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Evercaptor

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Publishers have a problem with money

By Evercaptor 5 Comments

...In that they don't understand quite where it comes from. 
 
In response to Retailers are "Parasites" and "Theives" a story by Jim Sterling
 
Publishers do not sell their games to people, they sell their games to intermediary companies that deal with people, companies like GameStop or GAME or TESCO even. They make their money right off the bat before anyone else can even see the game box-art on a shelf.

I agree with everyone in the comment thread coming off of the story, in that if they want MY money, sell ME the game. When I'm done with it, I may sell them it back to get my next one although it's my own preference and good fortune to be able to choose not to do that most of the time. I'm quite relieved that when I looked down into what other people were thinking it reflected my own stance, proving that It isn't a problem with my thinking.

The Used game market is also my right to choose not to give a publisher my support though these legitimate channels if I choose to. It took a full three months, but I waited patiently for a copy of "Tales of Vesperia" to be sold into GAME because I was disgusted that it took a full year for it to be translated from American to English. I could still enjoy the game that I waited 2 years for after it was completed,  but it empowers me to make a choice with my wallet.

Personally I love buying games brand new day of release if I believe the game will be fun (hell, the hype around here for "X-Blades" had me buying that day-of) but Publishers have to realise that that money isn't theirs when I go to GAME and get my fresh-plastic smelling cellophane wrapped DVD box full of software and copyright leaflets. 
 
There are other arguments in favor of the used game market, but my real beef is with how pissy publishers get about it, considering that if I buy a game at a store, they don't get any of that money anyway.
 

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Evercaptor

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Edited By Evercaptor

...In that they don't understand quite where it comes from. 
 
In response to Retailers are "Parasites" and "Theives" a story by Jim Sterling
 
Publishers do not sell their games to people, they sell their games to intermediary companies that deal with people, companies like GameStop or GAME or TESCO even. They make their money right off the bat before anyone else can even see the game box-art on a shelf.

I agree with everyone in the comment thread coming off of the story, in that if they want MY money, sell ME the game. When I'm done with it, I may sell them it back to get my next one although it's my own preference and good fortune to be able to choose not to do that most of the time. I'm quite relieved that when I looked down into what other people were thinking it reflected my own stance, proving that It isn't a problem with my thinking.

The Used game market is also my right to choose not to give a publisher my support though these legitimate channels if I choose to. It took a full three months, but I waited patiently for a copy of "Tales of Vesperia" to be sold into GAME because I was disgusted that it took a full year for it to be translated from American to English. I could still enjoy the game that I waited 2 years for after it was completed,  but it empowers me to make a choice with my wallet.

Personally I love buying games brand new day of release if I believe the game will be fun (hell, the hype around here for "X-Blades" had me buying that day-of) but Publishers have to realise that that money isn't theirs when I go to GAME and get my fresh-plastic smelling cellophane wrapped DVD box full of software and copyright leaflets. 
 
There are other arguments in favor of the used game market, but my real beef is with how pissy publishers get about it, considering that if I buy a game at a store, they don't get any of that money anyway.
 

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borodin

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Edited By borodin
@Evercaptor: Do you know the specifics of the deals they have with retailers? I'm guessing you don't and then I'm going to make a further guess that these mega-rich publishers have a better grasp on their own financial goings on than you do. I'm not trying to be too much of a dick, but come on? Do you really think they'd go to the effort (i.e. spend money) if there wasn't a return in it for them? 
 
At the very least, the *very* least, if they totally eliminated second hand sales, retailers would need to buy more copies from publishers to meet demand. As for it being your right to buy a game used, in this case it's only a right while you can still do it - you can't really buy used PC games any more and haven't been able to for some time but that doesn't mean somewhere along the way I was deprived of some right, the nature of the thing I was buying when I paid for a PC game just gradually 'changed'. 
 
EDIT: wow I just read the interview with that Louis Castle guy and he sounds like a complete asshat
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9cupsoftea

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Edited By 9cupsoftea

I don't know for sure, but I worked in a major bookstore and it's not just a case of 'we bought 20 copies of this, now we have to sell them all'. Copies you don't sell get sent back to the publisher, and obviously, if you sell them all you reorder more.  
 
Fuck publishers anyway. They make too much money as it is.

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Evercaptor

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Edited By Evercaptor
@9cupsoftea:  Activision don't allow sell-backs, Recently GAME fell out with Activision on that note, spurred on my about a million extra copies of COD:MW2 and refused to stock more than preorders (which is a surprisingly small number) as a result, very little blur or transformers: rise of cybertron were sold through GAME and Modern Warfare went from £45 to £20 in a few short weeks.
 
@borodin: My point really is that if they want used game sales money, or even want to make their arguments seem meaningful, they should be doing more than just moaning and open a store themselves. in terms of used sales though, have a look at this because legally, they CAN'T stop used sales and IMO have no right to stop used sales just like Ford has no right to stop me selling my old car.
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Edited By borodin
@Evercaptor: That's the thing though, they *are* doing more than moaning - as I said the PC used market is basically non-existent because of (for something like over 10 years?) CD keys and even more definitively these days, online accounts and such (StarCraft 2 for example). I had a look at the link you posted and while I don't live in the US you can already see in that article a shift in attitudes, as I said the nature of the things we're buying has changed and publishers are keen to only sell us a license to play these days, exactly so as to circumvent this kind of thing, and from the looks of what you posted (and my own experience), it's working.  
 
The only difference is that it's been less heavily applied to console gaming up to now. EA's project 10 dollar and online pass 'things' are small steps towards the same result. Either making it so whilst you can sell a game second hand, it's value to a buyer is diminished to the point where they won't bother buying it (no cd key so you can't actually play it, lack of multi-player, walled-off content, whatever), or only selling a license to play the game (as with XBLA - PSN games now that I think about it - that's already happened). 
 
The thing to note is that these tactics *aren't* illegal and they (unfortunately for you and me) have every right to do these things.  If you don't believe me I'd encourage you to really take notice of how little second-hand market there is for PC games and how there hasn't been any huge legal issue over the way publishers have made that happen. Publishers don't need to go in to the bricks and mortar side of the industry as long as avenues like this are available to them and moreover it would be insane to start at this point when it looks like digital distribution might actually just become enough of a 'thing' for retailers to start getting sidelined.