and so it begins - GameStop Wants to Sell Used Digital Games

I wish people would stop parroting the corporate line that it will destroy the games industry, the only thing it will destroy is publishers ability to release buggy or poor games & pay review sites to con people out of their money.

At the end of the day if you create a high quality game people are unlikely to sell it on, IMO games will improve on the back of this. If the game has good gameplay/longevity it is unlikely to be sold on and demand will far outstrip supply. I also think that it will reduce piracy because people will no longer be thinking "If I buy this game and it's rubbish I have no recourse to get my money back".
 
mmj_uk said:
I wish people would stop parroting the corporate line that it will destroy the games industry, the only thing it will destroy is publishers ability to release buggy or poor games & pay review sites to con people out of their money.

At the end of the day if you create a high quality game people are unlikely to sell it on, IMO games will improve on the back of this. If the game has good gameplay/longevity it is unlikely to be sold on and demand will far outstrip supply. I also think that it will reduce piracy because people will no longer be thinking "If I buy this game and it's rubbish I have no recourse to get my money back".
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Cause no review site that features console games is corrupt. :rolleyes:

IGN etc. support consoles far more than they do PC, maybe your right about the releasing buggy games thing but I doubt it, this will do nothing but hurt the PC platform.

What we will probably see, is bloody games on the PC slowly degrading with graphics quality the more you play it to deter people playing second hand copies, seriously... That is the kind of madness that will fit well with 'second hand' untouched digital bullplop.
 
Surely this could be overcome purely by the fact that you don't "buy" your games through Steam, you simply access them through a subscription. You're effectively renting them for an undefined period of time.
 
If your simply renting them then steam should change its pricing on everything so that it is sale prices for every item all the time. Paying full retail price to rent a game is hardly value for money, you could buy the game for the same price, some times cheaper. ;)
 
sc(+)pe said:
If your simply renting them then steam should change its pricing on everything so that it is sale prices for every item all the time. Paying full retail price to rent a game is hardly value for money, you could buy the game for the same price, some times cheaper. ;)
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Haggisman said:
Surely this could be overcome purely by the fact that you don't "buy" your games through Steam, you simply access them through a subscription. You're effectively renting them for an undefined period of time.
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Undefined period of time, its just a work around, your renting but at Steams discretion, meaning they could let you keep it forever and class it as 'renting'. Thus working around the ability to preown, unless you think you can go to Blockbusters, rent a game and then preown it? Tadaaaaa.
 
sc(+)pe said:
If your simply renting them then steam should change its pricing on everything so that it is sale prices for every item all the time. Paying full retail price to rent a game is hardly value for money, you could buy the game for the same price, some times cheaper. ;)
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I've had some games on Steam for 8+ years.

I can assure you that renting them from somewhere like Blockbuster for that period of time would be FAR more expensive than the price I paid on Steam, so actually, I think it is pretty good value... ;)
 
I find it funny that people who pirate think it can be justified by saying if it's a good game I will buy it, so what happens if you only mildly enjoy it, do you only pay half?
You do not have the right to play a game that you have not paid for just because you may buy it later if it's good, it is that simple.
However you try to justify it, if you pirate you are harming the PC games industry however insignificant you think it is.
 
This could mean the end of the World.... of Warcraft :eek:


non-story here folks, move along.
 
Omaeka said:
this will do nothing but hurt the PC platform.

What we will probably see, is bloody games on the PC slowly degrading.
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I thought the pc platform has been in this state for a while now. The consoles have it the best i think, what, with the pre-owned market and rental deals. For example, i got bored, so decided to rent two games for ten nights at £5 a game, a quid a night, great deal there. The games were new on the market and cost £40 each. I didn't even complete them, they were boring. It cost me £10 for that experience but i saved myself £70. This option or deal is not available on the pc platform. Consoles get the best of both worlds. PC get console ports most of the time, pc has been dead for quite some time i think.
 
Personally I think the PC games industry has it easy at the moment.

What other industry in the world can hold its customers to ransom and get away with it? I buy a game these days and I cant sell it on if it is rubbish or I fancy a change but nor can I sample the product before I buy in the same way I would test drive a car, or listen to a few tracks on itunes. In 99.99% of cases a request for a refund is denied if we find a product to be broken or not to our taste. NO other industries in the world are afforded this benefit. So why should the games industry be special? Steam, along with other variants and their high paying developers have a monopoly on game releases and control of content, and unless you sign up to their 'get out of jail free' EULA/T&C's you cant play the games you want to. Its a digital dictatorship. (isnt monopoly illegal btw?)

