A new car comes with factory-backed service. A used car comes with a surprise in the trunk (or in the boot). Says who? Have you read the PSN EULA? And Sony can change the EULA at any time.
Yeah, it's very tough for independent stores. The problem over here is that the big game chainstores - Game and Gamestation - have really focussed on used games this generation. They make far more money from them because of the margins involved. Now the supermarkets have started selling used stuff so the outlook is hardly great for game publishers. I think a move to digital distribution only will be ahead of us but I'm not convinced it'll be the next generation. Until then, I think these kind of access measures are a stop gap publishers will move towards. As for the game stores, I don't think their future is bright at all.
I wonder what impact this will have on the rental market? Who's going to rent a game and pay £7.99 to play the game online only to give the game back after a short while? The only people who will not lose out here are the million dollar companies.
This doesn't just affect the game stores. It affects any person trying to sell their games. I think it's kind of ridiculous really. You could argue that any company looses money from second hand sales. Honda didn't make a dime off me when I bought my used car. Should they try to charge me a fee to make up for lost sales? Should a home builder be compensated when you sell your house? Will Sony start hitting us with a fee when we sell their movies or electronics? It's lost sales for them so I guess it would be justified.
Honda can still make money from the secondhand market. They have used car dealerships, they can offer servicing and warranties. They supply spare parts. They take measures to get money from this part of the industry. These online passes and voucher code content are publishers trying to get a slice from a market they're pretty much cut off from currently.
READ These online passes and voucher code content are the huge rich companies trying to squeeze even more money out of the people who keep their companies so rich in the first place.
You've not answered the question I raised in post number 39. Repeating the same thing over and over doesn't make it true. You're being awfully naive or willfully ignorant.
Ok, I'll answer your question. I think they're being greedy because they want even more money on top of the millions they already make with no extra work involved. What if I buy a game and a few months down the line my mate wants to borrow it, if he does he'll have to fork out cash to play it online which he obviously wouldn't want to do. This could be the end of renting or borrowing games which helps no-one apart from the publishers, it doesn't even go to the publishers it's a Sony pass so one would assume it's going to go to Sony. I still feel wanting to get paid twice (or more times) for one piece of work is greedy.
Do you not understand what this is? This pass is for a Sony published game. It's the kind of move publishers are taking to get money from a stream their cut off from. Publishers deserve money from the 2nd hand Market more than retailers. How isn't that the case? These moves will force the retailers to be more competitive on second hand pricing. The game industry will be able to generate more funding. How are these bad things?
I don't know how you can get so indignant about this when it's clear you don't really understand what this Sony pass is. I think you should just pirate games instead. That'll show those greedy games companies who want some money from the stuff they make. What cunts. I think I'll buy LA Noire for £38 secondhand at Game to show my solidarity.
Call me cynical if you like but to this comment I can only say 'not a chance in hell'. Stores like GAME and HMV are already struggling, not a time for them to be lowering prices for the customers benefit.
They'll need to lower prices to compete with new stock unless there's really that many idiots in the world.
You're obviously fine with suddenly having to pay for what has been free for years now. I just see it for what it is, huge game publishers and developers squeezing even more money out of us, regardless of whether they're entitled to or not. I'm not going to be like "Hey, yeah, go on, make games more expensive, be my guest". I'm not saying they don't have the right to do it I'm saying I'm not happy with it. I can't see shops slashing the prices and losing money just because the publishers and developers are going to gain money from it, I don't see second hand EA games prices being cut, do you?
You just don't seem to understand the issues here at all. You've equated a million sales at £45 to being £45,000,000 for the publisher. That's just totally wrongheaded. You've said this Sony Pass won't benefit the publisher when it just applies to Sony published games. You thought secondhand was cheaper just because it's used. How will secondhand games at these shitty stores not have to be more price competitive? Are their customers such fucking mongs that they're incapable of simple math? The prices I've seen for stuff with used DLC or online passes has been cheaper when I've seen it. It would need to be for anyone with half a brain to buy it.
Even if places like the cash strapped HMV and GAME do drop the price of games with used DLC/online codes they will still pass that on to the customer. The generic £5 they offer you for your games now will soon become £3 etc. They lose money, you lose money. Its all about profit and at the moment the high street stores are in too much shit to give away too much.
No doubt it'll filter down the chain but this has been a really growing issue and something needed to be done. Publishers have every right to try and receive something from the secondhand market as it's really mushroomed in size. Places like Game have focussed on it because they're pretty much screwed by the supermarkets and internet sites for new game sales. I won't miss them at all when they go because they've gone so far downhill; the selection of stock they hold now is pathetic and their new pricing is very uncompetitive on the whole.
I don't ever shop in GAME unless I really have to but I do occasionally pick stuff up in Gamestation as I have a loyalty card and the points rack up pretty well so I do fund them indirectly. To be honest at this point in time I don't really wish any shop goes under. Its not the people at the top that suffer, its the poor gits on minimum wage behind the counter. Part of me feels like being a good Samaritan and spending all of my money in high street shops to help these people but the Scrooge McDuck in me says 'continue to horde it'.
I'm usually willing to spend more money at a small local business than an online or big box store. I always feel sorry for those guys.