Those free market economists and their euphemisms; such a wheeze. The one that hoodwinks everyone is ‘free market’, because it actually means ‘closed market’. A ‘closed market’, where you’re fed misinformation, propaganda, and lies is a much safer bet. And it’s why the ‘industry’ is out to kill second-hand games.
Growing out of the monster of over-priced games, the second-hand market serves a purpose for the consumer. Pre-owned shelf space matches or surpasses the space for new games in many shops. Imagine that, you have a choice.
Buy your cellophane wrapped new game or spend less and get your almost-exactly-the-same game sans cellophane. And once you’ve played, take the game back and trade. It’s what happens when consumers grow tired of paying more than a product is worth.
And it’s when publishers start to turn on the waterworks, complaining that the second-hand market is killing the industry. If it is, it’s doing it in the same way that piracy is killing the industry and preventing great games like MGS4, GTAIV, and LBP from being made.
If the industry is dying at the hands of a consumer-led revolt to pay less, you’ve got to understand that the people killing the industry aren’t the consumers. It’s the same people complaining about the second-hand market that are killing the industry, because they are the ones that created that market.
And that’s why they don’t want you to be free to choose, because it’s too dangerous. GAME et al are making money they should be making and they don’t like it. Cue propaganda to persuade you this is bad, cue a step towards a ‘closed market’.
Until they wake up and realise the thorn in their side is from their own shit-smelling rose, take advantage.
The views expressed here are those of therealcelshady and not of TSA. therealcelshady can be contacted at therealcelshady@thesixthaxis.com
November 17th, 2008 at 10:54 am
Oh yes, of course, despite preowned games been going for easily over a decade, NOW they’re killing the industry.
November 17th, 2008 at 11:01 am
in my experience pre owned games smell of cigarette smoke.. and have damaged tatty instructions and cases.. Buying new FTW.. nothing like ripping of the new cellophane.. i never trade in games either.. what if i wanted to play it again??…..
Gamoc Says:
November 17th, 2008 at 11:08 am
Whilst I prefer buying new, you must have had absolutely horrible luck getting preowned games, mine are always in perfect condition.
I simply can’t afford to buy everything new - when I buy preowned I tend to have to trade stuff in for that. Must get a job!
November 17th, 2008 at 11:02 am
I don’t get it. When I buy games, I buy them to fill my “library”, I don’t sell them off, no matter how much I disliked it. I want a huge library of games, something that suits everyone.
And I do not buy used games. I do not know why, it’s just something about someone touching it before you. I like mine clean.
RocketSOL Says:
November 17th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
i totally agree. i dont like buying used games either and ive never sold a game. well, ive traded in 3 games and i wish i hadnt done that becuase i have an urge to play them again. Kane and Lynch, UT3 and Medal of Honout Airborne were the ones i got rid of, but i want to play them again!
andytorr Says:
November 17th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
I totally agree. Used games are cursed with that cheap, dirty word ‘used’. Who knows what people have done with them.
But nothing beats a giant stack of games!
Pingu Says:
November 18th, 2008 at 7:38 am
I know, it’s something about the word “used” that’s not good. And you don’t get to smell inside the cover when you get it new (which has become a tradition on my part). It actually smells good when newly opened.
That’s why I didn’t open both Fallout 3 and Endwar yesterday, I started with Fallout 3, and saved the second sniff ’til I’ll play Endwar.
November 17th, 2008 at 11:16 am
I have over 20 games for my ps3 and the only one I paid full price for was GTAIV. I seem to spend all my time scouring ebay, play, amazon and any sites who are doing special offers.
Until the UK price point drops a bit I will continue to do the same!
Cheap games FTW!
Eldave0 Says:
November 17th, 2008 at 11:33 am
“Until the UK price point drops a bit I will continue to do the same!
Cheap games FTW! ”
hear hear! (or is it “here here”? cant remember…)
I only ever have a couple of games in my collection at any time simply because the price of new games is so stupidly expensive. I work a full time job on a decent salery but I still cannot justify wasting 40 quid on a game which on average lasts 8 hrs.
The ability to buy preowned games is a god-send to gamers with bills to pay and in all seriousness if that option was taken away and the price of new games didnt come down i’d sell my console in a shot and just wouldn’t bother…
November 17th, 2008 at 11:28 am
If I want a game as soon as its released, I buy new. If I’m not that fussed or can’t afford it, I wait for a pre-owned copy. In most cases I wouldn’t get it at all if I couldn’t pick it up cheap so who loses out?
November 17th, 2008 at 11:36 am
If games were made to last and new dlc was released nobody would want to trade in their games. Burnout springs to mind. This game has had more dlc than I’ve had posts on this site!, which prolongs it’s life if you bought it new. Another way to keep games fresh is to have a superb online facility. COD4 & Warhawk are among the best here. I wouldn’t dream of trading in either.
toutski Says:
November 17th, 2008 at 11:39 am
I agree. If games were worth holding on to then people wouldn’t trade them in!
With the likes of EA firing out a new Fifa, Tiger, Madden, NHL etc etc every year will you go back to play Fifa 05?
Eldave0 Says:
November 17th, 2008 at 11:50 am
I sort of agree with this, though most of Burnouts dlc has been naff imo and certainly not worth holding onto the title for.
The biggest example was the Bikes patch, I held onto that game solely for that patch only to receive a very lacking update with only a couple of hours enjoyment.
A free update admitidly but still that, coupled with the appalling implementation of the trophy patch made me angry that I bothered holding on to the title for as long as I did before trading it in for such a small amount of store credit.
COD4 on the other hand, I agree totally that title should be in everyone’s collection and should never be removed
November 17th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Give us Digital Distribution that’s accordingly priced.
