The slowly impending death of the used games market

WeasteDevil

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After EA.

Online Pass rewards game owners with a game-specific, one-time-use registration code for online services, features and bonus content. Each title-specific Online Pass may be used with upcoming releases of EA SPORTS simulation games on PlayStation®3 and Xbox 360®, beginning next month with Tiger Woods PGA TOUR® 11. The one-time Online Pass registration code comes included with each unit sold new at retail. Once redeemed, additional Online Passes will be available for $10. Fans also may sign up for a free 7-day trial to experience Online Pass. International pricing will be announced within territories in the near future.
“This is an important inflection point in our business because it allows us to accelerate our commitment to enhance premium online services to the entire robust EA SPORTS online community,” said Peter Moore, President of EA SPORTS.

Retailer GameStop has shown support of EA’s digital strategy by selling point cards with the purchase of new and used EA titles. “GameStop is excited to partner with such as forward-thinking publisher as Electronic Arts, “said Dan DeMatteo, Chief Executive Officer of GameStop Corp. “This relationship allows us to capitalize on our investments to market and sell downloadable content online, as well as through our network of stores worldwide.”


Moore continued, “We’re delighted that GameStop is offering their support of this program as a place for gamers to purchase points that provide access to downloadable content from EA at their stores and through their website.”
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Sony seem to now be doing it.

Dummy covers for White Knight Chronicles 2 on the PS3 have revealed something very interesting: To play the online mode in the game, players will have to activate a Geonet License on PSN. Each new copy of the game includes a single license code, and it is tied to a single PSN account. For gamers buying used copies, or those who want to use the online mode on more than one PSN account, they will have to purchase additional Geonet Licenses over PSN.
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Therefore, soon everyone will be doing this, in that if you buy a used game, you'll have to pump out another 20 quid to get the online features, probably even updates, which in certain cases could be mandatory. In a PS3 type environment there is no way of getting around this, and if it becomes the norm, you can probably say goodbye to the used game market altogether.

Do these publishers have the right to do this? I can think of no other physical product that you can't sell after you have bought it, as is your right. Imagine if you bought a Mondeo say with some sort of retina or fingerprint scanner, and then when you went to sell it, Ford wanted a grand off the purchaser to allow somebody else to drive it. Your wife wouldn't be allowed to drive the car without you paying them.
 
That's pretty astonishing, Weaste.

Places like Game and Gamestop will be left with shelves of all-but-worthless second hand games. The sales of new games will probably decrease as people often trade in other games to buy them.

And I can't see what these 'Premium Online Services' are. If I own a copy of say, Tiger Woods 2010, all I want from online is the ability to download updates etc, and to play against other people online. Everything else will just be forcing people to buy stuff they didn't know they needed/wanted until they bought it.
 
I wonder if there is any room for a legal challenge from consumers and/or retailers to prevent this action?
If the likes of Sony get away with this, what's to stop them from limiting online capabilities on used Consoles in a similar manner? A new software update which stops you from changing the psn account on the console for example?
 
I heard EA were doing this a while back, Mass Effect's add ons can't be accessed without a code, but not to the extent of this. Not allowing people to access certain parts of the normal game without a code is ridiculous.
 
The new UFC game has this. Who makes that? (Activision maybe)

I dont feel sorry for Gamestop at all. They buy 2nd hand games for pittance and sell them at about €5 less than if it was brand new
 
thats shocking
if i buy a game
its mine, i do whatever i want with it, if i want to lend it, or sell it to a mate for a fiver, i should be allowed!
 
:lol: As soon as that comes into affect, I'm moving to PC gaming and illegally downloading everything. Well played, money grabbing wankers.
 
I buy a shitload of used games from Amazon. I rarely buy new games, unless I really, really want them. If these codes are going to be required just to access online modes, I wouldn't be that bothered.
 
WeasteDevil said:
I suppose that for those that are not interested in online play, it will be a good thing, as it should bring the prices down.
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Should being the key word. We all know it won't happen.

I'm one of those that buys games I really want in the 1st week of release and then I pick other titles up when they go to £20-25, or buy them 2nd hand.

2nd hand trading will die a slow death. It's down to greed I suppose
 
Its other main objective seems to be hidden and that's to cut down on piracy.

Still, it's going to mean fewer purchases and fewer platinum games too as a result.
At least we won't be subjected to the amount of dross that was produced for the first two PlayStations.
 
I don't think it's going to kill the used games market. You can still buy the codes separately so I suppose if you wait long enough you can still get the games at a good discount.

Actually wouldn't this make the used game prices fall faster? Say the codes cost $10 and a new game costs $60. Nobody's going to buy any used game that costs between $50 and $60 if they want the features the code unlocks. The prices have to drop further than that.

I'm the type of guy that buys games early and then sells early after I beat the story mode and then if I really want to keep playing I'll buy it used again when it's much cheaper.
 
I don't know why everyone's blaming the developers. They've had their profits absolutely arsefecked by places like Gamestop. It costs a shitload of money to make a game, and they're now selling a third the number of games they used to because one person buys it and then sells it on. In that scenario they only make money from the very first sale, so if most people wait for it used then that's a lot of money they've lost out on.

The real criminals are Gamestop et al, who for the past four or five years have made an absolute fecking fortune for doing next-to nothing. They don't develop games, they just buy them off people for a low price and then sell them on for a slightly higher one.

I don't blame the developers for trying to stop someone else making more money off their own products than they do.
 
Count Duckula said:
I don't know why everyone's blaming the developers. They've had their profits absolutely arsefecked by places like Gamestop. It costs a shitload of money to make a game, and they're now selling a third the number of games they used to because one person buys it and then sells it on. In that scenario they only make money from the very first sale, so if most people wait for it used then that's a lot of money they've lost out on.

