Buy Second-Hand Games, Stifle Creativity?

Thanks to GameSpot for its 'GameSpotting' editorial discussing why buying second-hand games could have a negative effect on videogame creators. The author points out: "You know, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft must have a real love/hate relationship with stores that stock used games alongside their new games [since buying used games doesn't give] the game developers, or the game publishers a thin, red cent. Instead, the retailer is enjoying a nice, fat profit margin, where the markup is in the neighborhood of 200 to 1000 percent." He goes on to argue: "Buying used is equivalent to the game not selling at all in the eyes of developers and publishers, and when games don't sell, they don't get sequels and excellent concepts and, therefore, opportunities are lost."

Comments

Stupid Arguement

[Seumas]

This is like saying that people who don't upgrade to the newest versions of Microsoft's operating systems are stifling Microsoft's "innovation".

In fact, the reason a lot of us return to older, used or retro games is precisely because of the lack of creativity, originality and evolution in modern games.

Additionally, games are expensive. $50 is more than a handful of books, a couple DVDs or a few CDs. If I'm a young person watching my budget, I'm going to buy used rather than dish out $50 for something that may be buggy, boring or otherwise disapointing. Or, like Far Cry and some other games I've played recently - great but without any player base and (as such) completely useless.

Like any other business, if you want customers to buy your latest and greatest, you need to keep your focus not just on the "latest" part of your development, but the greatest part, too.