Fable’s Creators Reckon Pre-Owned Sales are Worse Than Piracy

[AcidRaZor]

Marketing is an expensive exercise and when someone buys a pre played game and enjoys it;

Not in this day and age. You can get EXTREME exposure for your products with little to no budget at all. That is why there is such a focus on social media these days. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter... it's crazy how quickly you can become popular without spending a cent. There's a developer busy with a zombie-game, the name eludes me right now, several thousand followers already on twitter anticipating the game and there hasn't been (to my knowledge) any clips showing game play or a demo... only talk. This is while they're developing it.

One of the biggest things Blizzard does right is their hype and their constant "It will be ready when we say it's ready" type attitude. They make great quality games sure, but they also sell a million copies of their games without any real marketing budget expenditure *JUST* from word of mouth / sneak previews / hype created.

Eventually they have the budget to get Mr. T / William Shatner and Jean-claude Van Damme to participate in adverts etc... but still. It grew from basically nothing to something huge based off of word-of-mouth. I sure as hell didn't start playing Warcraft 2 because I saw / bought the game in a store. My cousin bought the game after he played it at a friend's place and I bought my copy shortly after... up and till then I didn't even know it was released...

You don't see second hand / Pre-Played PC Games on shelves, nuff said.

Not in South Africa, since piracy is such a big problem, they usually don't want to have you trade-in pre-played games like that since it's more than likely that you copied it for yourself already. But alas...

[mrpossible93]

Forgive me if im being dumb, but in order to buy a game preowned it will first need to be bought brand new by somebody else. Have you ever noticed how many copys of games some game stores have? but that means if a games store has say 30 copies of Mass Effect 2 then all those copies at somepoint would have to have been bought over the counter or online at full or a reduced retail price. In my oppinion if i have already bought the game then it shoudnt matter if i then went to trade it in for money towards another new game i would infact be helping the game companys by buying one at full price, trading that in for money towards another new game at full price.

[TheAvenged87]

I don't think the article is trying to put the blame on the consumer. The guy is actually saying it's a flaw with Console games that they are more expensive and easy to re-sell , whereas PC games are much cheaper [digitally] and you rarely re-sell PC Games .

If the Xbox Live Marketplace was anything like STEAM , everyone would be buying their console games on it and the 2nd hand market would not exist. So we know where the problem is.....and it's with Microsoft and Sony.

I agree with what you are saying. If a kid walks into a shop and sees the bargain bin, he doesn't think of the developer (I can actually include myself here). He thhinks "BARGAIN". But this guy's statement does make me think about it a bit differently...

[TheAvenged87]

Forgive me if im being dumb, but in order to buy a game preowned it will first need to be bought brand new by somebody else. Have you ever noticed how many copys of games some game stores have? but that means if a games store has say 30 copies of Mass Effect 2 then all those copies at somepoint would have to have been bought over the counter or online at full or a reduced retail price. In my oppinion if i have already bought the game then it shoudnt matter if i then went to trade it in for money towards another new game i would infact be helping the game companys by buying one at full price, trading that in for money towards another new game at full price.

Indeed. But only the sale of the first copy goes to the developers (actually, publishers). The second sale's money goes to the shop that sold it.

[mrpossible93]

Indeed. But only the sale of the first copy goes to the developers (actually, publishers). The second sale's money goes to the shop that sold it.

Fair point, If the Xbox live marketplace was like steam (as someone above stated) then i believe that all problems would be solved because then there would be weekly/monthly offers and such which would actually make these games available to everyone. Problem with that is i prefer to be old fashioned in that way. I get much more pleasure pre ordering a game in store, writing the day of release on the calender, going to pick it up, then on the way home trying to resist the temptation of ripping into the packing before you get home. SO i guess im torn.

[Prometheus]

I doubt they really can know how many games get resold as there are no records. I would hazard a guess that most games get resold when they are old and hard to get in the shops anyway.

[Achtung!Baby]

This is one guy's (or one company's?) opinion, its a dumb one at that. Noone else in the industry is agreeing with him are they? Many of us dont have R1500 lying around to spend on games every month, if second hand games weren't available, people will start bying 1 game every few months. How's that going to affect their sales? They're gonna sell less. And as DarthSWNT said, many purchases are made with the thought of selling it, I do that as well. Its an idiotic comment and idea that hopefully doesnt affect our gaming future.

[Prometheus]

This is one guy's (or one company's?) opinion, its a dumb one at that. Noone else in the industry is agreeing with him are they?

Think again!

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http://www.ea.com/portal/pdf/legal/EULA-Crysis.pdf

Developers and software distributors are infringing upon my rights as a citizen.

[TheAvenged87]

Fair point, If the Xbox live marketplace was like steam (as someone above stated) then i believe that all problems would be solved because then there would be weekly/monthly offers and such which would actually make these games available to everyone. Problem with that is i prefer to be old fashioned in that way. I get much more pleasure pre ordering a game in store, writing the day of release on the calender, going to pick it up, then on the way home trying to resist the temptation of ripping into the packing before you get home. SO i guess im torn.

There is nothing better than new-game-smell LOL.

You make a good point.

[phoenix]

But a pre-owned sale? That's a definite purchase, where money changed hands and a physical copy of a game went home with somebody. And not a cent of that makes its way back to a developer or publisher. But a pre-owned sale? That's a definite purchase, where money changed hands and a physical copy of a game went home with somebody. And not a cent of that makes its way back to a developer or publisher.

Um....not necessarily. I would not pick up Fable 3 [for instance] for R500, but would be sure to take it as a second hand title for R199. While I could support the developers by buying said game when it reaches "Classic" or "Platinum" status, not every title that I am interested in does so.