I run a digital record label. When vinyl started to die and the technology of CD decks was really taking over we were the 1st label in our genre to go exclusively digital. Instead of selling records for £4.99/£5.99 we sold mp3’s for between £1/£1.50. Not having the manufacturing/distribution costs means that you can reduce your pricing. Also you cannot charge someone the same when they are not getting a physical product. Sadly games on the PSN seem to be the same cost as their Blu-Ray counterparts. If they were accordingly priced then it might sway more people to DL them, instead of buying a pre-owned copy. I know it would me. Most AAA games I buy at launch anyway as I want to play them then. Dead Space is a perfect example for me. I really want to play it, but have too many other good games to play right now. I’ll be picking it up, no doubt second hand at some point next year, as it doesn’t make sense to me to pay full retail for a title thats been out for quite some time. If there was a reduced price digital version on the PSN id DL it in a shot and sit on it til have time to play it.
November 17th, 2008 at 11:49 am
For me the worst thing with used games, at least in Canada, is that stores such as EBGames charge used games about the same as the original copy. Thus, it’s pointless to buy the used game as the economy is not worth, at least in my opinion.
Eldave0 Says:
November 17th, 2008 at 11:55 am
depends how long you are waiting.
I usually dont bother with buying a game until its around 12 months old as at the end of the day its still the same game a year down the line (ignoring online multiplayer elements obviously) but usually around a tenner instead of the ridiculous overkill price of 40quid when it first comes out.
pvwradtke Says:
November 21st, 2008 at 3:09 pm
True, if we wait a little longer, the used copy price usually falls down. But the same goes for new copies, by this time they will have a lower price as well and the used one will still cost about $5 bellow the new one :(.
3shirts Says:
November 17th, 2008 at 2:58 pm
I find this, most stores that have a pre-owned section pay peanuts for your used games yet mark them up and sell them for a only a few quid off the full retail price.
November 17th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
This is clearly about price. Some people, for some games, decide they would rather wait after launch day and pick up a game for a little less.
At the moment the only way to do that is to buy second hand, but if you could pick up nearly any six-month old game for £20 (rather than hope Dead Space or whatever will go Platinum) then game companies will get an extra revenue stream out of these games after launch that they would otherwise have missed. The second-hand market would be hit and games would actually get a bit of a long tail, rather than a three-week chance to make back the development costs.
November 17th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
I can’t write a proper piece of prose about this without getting too annoyed and possibly libelling people so I’ll state a few facts and let you all work out what I think.
The games industry is just about to end its most succesful year.
They claim piracy is killing the market yet they continue to release for PC and in most cases PC games are around £10-£20 cheaper than the console version. Market dead or market more competitive? The movie industry has been trying this argument too but they’re also experiencing year on year growth.
If anything were killing the industry would it be the most succesful entertainment industry in the UK?
The industry is not being killed it’s growing, year on year. It’s also about the only industry that hasn’t suffered profit loss from the global economic crisis. They’re still losing hundreds of staff members though, even though they’re more profitable than they were when they hired those staff members. Like most big business they seem to be using the global economic crisis as an excuse to cull staff and streamline business.
November 17th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
I want to see the anti-second hand game advert like you see on the start of a DVD:
You wouldn’t buy a second hand handbag!
You wouldn’t buy a second hand car!
You woul….
What?
You do? And those markets are doing ok?
Er… WAAHHHH! PLEASE buy the games new! We might end up buying second hand cars like you plebs!
Eldave0 Says:
November 17th, 2008 at 2:00 pm
that made me chuckle thanks haha
November 17th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Games are often traded in after a week, because people have either finished them or they don’t actually like it.
If they didn’t want games being sold after a week, perhaps they should a) Make better games or b) Release them bug free so people can play them like advertised, I’m looking at you LBP, Fallout 3, Far Cry 2
The number of these titles and others like Gow2, Fable 2 etc… being traded in is amazing
Developers and publishers ought to get there own house in order before looking at who else to blame
November 17th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
The fact is that these companies don’t understand or care about their public. Film production has influenced the industry with game production standards (a good thing) but their sales model is also based around the dvd-style ‘pay a premium at release’ then ‘dump at cheap price after a while’ - which is a daft thing since owners will also dump at cheap prices. Burnout Paradise shows the way ahead, but this is a brave new world!
November 17th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
as a golden rule i usually have one game in my collection (if you can call it that) at any one time…why?? because games are absolutely ridiculously priced ( i currently only own BF:BC and that is solely down to multiplayer) whenever i garner a game (usually second hand) its due to me trading games in for it, only ‘exceptional’ games get the full price treatment (in which point when I’m bored with it, it goes towards the next game) in all the years ive been gaming (read my username to get an indication) Ive never had the inkling to ‘horde’ games..i just play em to death, trade em in an get the next new thing (apart from multiplayer exceptions)..’tis the future i tells yee (or maybe not as the case may be…bugger)
November 17th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
This is a top post, fully agree with the points made (and most of the comments).
Wonder if you could elaborate on the italicised point at the end, “The views expressed here are those of therealcelshady and not of TSA” - I am not sure why TSA would not share the views of this post. Will you be posting TSA’s views so we can compare them to the views given here?
Does TSA really not share the views of this post?
3shirts Says:
November 18th, 2008 at 6:58 am
Standard discalimer for a post that is not pure fact. If it was the view of TSA, Sony could get the arse and say that, as a popular website, TSA were deliberately harming their image. This way they have the deniability and can say it is a website for people to air THEIR views.
I’m sure we all do share the view though
Michael Says:
November 18th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Well, I’m not going to say there is an official TSA position on this, but I agree with the premise of the article. Apart from the fact that PixelJunk Eden is rubbish, we never agree on anything.