Comments on: Discussion: Used Games, Part 1 – Our Personal Buying Habits and the Reasoning Behind Them

By: Angel Virus

Angel Virus — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:01:54 +0000

I find that most of the time EB’s “used” prices, aren’t much better than their new prices. I’ll usually buy a game used if its at a reasonble price or if its one of those rareities that are no longer stocked new (Bladestorm comes to mind), even if the price isn’t quite “used”.

For the most part I’ll get my games at launch or soon after, especially if there’s much multiplayer potential. If I have a few friends picking up say something like Gears of War 2 and after a few plays with them, see that there’s good coopertive play potential, I’ll go out and get it new.

Single player type of games will mostly depend on personal preference of course. Mercenaries 2 I bought at launch because I had adored the first one and had been waiting years for the second to release. If I end up finishing the SP games that I have, I’ll go out one random day and see what’s there up for grabs at a reasonable price in the used section before checking the fresh copies section.

I don’t normally trade in my games to EB or anyone for that matter, because I know I wont be getting a got return on it. Five dollars for something I paid 60$ for a year ago? Sorry, EB but its worth more to me to keep it. The only time I think I ever traded a game in was for a game I bought and regretted a few hours into play. It was one of the Virtua On iterations for PS2 and FFX-2 that I traded in for me and a friend for a Halo 3 T-shirt at the midnight launch. I got little money back for them, but did it for the shirts.

By: espion4ge

espion4ge — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 20:27:49 +0000

good point eeyore. i didn’t quite look at it in that way, but am starting to agree with what you are saying. of course, with more and more games going digital and thus not having a used game equivalent, digital game sales do seem to not be as front loaded. games like Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead on the PC, which don’t have used equivalents, probably continue to sell healthily and evenly.

so ya, the used game industry is forcing publishers/developers to adapt different marketing strategies to survive, but i guess at the end of the day the used game industry does benefit us consumers. whether it benefits us more than hurts developers is the main “tug of war”. because while i’d love to support developers, i’d also like to pay my own rent!

By: eeyore

eeyore — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:49:59 +0000

i think the “first two months = most sales anyway” argument is a little flawed.

it may be the case that the first two months are important for sales *because* of the used-game market. before gamestop became huge, it was much more difficult to find used games. now that gamestop is practically everywhere, developers have to look at the first months of release before enough people tire of the game and the used market cannibalizes sales.

i think it parallels the movie industry. before dvds/xvid, the ticket sales for movies were much more evenly distributed over several weeks and movies would be out for much longer. you practically had to wait at least a year before the movie would come out on tape. but with the widespread availability of pirated (i.e. “used”) movies, studios end up only seeing ticket sales for a month or so before sales die down. dvds practically come out within months after the movie is released. you see the same pattern when music cds are released early if the albums are leaked to the internet.

for the record, i don’t have a problem buying used.

tldr: instead of assuming a front loaded business model okays the purchase of used games, i argue it’s the used game market leading to the front loaded business model in the first place.