GameStop Explores Selling Used Digital Video Games

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Gamestop is one of the leading video game retailers in the US and around the world, operating over 6700 retail stores worldwide. The retail giant is now looking into the mechanics of reselling used digitally downloaded video games in its stores. The interest is high from both Gamestop and consumers, figuring out the ways and means to bring it all together is the major hurdle to be crossed.

Used digital game sales have been rumored on Steam and other services for months now. The trade back business is a key source of revenue in the video game industry and the disappearance of physical goods will leave a void.
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I have a couple of hundred games on Steam that I would love to get rid of. New ones to play from the Summer Steam Sale to replace them
 
I can see how this could work, but only if the developer/publisher gets a cut from the used game sale.

Don't expect any more Steam sales if this takes off though. The publisher will probably determine that selling a single license of a game twice (the first time at full price) is more profitable that selling two copies of the game at a discount.
 
So in other words, Gamestop would give you about .50 for a used game and new digital downloads will be $60.. yep.. great idea. lame
 
Hey I'd be all for this kind of thing... but why should Gamestop get a cut? The service should be provided by the relative digital distribution platform and a cut of the sale should go to the developer and a smaller cut thereof to the platform.
 
People are saying developers should get a cut when in reality developers won't see a dime even if there is a payout structure, the publishers would get it. The Dev's could only use it as a leverage tactic when they sign on with a publisher.

I don't think the publishers should get a cut, if I sell my bike at a yard sale, I don't send huffy a check for $2.

I think this would hose the "massive sale" market for digital games, for reasons mentioned above.

IF this does happen, how long until a "used" digital copy no longer includes multiplayer?
 
For some reason my mind read the headline as GameStop Explores Selling New Video Games, to which I immediately rejected as the most ridiculous thing I had ever read.

Depending on the studio and the distributor, Game Developers do indeed get royalties from game sales. This isn't true for anyone but the top execs in games distributed by EA, but in smaller studios it is not that uncommon.
 
Those store employees should have warning bells going off in their heads when they hear about this.
 
cliche said:
I have a couple of hundred games on Steam that I would love to get rid of. New ones to play from the Summer Steam Sale to replace them
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and i believe a lot of gamers are in this boat.

i can foresee this being one of the major business decisions gamestop can consider if it wants to keep its' doors open, both physically and electronically.
 
Legal resale of digital games will be a fatal blow to digital downloads of offline AAA games. It'll be the end of non-expire licenses. In the future, you won't be able to pull old games out of the closet (or from a Steam account) and play them years later. If you try, the game will inform you that you need to fork over more money.
 
SockMan! said:
I can see how this could work, but only if the developer/publisher gets a cut from the used game sale.

Don't expect any more Steam sales if this takes off though. The publisher will probably determine that selling a single license of a game twice (the first time at full price) is more profitable that selling two copies of the game at a discount.
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Why should the devs/publishers get paid twice for the same license? First sale doctrine should allow users to freely trade their licenses between eachother like they do with physical versions of the game.

My bet is the EU may some day force this into reality at least in their market because it's an obvious pro-consumer issue.
 
Stone Cold said:
Legal resale of digital games will be a fatal blow to digital downloads of offline AAA games. It'll be the end of non-expire licenses. In the future, you won't be able to pull old games out of the closet (or from a Steam account) and play them years later. If you try, the game will inform you that you need to fork over more money.
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That would just send more people to piracy, I don't think they'd want that.
 
Never had an issue with Gamestop and I am always amused at how much hate they get around [H].

I just sold Gamestop my old Xbox 360 that was in the attic for $100 (the arcade version) to throw the money towards a Nexus 7 priced the same as it is online. I thought $100 was a great price for something wasting away in the attic. If I had a chance to get rid of some of my older games, I'd be interested in that too.

When I resell my old TV, PC, Monitor, Graphics card, bananas, etc, the original vendor doesn't get a cut. Why should it be any different in this arena, other than all of us being very big game fans.

My wife buys old books from yard sales, the original author and publisher don't get any money from that. What about old books on Amazon? No hate towards Amazon on that front though.

