Crytek: Blocking Pre-Owned Games On Next Gen Would Be “Awesome”

Rasmus Hojengaard, Crytek’s director of creative development, has been speaking to CVG regarding the rumours that the next gen consoles would block the use of pre-owned games.

“From a business perspective that would be absolutely awesome. It’s weird that [second-hand] is still allowed because it doesn’t work like that in any other software industries, so it would be great if they could somehow fix that issue as well,” he said.

As Crysis 2 was named the most pirated game of 2011 you can understand why Crytek want to generate extra revenue.

Crysis 2 was downloaded over 4 million times, but  3,920,000 of those downloads were for the PC version, the figures for the Xbox version are not given but are under 700,000 and the PlayStation 3 version did not even register enough downloads to be counted.

Perhaps Crytek are targeting pre-owned gamers to try and recoup some of the money lost to piracy but if pre-owned is blocked on next gen I cant help but think that the number of pirated PC games is only going to rise.

Source: MCV / CVG

60 Comments

  1. Not being able to afford a new game, because I can’t trade one I’m no longer using would be awesome. No, wait…

    • Exactly. Do they think it means everyone will buy their game new instead? No, it means only people who fully know they want to play it and will enjoy it, will buy it. The market will lose any spontanious new purchases as no matter what the game is like, once we’ve paid full whack for it, we’ll know we’re stuck with it. Everyone would purchase with far more caution.

      • Exactly. My gaming purchases would go from about 15 a year to.. Well less than 5. Plus I would be less likely to buy the annual releases of CoD and the like. Games sequels will need to be a significant improvement over the previous or competing games to get my money.

      • Totally agree. No way would I risk 40 quid on a game I wasn’t sure I would absolutely love, knowing I was stuck with it forever. Which, after being unimpressed with Crysis 2, means nothing by Crytek.

      • Yep I borrowed Crysis 2 off a mate (oops). Thought it wasn’t bad and probably would have bought the next one. The lesson there is that I wouldn’t have even thought about the 3rd game if I hadn’t been allowed to borrow a copy off my mate in the first place.

        If places like GAME etc when selling 2nd hand could still give the Devs a small percentage then we would never be in this shit hole situation. Is it really that difficult?

  2. Oh dear. That is a VERY dangerous thing to say to the gaming media.

    • yep. i wonder how many time we’ll see crysis 3 being pirated from that comment alone?

  3. I know I’m in the minority here but I’m not really fussed about preowned, I rarely trade games in and never buy preowned (they are usually more expensive than buying it new, strangely)

    • I buy most of my games new but i believe the pre-owned market is important, especially for many families on a budget, ntm collectors.

      • Not just people on a budget tho. If I buy a game that’s shite, or one I’ve finished and know will never return to, then it would be stupid not to use that potential trade-in cash towards another game.

    • Not sure what gives you that impression , the only time its stupid to buy preowned is when its still a very new title or a FIFA or COD . Im not bothered about getting games day one and am generally 6 months to a year behind new releases on purpose .
      Last year i bought Assasins Creed 2 and MGSIV used for £5.00 total from Cash Converters !! Out of over 50 titles about 7 where purchased brand new and only 5 on release day at 34.99 . Ive never paid more than that for a game and regularly pick classic things up like Valkyria Chronicles for £8 , Sega Rally £3 , Pacific Rift £5 , Saboteur £6 , The Darkness £4, Bioshock £6 , Red Faction Guerilla £5 etc etc
      Next on my list of games i look forward to owning one day but wont pay more than £15 for is Skyrim , theres no rush as Ive so many other titles to try and finish in the mean time .
      Im a developers nightmare .

  4. Oh dear, what a silly thing to say .. goodbye Crytek.

    • Same here. Don’t piss off the masses. Sure, look after your IP but not at this cost.

  5. Its..Video Games industry related to entertainment not software (whatever hes on about, maybe stuff like adobe), but yeah it must be pre-owned or else they’d just end up being stuck on the shelves or binned. Why should games be different? Trade-ins is a great way of saving money even the odd used game is nice, why take that away?

    Blocking used games is just going to destroy the console business. Its certain to happen if it ever materialized.

    • I think comparing it to software like Adobe Photoshop is pretty valid. I’ve actually never really looked at it that way. Games sit somewhere between software and entertainment media.

  6. online passes i can get, its just like uying a license to use pc software, but making it so that you can only play a copy of a game on a console linked to your account alone, thats just pathetic

  7. Dear Crytek man,
    You are stupid to think that removing the pre-owned market will have a discernible and positive effect on the number of games you sell.

    • Indeed. I’ve said before that I often buy a game pre-owned that I wasn’t interested enough in to buy new. I find I actually really like it and end up buying the sequel brand new. That’s a GAIN in sales as a result of the used market.

      • Dead Space is the perfect example of this

        I remember EA whining how they’d ‘only’ sold 1.5m copies of Dead Space but 4.5m had played it.

        I bet they were glad of that route to market and exposure it gave them when they turned Dead Space into a key franchise on the back of the popularity of the first.

        The addition of things like online passes & regular DLC releases means they can monetise people who chose not to buy new for whatever reason, anything over & above that I view as greed which will actually cost them sales rather than gain sales.

      • Great Point 3shirts .

      • Ninja gaiden 2 was my preowned purchase thought i wud buy 3rd new to show support to be majorly let down peice of s**t

    • My name is Cevet Yerli and i will make you all pay for 4 MILLION DOWNLOADS!! [ laughs like Dr Evil ]

  8. I remember that Crysis was heavily pirated too, so I can see his particular perspective, but I by no means agree.

    • That just goes to prove the point really though. If those games were pirated even WITH a viable used market, how is taking it away going to improve things. Pirates will pirate anyway but you are potentially turning people who just can’t afford full price INTO pirates

      • True, killing the preowned market is more likely to push up piracy, which doesn’t exactly solve their problem.

      • Either way, they don’t see a cent from them but if 5% buy it new instead then it would have already been worth it.

  9. I don’t buy many pre-owned games (unless Game is having a very cheap sale :p ) but I do trade in so that I can buy another new game, I’d be very dissapointed to see the end of the pre-owned market.

  10. Well I have a nice big F*** You he can have. The games industry is bigger than it’s ever been and there has always been a used market. Doesn’t seem to be hurting it that much!

    I’m not going to list all the reasons why the used market is good again but he’d do well to remember that we are NOT pirates!
    Piracy is about never paying for the title. A used copy of a game has still been bought at retail at some point and they’ve had the same money for it whether it is kept for life by one person or sold on to a second and third!
    All your going to do is prevent people who can’t afford your game from ever playing it at all.

    • Hannypoppie and I have just bought Sacred 2 (to try out on the PS3 as it’s co-op). Were we ever going to pay full RRP? Shit-no!

      However, the chap who’s received my £12 or so will probably put that towards something newer (or new) for himself. Duh! Why can’t people see how important the market is – not only to the industry but to gamers who can’t afford “new” prices each and every time.

      • That’s a very good point – we use trade-ins to fund other purchases!

        I guess the market is going this was anyway, sadly. I think it was actually due to the lack of content but consider Ridge Racer on Vita. The game is only £17.99 but then you can buy DLC to expand the game. Therefore the developers game might get passed around on the used market since its aready cheap, but they gain continued profit on each subsequent DLC sale.

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