doubleofive said:
I was going to say I wish we could assassinate people multiplayer-style, then I realized that's what Brotherhood is.
Duh. They had it used at Gamestop for $55. No thanks, you're not getting that much for a used game out of me. Think of it, selling someone a game for $60, buying it back for $20, then selling it AGAIN for $55, the developers seeing none of the second and third sellings... I feel bad.
Or the used car market, or the used housing market, or anything sold on ebay, etc...
Renting or borrowing games/movies/books apparently steals money from the producrers/artists as well.
Listening to the radio is as good as putting your hand in the pocket of the musician and stealing his hard earned money.
Watching OTA TV is stealing money from hard working movie studios and cable companies.
Going to the park and enjoying fresh aire and the sunset is "stealing" from all electronic boogaloo entertainers.
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But back to games. (Sorry, I've had this conversation a lot... but I'll try to keep it short and friendly)
$55 is a little misleading. They may pay $20-$30 for the used game they put back on the shelf at $55. And they may sell a few copies at $55, but they will definitely still have some of those copies when the sticker price drops to $40 and below. But still, $20-$30 went back to the gamer that bought the game in the first place. And if he's trading in Assassin's Creed Brotherhood this soon after release, he probably bought it new and will probably buy the next AC game new. He might buy a lot of games- even a lot of Ubisoft games- new. Something he probably couldn't afford to do (at least, at the magnitude he does) if he wasn't getting some of his $60 back when selling them to Gamestop.
Out of the potential $35 that Gamestop is making, some of that goes to pay the hourly wages of the Gamestop employees that spend some of that money on... you guessed it- games. Most of the rest of the money goes to pay for the rent, the electricity, the employee benefits, advertising, etc.. Gamestop makes so little markup on the sale of new games (because sooo much of it goes back to the publisher (the developers don't usually get a cut of sales $$$, but they do get to make their next game and maybe get a payraise when they do)) that they probably couldn't stay open selling only new games. So those used game sales are keeping Gamestop open so that they can continue to sell both new and used games. And since such a large percentage of new games in the US are sold at Gamestop... those used sales really are propelling the sale of new games. Not quite "sucking the life out of them" as some would say.
Sure, if all sales of used games were sales of new games at $60, the publishers would be making a lot more money. But that's not realistic. Most sales that don't happen at $60 wouldn't happen at $60. And of the $60 new sales occuring today, a lot of them wouldn't without used games supplementing the cost (both to keeping Gamestop open and keeping the new-game-buying-gamer's wallet full).
And back to the $55 price one more time- I don't usually need a game right when it comes out, so I don't usually pay $60 new or $55 used. But let's say I did. I get %10 on used games at gamestop, so that $55 sticker means I'm really paying $50. And though I've probably bought 100 things at gamestop over the years, I can count on one hand the number of times that I've bought something that wasn't "buy 2 get 1 free". So, if I bought 3 $55 games (that are really $50 games), I'd only pay $100, which makes them $33/game- about half the new $60 price. So, at least when they sell to me, that game that they paid $20-$30 for doesn't have so much markup on it anymore.
So, you don't have to feel bad for putting money in the games market- even if it's not a "new" sale. Surely, buying games directly from the publisher is the way of ensuring that more of your purchase price goes directly to the publisher. But as long as you're putting money into the games economy, good developers are making money from you, even if it's indirectly.
/end rant
