Famicom Dojo Podcast: Used Games Are Not Evil

by Sean "TheOrange" Corse, filed in Famicom Dojo Podcast, Podcasts on Dec.16, 2011

With a slow shift to digital-only content, and the inability to share such content like you would lend a book or a disc, and publishers deliberately devaluing their game content through the use of activation codes and central server authenticaion, will there ever come a time when used games become a thing of the past? Sean and Vinnk explore why console games cost so much, why iOS games cost so little, and the ruin that would be visited upon the gaming industry if no one could lend out their games or buy used ones ever again.

Direct Link: Famicom Dojo Podcast 31: Used Games Are Not Evil

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Tags: Gamestop, iOS, NES, Nintendo, Super Potato

Anonymous

The problem with GameStop isn’t so much the used game sales (as those have always been around), but more that the primary location of getting new games is no longer trying to sell you new games. �How can we expect people to buy new games when the #1 place to go get new games is trying their hardest to convince you not to buy them? �That has to be extremely frustrating for game publishers.

Crade Lit

Thats just because thats what people want, and the reason they want that is because games often only give you value for a couple weeks or so, and lots of people want to sell them quickly after they buy them to recoup some cost, and that means there are a lot of used games available.� You would think this might be a problem, except that used games don’t fall from the sky, they are all new games that someone has purchased before new and resold because they don’t want anymore.� There are lots of used games because they sold lots of new games that people didn’t feel were worth keeping longer than 2 weeks (or whatever).
It’s the same with books or anything else, the market can support X thousand copies, once the X thousand copies are out there, they are out there and they are going to circulate around so you aren’t going to be able to sell many more new ones and you have to make a new book.� Thats kinda just how it (should) work in my eyes and I think the publishers are just greedy and they want people to not be able to recoup any of the cost after the 2 weeks is up.�

Anonymous

I know that there’s only so much demand, but it becomes a problem because GameStop is dictating what that demand is. �If GameStop runs out of new copies of a game, they likely won’t order any new copies even though there is still a demand for them. �There are certainly people who want to buy new-ish games used to save a few bucks — and there’s nothing wrong with that — but there are also plenty who would prefer to buy it new but cannot because GameStop will not order sufficient new copies.

Crade Lit

Well certainly doing things like opening the new games so there is even less benefit to buying new is underhanded, but�no matter how hard they try,�they can’t push used games sales without�new games meeting the supply.

Personally, I think gamestop is a stupid place to buy and especially sell�used�games since we have ebay, and I think if the publishers want less used game sales they should focus on�making games that people want to keep longer.

http://www.famicomdojo.tv/ Sean “TheOrange” Corse

Is GameStop REALLY the #1 place to get new games?

Anonymous

Maybe not, that was an assumption on my part. �Anecdotal evidence would certainly point me to that, but I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that it’s actually Walmart or something.

Crade Lit

I feel special now!� Now I will comment even more and have even longer semi-relevent rantings! 🙂

Anonymous

Did I pronounce “Crade Lit” correctly.

Crade Lit

Yeah, Crade is my character from an old MUD of course :)�Along with Chalk Lit, Drop Lit and Kew Lit (I was like 12 at the time)

http://twitter.com/pk_gojira Ryan Huehne

If you really want a reader’s digest version of Persona 4, you could always watch the anime version that’s airing right now. It’s being streamed on Hulu (America) a day or two after it airs in Japan.� While it follows the game’s plot to the letter.� I’d still recommend the game because half of the fun was making your own decisions on when and how to do things.� But it’d take only 8 hours or so to blow through it versus the 72 it took me to complete the game.� It also has kind of a slow start.� I didn’t get to the first battle until about 5 hours in. �� If it saves you time, I wouldn’t bother with Persona 3 (FES or PSP).� While they’re good, I didn’t find it as fun as Persona 4.� It 4 does take place in the same world as 3, but the plots don’t really have anything to do with each other.� I found the characters in Persona 4 to be a lot of fun, while the characters in Persona 3 seemed to always have a stick up their butt (and some of the voice acting was dreadful.� The voice acting in Persona 4 was pretty solid.)
Christopher Cantrell

Sean, you’ve not watched The Walking Dead??? Heresy. I order you to check them out immediately and report back.

I’m happy to buy used games when the quality is at or near new. I won’t touch one of those GameStop generic cases with a 10 foot pole though. To me Gamefly is where I prefer to buy used most, as they come with all original materials. After that I find that if I just wait long enough, I can still get modern games new at a very low price, usually in the $5 to $10 range during sales. I have a big enough backlog to keep me far behind in releases and the games are just as good when I get to them. Also, it allows me to fund my retro game collection.

When games go all digital, I think I will spend much less than I do now. As you discussed, I’m just not going to regularly pay $60 to own nothing. I guess at that point they’ll be nothing left for me to do but go back and check out old used games, and the publishers will be the ones losing out.

The game store thing? My interest is piqued.
Christopher Cantrell

Sean, you’ve not watched The Walking Dead??? Heresy. I order you to check them out immediately and report back.

I’m happy to buy used games when the quality is at or near new. I won’t touch one of those GameStop generic cases with a 10 foot pole though. To me Gamefly is where I prefer to buy used most, as they come with all original materials. After that I find that if I just wait long enough, I can still get modern games new at a very low price, usually in the $5 to $10 range during sales. I have a big enough backlog to keep me far behind in releases and the games are just as good when I get to them. Also, it allows me to fund my retro game collection.

When games go all digital, I think I will spend much less than I do now. As you discussed, I’m just not going to regularly pay $60 to own nothing. I guess at that point they’ll be nothing left for me to do but go back and check out old used games, and the publishers will be the ones losing out.

The game store thing? My interest is piqued.
BumblebeeZ3

Used games may not be evil, but it will take me a while before i can shop at Gamestop again, just based on a personal experience where they sold most of my games which had been stolen before the police finally got around to doing something.
That being said, I’m thankful for the used option, as I’ve been able to snag replacements for some at a decent price through Amazon, I just have to pay careful attention to the description to make sure that it has everything.� I used to have the case for every single DS game I had.� Now I have about 4 or 5 where the case was stolen. (I’m just thankful I still have those games.)

I think Wonderfalls actually had a decent wrap up, even if it didn’t answer all the questions.
There are certain games that I will buy new on day of release( a new Ace Attorney game, Soul Calibur, a new Suda 51 game.) most others i will wait for a sale or some other deal.� The main factors in me buying a game new on day of release is that it is from a known quality source, be it a franchise or producer, or that it provides a unique experience that intrigues me(and even then it sometimes winds up on my backlog if it comes out at the same time as another game/ or while I’m in the middle of another game.)
Hamad Ayed

�games when the #1 place to go get new games is trying their hardest to
convince you not to buy them? �That has to be extremely
?????? 2012 �frustrating for
game publishers

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