Maybe if the games industry had to innovate and develop like any other industry does in order to generate sales we would see an end to lazy clone productions/ports of beta grade games that developers wont release demos for because they know their 'product' is broken. They maximise profit by releasing a half finished product in an environment where the consumer can not hold them to account. Then they whine about piracy being unethical. :rolleyes:

The games industry in general needs to wake up and smell what they are shovelling. I believe that 'fit for purpose' trading standards legislation should apply to digital media. Maybe then, after all the refunds they have had to make over beta grade products, they would take stock and accept that their behaviour is out of order, and they need to stop being lazy and step up to the plate of proper innovation and development.

Indy is where its at. Throw a decent budget and development team at some of the indy houses and I imagine they would create something spectacular and not a modern warfare 57 cloned clone.

Cheers

Buff
 
The only thing that hurts the PC platform is the expense it takes in having and maintaining a gaming PC, developers have started focussing on consoles not because of piracy or second hand market in the PC arena but because consoles are a much bigger market and easier to support.

PC gaming has been waivering for years and that's because of the success of consoles not anything else, even GPU manufacturers are starting to shift their focus to the compute area.
 
MooMoo444 said:
How can you sell a "used" digital copy?

..its still brand new lol :p
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So is a physical copy once it's read off the disc...

Considering digital copies are rarely cheaper than physical ones you could say it's justice for the publisher not passing the savings in manufacturing cost onto the consumer.
 
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mmj_uk said:
So is a physical copy once it's read off the disc...

Considering digital copies are rarely cheaper than physical ones you could say it's justice for the publisher not passing the manufacturing cost saving onto the customer.
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Manufacturing cost of what, a pound? LOL
 
How many of you will sit & wait for 2nd hand copies of the top games to appear? I reckon very few unless you can't afford to keep spending £25-35 on games

The 2nd hand market is mostly used by people who wouldn't buy a new one in the first place, probably because of the lack of money, alternatively they wait for the price of a new one to tumble after a few weeks which ultimately still leads to a loss of profit one way or another regardless of whether it's a half priced new one or second hand from Ebay or wherever
 
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Haggisman said:
Surely this could be overcome purely by the fact that you don't "buy" your games through Steam, you simply access them through a subscription. You're effectively renting them for an undefined period of time.
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Then how come most of the time steam prices are sky high? (except for sales) If its a damn rental then just wtf lol:confused:

Digital software is a buggerload cheaper to produce and distribute and yet shocker the prices are still reflective of physical based media.

Im sure a decade ago it was bleated to the heavens how prices of games would be much cheaper if they became digital only.... well whadya know....years later guess what....they aint!

consumers have ZERO power or rights in this industry....

profits > civil rights

How many of you will sit & wait for 2nd hand copies of the top games to appear? I reckon very few unless you can't afford to keep spending £25-35 on games

The 2nd hand market is mostly used by people who wouldn't buy a new one in the first place, probably because of the lack of money, alternatively they wait for the price of a new one to tumble after a few weeks which ultimately still leads to a loss of profit one way or another
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i always wait for prices to come down or buy 2nd hand. I mean wtf...you would honestly pay £40 or £50 for something like COD6 if so then you deserve to get **** on by EA/Ubisoft/Activsion et al to be quite honest!

within a couple of months prices drop at least 50%

Batman Atkham City £17
Assassins Creed Revelations £9.99
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier £22
Binary Domain £11

Only games i bought on full whack have been Dragons Dogma £35 Heavy Rain £34 and demon and dark souls. If a gaming IP is worth it i dont mind on the odd occasion to buy it on release at that price but i think its great the prices come down so much so soon. I can remember when it would take around a year for prices to come down....they are much much more flexible these days. Good when hunting for a bargain.
 
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After the eu ruling, will be interesting how the US rule on something similar.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19842851
A US court is to consider a case that could determine whether digital media files can be resold.

One-year-old start-up ReDigi is battling music giant EMI over whether digital music can be retraded after it has been legally purchased.

ReDigi says that its software is designed to comply with existing United States copyright laws.

But EMI argues a legal principle which allows consumers to resell purchased material goods does not apply.

A judge at the district court in Manhattan, New York, will hear opening arguments in the case on Friday after EMI sued ReDigi for copyright infringement earlier this year.
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Hopfully us will judge the same way as EU and we can start the path that digital goods are no different to physical goods. Then we just need tighter laws on copyrit infringement.
 
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