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Sound Off: Do Publishers Deserve a Slice of Used Game Sales?

Posted Jan 31, 2012 at 1:18PM EST by

Listed in: Xbox 360 Tags: game publishers, sound off, used games, xbox 720

We talked last week about the Xbox 720/Loop and the possibility that it may not play used games. The posting, in which I made an argument for Microsoft’s decision, blew up into quite the comment war. Which got me thinking – how exactly do we feel about the used marketplace? Publishers are still making the argument that they deserve a piece of this multi-million dollar market, but are used games any different from used cars or furniture?

mfusedsound2

Online passes and rumored used-blocking are mechanisms designed to slice revenue away from the used game retailers and put it in the pockets of the publisher. As the industry moves forward, it’s inevitable that we’ll see more ideas of this nature come to the surface. However, the real question that lies beneath this issue is whether publishers have any right to the money earned from used sales.
When you sell a car, for example, you don’t have to write a check to Dodge or Ford for the privilege. Nor does a furniture store get a cut when you dump your old couch on Craigslist. So why should games be any different?

That’s the subject of this week’s Sound Off: Should game publishers profit from the sale of used games?

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Absolutely not!

Should Ford benefit from used car sales? No.

Should KB Homes benefit from used home sales? No.

Should Visio benefit from used TV sales? No.

Should Lego benefit from used lego sales? No.

Should Nintendo benefit from used Wii console sales? No.

Their only saving grace is to sell content AFTER the product was released. DLC and online access.

Why on Earth should anyone benefit from used consumer product sales? There is absolutely no reason what so ever for video game coders to be unique to the entire scheme of thing.

What's next? They start attacking used DVDs? Used CDs? Used everything else?

-1 # RE: Sound Off: Do Publishers Deserve a Slice of Used Game Sales? — Larry H. 2012-01-31 17:26

Of course there's a difference between used cars / furniture and used games. The moment you drive a car off the lot, you get mileage on the car and the quality deteriorates. You use furniture and they get banged up / lose cusioning / etc.

When you use a game, IT DOESN'T DETERIORATE PER USE!

+1 # RE: RE: Sound Off: Do Publishers Deserve a Slice of Used Game Sales? — thomas h 2012-01-31 18:00

thats not true games can deteriate to. they get stratched up and can become unuseable

+1 # RE: RE: Sound Off: Do Publishers Deserve a Slice of Used Game Sales? — AkaiOtoko 2012-01-31 19:10

The laser scratches the disc to read it, which is why after playing it 50,000, like I did with one game it breaks...

+1 # RE: RE: Sound Off: Do Publishers Deserve a Slice of Used Game Sales? — tosh.0 2012-01-31 19:17

False. Games come with boxes, cases, manuals, extra content, inserts...lots of stuff. It all gets worn, lost, thrown away, used...

You also failed to address the rest of my post regarding video and music. Used records is or at least was one of the largest USED markets for a very long time.

# RE: Sound Off: Do Publishers Deserve a Slice of Used Game Sales? — Thomas7 2012-01-31 18:00

Unfortunately, any analogy between a physical product and software is going to be flawed. In the case that the only physical property being sold is blu-ray discs, you can't even begin to say that the one time sale of a blu-ray disc is the product being sold. Rather it is the software that is being sold on the disc. When a car is sold, yes there is some cost factored in to the engineering development but it isn't the majority of the initial price. Mostly you buy manufacturing and labor.

Now where game developers lose my sympathy is that they price games so expensively. Price it where the mass public can afford it and nobody would need to wait for used games. If you price games at 20 dollars but can get 3x as many people to buy it, you still generate the same revenue as releasing a $60 game. Since production and distribution really isn't that high percentage of the cost, it really wouldn't be that big of a deal. Above all, these companies could benefit far more from the potential popularity of spreading their game to more customers for less money. It gives them the chance to build up reputation.

Overall, I still don't understand how used games sell so well. There must be a better chain out there I don't have cause all I have is gamestop and gamestop discounts all of maybe 3 bucks off of new price. what a ripoff. 3 bucks isn't even worth the potential hassle of a bad game disc. I'd lose more in gas money driving 15 miles to town to get it replaced.

+2 # RE: RE: Sound Off: Do Publishers Deserve a Slice of Used Game Sales? — tosh.0 2012-01-31 19:24

$3? Yes you are getting ripped off! My Gamestop takes a good $10 off the price and even more if stuff is missing. Unless it's a brand new game.

In FACT gamestop.com shows better then $3. I just looked up Super Mario 3D and the used copy is $5 off. So you are either lying or you need to report your gamestop to:

1-800-883-8895
GameStop

+1 # Thats not the same!! — vatomalo 2012-01-31 18:28

Ehhh i dont see the difference Mr.Larry.
You pay the full price for the game.
If the game has no disk or cartridge, then no it does not deteriorate.
But even then, you usually pay full price for the game, so what right does it give the publisher to demand more money?

Now if it was the creators of the game, i would happily give them the extra cash, the publishers can kiss my a**

+1 # Hmmm — wally 2012-02-01 00:37

Publishers don't have rights to profit off of second hand games, however, they have the means to control the quality of second hand products (DLC, online pass, etc.) so they are kind of dickheading their way into the second hand market anyway. It's like if Honda had the means to remotely control the locks on car doors, and a second hand owner would have to pay Honda $100 to be able to lock their car or access the trunk. If giving publishers a little off the top will keep them from screwing consumers, I am all for it, even though they don't deserve it. Although, they will probably gladly take the extra money from secondhand sales and still screw consumers anyway. Here's an idea! Why don't they offer credit and resale on their games through their website. Who has better means of undercutting the second hand competition than the publishers themselves? They wouldn't have the convenience of same day service as a physical store, but they could give themselves a definite price advantage and lure customers that way. That would probably take too much effort on their part though and they would rather bitch about it and fuck the consumer.

