GameStop Used Game Lawsuit

A lawsuit has been filed in the Northern District of California against GameStop, citing deceptive practices relating to used game sales. IGN has details on the suit, which stems from a customer buying a used copy of Dragon Age: Origins with the belief that additional DLC was available for free based on the cover blurb. Of course this DLC is part of the new trend intended to impede used-game sales, which the customer learned when they tried to get the DLC, which set them back an additional $15.00, making their final purchase price for the used game $10.00 more than the cost of a brand-new copy (that sound you hear is EA execs exchanging high-fives). IGN has a copy of the complaint in Adobe Acrobat-format, and an article on this on Gamasutra offers thoughts from an analyst saying that GameStop will probably be able to remedy this problem by affixing stickers to used games clarifying DLC availability.
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95.
 
Re: GameStop Used Game Lawsuit
Mar 27, 2010, 19:59
95.
Re: GameStop Used Game Lawsuit Mar 27, 2010, 19:59
Mar 27, 2010, 19:59
 
When you pirate a game without any money change, nobody gets any money. When you buy and sell used games, the makers and publishers of the games got money from the original sale.

But how many transactions have occurred since the original sale? How many times has the used game been bought and sold without the developers seeing any money?

One could just as easily argue that pirate groups buy the games they pirate. If that's the case, piracy is fine, amirite? After all, somebody paid for the game at some point so it doesn't matter how many people copy it.

I suppose we shouldn't buy or sell cars used either, and we should all demolish houses and build a new home every time we move. Oh but they degrade! Even if that was a valid point, the value of games decreases faster than houses or cars and many people prefer old houses to new ones.

That's a pretty terrible analogy. For one, cars and houses are very expensive and physically large things. Destroying and rebuilding them is costly and time-consuming process. Cars and houses also take up a lot of space. Games, on the other hand, are relatively cheap, easy to purchase and store. It is not unreasonable to expect someone to keep their games forever, whereas it is completely unreasonable to expect people to keep their old cars or homes forever. Houses and cars degrade over time and there are many unavoidable reasons why you would need to move or buy new ones. It makes no sense to keep your unused cars and houses forever because you'd have to continue paying for their insurance, maintenance, taxes and other miscellaneous fees. As such, selling your house or car is simply the most efficient and practical way of getting rid of it.

Conversely, there is no good reason to buy and sell your games used. Games are relatively cheap, they cost nothing to maintain, they don't degrade over time and are easy to store. If you buy and sell used games, it just means you're cheap and don't care about developers.

But since I won't pay you $60 if I get nothing of value in return then I guess I'll just start pirating?

So you don't consider the experience of playing the game to be worth anything? Is your definition of "value" limited to how much you can sell it for?

Buying games new is good, as developers are more likely to see that profit. However, if you turn around and sell your game, you're negating that benefit entirely. It means someone else was willing to buy the game but because you offered it for $10 less, they bought it from you instead of buying it new. You made money, the buyer saved money and the developer got screwed.

Because people who play your games and don't spend any money are a much better audience to target.

When you buy or sell used games, developers and publishers don't see any money. It's the same result as when people pirate games. Now, you can argue that someone did buy the game new at some point but again, that was one sale. If the game was resold 5 times after that, that's 5 sales where the developer and publisher didn't see a penny. Similarly, pirates often buy games before cracking and distributing them on the web. According to your logic, that one initial sale makes up for all the subsequent transactions where the devs didn't make any money.

This comment was edited on Mar 27, 2010, 20:06.
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