GameStop: next Xbox sales will suffer if used games are blocked

GameStop and for that matter any second hand games dealer make untold amounts of money on second hand games so obviously they will say this. Only the other day I saw someone trade in a game for £5 only to have it resold for £18.

I think what will happen is kinda like what happens now with online multiplayer games such as FIFA. You can resell it and if someone only wants single player no prob. If they want to play multiplayer then the have to buy a online pass so the games manufactures will get some money from the sale of a second hand game instead of just GameStop.
 
I'd have no problem with them getting rid of 2nd hand games IF it meant consumers benefited from it. Meaning new games were cheaper - say £30 - and the price of games went down after a month or two.
Sadly,I don't think this will happen. I think they'd still charge £40-50 for a new game.
 
Over 90 of the 130 odd full retail games I have played have been rented and some of the rest bought 2nd hand. I imagine I have bought 20 new games in 6/7 years max. I can understand why they would want to kill the rental market as well but I'd just find something else to do with my time and money.
 
If MS do go ahead with this then I guess they must have went to developers and publishers and they are onboard with it? So if that's the case and the MS machine has locked off 2nd hand games while Sony don't would this mean publishers think they will make more profits by releasing on the MS machine only? giving MS more exclusives.

If the MS machine was the only console you could play COD, Fifa, GTA etc then I imagine the MS machine would clean up.
 
I'd have no problem with them getting rid of 2nd hand games IF it meant consumers benefited from it. Meaning new games were cheaper - say £30 - and the price of games went down after a month or two.
Sadly,I don't think this will happen. I think they'd still charge £40-50 for a new game.

This, but can't see it happening.
2nd hand sales, even privately, would surely become almost non existent as the cost to buy the game (on disc) then buy a code would be near on the cost of a new game.

There would be no point selling a game, the developer / publisher could just make it available for download at a much cheaper cost so almost all purchases would be "new" customers.
 
That's what I do. BUT I always trade in for a NEW game.

Yup should if mentioned they buy new also. They get more money for their old if they trade for a preorder. He just told me he be more picky and make sure he 100% wants the game. Can see him buying 3-4 games a year now instead around 10ish
 
Yup should if mentioned they buy new also. They get more money for their old if they trade for a preorder. He just told me he be more picky and make sure he 100% wants the game. Can see him buying 3-4 games a year now instead around 10ish


That's what i'd be doing. 3-4 on release day and the rest when they're dead cheap. So publishers would be making less money.
 
If this turns out to be true I can see some security issues being exploited. So people can play their "homebrew".
 
So if that's the case and the MS machine has locked off 2nd hand games while Sony don't would this mean publishers think they will make more profits by releasing on the MS machine only? giving MS more exclusives.

That makes no sense, they'd release their games on as many platforms as possible, they'd be making all that money from releasing on the MS machine, considering the architectures are meant to be very similar to almost identical they'd probably have little to no extra work in porting a version to the Playstation to make even more money on top.
 
That makes no sense, they'd release their games on as many platforms as possible, they'd be making all that money from releasing on the MS machine, considering the architectures are meant to be very similar to almost identical they'd probably have little to no extra work in porting a version to the Playstation to make even more money on top.

Makes a lot of sense, they can maximise revenue by not having any games sold 2nd hand. Maybe more time based MS exclusives then. I am not sure why you dismiss it as surely publishers are the ones pushing to end the 2nd hand market, so why push for something then not use it?
 
Makes a lot of sense, they can maximise revenue by not having any games sold 2nd hand. Maybe more time based MS exclusives then. I am not sure why you dismiss it as surely publishers are the ones pushing to end the 2nd hand market, so why push for something then not use it?

But they're not losing anything on the first-time sales, if they make a hundred games and sell a hundred of them they've still sold that hundred regardless of how many times they are sold on thereafter. If there were two consoles, one locked down, one not locked down I'm pretty sure the developers would still develop for both platforms, look at how simple it is to pirate PC games for example, yet we still see the same games on PC as we do on the consoles for the most part.

