If you don’t want to pre-order a new copy of Crysis 2 and don’t want to have to head into GAME on a whim, hoping that there’ll be a second-hand copy waiting for you, you can now pre-order pre-owned games.
Yes, really.
For what amounts to between a fiver and up to around fifteen quid off the cost of the game brand new, you can now put your name down to get a pre-owned copy of certain big titles any time after a week past the release date.
Such ‘big’ titles will include Fight Night Champion, Dragon Age II, Crysis 2, Homefront and Virtua Tennis 4, effectively saving yourself a few quid but meaning the publishers (and developers) won’t see a cut of the cash.
In addition, you’ll miss out on any Online Passes or content you’d normally only get with a brand new copy. Here’s an example of Crysis 2 for 360, pre-owned and ready for pre-order, but not even released yet.
MCV have stated that the campaign is running on a ‘trial basis’ at the moment.
Source: Gamerzines.
tonycawley
The industry is in a bit of a mess at the moment. I think It’s a bit harsh blaming game though. I think they make 2 quid on a brand new game sale, so can you blame them for pushing pre-owned when they can make up to ten times that amount per copy? If they got a better cut of the sale in the first place we wouldn’t be in this horrible mess.
MaD dOctoR 79
I noticed this the other day, saw Fight Night Champion In Stock, and Pre Order Pre Owned…wonder if they have explained that any EA game with online content will require the additional activation key…or are they just leaving that little bit of (important) information out…
on another topic, I hate how when you buy a brand new game in store from GAME, HMV etc, it has already been opened due to their “policies” where other stores like Argos give you the games with the factory seal on them…is there a way we can stop stores from selling brand new games unsealed…as buying online doesn’t always work out to be the best option.
sorry for being off topic…just wondered if anyone else hates that
:)
nofi
I noticed that the other day. I won’t buy from them again if it’s not sealed.
Crazy_Del
My local gamestore is always sealed for me and I always buy day 1 games if there is more than one game on Friday I get the best one first and play it and catch up others which will drop a price but not massive drop though lol.
As for this it’s very bizarre to see this but still I use the same trusty shop rather than HMV, GAME or Gamestation.
(Although I bought Helghast Edition from HMV it was exclusive)
Also forgot to mention I usually use Play.com but these days I don’t trust the Post =P always late on delivery.
MaD dOctoR 79
damn, they’ve been doing it here in Birmingham for years, and then they (Game) have the cheek to put a tamper proof sticker on the games (they did this when I bought the Special Edition of Infamous…and needless to say, it ripped the box when it was taken off)
oh and be careful, because they also repackage new games in their own cellophane wrap, I asked why they bother to do it and the guy said it’s to check the contents???? not sure if it’s just a few stores, or if it’s all stores that do it.
I just don’t want to pay £40 for a game and find out it’s been held inside it’s manual by an elastic band in an envelope in a dusty cupboard with all those greasy fingerprints and scratches all over the place.
guess you can tell it really pisses on my pickle
grrrraaaaahhhhhh
Crazy_Del
yeah me too, play.com almost all the time, it’s just that sometimes I can’t wait…plus I have had things go missing in the post on numerous occasions (and 14-21 days is way too long to wait for a replacement/refund)
gazo69
Really? This is crazy!
Sounds like their running out of ideas to stay afloat.
Here’s an idea, drop your prices!
gazo69
*they’re
cc_star
Great news
This is good for the industry. I repeat, this is good for the industry and here’s why:
Customers want to buy games, but can’t always afford them (or can afford them, but can’t justify £40 on several hours entertainment) these customers buy a larger proportion of pre-owned than the typical day1 customers.
How does the title end up being pre-owned? Somebody bought it, which created the profit all the way down the chain – Basically, the man (& his dog) has been paid.
Now, in addition to everyone getting their cut – the action of trading a game in causes that person to make another purchase, ensuring everyone gets their share again.
