How to kill gamestop and protect game devs
polycounter lvl 18
Here is my little brain fart/saopbox...
How Digital distribution can kill the brick in mortar stores like gamestop with out killing game devs.
The key is resale. Take a systems like steam where you can buy games digitally, and allow people to sell their game back at percentage of the rate that the game is going for at that time. They key is to then put the "used" games back up for sale but in a "used" games section where they can't be sold back. The used games would be cheaper than the new but be more than the amount payed to the previous owner.
An example would be a gamer buys a game for $60 and finishes it and then sell it back to steam for $15 a 25% return. Steam then adds the game the used section for $30. Steam makes $60 off the game still and provides a used game service that doesn't hurt the devs.
Another example would be a gamer buys a game for $60 and keeps it for a year then sells it back to steam, but the price on new copy's has dropped to $30 so gets $7.50 back for it. Steam then adds the game to the used section for $15. Steam still makes $60 off the game.
/end pointless soapbox
How Digital distribution can kill the brick in mortar stores like gamestop with out killing game devs.
The key is resale. Take a systems like steam where you can buy games digitally, and allow people to sell their game back at percentage of the rate that the game is going for at that time. They key is to then put the "used" games back up for sale but in a "used" games section where they can't be sold back. The used games would be cheaper than the new but be more than the amount payed to the previous owner.
An example would be a gamer buys a game for $60 and finishes it and then sell it back to steam for $15 a 25% return. Steam then adds the game the used section for $30. Steam makes $60 off the game still and provides a used game service that doesn't hurt the devs.
Another example would be a gamer buys a game for $60 and keeps it for a year then sells it back to steam, but the price on new copy's has dropped to $30 so gets $7.50 back for it. Steam then adds the game to the used section for $15. Steam still makes $60 off the game.
/end pointless soapbox
Replies
I really would prefer legislation banning used game sales or better yet forcing the exact same ratio of profits going to the developer as if it was a new sale.
well, then again, i guess if the amount of "used" games is exactly the number of games users sell back to steam then it would make sense.
but this is flawed. why buy a new copy at all? its cheaper to get a used copy and then just delete it after.
if anything, they should take a hint from runic and sell the games cheaper... get rid of the hard copies all together, then just sell every game online through a secure program like steam, but sell them for 30 or 40 bucks. each copy only costs them something like 7 bucks to make anyways. thats why so many companies give such a good discount to employees (example, EA.. every game is 20 bucks that they make)
I think Blizzard and Valve have it right again with this one. Each copy of the game is linked to a Log-in ID to Steam or Battle.net.
No reselling because it's linked to that account.
Selling your account is a different matter.
A "used" game can't be resold, so its half the price of a new one. It's used because the money from the sale will never see the hands of the developer.
I guess another way to look at it is, two types of game tiers. The first tier is full price games that can be returned for a fraction of the cost. The second tier would be games that are half price and can't be returned. Games returned would move into the second tier.
slipsius,
Thank you for catching that! brain farts with brain farts in them!
So i guess the better example would be first sale 60, returned for 25, and resold for 30. they make 65, and the gamer if he buys it again only spends 65...
There's always someone who want's the "new" product experience, the new car, the new bike everything works nothing's broken or worn down. With games they don't need to buy a new one to get that experience which means those people you would typically rely on actually buying the new product don't necessarily do.
Bravo, I see somebody has some sense. Not that I don't support game devs wanting to sell products new and make a profit. Used sales have been around a lot longer than the game industry, and those other industries have survived. 90% of my games library is used, not because I want to hurt the industry, but because my desire to play and enjoy so many of the games made each year is bigger than my wallet.
Having said that, I do not agree with the tactics the likes of gamestop use, (like new releases used copies at 90% of the price and forced on the customer in place of a full new copy.) At the same time I know there is very little profit margin in new games sales, and staying competitive with larger department stores where the prices can be dropped and profits made elsewhere is tricky.
The flaws in the strategy of the first post have been discussed, I personally dislike digital distribution. I'd happily work for a company that publishes it's titles through the likes of steam, but as a consumer I would not buy it that way. I prefer hard copies and b&m stores, I don't like that everyone desires its death especially with all the layoffs and shut-downs of studios of late. Do we need all of those people who run those stores out of a job too?
I don't get how "buying used digital content" would work, maybe offer a buy back but I dunno.
Don't you think that there might be a few less layoffs if it was more likely that a game would return a profit? With less used games being put in front of new ones more new games would be sold. The safer the investment the more investors. The more investors the more the industry grows.
00zero,
thats why i buy movies, same joy at a fraction of the cost...
But it's ok if you guys don't agree with me since I don't currently work in the industry, I don't deserve a soapbox of my own. But I do work casually in retail: selling games. (new ones, my store has no used titles.) But they don't sell very well, something about being too expensive even though they are at RRP.
Online distrubution or some kind of direct download from distributors is the best solve for this issue and makes the most sense (if we don't have to deplete physical resources to deliver the ability to play a game to someone, why should we?)
With data storage being as versitile as it is today, I'm really surprised that games are still sold as discs with packaging and shipping costs etc.
Seems to make more sense to just sell "memory cards" (a portable hard drive for your console or whatnot capable of storing many games) and sell downloads of the games that include serial numbers and whatever kind of data duplication protection is needed (include a download inventory that is automatically kept track of at store locations or online to insure nobody is downloading things for free.)
I do have feelings on the whole game developers wanting the profits off of used game sales but it'd take too long to explain even though my logic is simple so I'm keeping my opinion on it out.
Don't they call that good business? Personally I like those deals...better than nothing. Maybe Gamestop are the bad guys in the US, but here in the EU they rock. They are always 5 euro or more cheaper than GAME. Also their console deals are better.
honestly I think the way gamestop pushes pre-orders and used down your throat is disgusting, pre order or we wont have enough copies to sell. especially when there is a best buy within the same block for me with hundreds of copies of the game without having to pre order shit.
I used to work for EB so i know its not the employees fault, they are bullied into pushing that crap. from my 3 years of working for them before i got a industry job I learned a lot about their weasle tactics. like only sending 10 non pre order copies of the game so it makes people pre order from them next time. and sending a memo to tell employees to lie/explain that to customers to "protect them from dissapointment"