Whelp, another reason to boycott Capcom.

[Hatta]

Just remember that when the only way to get new games becomes non-transferable direct downloads, because that's the clear-cut way to make money on every copy sold.

The more they tighten their grip, the more star systems will slip through their fingers. Or to use a more classical reference, this is killing the goose that laid the golden egg. They'll lose more customers to bad business practices than they will to 2nd hand sales. Hell, all this approach will do is inflate demand for older games that are not defective by design.

Just like textbooks are starting to include one-use codes for time-limited online content. At least for college textbooks (keeping in mind a friend of mine is a textbook buyer for a bookstore). That and, as mentioned, they make new revisions purely to force new sales.

Textbooks are an utterly corrupt business through and through. Your core subjects don't change that frequently. You have a captive audience and they just crank out the revisions for no good reason but milking it. Frequently the professors who write the things don't even get anything out of it.

There's no reason textbooks should even be a business. Professors should write their own lecture notes as a part of their teaching duties. Then share that on the web. With collaboration, you get text book quality learning material that's up to date and vetted by the people actually working in the field. All for free, with no extra work on the part of professors, and absolutely no reason to keep the middlemen (publishers) in business.


I'm not even going to touch the issue of grade school textbooks. That process is not just financially corrupt but ideologically corrupt as well.

[isiolia]

The more they tighten their grip, the more star systems will slip through their fingers. Or to use a more classical reference, this is killing the goose that laid the golden egg. They'll lose more customers to bad business practices than they will to 2nd hand sales. Hell, all this approach will do is inflate demand for older games that are not defective by design.

Yes, it's worked so badly for Steam (or iTunes/App Store) that nobody else is even considering the model. Realistically, the only thing stopping it from being the norm is the state of broadband internet.

Textbooks are an utterly corrupt business through and through. Your core subjects don't change that frequently. You have a captive audience and they just crank out the revisions for no good reason but milking it. Frequently the professors who write the things don't even get anything out of it.

There's no reason textbooks should even be a business. Professors should write their own lecture notes as a part of their teaching duties. Then share that on the web. With collaboration, you get text book quality learning material that's up to date and vetted by the people actually working in the field. All for free, with no extra work on the part of professors, and absolutely no reason to keep the middlemen (publishers) in business.


I'm not even going to touch the issue of grade school textbooks. That process is not just financially corrupt but ideologically corrupt as well.

Well, it's a whole 'nother ball of wax. The larger point was that it's another industry where used sales are being combated. Again, most likely due to the model that the retail stores have adopted (at least for college stuff). Sell textbook for $100, buy back for $25, sell used for $90...sound familiar?

[KDub]

This piracy is better than reselling argument....really? There is no doubt that the industry takes a hit. Unlike movies there is no point when the public can go play the game at a theater or something and pay a retarded fee for a an hour and a half viewing. But to say reselling games is worse than piracy makes little to no sense. Crunch whatever numbers you want that you feel makes up the average but one person buying the game and that game getting passed of as used once (maybe twice) during the peak selling point for that game compared to one guy paying nothing then passing it off to 6 of his friends who also pay nothing....

I almost forgot to respond to this post. You're ignoring a VERY key distinction between pirates and used game customers. The vast majority of people who pirate a game do so because they didn't want to pay for it. The vast majority of people who buy used games want to pay for it, they just don't want to pay quite so much. With used games there is money being exchanged for the game, but instead of going to the developer it's going to a third party. That's a lost sale. Most piracy is not lost sales because the people involved weren't going to purchase it any way. The decision was between not playing the game and playing the game for free.

This is seriously the most flawed argument ever. I've seen it a million times and it is pure 100% bullshit. It is just people who pirate everything making up an excuse of why they aren't stealing. You can not argue that because someone got something for free that they would of never had the interest to buy the product. I'd argue the opposite actually that, going back to my small scenario, if one of those 6 people that shared the same game couldn't of gotten the game so easily at least one or two of them would of went out and bought it if they wanted the game.

