OPINION
Sounds like an obvious thing to talk about but none-the-less an important one in the current climate. The pre-owned games market is quite possibly bigger than ever these days with stores such as GAME and Gamestation, HMV and now even Argos offering gamers the ability to trade their old titles in for credit against newer titles on the market.
One only has to take a peak through the doors of those stores to see the multitude of titles on offer, allowing gamers the ability to switch last week's Dead Rising 2 for this week's Dead Space 2. Quick trades on titles usually yield the best trade prices, seeing a quick turnover and several copies of FIFA 11 littering the shelves mere weeks after official release.
So what's the bone of contention here? How come publishers get upset that high street stores resell their titles in their droves, recouping profits that would otherwise go into the hands of the likes of Rockstar, Ubisoft and their ilk? Are they entitled to the value these titles sell for when the same can't be said for the likes of old furniture, cars and DVDs? Is it also not understandable that the resale of said titles means that publisher's games are being promoted twice with one title going back into another customer's hands, allowing free promotion of said game?
Not to rock the boat too much on this but what do you think about the whole pre-owned situation? Are publishers in their right minds regarding their approach with the retailers or will it continue to be a volatile relationship in the vein that has been ongoing to date?
1 comment:
Technically, the copyright means you cannot resell games. However, if publishers made better games perhaps there would not be such a second hand market.
Also, when a store buys a second hand game it is taking a risk that it can resell it. If the publisher wants some of the resale value, they should put up some of the money to buy the game back,
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