"Fable 3 dev: PC piracy 'less problematic than second-hand sales on the XBox'"

[kane_magus]

This is one of the most asinine things I've heard in quite a while. Mind you, I pretty much agree with him on the rest of it, i.e. the fact that piracy is going to happen no matter what you do to try to stop it (and, yet, they're still trying to stop it by including the worse-than-useless SecuROM in the PC version, go figure), or that if you make a good enough game most people will pay for it (and the ones that won't are already a lost cause regardless). But the off-hand comment about second-hand sales being worse than piracy? What.

The only thing that is problematic about second-hand video game sales is the fact that publishers/developers believe there is something problematic about second-hand video game sales and that they are taking increasingly dubious steps to try to curb them or otherwise recoup their supposed "losses" from them.

Let's say that I buy a car or a TV or a refrigerator or a movie or a light bulb or music CD or a window pane or a book or a bottle of juice or a <insert whatever you want here> and then I use that thing for a day or a week or however long and then decide that I don't need it anymore, so I sell it to my next door neighbor or to a used <whatever> salesman for one-half to three-fourths or more of the original price. This is absolutely no different than me buying a video game and then selling it to Gamestop or whoever a week later.* But the only ones I ever hear being all butthurt about "lost sales" and such are video game publishers/developers. It is ridiculous.

(EDIT)

All of that said, however, I also wouldn't shed a single tear if Gamestop and other big chain stores that specialize in buying used games for a mere pittance and then selling them at near-new prices tanked completely.

(/EDIT)

* - I personally don't do this, as I'm a total pack-rat hoarder when it comes to video games. I actually regret having sold the few games I did sell back in the day. However, I have zero problem with the people who do buy/sell/trade used games.

Comments

[stuckinacave.livejournal.com]

I could be wrong, but I would imagine that used game sales effect a game company more than a used book or car sale.

The main reason is that cars, books, music, and even DVDs all have a "slow burn" effect on them. What I mean by this is that despite used sales existing, months can go buy, or even years, and people will still buy the item new. Harry Potter fame didn't pick up until book 3 or so (and they keep on selling despite being finished). My car, which is a 2006 Mazda 3 was purchased right before the 2007 model came out a year later. My cousin just bought a Doors CD, and although Spaceballs was one of the first DVDs I purchased years ago, it was still plenty of years removed from being on VHS or in the theaters.

However, games are not given the luxury of a slow burn effect. Quite often, after an initial production run, those are the only copies we will ever see and if a majority of them don't sell, even a stable company can go belly-up quiockly. Thanks in part to Digital Distribution (such as GoG) old games are getting a slow burn effect since there's little cost to make them available (I finally bought the Witcher and I can't find that in stores anymore). However, quiet often, games on these services are going towards a license holder and the original game studio sees nothing (as is the case with Septerra Core).

Frankly, I don't think game companies mind if I sell my game to you, or people buying a used game that's 2+ years old. I think they just hate seeing Gamestop and countless other stores making TRUCKLOADS of money by selling a "used game" that's a week old. It's essentially dooming most developers because those are quantifiable lost sales.

[owsf2000.livejournal.com]

They should really stop talking and arguing as if GameStop's retarded policy for used games is the only way used games are bought and sold then.

With respect to this, I blame the gamers themselves. Gamestop sells at those prices because there are hordes of fans that actually buy at those prices. And for many of them, I find this is probably because they've been conditioned to think Used = New in terms of quality. (Given that most "new" games you'll buy at Gamestop are in the EXACT condition as their used games. The only difference is the color of the sales tag and a 5 dollar difference in price.)

[kane-magus.livejournal.com]

(Given that most "new" games you'll buy at Gamestop are in the EXACT condition as their used games. The only difference is the color of the sales tag and a 5 dollar difference in price.)

Yeah, as you say, given the fact that they gut all of their new games these days, there is indeed no difference between the new and used games, except the slightly lower price. (As I've said before, I consider the game to be "used" if it has had the shrink-wrap removed and the disc taken out of the box for any reason, and the fact that they are still selling them as "new" after that is straight up false advertising, in my opinion.)

So yeah, I'll say it again, I wouldn't lose any sleep whatsoever if Gamestop and its ilk were to completely go out of business.