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Microsoft Asks If You'd Be Happy With Selling Back Digital Xbox One Games For 10% (windowscentral.com)
An anonymous reader writes: A recent survey from Microsoft has asked the community whether or not they would want a feature allowing them to sell back their digital games, just like you would a physical disc at GameStop. Unfortunately, the trade-in price for said digital content is 10-percent of what you paid at the point of purchase in store credit. While this is just a survey and doesn't mean the feature is coming to the Xbox platform, it does show Microsoft is actively pursuing the idea.
I'll sell the used Discs for 50% of what I paid easily on craigslist. and I get cash and the game sold within minutes.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
But ten percent of nothing is still nothing.
IN SOVIET RUSSIA, digital game sell back YOU!
First post, da?
As long as you're participating in this digital marketplace in which items, once purchased, have absolutely no resale value, I'd say that 'selling' them back to Microsoft for 10% of the purchase price is better than the nothing that you could otherwise get. I'm sure there are people out there who could recoup hundreds of dollars by shutting off their access to old games that they don't play anymore. I assume this would be in the form of store credit, and they could then buy access to new games with it.
But that's not going to happen, is it?
Even Gamestop used to give $10-15 back for a new game... MS's 10% would be $5 on a $50 game. $5 isn't very tempting, the idea is that you use the money to buy more new games. I don't think MS realizes their $5 won't get someone far in buying a new game to replace the ones they'd have to trade in.
we are all invisible unless we choose otherwise
The ulterior motive here is basically transparent if you look at the wording. There is not an option for "10%? Don't insult me". There is just "no". I'm sure people would be willing to get refund on digital games if the refund amount was pro-rated based on how long you've had it. 10% across the board is ludicrous.
That's comically low. 50% would be a more realistic start, considering you can't actually loan them out to friends or whatever. Or better yet, why don't we start pricing digital goods at a lower price point than the retail copies and call it a day? Day 1 AAA title for $39.99 digital delivery would be great, even knowing I couldn't trade it or loan it.
I never buy games new, I wait a couple months then buy the game off craigslist for half price. Play it, then sell it for half what I paid.
10%? I can go to Game Stop and get really old games for that.
That said, there are some old games I play now. Talking about MW3 (MW2-MW3 was the peak of CoD, for whatever reason Ghost/BOPS{2|3}/Modern Warfare don't hold my interest), Civilization Revolution. Every couple months I pop GTA V in just to drive around and see what I can see.
Do you expect to sell a used copy of NCAA 2006 today for 50% of its original value?
Yeah, I know. M$ hasn't exactly bent over backwards to honor that.
So it's either that.... Or nothing at all, like what PC gamers have been enjoying since the very beginning...
Just take that 10%, it's better than nothing.
I'd be happy with you crashing and burning and never making another version of Windows ever again.
Hey Microsoft, can I buy used digital download Xbone games from my friend instead? Or sell them to my friend for the 10% you are offering me?
I'll give them the 100% retail markup, even though that's more than normal digital markup, but no more. I'm not going to have a situation like university bookstores where I sell the game and get 10% and the charge the person buying it 90% or some shit. You decide what you want to charge people for the used market, and give me half. I'll accept that. You get more greedy than that and I'm not interested.
the trade-in price for said digital content is 10-percent off what you paid at the point of purchase in store credit.
FTFY
I'd be happy if they just let retailers sell digital games the same way they let them sell physicals. Best Buy's GCU and Amazon Prime both give me 20% off on new games. I would LOVE to go all digital but that's a steep price difference, especially when the digital edition doesn't have the added costs of being pressed, packaged, and shipped.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
This is just a trial balloon to see how many people will be willing to sell their Microsoft stock for ten cents on the dollar.
That's worse than gamestop's trade in value for when most people are "done" with games. It won't give me an incentive to buy digital over physical.
Twinstiq, game news
DOS, 3.1, 95, 98, 98SE, XP Pro x2, 7, and 8? Now that I've moved on to a stable OS (Linux) I have no need for them.
Answer yes to the survey. Then, when MS has invested in the infrastructure to make it happen, give them the finger and tell them if they want you to participate they better up the offer to 50%. Then they can decide whether to call it a loss or make a sensible offer.
It's not like you lose anything. But you can make them lose little or lots.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Asked and answered. NEXT?
There is no need to pay for physical media and shipping costs they said.
The cost of games will go down with digital markets.
How's that working out for you?
Where basic norms of ownership and resale no longer apply because ...um... technology...yea that's it...technology..
As the old saying goes freedom isn't free. Either be prepared to constantly assert your rights and protest/vote with your wallet or get used to being treated like cattle. Your choice.
I misread the title at first, thinking they wanted to buy back the Xbox itself. My first thought was "No, I got 33% of the refurb/retail-used price by donating it to Goodwill and taking the tax deduction."