Is the hate due to the price they pay people for the trade-ins? I know it's not always a lot, but it's better than sitting in my attic (sold 4 old crappy games for $5.00 total. The games at the store for sale (used) were about $15. Not bad IMO, but I guess I see it differently.
 
I said this before on other posts about this subject, but put simply: Doesn't work. It would cripple first run new sales of games. And that's a bad thing, I'll get to why after I finish how.

"But NK, used markets don't kill new markets for other stuff!!"

Right. For a number of reasons. Sometimes buying used means taking a hit to quality. The item in question has physical wear and tear, missing packaging, or lacks a warranty. This is a deterrant. Sometimes even determining exactly what is wrong is nearly impossible. Such is the case with used cars. Unless you're a top notch mechanic or enthusiast, you are taking big risks with any used car purchase. That's another deterrant. Sometimes the shopping around itself is just too time consuming. Finding a fair price, or even finding a used version of the exact item you want can be a PITA. Sometimes, it's just the idea of having something brand new and shiny that gets someone to buy new over used. The act of SELLING your stuff can even be a fuck ton of work, which deters people from even putting their stuff into the used goods market. They simply throw it away or stash it in a garage.

Digital software has none of these weaknesses.

So yeah, let's do everyone a favor and skip over the hilariously flawed analogies. Digital game resale probably has jack shit to do with whatever half-baked analogy you're thinking up right now. Since this market doesn't really exist right now, let's imagine what it would look like.

You pop onto Steam to buy a game, there are two buttons "Buy Used" and "Buy New." Used is going to be cheaper, and give you the exact same game. There is literally no difference between used and new except that one is cheaper. So in effect, the buttons become "Buy Cheap" and "Buy Expensive." Only Buying Expensive supports the developer you're trying to support, but who is going to do that? Almost nobody, unless they have to.

So a game is released, and there are no used digital copies for sale. People have to buy new. But people will beat the game or not like it and they will want to resell it ASAP to get the highest resale value, and within 3-5 days max, used volume will be enough that pretty much everyone will have it available at time of purchase.

"But NK, who the fuck cares if these greedy asswipe publishers see their bottom line fall through the floor? I want my freedoms to do whatever I want with my digital licenses just like I can do with my Black & Decker toaster!"

You should care. They aren't going to wait for their bottom line to crater. If new digital "box sales" fall through the floor, they will de-emphasize that income in their business model. Business 101, if a well dries up, you find a new one. We've already seen their new wells: Online DRM, cash shops, DLC, and so forth.

But why do those things already exist? Initial box sales have already started to fall, they have been for 25 years. When you account for inflation, even a supposedly 'super expensive' $60 game costs less than almost any game did 20 years ago. In todays dollars, a game in the late 80s or early 90s would set you back $80-100. And at the same time, the cost of developing games has increased.

So, while we don't have a used digital game market to really show us what will happen, we've seen enough to know with pretty good certainty how publishers would react.

So, be careful what you wish for. If they can't get their money out of you in initial box sales, they will find alternate business models and focus on them heavily. And at that point, having cheap used copies of games available will mean jack, because you'll only get a tiny fraction of the product.
 
I see used games no differently than a used bike, TV or a book. It is not art, it is not a one of a kind item it is media content. Digital distribution is hard to swallow and impossible to ignore, but I really wish I could sell all my games regardless of the format. After a few bad purchases on Steam I swore I would never by digital again. I have modified that thought by only buying items on sale or from smaller publishers. I will only 2-3 times a year spring for big studio games...never been happier.
 
I'm not sure if this is something I'd like to see happened. As other posters have pointed out, the gaming industry is not going to sit back and let it happen. It could lead to the majority of games utilizing microtransaction and other MMO F2P like model.
 
I think this is a great idea. I got a digital ps vita game that I won't ever play BC I'm selling the device and if I could sell it like a physical copy, that would be awesome. Sadly Sony's PSN will never allow such things but this is something that would be good for digital gaming me thinks.
 