The real criminals are Gamestop et al, who for the past four or five years have made an absolute fecking fortune for doing next-to nothing. They don't develop games, they just buy them off people for a low price and then sell them on for a slightly higher one.

I don't blame the developers for trying to stop someone else making more money off their own products than they do.
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What do you think about used-car dealers? Or anything that deals in second-hand goods?
 
It will also kill the rental market.

Someone at Epic Games talked about these things a few years back, they were even suggesting that the end of the game one day will not be shipped on the disc, and would have to be downloaded with a once redeemable code in a similar fashion.

All of this of course will become irrelevant when DRMed to feck direct downloads replace physical media, however many people like having physical media.
 
jveezy said:
I mean I do understand the underlying assumption that it will make them money, but I wouldn't discount a drop in sales as a result either so couldn't it have an adverse effect? If the price for new games goes up, I'd be more willing to wait for the price to drop.
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this isn't the Green & Gold campaign, people will still buy games. Ten bucks for their target demographic isn't anything.
 
If that really is going to happen, that really sucks then. The prices of games here, I only afford about 1 or 2 per month and even that, used ones. I don't really have many, around 15 or 16 games only 2 I think I bought brand new and even then was the ones that I bought initially when buying the system.
 
Dr. Dwayne said:
this isn't the Green & Gold campaign, people will still buy games. Ten bucks for their target demographic isn't anything.
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Do you mean ten bucks for a code or ten dollars price increase?

I'm not even sure we're disagreeing anymore. :wenger: Obviously I'm not a remotely competent economist, but this seems to be similar to college textbooks.

There's less incentive to sell a book/game that you got cheap because you don't feel as much of a need to make up some of the money you lost. Not only that if the book/game was cheap to begin with, the used price has to be even cheaper, sometimes so cheap that it's not worth the trouble to sell. If the book/game is somewhat useful/fun, you might as well keep it. If it's of no use to you/you hate the game, you're probably going to sell it anyways regardless of what price you got it at. If you're trying to sell and nobody wants to buy at that price, you have to lower it.

From the buyer perspective, some people will still think the book/game is worth buying new even if the price keeps going up. They just have to have it. For other people the price reaches a certain point and you decide it's ridiculous and you'll find some other way, either buy used, buy an older edition and make do, or wait for the new price to drop (easier with games than textbooks), or if even the used games are too expensive, wait for the used price to drop. If there's an extra $10 charge tacked on to that, you wait a little longer. Or maybe you bite the bullet knowing that you'll sell the game used anyways.

I don't know what that added to the discussion. I'm just rambling about my thought process. Maybe I'm just stubborn and I'm sure I'll be able to get games for roughly the same price I'm getting now. It might include a longer wait time, but ultimately that's just my personal price point.
 
bill.s.preston said:
I wonder if there is any room for a legal challenge from consumers and/or retailers to prevent this action?
If the likes of Sony get away with this, what's to stop them from limiting online capabilities on used Consoles in a similar manner? A new software update which stops you from changing the psn account on the console for example?
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I don't think there is anything illegal about it, actually I think it is good business. Since when do the big coroporations give a shit about the consumer?
 
The UK has laws that outlaw planned obsolesence. I doubt it's much of a step to include incidences like this to protect consumers.
 
Alex said:
I don't think there is anything illegal about it, actually I think it is good business. Since when do the big coroporations give a shit about the consumer?
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It does qualify as good business, and there's no reason why a corporation should be forced to change to accommodate the sales of its used products.

Essentially everyone pays for online play and other features, but your fee is waived if you bought the game new. They're widening the gap between the benefits of the new game vs the used game.

It's up to consumers to decide whether it's worth it or not for themselves.
 
Grinner said:
The UK has laws that outlaw planned obsolesence. I doubt it's much of a step to include incidences like this to protect consumers.
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I don't really think that it falls under planned obsolesence Grinner, all they are doing is essentially packaging online rights into the game, such that the game still works after it is resold you just have to buy the internet rights for it. If you consider the game and the right to play it online as two separate entities which they surely do they are doing nothing wrong, they are just rewarding the purchaser for buying a new game by giving them online access for free. It does kind of suck for the consumer, but well life isn't fair.
 
It will kill the rental market - just yesterday I popped into the video store to get the new Splinter Cell to play with a mate on Xbox Live.

And the whole second hand sales killing the industry argument is bollocks, as if whenever someone buys something they're bound to hold onto it for life or OMG the manufacturer is suffering.

While I see the outrage here, I also don't see the big deal. PC Games have required CD keys to play online for more than a decade, often tied to a specific in game account.

Although to be fair it might polarise the used games industry (if it doesn't kill it) - Gametraders and the like might start charging more for used games that have their online activation unused (for example I've got Battlefield Bad Company,, but have never played it online. Likewise GTA4. Whereas Rainbox Six Vegas 2 and Saints Row 2 I have played online).
 
To be fair it's really a switch from an incentive based approach that we've seen become prevalent these last few years (those one use pre order online content tokens that get you extra skins/weapons/characters or whatever, which anyone that buys it second hand wouldn't get) to a punitive approach (if you want the full game second hand then pay up to the devs).
 
WeasteDevil said:
How on earth are they supposed to check if it has been activated online or not?
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Well it's a traded in game. Currently they check whether it's working before they put it back up for sale so it would probably be part of that. Presumably there'd be some kind of prompt screen or something when you try to connect to Live/PSN that either says "This game has been registered with another user profile", or "Do you accept the terms of the online registration for this game" or whatever. The latter meaning obviously that it hasn't been registered (and thus allowing the second hand games dealers to slap a premium on it).

If the registration was invisible or silent it would really be a massive dick move, as opposed to a standard dick move.
 
so you wont even be able to lend games to people either, well not if they want to play online
 
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