And my kids grades are slightly higher. Win-Win.
I think not...(*poof*)
I'd rather see an open market for digital games that sees Microsoft competing with other sellers. That defeats the purpose of the digital walled garden, though. Poor, poor millennials. They'll never know what it was like to own property, real or intellectual.
It's past time for them to switch their software to ODF.
Damn, I missed that Digital icon! Good to see you back, DEC!
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IF MS actually wanted their system to go all digital, the way to do it is to not be money hoarding assholes and accept that the digital distribution of games costs them nothing and act as facilitators only (I am paying for my broadband and for their servers/bandwidth with my annual XBLA Gold subscription, which is more than steam gets from me) . If they let developers sell games at the same profit as they get at the retail stores, developers would still make $25/game for a AAA game, and you could buy the digital only game with no resale value for... you guessed it: $25. Now day one at that price point, it would make a lot more sense for me and the majority of gamers to go all digital and accept the more limited "ownership" that that involves. But $5 off of a $60 game?!? get the fuck out of here with that nonsense!
I have both a PS4 and Xbone, only got the Xbone to play with friends, and got it at $225 deep discount lost leader deal because I boycotted Xbone for a year over the Kinect and initial digital only bullshit MS tried to pull pre-launch. So far I have only the free marketplace games and physical disc games that I can sell if I feel like it. If MS tries to go all digital downloads mid console life, I will sell that thing and every game I have for it. It is nothing more than a money grab by MS. The Steam model is far more realistic, allowing developers to set their prices based on how many copies they want to sell and steam gets a fixed % cut. This allows games to be realistically priced when they are digital downloads that you can't sell or trade. The developers can take that into account with their prices, because I sure as hell do. I will never pay $60 for a AAA title on Steam for the simple reason that it is just too much for digital only "ownership". I have over 750 games on Steam, many AAA titles, but I pick them up during sales, when the prices are reasonable for a digital only purchase.
MS on the other hand just wants as much fucking money as possible and they apparently don't give a shit about consumer experience, actual ownership, etc. This has always been a thing with MS, but for a long time their Xbox division stayed away from this bullshit because some very smart people told Bill Gates (yes he was around for the original Xbox, he inspired the "duke" controller) and the top management that while MS had de facto monopolies in software and OS, they had real competition and would get their asses handed to them in the gaming sector. Seeing that PS4 has 36 million installed units and Xbone has 19 million, yeah, pretty much that is what is happening (that's 2:1 for those who struggle with math).
Lets be honest, digital games cost ~$0.25 per download in server capacity/bandwidth, and half of that I pay for with my monthly broadband bill and the other half I pay for with my XBLive gold membership making the games basically free for M$. Compare that to physical disc games, which are closer to $5/disc game. Consider that a retail location has a 100% markup because they have to have shelf space, a physical location, customer service employees etc., so the retailer makes $30 and the publisher/developer get to split $25. MS is trying to pocket the $30 retailer cash, and the $5 physical copy cash for a digital download that costs them absolutely nothing and is much less useful to the consumer than a disc copy, because all the AAA titles on XBLA are still $60 when I can go and buy them on Amazon for $40 or get a used copy from Ebay or Craigslist for $25... It makes no sense and this kind of stupid Harvard MBA asshattery will only drive customers away. Here is a question for the MS MBA asshats: how much will you make off of your walled garden DRM zero customer rights overpriced game sales when my Xbone is gathering dust while I play PS4 and Steam games? Here is a hint: it is 0% of $0.00...
10 % sell back is about what I see for 'analog' books. I am not that big of a fan of sell back for books or games, but maybe the idea that you could transfer the ownership of a digital 'property' for a 10% fee is one that I think would really be cool. I routinely share the books I purchase with family members so we each get 3 times as many books to read, and I get exposed to some authors and subjects that I would not normally try myself.
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
K-K00L.
While I think the figure would have to be more like 20% at least for me to really make use of it I don't think there is much wrong with the core concept. Buying games digitally is bloody convenient but it is a little off-putting when you pay the same as you would for the physical copy (if not more!) but have no chance to reclaim anything on it if you hate the game or just burn through it pretty quickly. It certainly raises my threshold for an impulse purchase game, which is a shame since impulse purchases are the IMHO the best target for digital buys. Knowing that I could recycle at least part of that cost into another game would make me more likely to give something I'm not fully sold on a try.
Some kind of open marketplace for digital copies wouldn't really work as a business model really - since a "second hand" copy would be identical to a new one there would just be a massive reduction in sales of "new" copies. What I think could work would be some sort of loan system where you could lend a game to a friend for a week, this would be relatively easy to police and may well result in increased sales as if the person borrowing the game likes it enough they may well buy their own copy.
Why not charge 10% less for digital download and everyone (except B&M retailers) are happy.