EDIT: I've just spotted the massive fail in my first two lines. :D

I'd be interested in the numbers of second hand vs new sales.
 
Last edited:
The consumers that will get hit most by such changes would be children and young teens. Its those that are using their pocket money and constantly trading in second hand games who will lose out most of all. I'm not going to shed too many tears over that though, given that when I was younger, If I wanted a game, I either saved for it or waited until birthdays or christmas. Its also probably no bad thing limiting the number of games children have, to stop them spending all their time on them.

I know many people who have the disposable income to afford brand new games, but instead they do trade-ins simply because it saves a little bit of money and given that they probably won't play a game again, it makes more sense to do so. If you can end that, then its a plus for the Publisher, however may be somewhat detrimental to Retailers who rely on the second hand model.
 
But they're not losing anything on the first-time sales, if they make a hundred games and sell a hundred of them they've still sold that hundred regardless of how many times they are sold on thereafter.

And lets say off that 100 sold that 50 get traded and sold again, money they don't see, then they could have made 150 and sold 150 which is money in their bank and not a high street shop, which I guess is the whole theory behind ending the 2nd hand market, which again leads to ask why would they not favour the more revenue making console for them?
 
And lets say off that 100 sold that 50 get traded and sold again, money they don't see, then they could have made 150 and sold 150 which is money in their bank and not a high street shop, which I guess is the whole theory behind ending the 2nd hand market, which again leads to ask why would they not favour the more revenue making console for them?

Yeah I realised this right after clicking the submit post button, I'm retarded. :D
 
If this turns out to be true I can see some security issues being exploited. So people can play their "homebrew".

Given this console will reportedly REQUIRE an internet connection to even play games and games will not work without a valid activation code which then ties the game to your account, this is going to be no small order.

Not only are you going to have to bypass the copy protection hardware, whilst fooling it and keeping it off the net whilst having the device thinking it is, you are also potentially going to have to the crack the activation key system and the microsoft account servers.

Its like saying people will get round the lack of 2nd hand games on steam by hacking Steam. It just doesnt happen as its stupidly difficult.

And lets say off that 100 sold that 50 get traded and sold again, money they don't see, then they could have made 150 and sold 150 which is money in their bank and not a high street shop, which I guess is the whole theory behind ending the 2nd hand market, which again leads to ask why would they not favour the more revenue making console for them?

I'm with you on this, but for others not quite so sure you have to do the maths. Which is going to have a bigger detrimental affect on game revenue. The number of launch games bought, then traded in to be resold forever without the publisher seeing any money ? or the decline in new games as people buy less of them because they can't trade them on easily.

Which figure is greatest ? the amount gained from lost 2nd hand sales ? or the amount lost to people being more frugal ?

I'd have to say that the disappearance of the 2nd hand game market is going to more than make up for that shortfall.
 
Last edited:
I'm with you on this, but for others not quite so sure you have to do the maths. Which is going to have a bigger detrimental affect on game revenue. The number of launch games bought, then traded in to be resold forever without the publisher seeing any money ? or the decline in new games as people buy less of them because they can't trade them on easily.

Yeah I have no idea how they work out how many games are sold on and if people buying them cheap 2nd hand would actually buy them for full price.

I think what might happen is much like the online play codes these days, that buying a 2nd hand game you will have to pay to get it unlocked for your console.
 
Given this console will reportedly REQUIRE an internet connection to even play games and games will not work without a valid activation code which then ties the game to your account, this is going to be no small order.

Not only are you going to have to bypass the copy protection hardware, whilst fooling it and keeping it off the net whilst having the device thinking it is, you are also potentially going to have to the crack the activation key system and the microsoft account servers.

Its like saying people will get round the lack of 2nd hand games on steam by hacking Steam. It just doesnt happen as its stupidly difficult.

Indie games on the xbox 360 are already like that. Require you to buy the game and then it is tied to your account and then you need to be connected at all times to play it.

They are available for hacked boxes and can be played without being connected to live.
 
Back
Top Bottom