That's what this is all about, piracy is a smoke screen so that the only way to play a companies game is to pay them directly.

I don't mind this, what's the big deal? If their prices suck I'll just not buy it. Then they will have to lower their prices to get me to buy it.

Second hand game sales are a big deal, it's not like reselling physical property. One copy of the game only makes lets say $20 in revenue after all expenses for the publisher. Imagine that copy going to Gamestop 5-10 times, being bought and resold. Now imagine that on a large scale. It's a huge problem because it's intellectual property that's being passed around, not technically a physical property. The media is inconsequential because it can be copied and reproduced.

I mean, I'm like you guys, I want to be able to sell my games too because thats money in my pocket. But surely you can see their point of view in this too, it's pretty valid to me.

EA is not the enemy in this, GameCrap is the one who only gives you a pititful amount of money for your games/consoles then turns around and sells them for a larger profit while still undercutting companies like EA.

Seriously EA is not the bad guy here for a change


This comment was edited on Aug 28, 17:48.

I have to agree, I mean look at say Gamefly's used games compared to Gamestop's prices.

5 bucks off a used game is bullshit considering the trade in value for the game is around 20 bucks.

Valve makes resale extremely unlikely by charging $10 to unregister a key for a game, it's possible to still resell it I suppose but valve still gets a cut with that $10 charge.

Do you know, what people do with Steam accounts? They trade account information! They make one account per game they buy on Steam. They sell the account login for a reasonable "used" fee to other people.

You CANNOT control this kind of trade. It' not possible. So don't even start ...

So buying a second hand game is equal to pirating huh? That does actually sound about right. I have never stolen a game in my life, but I have acquired many second hand.

FUCK EA that is total BS. I dont pirate games but if it ever came to the point that I could not resell my older games or buy them second hand I would have no problem with pirating.

R.I.P George Carlin 1937-2008

It has taken the morons in EA management this long to figure this out?

Though the game industry is growing, Lamestop is both gobbling up all the smaller local game retailers and making hhhuugggeee profits from selling "used" games.

Of course, EA is taking the completely wrong approach to this - looking at more DRM, authentication, nickel and diming for the smallest bits of game, etc.

The industry is growing and doing relatively well so it will not make any changes, but they do really need to look at issues affecting length, turnover, and pricing.

Lamestop and other companies are definitely whoring out the used game model (which is a separate issue - likewise ignored,) but the core flaw is actually with the developer and the overall model of game pricing...

In the the short term (5-10 years,) I guess the developers can move the whoring back to themselves by converting to purely digital delivery. Again, completely ignoring the core issue.
Completely unrelated, but I cannot wait for the day EA destructs.
Thinking this is a perfect case of stupidity in motion,
Ray

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Let me be the one to give credit where due: Current employees of Mythic are jerks.
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I love you, mom.

This isn't surprising to anyone is it? Devs have been bitching about game resales for a while now. DRM seems poised to take a real stab at knocking PC game resales off the map.

That's what this is all about, piracy is a smoke screen so that the only way to play a companies game is to pay them directly.

Every company wants to do this. Toyota would love to set prices on it's cars and never let people resell old ones, they realized this was realistic and decided to just build used car sales into their business plan.

If people keep accepting DRM with games there won't be a resale market at all. Companies will just refuse to let other people activate them after a certain point....like say... 3 installs?!

Valve makes resale extremely unlikely by charging $10 to unregister a key for a game, it's possible to still resell it I suppose but valve still gets a cut with that $10 charge.

I wondered how long before a major publisher would complain about this.

It's essentially the same to them as piracy. I.e. a person gets a copy without the publisher getting a dime for it.

You could make an argument that if you believe piracy is wrong, then you must too believe that buying a second hand game is wrong. They both have the same outcome, only different motivations and means.

But every industry is now dealing with this. Those expensive name brand purses and shit women buy? Yeah you can get them second hand for dirt cheap, but the companies who make it want you to buy this years new version.

There is a huge push to take away ownership rights from EVERYTHING. Soon you will not own anything, it will all be licensed to you.

He points out that games have a unique problem compared to most other goods sold on secondary markets because they do not degrade with use.

This guy is so full of BULLSHIT that he must 'squish' when he walks. WTF does this ass-hat think that book sellers have been putting up with for CENTURIES? You don't see major publisher pissing and moaning about 2nd hand book stores. But then publishers don't have a business model based on a captive and limited market where they can price gouge err... 'value add' their customers right to the poor house.

"In our understanding of the business model we are actually giving away the rights to play, and if you just pass it on, pass it on, pass it on, that is not comparable to second-hand sales in the normal physical goods area where you have physical wear-out - second-hand cars, second-hand clothes, second-hand books... they're all physically wearing out, so you have an inferior quality product."

And CDs and DVDs don't wear out either (not in the sense that he talks about) but you can still sell them on. Also, with computer games the graphics start to date as time progresses, which is the same thing as wearing out... you become less satisfied with what they do.

Ultimately EA wants to change the industry in order to make more money for themselves, which is understandable - what's not acceptable is that it comes at the expense of the consumer. At the end of the day if you don't want something and decide to sell it on to someone else then you should be able to.

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Founder of the "I Hate Smiley Fitz" society

Remember: Riley has autism. He has trouble communicating, and in an overstimulating
environment, he can get frightened and run away, leaving his parents frantic. - Auburn

Wait, so what they're saying is, if you provide bonus incentives, people will actually buy new games? Wow, who would have thought? I mean, it's not like this approach couldn't be applied to the PC market instead of resorting to ridiculous DRM measures...

That smell is EB/Lamestop shitting its pants. That's where a large chunk of their money is coming from right now.

edit: Not that I don't want EA/EB/Lamestop to all die in a fiery explosion together. Really, please, here's some matches and petrol, start playing.





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"The Bellic boys! Taking over your town, assholes!"
This comment was edited on Aug 28, 17:02.

No thanks, I'll just pirate it instead. Whoops! Let's hope this doesn't snowball into another one of those delightful 100 post threads!

What we're trying to do is build business models that are more and more online-supported with additional services and additional content that you get online. So people will see the value in not just getting that physical disc to play at home alone, but actually playing those games online and paying for them."

Let me rephrase what he is trying to say

Although $60.00 for the new Madden is obviously over priced, we don't want anyone reselling the game for less. We feel that we need to fully pad our pockets with money, so we are devising a way for the game to self destruct when it is put into a second non primary device. This way, everyone will be forced to buy the game at full retail price.

I think soon you will see a "fee" associated with adding a game to your online profile that isn't a fully executed original retail copy. ie: Game purchased from GameStop will require a 20.00 "reactivation" fee.

It isn't beyond the realm of possibility to have activation keys for consoles......

The cause of all these evils was the lust for power arising from greed and ambition; and from these passions proceeded the violence of parties once engaged in contention.
This comment was edited on Aug 28, 16:58.