Used Games...The New 'Piracy'?

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve heard the buzz over the internets about outlets such as Gamestop and EB Games selling used games.

In a nutshell, the developers and publishers don’t like this one bit, because they don’t get a penny from the used sales. On the other hand, the retailers are loving it because they can buy a limited amount of new stock, then buy back that game at a ridiculously low price, and sell it at a still-high-but-lower-than-new price.

You can see the business model. Buy a handful of new copies and sell them for $60 each. Then, buy them back at about $10 a copy, and re sell them for $30. Wash, rinse and repeat.

Unfortunately, when big business starts losing money, only one group of people ends up bending over and taking it up the ass, and that’s you and me, the consumers.

The games studios cry foul, because they’re selling less games and fight under the banner that selling used games threatens future releases (They’re attacking it almost as a kind of ‘legal piracy’). The retailers don’t care because legally they’re in the right, and because they’re raking in the money hand over fist.

Then, as consumers, we get hit with even higher prices for new games…as well as a shift to digitally delivered content…and the on-going rumor that pretty soon, games for consoles will be encrypted in such a way that they’ll only play on the console they where originally played on. In other words, second hand games won’t work.

Now, I don’t know how much truth is behind that rumor (it would also completely wreck the rental industry and create exactly one buttload of ill-will with gamers), but we’re headed down a bad path.

However, the solution is simple…lower the prices for new games!

Put it this way, there’s plenty of people who won’t pirate games either through a sense of morality or just because of the risk of getting caught. However, once you take the illegality out of the situation…is anyone going to pony up $60 for a game when they can get it used for $30 or $40? Hell, is anyone going to pay $60 for a game if they can get it used for $56.99?

Now, we’ve heard the argument that games are costing more and more to produce these days, and that the price reflects the monetary investment made by their creators. But my response to that is simple: Bullshit.

Not only are games filled with more product placement and advertisements than ever before, games are now well and truly in the mainstream. Almost two million Wii’s where sold in the US alone in the first four months since launch. When I can buy a movie like ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ that cost about 250 million to make…the idea that you have to charge $60 for a game like Madden 2007 is ridiculous.

Madden 2007 for the Xbox 360 made over a hundred million dollars in its first week. Something tells me it might have cost slightly less than a hundred million to make.

Yep, as you can see, used games sales are really hurting the big games companies.

It’s basic economics. Half the price and you’ll sell three times as many. Maybe if games cost a more realistic figure like $30-$40, we wouldn’t be so tempted by used copies.

In the end, it just makes me laugh that games producers are releasing low-quality games, stuffed to the gills with product placement and advertisements, at a price point that is beyond the reach of the average gamer (It’s been a long time since the ‘one game per week’ $20 price point)…then they have the sheer balls to blame declining sales on things like used games and piracy.

Make games more affordable and you’ll start selling more. Try giving a little back to the people who have supported your business since Donkey Kong, instead of charging ridiculous prices and trying to tell us we’re being ‘traitors’ and putting gaming at risk by not paying through the nose for something we can get at a reasonable price used.

Oh, and stopping us from taking a game to a buddies house to play on their console?

That would be a really, really bad idea.