Pre-Owned Games To No Longer Be Allowed Online?

read this article about how THQ is starting to put one time use codes into their games for online play (meaning you can’t buy a pre-owned copy of the game and play online) and it makes me realize:

a) what a horrible idea, and I hope to God it fails miserably
b) are more companies going to follow suit (EA does similar shit with stuff like the Cerberus Network, and more)

Would this fuck with profits and whatevers of places like Gamestop? Isnt that how they make most of thier money, from used game sales and trade-ins? I would really like to see companys like that go away.

I dont really care as I dont really buy any used games. Shit I only buy 1 to 3 games a year and they are always new. If I do buy a used game its usually a solo game or a DS game. Come to think of it, in the past 5 years I have purchased two used games. Tales of Vesperia and some DS Castlevania game.

I guess it could be a problem for the people that like to buy a shit load of games and never play them. And thats a great deal of srk folks.

Also no more renting games…

It’s a fantastic idea, and I back it completely. Currently, video game publishers are not making their money back on games because they make no profit on used games that are sold. This is one of the reasons that so many games are being canceled and studios being shut down. Gamestop is pulling this huge profit from used games, and giving nothing back to the people who paid a FUCK-TON of money for the game to be created/distributed/advertised in the first place. If you should be mad at anyone, then it should be all the video game retailers (not just Gamestop) that sell used games. You think…oh, I’m getting a discount, but you are kicking companies like Capcom, EA, and Sony right in the balls.

EA started this trend with their sports games, and Sony is jumping on the bandwagon next.

Also, it is just a $10.00 fee. If you can’t pay it; just wait for the used game to drop $10.00 less then you would have bought it at, then buy it.

You can still rent as many games as you want. You might not be able to play them online, but you can play them. Renting is no better than buying used games as far as the publisher is concerned.

Meh most of the times used games cost £5-10 less than a new version. I don’t exactly think it is right but at the same time I not exactly bothered.

First, publishers blamed pirates for stealing sales… now they’re blaming the used game market. Nintendo doesn’t complain about this shit, but their games get pirated regularly, despite extremely robust software sales on every one of their platforms. When publishers talk like this, it’s a sign of desperation, and it just means nobody’s PLAYING their games-- legally or no.

It was popular to blame Dreamcast’s death on piracy, but the reality is most vg fans never played DC games-- or wanted to-- and didn’t know shit about Sega’s library, before it was ported to PlayStation or Nintendo. The general public just didn’t like Sega’s style.

My point is, it’s probably a better idea to blame low sales on something other than piracy and the 2nd hand market. If piracy was that huge of a problem, there’s no way DS should generate monster software sales when it’s stupidly easy to hack and pirate on that system.

So the problem must be low sales caused by lack of interest, for whatever reason (maybe $60-80 really is too fucking much to ask for a video game… kind of like how $600 was too much for a console? Maybe not everyone has a badass HD home theater, required to read a game’s ‘HD’ text and listen to 5.1 sound effects?).

I really can’t see this current business model continuing into the next console generation. At one point a publisher’s REALLY going to do something fucked up in an effort to shore up sales, and consumers are gonna say “fuck that” and grind everything to a halt. It’s either that or publishers stay passive, without getting the money back from the games they put out.

Instead, what might end up happening in the future is attempt another hardware ‘refresh’ (like MS and Sony are attempting with that motion control crap) to spur interest in the public, before the real next gen consoles come along. OR, next-gen consoles are going to be lower-end, more cost-effective and slightly Wii-like. No matter what happens, when the new consoles are announced at E3 or wherever, the companies WILL make a pitch to not only consumers, but publishers as well, to make sure that dev costs are low and game sales can be maximized somehow.

End of my stupid rant

PS. I’ve been playing used games since the fucking 90s, because there’s nothing wrong with buying something that’s pre-owned. There’s no way I’d play as many games as I have if it weren’t for bargain bins at rental stores or Japanese 2nd hand shops. That’s just what a gamer is (or used to be) all about. Publishers act like if you don’t camp out at midnight for Smackdown vs Raw XLVIII you’re their enemy. I’m pretty sure publishers are more content with collecting profits than acting like Herpes-rashed assholes to consumers. But don’t blame us just because most people can’t, or don’t want to, buy every single game immediately.

Been waiting on this for awhile. The future trend is digital delivery anyway (even if it is a long way off from being the primary method).

People will bitch, but people bitch about everything. I want the publishers and developers to make more money and further develop the industry. And maybe people will be a little more careful about buying shit games because they can’t just trade them in.

Besides, when you buy a game with online play, you are buying a game and paying for a service. You own the game, but you don’t own the service. It used to irritate the crap out of me, but I get it now. I’m sure a lot of people are still bitter over this one, but that’s how it is. If you buy a game used and then play it online, you didn’t pay your shot for the service. So now, they aren’t going to let you access the service without paying.

Actually, in the grand scheme of things, property rights can have a huge number of limitations on them, and I’m sure SRK GD doesn’t care. So, yeah.

