Publishers Frustrated With Second-Hand Sales

Via Joystiq, a look at MCV into the increasing frustration publishers have with second-hand game sales. From the article: "As pressure has increased this year on sell-through and pricing of new releases, so games publishers have become more sensitive about the size of the pre-owned market - which is believed to be worth as much as £50m a year to leading chain GAME and possibly £100m across the market as a whole. Publishers have agreed to discuss privately what action may be possible to stop the trend, either under the auspices of trade body ELSPA or simply via legal protection." We've already reported on Epic VP Mark Rein's opinion on reselling games.

I'm not surprised.

[Trelane]

There have been many games I've passed up in my Windows-using past because they were simply Too Danged Expensive. Look, if I go to a used book store because I can buy a lot more books there than new ($3 instead of $8, for instance, for a paperback) how much more am I gonna buy used games that run $40-50 new?!

Now I'm a Linux user and much more willing to shell out that kind of money if the game is good and has native Linux support, so there's one angle you could persue. ;) [thank you for UT2004, NWN, Doom3, and Quake4, amongst others!]

Unfortunately, I suspect "prevention" has much more to do with screwing the customers over (Even Better CD Checks and Licensing! Whoo! Just what I wanted--new ways for things to break so that I can't play the games I purchased from you [the CD check has to be the #1 reason I cannot play a game]!) than listening to the customers.

Games no longer published

[kmahan]

Game manufacturers stop selling older titles. If I want to purchase one how am I supposed to do that without buying a used title from someone else?

If they want these new laws maybe there should be some more laws created that force them to keep every title they've ever produced available for purchase.

If they claim to be "licensing" the games instead of "selling" them won't there be consequences? The tax laws are different since the company still "owns" the product. Also there should be more warranty -- if the media (cd/dvd/whatever) gets scratched the company should have to replace it (since I've purchased the right to use the product).

Re:Wait, that's not quite it.

[Trelane]

This causes the publisher to lose out on a sale for every used copy of the game sold.

Note please that not every user who bought a game used would have bought the game new at full price had they not had the used option. If you can't afford it, you can't afford it, and this presents itself as illegal copying games as well as buying used games and buying games later on down the road when they're cheaper.

Additionally, for a game to be a used copy, it must necessarily have previously been sold and then re-sold. Assuming that the original purchaser truly resold it (and didn't retain a copy), you've still sold one copy to one person. You've not lost a sale, you've gained a user (over the lifespan of the game; the original purchaser is no longer a user, though was once).

Granted this requires a lot of gamers to sell their copies in the first place, but I can kind of see where the publisher is coming from in this regard.

Oh, I certainly do too. However, just because you have unprcedented power to make your customers' lives miserable in the effort to achieve a little more profit (there are certainly those that buy used who will buy a copy new if that avenue is closed off, but this comes at the expense of many more users).

Software is extremely unlike many other things which have been sold in the past, in that the producers have unprecedented ability to modify their software to their customers' and competitors' benefit--or detriment.

Here's a wacky idea

[oahazmatt]

1) Make a better game that someone is proud to keep in their library, either to loan to a friend for a weekend or to replay at a later time, perhaps on a more difficult setting.

2) Offer trade-ins: EB, Gamestop, Rhino, et al employ a large number of people and they make a good deal of money off second-hand games. Also, other establishments make an extra $10 or so taking games as trade for other merchandise and then reselling them later.
Institute some sort of voucher system. Let's use Nintendo as a hypothetical. Say for example a customer purchased Pikmin 2, beat the game fairly quickly, and had no desire to keep it in his collection any longer. If Nintendo had a system where the purchaser could send the game back to Nintendo for coupon for any future Nintendo media purchase. Nintendo could then evaluate the state of the game, repackage it (if the package has been stained, or damaged) and then resolicit it at a discounter price to a specialty electronics vendor with a seal saying it has passed inspection.
The game looks new, plays as well as a new one (not having scratches, smudges, etc.) and is certified by the company.