How can a digital game be considered used when its digital. Nothing really gets worn out like a disc or cassette tape. When a person trades a game online it will be just like new as digital files never deteriorate. I don't see how new games can compete with used games online when the files are exactly the same.

Its not like book where you have one thats in mint condition and one in crappy condition. Its like selling a used mp3 over a new mp3. Nothing is different at all other than the price. I don't see how they are going to go about pricing all of this. Unless used is in limited stock i don't see it working out that much if theres a lot of used copies out there. Royalty fees might be possible but most of all digital games online can't be resold or traded. Gamestop will eventually hit a dead end with used games. As soon as physical media dies, Gamestop dies.
 
Wierdo said:
Why should the devs/publishers get paid twice for the same license? First sale doctrine should allow users to freely trade their licenses between eachother like they do with physical versions of the game.

My bet is the EU may some day force this into reality at least in their market because it's an obvious pro-consumer issue.
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They already did.

http://www.dw.de/dw/article/0,,16069323,00.html
http://curia.europa.eu/jcms/upload/docs/application/pdf/2012-07/cp120094en.pdf

tl;dr; All software licenses may be resold.
 
Stone Cold said:
Legal resale of digital games will be a fatal blow to digital downloads of offline AAA games. It'll be the end of non-expire licenses. In the future, you won't be able to pull old games out of the closet (or from a Steam account) and play them years later. If you try, the game will inform you that you need to fork over more money.
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Good thing GOG (which used to stand for Good Old Games until it started selling newer titles) has no DRM on its games for the most part. You can pull those files off of your portable hard drive years later and play them without any Internet authorizations, provided the operating system is compatible with those files.
 
Wierdo said:
Why should the devs/publishers get paid twice for the same license? First sale doctrine should allow users to freely trade their licenses between eachother like they do with physical versions of the game.
Click to expand...

It is NOT pro-consumer to allow digital resales of games.

Because of the complexities of physical media, the average game is probably owned by only 1.2 people. But, once infrastructure is in place, digital downloads can be traded quickly, easily, and endlessly. The vast majority of people will be buying and selling their games with the Valve of Used Games. And, the game makers won't have enough revenues to stay in business.

Game companies responded to piracy with annoying copy protection. They'll respond to legalized piracy with the end of the unlimited time licences and an end to off-line play. So, in the end, the consumer doesn't get to resell games, but consumers will lose the benefit of unlimited licenses and off-line play.
 
Stone Cold said:
It is NOT pro-consumer to allow digital resales of games.

Because of the complexities of physical media, the average game is probably owned by only 1.2 people. But, once infrastructure is in place, digital downloads can be traded quickly, easily, and endlessly. The vast majority of people will be buying and selling their games with the Valve of Used Games. And, the game makers won't have enough revenues to stay in business.

Game companies responded to piracy with annoying copy protection. They'll respond to legalized piracy with the end of the unlimited time licences and an end to off-line play. So, in the end, the consumer doesn't get to resell games, but consumers will lose the benefit of unlimited licenses and off-line play.
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unfortunately this is probably true. License trading/selling online would be very easy. The industry would probably impose a pay as you go model. Direct usage fees or pay to win singleplayer format that resets with your account. Regardless, an 'always on' system would be a must. '
 
Filter said:
im still confused why we need publishers these days.
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They still pay developers large sums of money up front to develop games, and it is a big risk as the majority of games lose money. The publisher also handles marketing. That said, most publishers are despicable parasites who shit on the rights of developers and behave in a grossly unfair manner.

Digital was supposed to change all this and give content creators more money and more power, but if you look at what's happened with books it's pretty catastrophic - instead of a publisher making their mark up, then the retailer making their mark up, the likes of Amazon are now taking 70%of the price you pay. Given the minimal overhead vs physical copies the retailer is now making most of the money, the publishers are being squeezed, but the authors and creators are being massively screwed over.

I don't know what laws can challenge the way Amazon (and Apple) are now doing business, but they have close to monopoly control of ebooks, so I wouldn't be sorry if some law was brought in that guarantees authors and content creators a fair proportion of the profit from digital sales (given the overhead with digital most of the revenue should surely go to the creators, and those who risked the investment to pay for development) No doubt some people will say that's un-American and government shouldn't interfere in the free market and fair trade, but I don't think the market is anything like free or fair.
 
