I recently purchased Mass Effect 3 and was slightly put off by the price I paid. The next day I read "The Future of Games with David Braben" and was really interested in finding out more about the effect major retailor's trade-in service has on pricing.
When I can pay less for the same great product I’m going to pay less. It’s the way my head works and it’s also sometimes necessary. Like many people in the video game industry I don’t make millions of dollars a year and sometimes it’s not an option to pay full price for something. I buy my clothes at the Goodwill and sometimes I go so far as using coupons.
I’m also a man of principal, I don’t download music for free (I don’t look down on those who do it, I just choose not to myself) and I try pretty hard to make sure that stuff I don’t need anymore gets recycled and moves on to someone who could use it. I take a certain amount of pride in buying things for personal entertainment because I feel like my money spent is going to a company that will provide me with more fun and games in the future.
But yesterday I found myself very conflicted over something very near and dear to my heart: Pre-Owned video games. I love pre-owned games; I get the same amount of enjoyment as the full game but spend a little bit less. But my relationship with pre-owned games got a little bit complicated yesterday when I read that they are having an impact on pricing. I got the impression that Mr. Braben was implying that when I purchase a pre-owned game the money spend is going to Gamestop and not the developers.
I feel like this is wrong. When I buy something like a video game, I’m buying it to immerse myself in another world, and I want the money I spend to go to the creators of that world, not the people handling the transaction.
I’ll have to do more thinking, but I don’t think I like that pre-owned games aren’t supporting the creators but are instead filling the (already very full) coffers of retailers.
Recommended solution? Why not use keys on consoles the same way that we use keys on PC games? When you think about it; isn’t it strange that most PC games have keys and most console games do not? Why is that?
It’s time to get back to work; I hope you enjoyed my first post!
-Josiah Blaisdell
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