no companies hire anyone and do everything by robot then not one can afford there products or games.

This is literally why we can't have nice things.

[bryan_65]

To do more with less. To replace or get ride of as many people as possible and make as much money as possible. Though if no companies hire anyone and do everything by robot then not one can afford there products or games.

This is literally why we can't have nice things.

Wow your right. It took about 5 to 8 people to make these boxes that I work with. Now it is just me and a machine that I keep up and running, that is at least 5 people with out a job now. The thing I do like about it is that now I am a needed employee and have some job security since I work on the machine. But I do feel bad for those 5 people that need a job.

[TornadoCreator]

Something I wonder?

NES era-Was there masses buying mostly new games?
How many games were developed during that era?
When and What was the first used videogame store?
How was the gaming industry before used sales arrive?

I can help you out here...

NES era-Was there masses buying mostly new games?

No, we either bought new games, bought "discounted" games from last year that didn't sell from the bargin bin, or more likely, we rented games from video rental stores.

How many games were developed during that era?

There where exactly 800 games released for the NES, 318 games released for the Master System, and 73 games released for the Atari 7800 (but it had 2600 backwards compatibility)

Compared to the 2000 games on the PS2, 720 games on the Dreamcast, 966 games on the Xbox, and 640 games on the Gamecube... and this was just last generation. There wasn't anywhere near the same amount of games.

Compared, there where 1191 games in generation three. In the sixth generation there where 4326 games... and I'm only counting console games, not handhelds or PC.

When and What was the first used videogame store?

That would be Electronics Boutique in 1977. It originally sold calculators, digital watches, cameras etc. The started stocking video games, consoles, palmtops, digital organisers and even computers in the 80's but found games where their biggest sellers. They started to focus primarily on games in 1993 but had been accepting used games since 1989. When they became a mainly games company they became EB Games in USA but kept the original name in Europe. They then merged with... guess who GameStop who basically liquidated the company and sold on it's assets, most EB Games stores where closed and Electronics Boutique basically vanished in Europe and no longer exists. In UK Electronics Boutique also offered a rental service for DVDs, Videos and Video Games too, but Blockbusters ended up bigger by the mid 90's.

How was the gaming industry before used sales arrive?

Varied. Speaking for the UK, there where multiple approaches.

The NES tried to enforce quality control and stop any possible renting or used sales by signing exclusivity deals with various companies, only Woolworths and Boots (yes, Boots, as in the Chemist chain), stocked NES and it's games as they where the only ones who had the licence. In the meantime, Master System, Atari 7800 and older systems like Intellevision, Colecovision, Commodore 63 and Amstrad 464, they where all stocked by local electronics shops or VHS/Music chains such as Virgin Media, HMV, Blockbuster and Dixons. Then later in the 90's we got Electronics Boutique, GAME, CeX and Gamestation.

The Commodore 64 let pretty much anyone release a game for it and set the retail prices very low, so there where aprox. 5000 games made but they where often less than £5 in the shops. Master System and Atari games where around the £25 mark, but NES games where £60-70 new and that was just plain rediculous. As you can imagine, in UK the NES was an utter failure and the Master System outsold it by a fair bit.

One other thing that was interesting in UK is newsagents and corner shops used to sell and/or rent Master System, Atari 7800, Mega Drive, SNES (but never NES) and even Jaguar and 32X games behind the counter or in the "back room"... but they also had a limited VHS selection as well, it was common for most corner shops to over limited video rental. They'd get the "Top 20" lists of best selling games and stock only the games from those lists usually. In my experience though, these shops never stocked CD based games, maybe they where too expensive or two easy to scratch.

Well, I hope that answers some of your questions.