NKDietrich said:
Digital software has none of these weaknesses.

So yeah, let's do everyone a favor and skip over the hilariously flawed analogies. Digital game resale probably has jack shit to do with whatever half-baked analogy you're thinking up right now. Since this market doesn't really exist right now, let's imagine what it would look
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What about a used hammer or screwdriver or wrench? They still work just as good as new.
 
gamestop are complete rip offs. i only buy from them only when its a big midnight release otherwise ebay is the way to go
 
User cheats in multiplayer. User gets banned. User sells digital license to Gamestop. New buyer finds his license banned after installing game.

Yeah I don't think I'll be touching used digital anything, thanks though.
 
This really does not hold any water. If the digital providers are to allow this, then they would just skip gamestop. I have actually thought that setting up some sort of stock market like system for steam would be a great idea for vavle. It could start with only tradable games but perhaps move to games you actually have in your library later. The system would be way better than what they have now which is a stupid forum where people say have this want that. Imagine if you could just tag a game you own and say will trade for game B. Then other people can browse any offers that they meet the restrictions for, so only people with game B will see the offer. Then they can just say accept and steam will auto complete the trade. Then you have purchases where you can say willing to sell this game for $5 and if anyone accepts that they get the game and $5 is deducted from their steam wallet and $4.50 is added to the wallet of the seller.

Eventually it could move to used games, but I really prefer the system where there are no used games and the price of games just comes down to where it does not matter.
 
Stone Cold said:
Legal resale of digital games will be a fatal blow to digital downloads of offline AAA games. It'll be the end of non-expire licenses. In the future, you won't be able to pull old games out of the closet (or from a Steam account) and play them years later. If you try, the game will inform you that you need to fork over more money.
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It's been like this a while ago for me. I have a hard copy of the game Half-Life and Half-Life 2. I stop playing when SWG came out, so my Steam account fell on the way side. After SWG I went to play WoW, and later on when I decided to revive my Steam account to play Half-Life and Counter-Strike Source, I couldn't remember my password, and I found that my Steam account was tied to an old email address I no longer had. I contacted Valve with explicit instructions to photograph the game box and keys, but my email went unanswered. After waiting 2 weeks, I tried again. Again no answer.

I said fuck it and bought another copy of Half-Life 2 pack with Counter-Strike Source and opened a new Steam account with my current email address.

To this day Steam has never answered my email.
 
What's ever "used" about a digital download? To stay relevant Gamestop needs to stop trying to make money off the same song and dance. This feels a lot like Blockbuster back in the early days of Netflix. BB was reluctant to get in the rent-by-mail market and it cost them their business.
 
Used digital media isn't actually 'used'..

I wish these retailers that do used game business all go OUT of business. I am sick of their constant harm to the gaming industry.
 
IanM said:
They still pay developers large sums of money up front to develop games, and it is a big risk as the majority of games lose money. The publisher also handles marketing. That said, most publishers are despicable parasites who shit on the rights of developers and behave in a grossly unfair manner.

Digital was supposed to change all this and give content creators more money and more power, but if you look at what's happened with books it's pretty catastrophic - instead of a publisher making their mark up, then the retailer making their mark up, the likes of Amazon are now taking 70%of the price you pay. Given the minimal overhead vs physical copies the retailer is now making most of the money, the publishers are being squeezed, but the authors and creators are being massively screwed over.

I don't know what laws can challenge the way Amazon (and Apple) are now doing business, but they have close to monopoly control of ebooks, so I wouldn't be sorry if some law was brought in that guarantees authors and content creators a fair proportion of the profit from digital sales (given the overhead with digital most of the revenue should surely go to the creators, and those who risked the investment to pay for development) No doubt some people will say that's un-American and government shouldn't interfere in the free market and fair trade, but I don't think the market is anything like free or fair.
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There is a really simple law that could be mad that could fix a huge number of problems in america.

