Being both a console and a PC gamer, I never really thought the way used games worked. I'm never really a used game buyer. I mostly buy new games and only buy used ones if there is absolutely no way to get a new copy. The general public is very resistant to the whole notion of "killing"off used games. This got really popular after the Xbox One reveal about a week ago. While I too agree with the general public, I watched a video that kinda made me think about it. Some of you may know TotalBisciut/Halibut. He really points out the way how used games work and the problems they create in the gaming community. If you have time, I suggest watching the video.
Honestly, I'm really tired of people making a case against used games. While I mostly buy new, there may be times I buy used every now and then. But really, the car industry in America has been in a very bad situation in recent years, and unless I'm mistaken, I haven't heard one peep from them complaining about used car sales. And yet I keep hearing the gaming industry do nothing but whine about this. Besides, even if people do buy used games, that doesn't mean they can't buy DLC, which will benefit the publisher. Now if the issue was piracy, then the game industry does have a point. But buying used games =/= piracy! And I certainly don't want some game company to tell me no when I want to sell a game I don't want to own anymore.
Going into Libre's post... The gaming journalists, I have heard are mostly in the pockets of the corporations now. They will bend over backwards to do whatever the corporations want. Whether it's because of control of new games, control of new systems, whatever it is... They do EXACTLY what the gaming companies want. I heard a good example of this from Angry Joe. He said that in a gaming journalists award show in England, they were GIVEN a free gaming console of their choice for the most creative promotion they could do of a game coming out. This was FREELY advertised by the promoters of the award show themselves. He also says it's very hard to make it now in that industry because the journalists eat you alive and mock you for going against the grain. He showed a video of him at one of these things to prove it. Another big thing about the Xbox One, and I've heard this being mentioned A LOT in the past week or so since the conference: So far, they haven't fully explained themselves on the video game sharing. This is JUST not used games here, this is saying to your friend: "Hey, I want you to try out this game, here..." And they go home and paying a fee, which I have heard of going from 5 to 60 bucks, to play it. I know a guy who openly CLAIMED that he was against the used games industry and that he hoped it died soon and he hit the roof about this. He was furious and publicly told everyone to not get an Xbox one. The fact that Microsoft has constantly changed their story, mainly because of bad press hasn't helped their case. There's billions of rumors flying around about the Xbox One. One about Gamestop making a deal with Xbox and they're going to be the only ones who sell used games from them destroying a lot of the rest of the market. Amazon, eBay and small used game stores come to mind. I don't buy at Gamestop anymore because I found a small used game store that's a LOT cheaper than Gamestop and gives you a much better deal. To that Xbox is going into the market themselves and making a monopoly of it because they will control the price of their product new or used, lets not forget the fact that they'd probably credit your account and you could only spend it on the XboxOne. As for the companies crying over the used games. Guess how that's working out? A lot of people have reacted badly to Nintendo deciding to charge money for Lets Plays. The reaction to used games for Xbox speaks for itself. Sony, they made a system where you can record the Lets plays DIRECTLY into the system and post it afterwards. They have adapted to the changes and people are loving them for it. They found a huge marketing ploy and they're taking advantage of it. Why is it a goldmine? Simple: The number of people who most likely watch the Lets Plays and decide to buy the game based off that is substantially high. If I'm torn about a game, I will go and watch a Lets Play to see if I like it. That's how I got into Assassin's Creed and Portal. They can't BUY that kind of advertising. Fifteen to maybe even ten years ago, you had to depend on word of mouth and commercials, no one else has adjusted to this and Sony is the first one to do so, and they'll most likely make a fortune off it and sell more games than ever. Xbox is not changing their tune to the dancers and are expecting them to adjust to us. If we say no, they try to force us to dance to their tune with hardware and technology. Yes, it hurts their companies to not sell nearly as many games, but they've had YEARS of this going on, first of all. They had time to adjust to this accordingly on this happening. The used game phenomenon has been around at least since the NES era if not earlier. And yes, they have tried, but no one has been buying or so few people have been buying that they decided to make us change instead of trying something new. The quality of games so far this generation hasn't been as spectacular as the last generations. How do i know this? Because they're cracking down now after years of doing nothing. Something has happened to the industry, maybe it's the economy, maybe it's the games, maybe it's something else, but something has changed for them to ban used games. Hell, Rare which is famous for competing against Square for some of the best games of two generations is now making Kinect games. Square is falling back on sequels that I won't get back into. This is overall hurting the industry. If Microsoft falls completely, another company will take it's place. It's actually good for the industry to go through something like this because it allows another company to grow and take it's place. It's a massive part of economics that helps the industry grow. And it will hurt some franchises, Halo probably being the worst, but things will take it's place. Used games will always be around, and the companies have to be used to the fact by now. If they're falling apart, it's their own problem.
