Developers standing up to gamestop ?

[assen]

You know what I call a nice example of "added value", the Burnout updates. No hassle, no serials, no fuss.

But the Burnout free expansions are a measure against the second-hand market! They give you an incentive to keep the game instead of selling it, because you know there is cool stuff coming up in a few months.

Our own experiments with downloadable (paid) expansions is that they do little in terms of sales themselves, but they revitalize the sales of the original game and help keep it full-price much longer than a game without expansions; I can see how free DLC would make sense.

 

[Tap In]

But the Burnout free expansions are a measure against the second-hand market! They give you an incentive to keep the game instead of selling it, because you know there is cool stuff coming up in a few months.....

yep and they also dropped the retail price after 9 months to lower than the used price, As well as offering it as a DL game on PSN so new buyers can take advantage of that new free content at a value (new) price... good strategy IMO.

 

[BRiT]

PC games have had serial keys for ages, what do you mean?

I mean when you purchase a PC game, you get a serial key that is used to download ALL OF THE CONTENT (main game). Nothing is included with the purchase but a one-time use key.

 

[eastmen]

They can allways create a key that is activate once but if you want to sell your game you can pay a small deactivation fee and then sell it .

 

[woundingchaney]

They can allways create a key that is activate once but if you want to sell your game you can pay a small deactivation fee and then sell it .

Would not work.

I personally cant see every Gamestop or pawn shop checking the validity of the serial key prior to purchase to make sure that the original owner has paid the suggested deactivation fee. The second hand customer would then be going through an ordeal of russian roulette on whether or not his copy contains the right to receive the upgrade or not.

Though regardless of the deactivation fee this russian roulette would still be in effect because not every console owner has them connected to the net or cares about playing online. Realistically the "used" market is going to be split when buying a title using this method the game may or may not come with all of the content upon purchase (depending of course on whether or not the activation key has been used by the original purchaser).

 

[Shifty Geezer]

If activation keys came on cards with that scratch-off silver coating or similar, you could easily know whether the code was valid or not. The 2nd hand market would then have a two-tier pricing for copies with and without codes.

 

[eastmen]

Would not work.

I personally cant see every Gamestop or pawn shop checking the validity of the serial key prior to purchase to make sure that the original owner has paid the suggested deactivation fee. The second hand customer would then be going through an ordeal of russian roulette on whether or not his copy contains the right to receive the upgrade or not.

Though regardless of the deactivation fee this russian roulette would still be in effect because not every console owner has them connected to the net or cares about playing online. Realistically the "used" market is going to be split when buying a title using this method the game may or may not come with all of the content upon purchase (depending of course on whether or not the activation key has been used by the original purchaser).

Your already taking a chance on it working. Places like gamestop give you a 7 day warrenty but after that your sol.

Also the deactivation can work on either console, the original owner or the new owner. If someone gets the code with a disc and puts it in their system and pays $5 to deactivate it and recativate it on their console , the game on the original console will no longer work.

Its not a hard system to set up

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Using that same logic, we should outlaw reselling of everything, including cars, houses, boats, appliances, clothes, books, movies, and music. You name it, you should not be able to resell it.

A used car is quite different from a new car; a used software is theoreticly identical, although the DVD disc might suffer some degradation. Thus a used car cannot replace a new one, but a used game can easily replace a new one.

 

[obonicus]

A used car is quite different from a new car; a used software is theoreticly identical, although the DVD disc might suffer some degradation. Thus a used car cannot replace a new one, but a used game can easily replace a new one.

That doesn't make much sense. How doesn't a used car replace a new one, exactly? If you were to instead talk about how car manufacturers make money on parts and services even on used cars you'd have a better point, as that's closer to what EA is doing here.

 

[AlphaWolf]

I think the point is that as long as a CD/DVD (code) functions it is as good as new. Objects wear out, software for the most part does not.

You could argue however that software loses value over time as competing products out perform it. This is especially true of many of the sports type games which are replaced by better (well newer anyway) versions every year. ie Deus Ex is one of my favorite games ever, but if it only just released today at $50 I don't think anyone would be buying it. It just doesn't look as good as new games anymore. This certainly makes them seem better when new.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Exactly. You don't expect to spend on, say, suspension parts or a gearbox when you get a new car, but if it's got a hundred thousand kilometers in it, you may need to set quite some money aside. Whereas you may buy a used game at half the price and be relatively confident that you don't have to spend any more to play it as long as you want to.

 

[woundingchaney]

Your already taking a chance on it working. Places like gamestop give you a 7 day warrenty but after that your sol.

Also the deactivation can work on either console, the original owner or the new owner. If someone gets the code with a disc and puts it in their system and pays $5 to deactivate it and recativate it on their console , the game on the original console will no longer work.

Its not a hard system to set up

The problem is whether or not Gamestop employees or any resale employees are going to check to see whether the code is still active, reenacted, or void. Given that the code could add a considerable amount of value to the purchase for a consumer. The estimate value as of this code at this time is 20 usd which is a considerable portion of a title that will resale for 20-55 usd. Gamestop not checking the activation code is not a viable option on their end or at least it wouldnt be for a reputable resale. Consumers purchasing used console titles and taking a chance of getting a large amount of content with purchase or else having to pay for in addition is not something that is going to sit well with their customers.