Simple, if you make a product and want any sort of IP protection, you must list the product for sale for a set price to any person or distributor at a specific volume. And you must sell it for that price to everyone no matter what, in the order that money is recieved.

This would kill all of the exclusive contracts where a big company like apple or best buy get a way better deal and no one can compete with them on a product. It would get rid of total exclusives like retailer DLC, or even things like the apple retina display where they get a contract that stops LG from selling the same display to others for use. Suddenly competition would just be about either selling for the lowest price or offering the best service and anyone could jump in, but it would not.

A similar law should be made for exclusive hardware, all companies must allow someone to bring their own hardware to any service and they cannot be charged a separate fee for using that hardware. This would allow you to move any capable phone to any provider, bring your own cable cards without fees, etc...

Make 2 simple rules like that and a ton of things in america get way better in very short order.
 
NKDietrich said:
I said this before on other posts about this subject, but put simply: Doesn't work. It would cripple first run new sales of games. And that's a bad thing, I'll get to why after I finish how.

"But NK, used markets don't kill new markets for other stuff!!"

Right. For a number of reasons. Sometimes buying used means taking a hit to quality. The item in question has physical wear and tear, missing packaging, or lacks a warranty. This is a deterrant. Sometimes even determining exactly what is wrong is nearly impossible. Such is the case with used cars. Unless you're a top notch mechanic or enthusiast, you are taking big risks with any used car purchase. That's another deterrant. Sometimes the shopping around itself is just too time consuming. Finding a fair price, or even finding a used version of the exact item you want can be a PITA. Sometimes, it's just the idea of having something brand new and shiny that gets someone to buy new over used. The act of SELLING your stuff can even be a fuck ton of work, which deters people from even putting their stuff into the used goods market. They simply throw it away or stash it in a garage.

Digital software has none of these weaknesses.

So yeah, let's do everyone a favor and skip over the hilariously flawed analogies. Digital game resale probably has jack shit to do with whatever half-baked analogy you're thinking up right now. Since this market doesn't really exist right now, let's imagine what it would look like.

You pop onto Steam to buy a game, there are two buttons "Buy Used" and "Buy New." Used is going to be cheaper, and give you the exact same game. There is literally no difference between used and new except that one is cheaper. So in effect, the buttons become "Buy Cheap" and "Buy Expensive." Only Buying Expensive supports the developer you're trying to support, but who is going to do that? Almost nobody, unless they have to.
Click to expand...

Honestly yes there could be some missing items and wear and tear on a used game, though I NEVER have even worried or thought about it. If it did, I would buy new.

Doesn't GameStop have a warranty on used games? If it doesn't work they will replace it?

As for the junk in the package... some may consider that important but really? Manuals are online and widely available.

Also lets not forget that digital customers generally don't get that junk anyways so why would it be expected? If they do get it (honestly never looked on steam), it was be exactly the same as if they bought new. Which aids in your point but I would argue in a diminished capacity.

For the used/new buttons, you have a very valid point there. Funny how I make the EXACT same thought process when I am in gamestop, comparing used vs new boxed game. lol

I would guess that IF there was ever a "used" digital game market, there would be limitations, say the used market doesn't open for a game for 6 months.

Generally I tend to agree with you though, publishers won't allow it unless they get a cut and a delay in market at minimum. They can't control the physical market, but they sure can control the digital, since it seems to be more "licensed" based rather then physically based (even though technically purchase is still a license).

Personally I am happy to give up used sales/boxes/instructions etc for a digital service like steam provides. The steam sales essentially are the same thing as buying used, except for having to wait and hope your game is on there:)
 
The question about used game sales is really more of a who would spring first, the only possible way it happens is competition. IE valve jumps and says they will do it and everyone else is forced to follow suit. In reality no one is likely to do this except a very desperate company and that company would be gamestop. Unfortunately the question now is, is game stop powerful enough to force EA, Valve, or any other entity to implement a system that will support them? I think the answer for valve is definitely no, perhaps the console companies would see things different. But more or less I dont think gamestop really has a reasonable power to force anyone. Most of the companies would be happy to see gamestop die I bet.
 
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