If stores like GAME didn’t offer trade-in people would probably sell their unwanted stuff on eBay where there is far less guarantee that the money would be put towards a new game like there is with people who trade-in in stores
In summary, pre-owned is great for the industry, without it almost everyone would buy less games – Making it easier to buy pre-owned is therefore not only good for customers, but also good for the industry when it comes to selling their next project.
good stuff all-round
tonycawley
Well you’ve certainly come up with an argument as to why pre-owned is good for the industry, but you’ve concluded without balancing the argument. There are positives and negatives from an industry perspective as far as the pre-owned market goes, we can’t all just argue one way or the other. Your points are good, but they don’t necessarily decide the debate without counter-arguing the negative aspects.
hazelam
the publishers do though?
when they talk about preowned they make it sound like you’re stealing food from their babies mouths.
they never bring up the possibility that people trade in last years edition of their identikit annual games to buy the latest version.
it’s kind of ironic that EA are the biggest opponents of the preowned market, considering how many of their main franchises are the aforementioned annual identikit games.
i can understand why they talk that way about piracy, that is actually illegal and the publishers absolutely do not benefit from that, but some publishers seem to feel the same way about preowned games.
it’s shortsighted, and a little greedy in my opinion.
cc_star
you want me to argue with myself? I can’t, surely that’s for someone else to debate with me?
Without a robust pre-owned market, people would buy less games, meaning budgets wouldn’t be as big & maybe the blockbusters not quite so popular as the budgets are smaller than their prequels, leading to a further fall in already declining sales.
tonycawley
Not argue with yourself. Debate both sides of the argument and form a reasonable conclusion based on the facts. I’ll just shut up, I keep forgetting I’m not teaching, you’re not one of my students, and this is not an assignment!
hazelam
i personally wouldn’t be interested in preordering preowned titles, if i want a game that quickly i’ll just buy it new, judging by the prices on the website i’d only save around a fiver buying preowned.
i like preowned because i can get slightly older, and really old, titles for a lot less than the new price usually.
that’s the real value of the preowned market in my opinion, getting titles you missed or never thought about before, that people have stopped playing, or you just didn’t think were good enough to buy full price for, not to save 3 quid a week after release.
gordon_strange
I only ever go to game to buy pre owned anyway so this isn’t a bad thing for me.
On a side note. I have been banned from the game near my place of work for interupting the salesman whilst he was giving extremely inaccurate information about ps3, psn, and the psphone. The guy was not happy to be made to look like a fool, but if he is going to talk with some authority on these things, perhaps he should at least research the facts first. Chump.
hazelam
i wish you’d videoed that. :)
R4U Eldave0
This is actually a service I’m quite interrested in. The number of times I see a game that is coming out and I think to myself “I’ll buy that when I see a pre-owned copy” so I get it £10 cheaper. Will be useful to be able to essentially reserve my copy
Charmed_Fanatic
Wow another nail in the coffin GAME …..
Sympozium
They’ll be cheaper in a few weeks, don’t really bother with EA or THQ.
Doubt Dragon Age II will run smoothly as before on the PS3 but I hope I’m wrong, Homefront looks generic but I hope its not, Fight Night as no interest to me and Tennis.. eh depends on how well Sega use the Playstation Move.
xdarkmagician
I just traded in 12 games… that whent directly to buying KZ3 and DX:HR. Sure somebody will now buy those 12 games used, and I hope they enjoy them and love them as I did. But If I didn’t trade them in they’d be sitting on a shelf, and the dev/pubs wouldn’t get anything for them that way either. I was going to just rent KZ3, but because of the awesome trade in bonuses I decided to buy it instead.
The used market will always be there. If it ever gets driven out of the stores it’ll just go underground. People buy, sell, and trade almost everything in this world, someone will fill the void. Any negative action against the used market will increase actual piracy. The best thing the industry can do is to create their own used market. Point is the industry has to change to support consumers, instead of forcing consumers to support the industry. It’s a consumer driven free market, if people don’t see the value to buy it new then it means your game deserves to be bought used, because you probably made a bad game.
fattyuk
How does trading in you’re games mean that the devs/pubs getting anything in return? It’s only game who will be seeing any of the profit they make for reselling them.