The publisher’s sense of entitlement here is pathetic. How would you feel if any other industry claimed fraud because you treated the car, book, toaster or beer they sold you as your own goddamn property?

Digital games are fine unless you’re a collector. No box + No Physical Disk = No Go.

With the sales that have been going on over the past six months, there’s no reason NOT to use a digital distribution platform, if you’re a PC gamer. Sadly, there’s no way to do this for console gamers.. yet.

“especially if they are making crazy amounts of money” Erm, this year alone has seen massive “restructuring” which is loosely translated as “lots of people losing their jobs” in Sony, Rebellion and Namco to name a few and wage cuts in others. A myriad of slumps, dips and falls. Not to mention some revealing of the inner workings of what drastic (and possible labour law breaking) measures some studios are going through to stay competitive. So with all that going on, it’s a little crass to see the games industry as Scrooge McDuck swimming in money, whilst high street retailers get to make money for no other reason than “we have shelves”.

Because piracy of video games has yet to significantly affect video game producers as much as used video game sales have. Sure, piracy has had a negative impact on any number of companies’ bottom line, but I highly doubt it’s anything even close to the amount of revenues hypothetically lost due to used game sales.

Gamestop reported $507,000,000 in used video game products in their latest 10-Q (quarterly statement as of 10/31/09). Even if $200 million of that was due to used hardware sales, that means that the company sold approximately 7,675,000 used games at an average price of $40/unit (which is probably a high price estimate). If those games were sold by a manufacturer for $60 a piece, that would total $460,500,000 of revenues going back into the producing industry. If 1 million pirated copies have been downloaded in the same amount of time, that’s only $60,000,000 lost (13% of what is being lost to used sales). Sure, it’s significant, but not nearly as much as the cash flow deficit due to the used game market.

I suppose you’re right, but that begs the question: why are game development companies more concerned with people buying used games than they are with game piracy?

Does Gamestop not have the right to send back unsold products to the manufacturer if they don’t sell? I was always under the impression that they did. If their deals are not structured in that way, then I really don’t see a problem with buying used at all as a retail chain has already met the sales goals for a particular game before the consumers even enter into the picture. However, I kind of feel like that’s not how it works.

The RIAA is too busy trying to stop piracy to worry about used music sales. Either way, the consumer (or pirate) is going to be the one in the end who makes the final decision by their purchase (download) of any content. If gaming companies start punishing people for purchasing used, and everyone stops buying their products because of it, they will change. It’s the foundation of capitalism.

I know not every game is a multi-million dollar smash hit, but when it comes to games like Mass Effect 2, it’s a bit undermining what the developers do to ensure they get a piece of the used game profit.

There are ways to get their games out to consumers at compromising prices that don’t screw the consumer.