This article is solely the opinion of the author, and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of TheSixthAxis, its staff or owners.
Hello dear reader, my name is Josh and I write news and the occasional feature here at TSA. Apologies for the interruption to your regular schedule, but I wanted to briefly talk about something that grates with me as a regular reader of posts, comments, and forums around the web. I’ve seen many people (not just here) beating down the “pirates that ruin the game industry” and yet being very positive about pre-owned games.
So here’s what I have to say: buying pre-owned games is just the same as piracy. Here’s why:
First and foremost, I’m not saying that everyone who has ever bought a pre-owned game is a pirate and should be immediately locked up, and I’m also aware that a lot of people, myself included from time to time, buy pre-owned games. But I want to say before I start that just because we do it, doesn’t mean it’s okay, and I think it’s best in the topic of argument to take a step back and think on a less personal level.
Obviously, second-hand sales of DVDs, games and whatever else have been around for many many years, I’m clearly not going to deny that, but precedent doesn’t make it right. Let’s look at it this way: if you buy a game, new, at retail or online, the retailer, developer and publisher all take a cut of what you pay. That seems fair, right? If you download a game from a torrent site, none of those three take anything, which I think we can agree is unfair.
[drop2]Now, if you buy a pre-owned game in somewhere like GameStation, the retailer takes everything you pay (excluding of course whatever they bought it off the previous seller for), but the developer and publisher get none of that. As far as I’m concerned, that’s just the same as the torrenting model, just that the distributor gets something out of it. Maybe, however, you consider the former to be more moral than the latter due to the exchange of money?Okay, so lets say I download the game, as a torrent, but from a paid members-only site, that’s still piracy and that’s still wrong – even though I strictly-speaking paid for the file, the makers got nothing. “But the retailers have to pay for stocking and transportation of the aforementioned pre-owned games,” I hear you cry. Sure, I can go with that, but when I torrent the file there are no stocking or transport costs, so I shouldn’t actually have to pay anything.
Then you have the two main supposed positives of pre-owned sales for the makers of the product: promotion and retailer partnerships. Some claim pre-owned is acceptable because it gets the name of the product out there for someone to then buy maybe a sequel or other game by the companies behind it – yet surely that’s just as true for those that pirate the game? The only real benefit for pre-owned for a developer/publisher is that by not kicking up a fuss about it, they keep their games in stock at retailers and therefore get them sold out to customers.
Basically, game-makers are blackmailed into staying passive with regard to pre-owned because otherwise they’ll get screwed over by retailers.
Once again, I’m not claiming everyone is an evil person, I’m just saying that piracy and pre-owned are really very similar from the point of view of a game-maker. Therefore I see no reason why online passes or anything equivalent should be a problem for anyone who appreciates the games they buy, because at least the developers and publishers at least get some financial support to actually continue doing what they do. That is all.
Feel free to discuss/argue with me here, or you can also find me on Twitter at @joshlhood or even e-mail me at josh [at] thesixthaxis [dot] com if you wish to have a more private conversation on this topic. Thanks.
Image: Edge.
jayjay119
Also I’d just like to Add on that the preowned market can bee seen as a rental of sorts, for me at least. I mainly use the preowned market when I have little time for gaming but want to play something and I’m not sure which, WET being a good example, I bought the game preowned because it was much cheaper than new, about £10 less, didn’t like it traded it in the next day for £7. Sure I made a loss but not as much as I would have done had I bought it new.
Doofer_Nasenmann
Person A sells a game for 20€ to person B privately on the street. Should be ok, shouldnt it?
Used Market version:
Person A sells a game for 15€ to retailer. Retailer sells the game for 25€ to person B. So Retailer made 10€ with this game.
I say that is absolutely ok, because the retailer gets the money for ORGANIZING this transaction. Not for the GAME itself.
Person A and Person B pay a fee for the transaction. If they organize it by themselves, they dont have to pay the fee.
It is not the used market that is bad. It is the timeperiod. The used market should only “start” like 6 month after gamerelease. Similar to releasing a movie in the theatre and some month later on DVD.
Roynaldo
Its an interesting subject and I can see both sides quite clearly.
From a personal perspective it boils down to money, so many people need to sell in order to buy. Im dying to get my hands on Mortal Kombat, I cant quite afford it so im looking into my stack of games to see where i can raise these funds and of course this means going through the preowned market to get them.
Its not always about people wanting cheap games you know, it can be as much about funding future new purchases like in my situation.
Asdafers
I’d agree that it’s not fair for developers to get nothing for a copy of a game but who says they should get something for each copy used? How about pre-owned books? Are you going to stamp that out too? Somehow that’s seen as good for spreading the culture to the masses who cannot afford the original print. People will leave books on the train for others to read and so on, FOR FREE. Now that is proper piracy. How is making sure more people get access to culture and entertainment bad?
All this is about is corporate greed – big games, big corporations, big overheads and big expectations on profits. Anyone denting these profits is an enemy. Indie games to not have that problem because they sell for a few quid not 50. iOS does not have that problem as the best titles cost £5.99.