One thing is for sure- don’t give consumers too much credit. People buy shiny shit that looks cool. There are a ton of folks that successfully boycott… until the day of release.

The thing is that publishers have really done all they can about pirates…anything more extreme than the current blocks will generate bad-will towards the companies (see DRM). It’s not about publishers switching the blame, it’s about them switching focus. Game retailers are pushing used items hard and they are succeeding. Every used game sold is money the publishers didn’t get. I imagine someone might react to that statement with, “well, the game would not have sold at all because the price is too high,” but the price of games eventually drop on their own.

Also, Nintendo isn’t as concerned about piracy because of who they market their product to. Casuals and children are not going to have the know-how or the care to pirate games.

I think this is a good move cuz when you buy a game new, the profit is split between retailer, distributor, publisher, and developers, but when you buy a used game, gamestop is pocketing all of it. Developers only get a small portion of a game split at least 4 ways when purchased new compared to gamestop who’ll not only sell a used game for $5 less than a new one, but also profit when selling new anyway.

If developers wanna charge $10 to play online for buying used, I’m fine with it as it might force gamestop to lower their used game prices. Besides, if I buy used, I just get it off craigslist. Even with a $10 activation fee, it still comes out cheaper than gamestop.

I have bought used games before, but I say fuck Gamestop, I’m all for this.

So this means I have to go through more crap if I need to reinstall???

Do what you gotta do Game Industry just dont make my life harder.

Nintendo’s not as interested about piracy because they had a smarter, immediately profitable business model for their consoles (the tradeoff being weaker hardware than the competition), which resulted in better sales for themselves and 3rd parties. MS and Sony are kind of trying this model out with Kinect and Move, in an attempt to can spark new interest in their old hardware, and for software companies to dump lower-budget games on casuals.

Is it any more aggressive now than it’s always been? 2nd hand is a huge market in Japan-- has been for decades, and EB/Gamestop sold used games for their entire existence (since the 90s). The glaring difference now is-- unlike the past two gens, when publishers saw fantastic software sales on the consoles they put their games on (read: PS1 and PS2)-- all of the consoles have had lower software sales than they hoped, particularly in the face of rising dev costs. 360 and PS3’s initial high prices screwed everything up, and now publishers are fighting for scraps.

I can’t afford to buy many games these days but when I do buy used it’s usually on PS2 so this doesn’t really concern me as an individual.

For me…it’s not a big deal.
I generally buy my games new. Not like on launch day new…but not used.
Most of my new games I buy come from specials stores have.

You’re dealing directly with the console developers and not publishers (granted they are publishers too). Conceptually, it is a different ballgame because they create the hardware. They are the ones who decide what can and will be done with the consoles. They are indeed creating Kinect and Move in an attempt to reach the casual market and increase profits. This could cause a problem for “real” gamers, because it means more casual games and less core games. Really though…it has nothing to do with this topic.

There’s a direct relationship between console install base and software (1st and 3rd party) sales. When a console has a low user base, the big name games dominate software sales on the platform, and it’s harder for lower-profile games to sell well. 360 has sold okay but not PS2 level, and PS3 sold like crap until the price went down. Only recently has those consoles reached a mainstream user base, so now it’s easier for smaller games to enjoy profitable sales… but 3rd-party publishers have waited almost 4-5 years for this day. Kinect and Move will help (non-casual) 3rd-party sales if it helps move hardware units.

I might be steering off-topic, whatever, I’m out

THANK YOU.

Instead of EA and friends thinking about “how can we make money from our used games being sold”, they should be thinking “why are our games being sold back in the first place?” or “have we been spending more money and time on special graphics and features than on game play?”

The easiest way to prevent a customer from selling your product is to make it good enough to want to keep it, and to keep supporting it well after its release. If the game sucks, or just good enough for one solid runthrough, what’s the incentive to keep the game?

With the way technology costs have been going down, I hope the current gen sticks around for at least another 5 years. Companies have been working with the current gen for a while and should be familiar with the programming aspects, and it’s not like graphical features will increase noticably in the near future, so why should Sony and Microsoft be in a rush to create new consoles and start this crap all over again(except for Nintendo. They can use a bit more power in the Wii, but honestly they had the right approach this gen)? That way maybe we’ll get better games that cost less with faster development times and alot more innovation from companies who don’t want to take the risk right now.

Anyway, I don’t like the whole used game thing, and I would much rather have EA and Ubisoft look at themselves as the problem than the customers. But if they are going to do this, they better justify it with some god tier DLC.

lol some of the opinions in this thread make my head hurt…

I like how dlc hasn’t been fully realized as a means of benefitting gamers, yet it’s being used as a device to punish used game buyers.

I don’t buy used games, and I never have. Saving $5 has never been worth it to me. Still, I respect others’ rights to “destroy the industry” by doing so.

Ever buy a used car? Congratulations on putting Pontiac, Oldsmobile, AMC, and Saturn out of business. Dicks.

People sell their games because they want more games. Once you’ve finished a game, you can sell it and afford another game.

That is a great comparison because car companies are doing so well… In reality, it’s a good comparison because it’s true. At least car makers get money from part replacements.