According to a blog post over at ConsoleDeals.co.uk, a site that compares videogame pricing, Microsoft “intends to charge up to £35 for an additional license for a second hand game” citing a “senior employee at one of the UK’s largest video game retailers” as the source.
This suggests that pre-owned games will retail at a much higher price than they normally do, because the retailer simply won’t have room for margin given the £35 license fee.
As the blog says, customers are used to getting pre-owned games at around 50% of the regular price of a new, sealed version, although that obviously varies depending on the outlet and the game.
We covered how the Xbox One ‘game fee’ works a couple of days back. It was assumed then that the re-licensing fee would actually be the whole price of the game as new, so if this £35 figure is true, then that’s actually better news, assuming the rest simply isn’t passed onto the customer.
That said, how does that value change as the value of the game decreases over time? Videogames rarely hold their launch pricing past a few weeks in this current market, and if it’s cheaper to grab a new game for £25 in a sale surely the £35 re-sale value doesn’t hold any water.
We reached out to the site in question for clarification on the source of the leak but they were unable to name any individual or outlet on the record.
three_leg_jake
But did they name any individual or outlet off the record?
bunimomike
E3 can’t come soon enough for Microsoft, surely. It’s like watching a loved one on life support at the moment.
Bilbo_bobbins
Wow, your love for Microsoft is strong I sense. :P
Sillyseason
It’s been coming for a while. Microsoft increasingly getting even more arrogant, charges upon charges.
The brainwashed gamers into buying their console by telling everyone that competition was good, and now they have their foot in the door, it’s time to take advantage of the situation.
I have no sympathy for Xbox owners, they are getting EXACTLY what they deserve from Microsoft for supporting them with purchases.
Tuffcub
35 quid + Gamestop cut on top =Full Price game.
cam the man
With some shops, high street and online, discounting new games from release I can’t see it worth buying second hand games for the X1. Not recently released ones anyway.
Eldur
And that’s what they want. If this article (and it’s source) is correct then Microsoft has essentially killed the pre-owned market for the Xbox One. Time to sell those shares in GAME.
Tuffcub
Also means people wont buy new games, they’ll wait two weeks for the price to halve.
Eldur
But they’ll still be buying new games, and that’s something that Microsoft / large publishers can more readily control.
It’ll also count towards new games sales numbers which will be very useful for the publishers when reporting to their shareholders.
teflon
It’s almost not worth buying second hand as it is!
spooner_22
Teflon – The thing that worries me now is, if this is the future of gaming, then maybe they won’t drop the prices of games within two weeks. Maybe they won’t drop them at all or at least for a lot longer, as they know they won’t make much (if anything) from the pre-owned market.
Bilbo_bobbins
Is this saying that basically the cost of games will be going up? Because it sounds like it to me. Not good at all for Microsoft since the launch, everything seems to be bad news.
double-o-dave
I’m sure I read some where the RRP will be about £59.99 so they’ll probably cost about £49.99 in Tesco’s etc as I think the RRP of current generation games is £49.99 & they mostly sell for £39.99
samiro05
All my games are second hand as they are rented. If I didn’t then I would either be a lot poorer or I would simply not play games at all. If next gen stops me from renting then I’m not surprised that fifa n cod are hyped at Microsoft as they are the only games people will buy as they have more longevity online than any other game.
simplebob
Would this also imply that someone trading a game in is going to get a lot less money for any given title than they do now from the retailer? All youre selling to the retailer when you trade in is the disc, not the license to use it.
Eldave0
I could be miles off but here is my understanding:
Say I buy a game brand new and register it to my XBL account. If I then go to trade said game in at a shop, everything will work as normal, apart from the shop will then free up my licence for the next customer. When a person buys the game second hand, they will then get that licence and a percentage of that sale will go back to XB and the developer.
If however I give my game to a mate, he/she will then need to pay a fee (£35?) to get a new licence.
Both of these actually sound ok to me (assuming they are correct of course), as it means the developer sees some cash regardless of how a sale is made and I can still trade in games I’m finished with
double-o-dave
The problem lies with whether the shop gets a cut of the £35 new licence fee or whether they put their fee on top of the £35 which would probably be at least a tenner. So if new games cost you a bull you’d only be saving £5.
Eldave0
What I’m saying is, does the 35quid fee come into play other than in situations where someone acquires a game outside of the shops? i.e. if they get it from a friend, carboot, etc?
That would make sense to me. Paying for a game AND a licence just doesnt sound right so I can only assume this is Microsoft not explaining things well (again)
double-o-dave
I guess you’re paying for the activation code as the disc is pretty much worthless without it.
They do similar things with Adobe software – You can download the whole package of working applications for nothing but you can’t use them without an online pass. In fact Adobe’s system is even worse. Come June you’ll have to pay a subscription fee to use the software which works out about the same price as buying the programs over a year period but you never actually own the software as it fails to work if you don’t subscribe and pay monthly.
That wasn’t explained very well… Someone want to take over on the Adobe thing? lol
Tuffcub
In all the fuss I think everyone – including me – has forgotton that this is the first time an entertainment industry has DEMANDED they get a share of second hand sales.
It doesnt happen anywhere else.
Why are we even considering this as a thing?
hazelam
i’ve never forgotten.
there seems to be this Stockholm syndrome in some gamers where they not only excuse anti consumer tactics but praise them.
that’s why they feel they can get away with it.
too many gamers have let them.
i’m proud to say i never supported this kind of thing.
i tried to warn people.
when they started the online passes, this is what i said would happen, and nobody believed me.
give them an inch, and they’ll take a mile.
mind you, even i never expected big brother in the living room with the always on kinect.
fattyuk
lol
hazelam
so they’re charging the stores 35 quid for trade ins?
on what legal basis?
and does the preowned buyer then also need to pay?
i’m not sure i understand the way this thing is actually going to work.
why do the shops need a license to sell preowned? no other preowned product does.
how does this affect private sales?
lending the game to friends?
rentals?
i swear, the more i hear about this machine, the less i want one.
pardon the pun.
i could live with the increased focus on tv, even if it is very US centric.
i could live with them charging for online play, by just playing single player, like i do with the 360.
but with mandatory installs of every single game, this once a day drm thing, and worst of all this preowned lockout, i just refuse to buy any machine with that many restrictions placed on it.
this is the ms of old, who wanted to control every single aspect of the users experience.
TSBonyman
Another thought i had about having to pay fro pre-owned games – what happens when xbox one is defunct and they move on to the next iteration in 6-10 years. xbox one can never be a retro/collectors console down the line.
hazelam
that’s another reason i hate these anti preowned schemes.
i can play atari 2600 games from 30 odd years ago, but i suspect within a decade you won’t be able to play xbox one games.
and if BC is also going the way of the dinosaur, then still being able to play those old games on the old consoles is going to be an ongoing requirement.
double-o-dave
I guess once the console is defunct they may be kind enough to do a firmware update/patch unlocking the game pass/registering system thing.
Hang on a second… who am I trying to kid! :)
hazelam
yeah but if all the servers are shut down, how are you going to get that patch?
fattyuk
I’m a big believer in cross a bridge once it’s been built and not before.
Console hasn’t released yet and your talking about the “end” of the consoles life.
Seriously.