Hey sweet that’s the BT games store close to my place. Anyway I have a right to sell anything I own (except my sexy body :happy: ) to anybody I choose and likewise, I have the right to buy anything I want from whomever I choose (legally of course) ,it’s called capitalism.

I provide an extract from an article featured on Arstechnica earlier this week. I think it summarises what exactly developers feel on the matter. The feature was written by Ben Kuchera.

“In a literal way, when you purchase a game used, you are not a customer of theirs,” Penny Arcade’s Jerry Holkins wrote today. “If I am purchasing games in order to reward their creators, and to ensure that more of these ingenious contraptions are produced, I honestly can’t figure out how buying a used game was any better than piracy. From the the perspective of a developer, they are almost certainly synonymous.”

I think we should all understand that this is not a new topic and developers have been trying to get rid of the second-hand market since the mid-90s. Part of the problem is that they feel the only people making money are the second-hand dealers. I think if your dealers had some backbone, they would have taken this matter up with the courts.

You’ll find that the future of games will be in a similar vein to Starcraft 2. You’ll buy an account, there will be no box or disk tho. Most game companies are not making money and for them to keep making killer games they’ll need to get inventive in cutting costs, and of course restricting 2nd hand sales. Games will not be like Cars, they will be like Licenses. Creating a game which is able to be resold will be a competitive advantage for some companies and they’ll stick with it, others not.

That’s the other side of the coin, since many gamers actually “seed” their next game purchase by selling their older games (or even trading them in). Logically if the second hand game market were to collapse, because of pressure from greedy game publishers; it would actually means that there would be less new games sales in the long run.

The Folks on the Forum: “Say what Former Bobby Kotick??
”
James: “Yes… now read my hastily produced explanation…”

In addition, penny-pinching gamers will not only buy fewer games, but if they’re savvy enough, they’ll wait for titles to drop in price, which incidentally would happen sooner…

If we consider basic economics, i.e. supply and demand, without a second-hand market, new game titles will actually see a (rapid) price reduction sooner, rather than later, given the inevitable drop in demand*, which in the long run actually works out worse for the publishers.

*Of course you will have AAA titles that will sell like hotcakes, but the situation will be even more dire for say the developers of My Little Pony or other assorted examples of shovelware.

Cough! These guys should hire me ASAP!

Game values depreciate based on popularity….

A succesful gaming industry is vital if we want to have games of a high standard on a consistent basis.
But stimulate new game sales rather than trying to punish second hand buyers.

1. Give decent value added content to people who buy the game new. Im not talking about gold plated pistols and other such rubbish but actual added content exclusive to people who buy the game off the shelf.

2. Good DLC at affordable prices that make you want to hang on to the game for a bit longer.

3. Make the second hand market less lucrative by releasing platinum titles sooner after release.So After month 1 lower the price to R300. This will lower the 2nd hand price of games and as such lower the incentive to sell games in the first place