I mostly buy games new and I agree that we should support developers, BUT DRM is not a ****ing solution, damnit! They should charge GameStop for used sales for all I care, but taking away our control over which games we're allowed to play is just outright wrong! I want to be able to lend games to friends and more importantly I want to play my console without having to connect to the internet, I mean who want's a bricked console whenever the internet is down for more than a day? That just makes no sence whatsoever.
Another really big thing about the One: They make it Kinect activated. I don't have ten feet of space in my room. My mom wold never accept having a console downstairs and ten feet of space there is debatable. Most college dorms don't have ten free feet of space available for them. People who are in wheelchairs are already saying that they can't buy the system because it won't work for them. That's putting a very small group on buying the new system. Yes, I do buy used games mostly, but that's because I don't have much money. If they REALLY want to help the market and get used games gone, which would still anger a lot of people because they're given no choice, is to lower the price from 60 dollars for a new game. Steam is 40 and not doing used games and is booming.
I actually heard something interesting about how Xbox could use this, and I'm against them banning used games, but it's something I would go for IF I was getting a One: They could make it a market of it's own. You buy the game and are allowed through the Xbox system to post it when you want to in a system like Ebay works. You put a price up and people bid on it. The Xbox set an amount of games that are out for the system and get a certain amount of money for the resale of the game. I still don't like it because again, it sells short a lot of smaller companies and people who sell on Amazon who get most of their money back, but I see it working if Xbox does this reasonably. The biggest problems I see is that first of all, they take too much of the sale price. Another problem I really see is that they do a Nintendo of America like they did with: Xenoblade Chronicles and only make about a 100,000 where the demand is MUCH higher than the supply. Xenoblade is going for FOUR TIMES the original price on Amazon to give a HINT on how badly that went.
People and companies need to stop demonizing the purchase of used games as if they're the newest brand of piracy. You still pay for your game, and it's only natural that you pay less given its expected decreased longevity compared to a brand new copy. When the hype surrounding a new game has died down and you, as a developer, still finds himself knee-deep in unsold copies, you have only yourself to blame for overproduction and failing to anticipate the latest trends in buying used games (if that makes sense; economy isn't my strong point). Most of the games I play lately are used games, and I don't see myself buying a system that doesn't allow me to play them.
Welp, Libre basically obliterated this one. Also, I find it funny that this guy starts by wondering aloud why people care so much about the politics of used games on his channel and in his comments, since he's a PC gamer and the PC market basically doesn't have those anymore... and then sets aside twenty-odd minutes to explain why he cares so much about the politics of used games. Uh. One of the arguments is that the gaming industry needs protection from the second-hand market because used games aren't like used cars or books - they're either functional or they're not, so the cheaper used game is basically as good as the full-price new one. Well, no, that's wrong, for several reasons. For one, the premise doesn't hold up; it is very possible for used games or consoles to function poorly, because they're only partially digital. He only uses GameStop as an example of a used games market, but there are other places with less-than-stellar quality control, where you may find games that take a lifetime to load vital components or incur frequent glitches on certain levels. (And I don't know where he gets the idea that places will buff your disc for two bucks, maybe that's a privilege we suburbian bumpkins can't afford, but I've never heard of it.) It becomes less common with time, but it's far from phased out... ...except in certain cases, which still debunk his claim. There are ways to obsolete the second-hand market that don't restrict the consumers' freedom, such as... well, everything the PC is doing. A fully digital marketplace doesn't need protection from used games because there's no point to them. Why bother hunting for a used PC game when you can already get a brand-new, fully functional copy for a fraction of the price of console retail? Basically, if you're talking about the games industry as a whole, you're not just talking about discs with stuff on them; you're talking about the consoles that play those discs, and the games that are all stuff and no disc. No matter what, the argument doesn't hold up. Either you're still dealing with a piece of hardware that can still go faulty and thus is still of notably lesser quality than one that's hot off the shelf, or you're 100% virtual, in which case the fresh goods are ultra-cheap and never out of stock. This industry does not need coddling, it needs to beef up, get over its senility and make something grand like it used to. The game that's so good, nobody can wait to buy it - that game doesn't have to worry about second-hand sales.
Banning used games would be like banning used books or used CDs. It is however not like buying a used car. One sells content and the other sells a real product that will degrade with use.
