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Livingstone: Used Games "No Benefit"

[Aug 20, 2009, 11:16 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

$40 For That Old Thing? How Used Games Are Priced on Kotaku.AU looks at how used games are priced, talking with several used game vendors, though industry leader GameStop was not willing to comment for their article. The simple economics of supply and demand are still in play, of course, and they examine how this is determined. On a related note, Retailers 'limit UK games market' on the BBC is a GamesCom conversation with a couple of publishers about games at retail and the secondary market (thanks GamesIndustry.biz). Koch Media's Georg Larch tells them digital distribution will help publishers deal with used game sales, while Eidos' Ian Livingstone says they still want to work with retailers because: "These aren't just shops, they are a marketing tool, a window into our world where software houses can display their wares." Of course some gamers buy games at full price only because they know they can later recoup some of that cost by selling games, and many gamers use the proceeds from selling their old games to buy new ones, but apparently Livingstone sees no value in this, saying: "The pre-owned market is a serious problem, because there is no benefit to developers or publishers."

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Re: Livingstone: Used Games

Aug 20, 2009, 11:52

Beamer

What's next, you shouldn't be able to sell your house, car, lawn mower?

Those are poor analogies.
A big part of the issue the industry has with used games is that it's GameSpot's primary source of income and GameSpot is making more money than the developers themselves.

Your analogies fall short because:
1) Houses are a static commodity. They remain in one place. They don't fit the comparison.
2) No major, publically traded corporation is founded on selling used cars or lawn mowers.
3) No one, period, is making more money selling used cars or lawn mowers than the company doing the hard work in creating them.
4) Cars and houses are large purchases that tend to need financing. It makes perfect sense that there are companies that exist solely to do these transactions. The amount of capital necessary, as well as space in the case of cars, makes it infeasible for many people to sell do these transactions alone.

GameStop is pretty much entirely unique. No other industry has had something like GameStop pop up. Not music, not movies - no one. GameStop manages to screw the industry as well as the customers, too, which is why their popularity is so confusing to me.

People can make the argument that Hollywood has prevented something like this from occuring, and severely damaged used sales, by reducing movie pricing from $99-$199 for a VHS tape in the 80s to $9.99 for a DVD. In large part, though, this is because DVD sales are supplements, not the main focus. And do you really want the creative juices of the game industry managed like Hollywood does theirs? It becomes about individuals as mercenaries rather than steadily employed teams, it becomes about tie-ins, reducing costs, cutting corners and making significant content decisions based on business deals rather than what will make the best product...




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