Frontier's Braben: Used Games Market Affecting Game Quality

Author: by Staff

As part of a larger in-depth article on the used game controversy, Frontier Developments (LostWinds) chairman David Braben argues that the nature of the resale market could be providing less incentive for studios to develop higher quality games. "Five years ago, a great game would have sold for a longer period of time than for a bad game -- which was essentially our incentive to make great games," says Braben. "But no longer," he continues. "Now publishers and developers just see revenue the initial few weeks regardless of the game's quality, and then gamers start buying used copies, which generates money that goes into GameStop's pocket, nobody else's." Braben adds that the growing resale market will affect the genre of games that studios plan to develop. He believes that studios will develop fewer single-player and action games, as they can be completed quickly and then resold. A study conducted by consumer research and consulting firm OTX Research agrees with the resale popularity of those titles, showing that action games and shooters drive the used games market at 60 percent. Recent titles that gamers have sold back to retailers most frequently were single-player games like Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Assassin's Creed, and BioShock. "That illustrates that even great games will enter the resale market if there is limited re-playability," says OTX's director of entertainment and media insights Nick Williams. Braben believes that developers will instead eventually focus on games with more replayability, which 69 percent of gamers cite as their main reason for not trading in a game, according to OTX. The firm's data also indicates that games like MMOs, which take considerably longer to play, make up only 20 percent of the resale market You can read the full feature, which includes additional arguments against the used games market from Frontier's David Braben, as well as more commentary from analysts (no registration required, please feel free to link to this feature from external websites).