Fable III Dev: Used Game Sales More Costly Than Piracy

eldavojohn writes "A developer working for Lionhead, the studio behind Fable III, told Eurogamer that piracy is 'less problematic' than used game sales, from a business perspective. Mike West, the lead combat designer for the latest Fable, said, 'For us it's probably a no-lose even with piracy as it is. But, as I say, second-hand sales cost us more in the long-run than piracy these days.' So downloading a game is bad, but apparently stopping by a second-hand store to pick up a licensed physical copy of the game ends up hurting them even more."

Comments

Don't tell the car companies

[MrEricSir]

Ford, Toyota, etc. would LOVE it if the only option was to buy new.

How is this exclusive to gaming?

[GFLPraxis]

Isn't this true of any industry? If I buy a used couch instead of buying it from the manufacturer, don't they take the same "loss"? It's amazing that now used games sales are being considered "loss" in the same manner as piracy.

Re:idiot analysis

[Nadaka]

No value is "lost" in the second hand market. A lot of people find buying a game for $69.95 to be ridiculous, and will never ever do it. Those "sales" are already "lost" because the producers are placing the price higher than the value. Make games a better value and you will get more sales.

Re:Steam vs. Retail

[JSBiff]

Funny you should bring up Steam in this discussion, since Steam is a blatant attempt, at least in part, to forever destroy the secondary game sales market. You can't transfer games from one account to another, and if you try to sell the account, and Valve catches you, they just ban the account forever and NO ONE ever plays those copies of the game again.

There was a story awhile back about Valve catching someone, and banning their account, which had something like $2000 worth of games on it.Flush. Watch it swirl down the drain.

Re:"License"

[SoftwareArtist]

The problem is that when you plunk out your money to buy the shiny new, it is not a sale. Legally, you're buying a "license" to use the game, which gives game companies the ability to dictate and/or change the terms of those license at their will.

Let me tell you a story. This story didn't actually happen in the real world. It only took place in a fantasy world that software companies wished they lived in.

I went into a store that sells software. (Pick your favorite - GameStop, Target, Office Depot, whatever.) They had lots of boxed software on the shelves. I selected the one I wanted, took it up to the register, and said, "I'd like to buy this." The cashier replied, "I'm sorry but that isn't for sale. If you'd like to license it, though, please read this agreement and sign here."

Like I said, that didn't really happen. Here's what actually happened.

I told the cashier, "I'd like to buy this," and they replied, "That will be $30." So I handed over my credit card, they scanned it, and I signed the receipt. Then they handed me the software back and said, "Here you are."

At this point, the sale was complete. The purchase agreement was concluded. So I took the boxed software (which I now owned, since it had legally been sold to me) home and opened it up. Inside was a piece of paper covered with tiny writing that I did not bother to read, since it obviously contained no information of value. But if I had read it, I would have discovered it to be mostly incomprehensible legalese. If I had then taken it to a lawyer, they could have translated it for me as follows: "You know that software you just bought? You didn't really buy it. You actually just licensed it, and if you want to use it, you have to agree to all these other terms we didn't tell you about before you bought it and before we took your money."

The only reasonable response, of course, is "@#$% you! I do not agree to any of your terms. Nonetheless, I will continue to use this software, because it belongs to me and I have every right to use it." A purchase it a contract. Once that contract is complete - once they have taken my money and given me the software - it's too late for them to rewrite the agreement and add in new terms.