+1 # RE: Sound Off: Do Publishers Deserve a Slice of Used Game Sales? — Musev 2012-02-01 04:48

Publishers deserve geting shot. all they do is suck everything dry.

# RE: Sound Off: Do Publishers Deserve a Slice of Used Game Sales? — Jusa 2012-02-01 05:50

No they don't need profit off used games they made there money off it from the first person who bought it. The online pass thing is stupid too. Say this people get it new they play it normally, people who get it used they see ads for a certain amount of time, or in greed sake for the life of the games online mode. Ads can ruin things too if its done wrong.

# RE: Sound Off: Do Publishers Deserve a Slice of Used Game Sales? — Mr. F 2012-02-01 14:51

What do you guys think of the argument that publishers pay for server space in online games, so Online Passes help them offset the cost of used players joining in?

-2 # RE: Sound Off: Do Publishers Deserve a Slice of Used Game Sales? — Aldo_P 2012-02-01 15:55

Piracy doesn't exist with cars so that's not even slightly a comparison, unless you talking about replicas but that's completely different, and developers aren't to blame for piracy so they do need to get extra revenue after they sell the game to make up for what's being "Lost" compared to the pre piracy days, but once that disc's sold it completely belongs to whoever bought it and developers deserve absolutely nothing from it, so if they want our money it's their responsibility to convince us it's a good idea to buy DLC & Online passes.

# RE: RE: Sound Off: Do Publishers Deserve a Slice of Used Game Sales? — tosh.0 2012-02-02 13:31

Piracy has absolutely nothing to do with this topic. Cars get "stolen" as well. Everything on this planet has theft to a degree.

-2 # RE: RE: RE: Sound Off: Do Publishers Deserve a Slice of Used Game Sales? — Aldo_P 2012-02-03 11:17

You put security on a car and you can stop it being stolen, and if the Police catch a thief they can potentially stop dozens or even hundreds of cars being stolen, and if a replica car, watch, furniture or whatever gets made you just stop the person making the fakes and that's the end, but it just takes 1 person to upload a game and potentially every person in the world could have it making everyone a criminal in the eyes of the law, so really piracy just can't be compared to any other crime in the world because once it's initiated it's completely impossible to stop.

-2 # RE: RE: RE: RE: Sound Off: Do Publishers Deserve a Slice of Used Game Sales? — Aldo_P 2012-02-03 11:53

Also car manufacturers do make money after the car is sold with extended warranties, servicing, MOTs and selling used cars in their official dealerships at a huge profit margin because everything with an official dealer stamp in the car world is worth more, so all this is the car equivalent of selling DLC.

# RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Sound Off: Do Publishers Deserve a Slice of Used Game Sales? — tosh.0 2012-02-03 13:09

"You put security on a car"

What the heck does that have to do with anything? I think you failed to get the point. Cars get stolen from DEALERSHIPS and are NEVER seen again. The whole point there was to show the loss to the dealer/manufacture.

See? This is why piracy has absolutely nothing to do with this topic.

"Also car manufacturers do make money after the car is sold with extended warranties"

FALSE.

1. Most all extended warranties are THIRD PARTY.

2. An extended warranty is an upfront sale at the time of purchase NOT AFTER THE PURCHASE. All after purchase warranties are third party. From there, one of two things will happen. A) The car will break down less then the warranty thus showing income on the sale. Or B) The car will break down more then the warranty and the sale will be a LOSS.

Also, it is NOT a requirement to have your vehicle serviced at the dealer. So unless you would like to show us examples of how DLC can come from fourth parties???

Apples and Oranges dude.

I don't know how you come up with this stuff.

Just to add a little to your whole "dealers make a lot of money" theory. Do you have any clue how many dealership have closed down over the past 10 years? They are hurting BAD!!!!!

-2 # RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Sound Off: Do Publishers Deserve a Slice of Used Game Sales? — Aldo_P 2012-02-03 13:34

You pretty much wrong on every point. People keep using the car analogy for used game sales but it is just completely wrong, i compare car security to Piracy because cars can be recovered and thiefs can be caught but piracy is unstoppable, extended warranties are also sold on used cars and sold by third parties or officially sold by the manufacturer, and the car manufacturer regularly buys back used cars from individuals and companies and just say they made $4000 profit on the sale of the car new, they can and do easily triple that from all the post-sale stuff they sell and this is things they been doing for decades, and dealers closing down the last 10 years is obvious because the bigger dealerships put them out of business the same way Supermarkets put local stores out of business. So to put it simply, once a car is sold it's not even close to the end of the profits the manufacturer can still make from it.

# RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: RE: Sound Off: Do Publishers Deserve a Slice of Used Game Sales? — tosh.0 2012-02-13 19:51

This how I know you are full of crap...

My original example wasn't just about cars. I used MANY products.

Yet your only hang up is about cars. Thanks for proving my point.

# Lot of good arguments... — daxyireh 2012-02-04 00:35

Sitting on the distribution side of software - not games, but I love them - I think that publishers should receive residual income from used game sales. Why not pass off some extra cash to a company you love to let them continue to crank out your favorite titles? Just pass off a sliver of what GameStop keeps for itself and there ya go. Something as small as .5% would be plenty.

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