What are you prices like in the UK for pre-owned vs. brand new? GameStop will usually sell pre-owned $5 less than brand new, so I always just bought new. But game prices fall like crazy nowadays, if you wait 6 months you can play new for $30 vs used for $25. Renting is still the way to go but my local Blockbuster closed.
@Supersonic, New RRP: £45-£55 but if you hunt around they can usually be had for £39.99 Pre owned: Anything from £5 to £40 depending on age and rarity.
@Supersonic Gamestop is a ridiculous ripoff. You can either pay $59.99 for a new copy, or $54.99 for someone's beatass used copy. There's no reason you would buy a used copy of a recent game. They also pay practically nothing for trade-ins. Ebay is a better way to go all around for used console games. On another note, this would eliminate one of the main advantages of console gaming over PC gaming if it becomes common practice. The only way it would make any sense is if they went the Steam route and made the games super cheap to offset the loss of the second hand market.
Of course it will affect their 2nd hand pricing. Already stuff with no codes goes cheaper. This is just an extension of that. The 2nd hand market at Game and their like really takes the piss - you tend to only save a few quid and the publisher gets fuck all. The 2nd hand market has been really expanding so of course publishers are going to have to act. Blaming and moaning Sony is misguided and ignorant. Everyone is looking at this route and I don't blame them.
I think it's a combination of of the price hike from $50 to $60 this gen, and the recession. People just aren't willing to spend $60 on a game. I know I'm not.
I've not really noticed new stuff costing more but I buy online or in sales. The size of Pre-owned section in our game shops seems to have really grown this gen and the selection of new stock in them has really gone downhill. I tried to find some stuff in one Tge other day but they pretty much had fuck all new stuff in there. Just rows and rows of tatty overpriced secondhand crap.
All that's going to happen is some people are going to buy less games full stop. This means more of my games will be bought brand new but I'll be buying a lot less games in general. Only save a few quid? Three years ago I got Oblivion and Condemned for a total of £11 because I bought pre-owned. If I was looking at a game that had just come out and was only a couple of quid cheaper I'd probably go for the brand new copy but some of the savings on used games are insane. When Assassins' Creed was still £35.99 I picked it up second hand for £12! Simply saved myself almost two thirds of the games' price. A couple of months ago I bought Borderlands, NFS Hot Pursuit and GTA IV Complete Edition with both episodes for around £35, that's cheaper than most brand new games! I wouldn't sell a car to someone then demand more money if they actually want to drive the thing. I don't care if uber rich publishers don't get money twice off one product, boo hoo! They're simply demanding money for something you already paid for, the right to play the game online. I don't agree with it at all, money grubbing companies wanting more money and not giving a fuck about the loyal people spending the money and playing their games. Will we see any benefit from this whatsoever? No. Will the online gaming services get better? No. Will this money go towards making better quality games? I highly doubt it. Paying to own a game then having to pay to play it online is ridiculous. It's like when I got NFS Hot Pursuit I had no idea EA had such a stupid system in place. I assumed that since I'd bought the game I'd be able to play online but no, I have to spend a further £7.99 to play the damn thing, so I won't be playing that game online which is a shame, I'll miss out on those trophies. If I wanted to spend £40 on one game I'd buy brand new, which means I'll be buying a lot less games, well done Sony, way to shit all over the few loyal customers you have left after the outage.
For a start, it's just not Sony. I've already explained this. If you buy the game new then you won't pay anything more. If you buy it 2nd hand then you'll have to pay for it. Game and their like will need to lower their 2nd prices to compete with new stock accordingly. Unless their customers are complete idiots, which is likely in a lot of cases. When you bought that EA game 2nd hand, EA saw no money from that transaction. Why shouldn't you have to give them something? I think it's fair enough.
Because they've already earned their money for the game with it selling in the first place to become second hand. They're trying to get paid twice for no extra work. Going back to the car analogy for a moment, if I bought a Honda Civic, then after a while I sold it to you, then Honda demanded you pay them some money for it too, would you think that's fair?
You guys are arguin for nothin I tell you. The only thing I'm not clear about is if Sony will embrace digital distrobution through their own PSN store and make their backstock truly affordable. And if we can all trust them... them being Sony lol. But anyway, I'm sure it'll be fine. Just another way that big corporations ensure they have total control over our complete game stock (for info purposes ofc).
If a used car is like a used video game, then a car service contract (Honda Care) is like online play (PSN). If you want Honda Care, would it not be fair to pay for that service?
Do you get Honda Care for free when you buy a new Honda or is it an additional service you have to pay for regardless? Online play comes as part of the game therefore you've already paid for it by buying the game. This PSN Pass simply means that if you buy a game pre-owned you're only getting half of what you paid for since you have to pay an additional charge to unlock the full features of the game. If Sony simply introduced a subscription based online service that would be preferable to (in effect) forcing us to buy games brand new. All they're doing is making people get less for their money. There's probably going to be loads of good games that people will never play now because they can't afford to go around spending £45 for one game, these people may then not play any sequels that come out because they didn't get to see how good the original was, that must affect sales in the long term.
The original purchaser has every right to full access. A secondhand purchaser can't bleat and moan. 2nd hand games are cheaper because the publisher gets fuck all. The retailer makes a big profit. Quite how you can moan about the originators of your entertainment wanting extra revenue from a massive cash stream based off their hard work - where they now receive precisely fuck all - is beyond me.
I thought they were cheaper because they have been owned and used before, used things are traditionally cheaper. I think they get enough money from us already, £45 per copy? If they sell only 1 million copies of that game that's a whopping £45 million, and they want more? I can see what you're getting at but I just can't believe everyone on this forum seems to be in favour of games getting more expensive.
You don't seriously think the maths work that way, do you? I read somewhere that the game stores turnover new releases around 6 times. That's why the stores buy less new stuff, because they can keep re-selling these games. My local stores have pretty low levels of new titles because they meet demand by selling old games for a few quid less. That sort of thing is hardly helping the game industry and that's why the publishers are taking action.
The industry doesn't need helping since it's worth more money than the music AND the film industries combined. It's greed plain and simple.
Yes, greed by shitty retailers selling 2nd hand crap at vastly inflated prices. How are the games companies being greedy? I'd say they deserve money from the 2nd hand market more than anybody.
From what I read, specialty game stores do not make alot of money per new title they sell. They have to sell A LOT to get anything worth mentioning. They survive off of the money they make with the buyback/reselling of titles. Big boy companies do fine selling new titles since they sell alot more in volume.