Loose a bit of that greed with day one DLCs, cut the unit price and you will get more people to buy first hand.
superjag86
I agree with the point the article is making and it’s an interesting way of putting it.
However from the customer’s point of view, we want the best value for money, which tends to mean the lowest price available. Also as Kovacs has said, the option of re-selling a game helps with new game sales.
From the retailers point this is another revenue stream that allows them to keep stores open and keep selling a wide variety of games.
The developers are the ones who suffer in this model, but surely the best way to overcome this is for publishers to strike a deal with retailers in order to get a percentage of preowned sales. I’m sure this option has been discussed before but retailers probably will never actually go for it.
I personally buy new always unless it’s an older title that I can’t find new. (I remember it took me ages to track down a new copy of Everybody’s Golf on PS3) I do however always shop around to make sure to get the very best deals which nearly always means buying online.
Foxhound_Solid
Valid points. But Its the way of the world and I see no reason for Devs to set something up so if a game is purchased pre owned, the get a couple of quid via a pass, we get a deal and the shops stay open.
somewhere in amongst all the greed and misunderstanding is a happy medium I am sure.
Foxhound_Solid
*no reason for devs not to
nofi
I only bought an N64 back in the day because I knew I could trade in games and buy new ones cheap. Nuff said.
colossalblue
like all saleable media, it’s about how you look at it.
From the publisher’s perspective, pre-owned sales are similar to piracy in that they don’t get a straight cut of the profit (although pre-owned trade-ins do help fund new buys). This is just as true for DVD distributors and book publishers.
For developers, I’m sure that many would think pre-owned is a solely negative thing because they don’t get a direct cut from sales. But I’m sure many are happy to see their creative works experienced by more people. This roughly equates to authors of books and possibly the creative elements of movie making (like directors and screenplay writers).
For the retailer, they make profit on the new sale, profit on the pre-owned sale and profit on any extra new sale that the pre-owned market has funded. There’s no negative for them, which is probably why they push it so much at the counter.
For the consumers, it boils down to personal circumstances (in every case). Consumers must do what they can, within the law, to live within the constrains of their own budget. There’s nothing illegal about buying pre-owned games and I would argue that any moral question is not the concern of the consumer, who is merely sourcing a product in a condition and at a price they’re happy with. The moral question is between the publisher and the retailer.
I don’t personally trade in or buy pre-owned (although I will sell old games or give them away to prevent the clutter from piling up) but that’s not for any moral obligation, it’s because retailers have, over the past couple of years, gotten way too greedy about it. Now a pre-owned game is often only a couple of pounds cheaper than brand new. So I pay the extra few quid and enjoy that cellophane. When you see trade in prices, they’re insultingly low for the consumer so that the retailer can maximise their profit. So I do what I can to avoid that. But I certainly don’t think any less of anyone that does save themselves a few quid here and there while still getting to experience the creative works on offer.
I think that any argument about this has to be above the consumer’s head, it’s not their issue.
hazelam
i think most people would go new over preowned if the difference is only a few quid.
most of the prowned title’s i’ve bought were older titles, and ones you just can’t buy new any more.
some were just downright impossible to find new.
i found a copy of shadow of the colossus the other week, couldn’t even beat the first colossus.
when i do buy preowned nearer to it’s release date then it’s probably because i don’t support what the publisher is doing.
but i respect the industry enough to not go down the pirate route, i know the game has been paid for, just not by me.
i’ve still yet to actually play spore.
SpikeyMikey23
I enjoy the cellophane too CB. All part of the ‘Buying new’ experience
clone555
If I buy a second hand car (from a dealer or the owner), then the manufacturer gets nothing from that sale. In fact most ‘pre-owned’ sales work like that. And nobody complains about it, not even the manufacturers.
Software is somehow different because folks like Microsft sell licenses, not software… I don’t see why software should be any different than cars or anything else. If I buy it, I own it, and I should be able to sell it. The original owner/creator got their payment when it was bought in the shop. Why should they get paid over and over for the same item?
Something like an online pass is different. I’ve no problem if a game developer/publisher is looking for money for a service. They have ongoing maintenance costs. They may even bring out new features on the back of those payments. That’s all good.
But please don’t tell me the developer should get paid every time a game gets sold by one person to another. They already got paid. They should be happy with that. Anything else is just greedy.
Blayney
+1
This, so much this.
AshGraham99
I haven’t bought pre-owned for a couple of years now, as the prices you can buy new, and some of the pre-owned prices at some stores mean there’s not much difference in price anyway. I don’t agree its as bad as piracy though, as lots of other products have second hand markets, like cars. It’s all been discussed a million times before. I don’t disagree with companies implenting online passes and the such though, obviously they aren’t happy they don’t get a cut, and have found a way of bringing in that extra revenue, and it’s not as if they are excluding people who don’t have one from the whole game. It’s almost like paying for manufacturer specific parts for maintaining a second hand car. It’s an interesting topic really, lots of different view points and angles to consier, would make a dissertation question for people in that area for sure!