As mentioned by Shifty a silver scratch card would be the easiest way to check to see if the inbox code has been used in order to set up a tiered resale system. Though given that this system is at least partially set up to limit the resale market I cannot see why such a system would be put in place to begin with. I personally expect a simple key code on the manual that is to be inputted in order to get the extra content (much like the pc key code system), and its not as if it is easily recognizable if this key has been used or left unused with this system.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Though given that this system is at least partially set up to limit the resale market I cannot see why such a system would be put in place to begin with.

Neither do I. The whole point of this strategy is to devalue the used-game market. Enabling people to resell the value compeltely defeats the point of using codes in the first place!

 

[nintenho]

In gamestop, you could actually go and see the CD keys for computer game boxes on the shelf. I don't think this system would work but the only way that it could is if they had scratch-off cards like somebody else suggested. I think it's screwed up to charge more than 5-10 dollars considering that's the most any map or song pack costs.

 

[eastmen]

The problem is whether or not Gamestop employees or any resale employees are going to check to see whether the code is still active, reenacted, or void. Given that the code could add a considerable amount of value to the purchase for a consumer. The estimate value as of this code at this time is 20 usd which is a considerable portion of a title that will resale for 20-55 usd. Gamestop not checking the activation code is not a viable option on their end or at least it wouldnt be for a reputable resale. Consumers purchasing used console titles and taking a chance of getting a large amount of content with purchase or else having to pay for in addition is not something that is going to sit well with their customers.

Gamestop checks nothing. they don't check the rock band disc to see if it works , they don't check the rock band guitar to see if it works. They just take it back. They do that because they offer such low prices that if 1 out of 20 don't work they still make many times more profit than they loose out on broken things.

Rock band 1 gives you a $12 credit. It sells used for $40 (the price of rockband 2 may have affected this) Last time I checked they gave $10 for a used rock band guitars and sell them for $35.

The consumer will simply bring back the faulty one and gamestop will replace it. If gamestop sells a used game with a code claiming it will work they will simply have to take back the non working codes.

As mentioned by Shifty a silver scratch card would be the easiest way to check to see if the inbox code has been used in order to set up a tiered resale system. Though given that this system is at least partially set up to limit the resale market I cannot see why such a system would be put in place to begin with. I personally expect a simple key code on the manual that is to be inputted in order to get the extra content (much like the pc key code system), and its not as if it is easily recognizable if this key has been used or left unused with this system.

The scratch off can work. Anyway i don't see a problem with adding value to new purchases. Rockband gives you another 22 songs for free and the disc based songs are in line with past releases on the market. So I don't see this as a bad thing. I don't see the gears of war thing as bad either seeing as how the game already has a comaprable amount of maps vs the original game.

These are just extras that you can get for free when you buy it new or pay for if u buy it used.

In gamestop, you could actually go and see the CD keys for computer game boxes on the shelf. I don't think this system would work but the only way that it could is if they had scratch-off cards like somebody else suggested. I think it's screwed up to charge more than 5-10 dollars considering that's the most any map or song pack costs.

Well the cod4 map pack was $15 bucks I beleive.

 

[wco81]

So has DLC generated a lot of revenue or mostly PR?

If DLC is generating significant revenues, then this gambit might hit retail. But I don't see too many people paying $20 for what is a glorified roster update. Do you need XBL Gold membership to be able to purchase and get these daily updates? I know for Madden, you have to have Gold in order to get roster updates.

 

[AlphaWolf]

There's large differences in quality of DLC so that's not really an easy question to answer. Rock Band and GH3 have probably made more money off of DLC than many titles have in total. I doubt bethesda got rich off of horse armor, but who knows.

 

[obonicus]

There's large differences in quality of DLC so that's not really an easy question to answer. Rock Band and GH3 have probably made more money off of DLC than many titles have in total. I doubt bethesda got rich off of horse armor, but who knows.

It must be worth it for Namco, too.

 

[wco81]

Well you figure the big DLC seller aside from Rock Band/GHC, will be the GTA4 stuff.

 

[fearsomepirate]

A used car is quite different from a new car; a used software is theoreticly identical, although the DVD disc might suffer some degradation. Thus a used car cannot replace a new one, but a used game can easily replace a new one.

Used games depreciate more like used novels--they still work fine, minus some cosmetic wear and tear, but they lose their relevance because they rely in large part on timeliness and novelty to surprise and engage the user. Once a game or novel is surpassed by newer and better product, or once the surprise has been spoiled by wide dissemination, the consumer places less value on it. GTA 3 lost almost all its value by the time San Andreas came out, and those old Stephen King novels don't find many new readers these days. Especially in the case of games, new technology and new conventions render the old obsolete.

Cars experience the same sort of depreciation just by sitting on the lot for too long. Would you buy a never-been-driven 1992 model of [insert favorite car here] for what it cost new? No. You could get something more efficient, more powerful, more stylish, and more featured for the same price.

Trying to curb depreciation by screwing the consumer out of things he's used to is the worst way to go about it. You need to add value. If you have to rely on restricting the consumer's market power, someone who is making products that people want to buy is going to eat your lunch.