But who knows really. But to say piracy shouldn't be counted as a lost sale is incorrect. You may not be able to count them all but you can't toss them out either.
I'm sure there have been many conversations like
"Hey, what are doing today?"
"Nothing just running to the store to get the new *Insert Generic Game here*, I'm really excited"
"Hey! I just downloaded that last night it was cracked at launch. Just come over and I'll burn it for you and we can play a few rounds."
"Awesome!"

But down to the grit of this situation. This is a full rip off from Capcom; even people who payed full price can't enjoy the game to its fullest more then once.

[DinnerX]

I don't think any company in any industry should make products with added restrictions designed to hurt the products resale value or restrict the consumers use of the product. It is an attack on my basic rights to buy, sell, and use things.

For some products there are large natural downsides on buying used. For some there aren't many. If you want to make products that don't have many natural downsides to buying used, please don't complain about it. If you just can't stand it change industries I guess.

[J T]

There's no reason textbooks should even be a business. Professors should write their own lecture notes as a part of their teaching duties. Then share that on the web. All for free

with no extra work on the part of professors

These statements don't go together.

[ZeroAX]

Am I the only one who thinks that the biggest part of the problem is that consumers are stupid enough to sell the games they bought for much less in only a small amount of time (meaning them bringing it back to gamestop 2-3 weeks after release), and then buy from the same retailer used games for only 5$ less than the new copy, when they know the retailer bought the used game for a lot less from another consumer?

Seriously, I'd take the option of the new game any day, if the difference is only 5$. And gamers should sell their games online, or trade them between them, and not take them to stores which take advantage of them. At least that's what we do in Greece. And that's why used game stores are usually filled with crappy games, that nobody could find someone to trade with him, so they took it to the stores which accept everything (and their used games section is full of FIFA, NBA and PES )

[Erik_Twice]

There's no reason textbooks should even be a business. Professors should write their own lecture notes as a part of their teaching duties. Then share that on the web. All for free

with no extra work on the part of professors

These statements don't go together.

How come not?

1) They should already write their own lecture notes and share them in the web
2) Since they are already doing it, there's no change, hence no extra work.


@ZeroAX

This man speaks the truth. Really, you have to be kind of dumb to pay so much for a game and then sell it so fast and for so little! That or the game sucks, meaning you shouldn't have bough it in the first place.

[gtmtnbiker]

Am I the only one who thinks that the biggest part of the problem is that consumers are stupid enough to sell the games they bought for much less in only a small amount of time (meaning them bringing it back to gamestop 2-3 weeks after release), and then buy from the same retailer used games for only 5$ less than the new copy, when they know the retailer bought the used game for a lot less from another consumer?

People are willing to pay for convenience. Trying to sell on their own can be a hassle. Let's say that you buy the latest game for $50. You play it for 2 weeks and then you trade it into Gamestop for $30 (is $30 a realistic trade-in value for a pretty new game?). So it's $20 to "rent" the game for 2 weeks. Yeah, you could try to do a private sale to get $10 more but is it worth the hassle?

[dsheinem]

There's no reason textbooks should even be a business. Professors should write their own lecture notes as a part of their teaching duties. Then share that on the web. All for free

with no extra work on the part of professors

These statements don't go together.

How come not?

1) They should already write their own lecture notes and share them in the web
2) Since they are already doing it, there's no change, hence no extra work.

a lecture ≠ textbook chapter, and not all classes are lecture-based

I am also not a big fan of putting lecture notes online since they are a poor substitute for being in class.

[flamepanther]

a lecture ≠ textbook chapter, and not all classes are lecture-based

I am also not a big fan of putting lecture notes online since they are a poor substitute for being in class.

I agree with you on the first line. However, lecture notes should be used as a supplement to attending class--something to refer back to as a study aid. If a student deliberately skips class and tries to use the lecture notes as a substitute, any poor results are that student's fault.