So, I am not able to buy Saints row 3 since I quit my job and haven't got a new one yet because I am heading to China for a month. My roommate and I are dying to play this so he decides to get this for me and for him for Xmas. We head to Gamestop and they are having a buy 2 get one free deal on the used. They happened to have two copies and Skyrim so he makes the purchase they are 47.99 each not bad at all 13 off is a deal and there are no scratches boom.

Then we got fucking owned when we got home. I was not aware this is a game where if you want to play online you have to pay $10.00 so now I have to dish out $10.00 if I want to play online (I know I didn't spend the money for the game) but that blows that basically means he paid $57.00 for a used game which is so stupid. I was already frustrated when I rented Bulletstorm and I had to pay $10.00 for a game I didn't want to own but wanted to play it for a bit.

I can understand why they are doing this but shit they need to meet half way somehow drop the price or at least give a free trial so you can find out if you like the multiplayer (actually bulletstorm did do that...) but many games don't.

Seems like it worked out great for the publisher though.

You haven't heard of online passes yet? Also why would a publisher meet you halfway when you really haven't given them shit?

you should get an online pass if you buy it..

http://www.amazon.com/Saints-Row-Third-Xbox-360/dp/B004QEV0MI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323893475&sr=8-1

And this is why... you don't buy used games!

Really? Why should a publisher pay for the expense of a server just to make Gamestop a buck? Sounds like bad business to me. Maybe Gamestop should give out online passes for used games they sell. They only jacked the prices 200%-300% anyways.

Serves you right for trying to steal money out of Volition's pocket when they made such a fantastic game

YOU GET NO SYMPY FROM ME!

@Marcsman: I heard of them and clearly I said that but I wasn't aware that this game had it and really $10.00 bucks is high for one person to "Up keep the server". If games had more replay value then there wouldn't be used copies. I like to support Game companies too and buy us buying the only two copies the next guy that walks in who wants it will buy the game new.

All of you are fools if you believe that because a used game is out there it really effects a game company sure they would like to have the extra money but honestly Saints row sold a shit ton of new copies made their money back and now a person can get the game at a cheaper cost because they don't work in a million dollar industry like said game company. If it was maybe a smaller company I would feel kind of bad for them but I don't.

Also do not forget that Game rental companies did buy the game new so they made money from them if Gamefly is going to lose customers because people are not renting online coded games like that then they will buy less from the company.

I do not see anything wrong with "Buying used, Renting or borrowing a game from a friend" I do think Gamestop selling games at that price is stupid however the only benefit I see is being able to return the game if I do not like it. Any besides all you noble assholes who say buying used is bad I'd bet one of my balls you have either bought a used game, rented a game, stolen music, listen to grooveshark or borrowed a game from a friend and played online and if you haven't then you sure as fuck make more money then I do and don't have anyone in your life to spend it on :P

@TeflonBilly: Yes I clearly was stealing from Violation when my roommate bought me a Xmas gift I am such an asshole who is also paying the $10.00 to play the amazing game online with him. (again $10.00 to play online at least tell me the truth it's $1.00 to play online and $9.00 for sorry I didn't buy your game new fee)

I worked in a video game store for 4 years in Austin. Edge of Reality, Bioware, Blizzard, Acklaim, NCsoft. All these people would come into my store and buy used games as well because despite them bitching about people buying their used games they sure as fuck were buying other peoples used games. At the end of the day if your game has good replay value then it won't hit the shelf for quite sometime unless someone needs to make a buck.

Saints Row The Third was $30 new on BestBuy.com yesterday too. What a shame.

@TeflonBilly:

Don't forget the cycle of a life as well. Whoever traded in SR3 shortly after it came out bought it new, they used that credit or money to buy say the new copy of Assassins Creed which they wouldn't of been able to afford without the credit. Now not only did Violation get money but so did Assassins creed so now the nice familys at Ubisoft can eat dinner instead of starving. Now because I saved $3.00 off this used game I can in turn buy Super meat boy on steam. It's a big fucking circle. Save where you can and it evens out in the end unless you are a person who only buys used games.

@MGSolid86: Thanks for not telling me yesterday how selfish :(

eh...not so terrible, most games with MP lock using a pass anymore. The real kicker is that you can't even LAN SR3 w/o the pass - that's some bullshit.

@EightBitShik said:

@TeflonBilly:

Don't forget the cycle of a life as well. Whoever traded in SR3 shortly after it came out bought it new, they used that credit or money to buy say the new copy of Assassins Creed which they wouldn't of been able to afford without the credit. Now not only did Violation get money but so did Assassins creed so now the nice familys at Ubisoft can eat dinner instead of starving. Now because I saved $3.00 off this used game I can in turn buy Super meat boy on steam. It's a big fucking circle. Save where you can and it evens out in the end unless you are a person who only buys used games.

@MGSolid86: Thanks for not telling me yesterday how selfish :(

You know, I actually agree with you. I have never understood why it's so bad to buy used games when it's perfectly fine for every other product to be bought second-hand, but when it's a game it's suddenly considered stealing money from the developers. It as jack shit to do with supporting the developer, and instead it's just another way for publishers to satiate their greed.

The worst thing about it is that almost everyone believes the publishers' corporate bullshit "woe is us for not getting money on used games" line.

You can always try looking on ebay to see if you can score an online pass for half off, that's what I did for Mortal Kombat, and I also did it for the Season Pass for SR3.

Moral of the Story: Don't Buy Used Games...

I did not know that people still say "owned" anymore...

@EightBitShik: Nah. In my pesssimistic world they'd just stolen that copy of SR3 from some poor student who'd lived off nothing but ramen the last month to get it. Then he took the money he got from Gamestop and bought ingridients to make meth which he then sold to the kids behind the middle school. Good work on corrupting the youth. You are even worse than when the CIA introduced crack to the ghetto.

On the reals though, I may purchase the occasional used game, but that's like a year or two after when it actually makes sense to do it. A little sleuthing will catch you new games at a vast discount alarmingly fast. Again, I have no problem whatsoever with the implementation of online passes. Though I highly agree with your suggestion of trial periods. Not letting consumers have a whirl at the service you want them to plop down cash for for even a weekend is bullshit. This is a huge reason why I almost never bother with PSN games. XBLA forces you to give the consumer a trial game of your arcade title, which is how it should be.

Also, I wanted to express my lack of SYMPY.

@Kazona: Yeah especially because it's a billion dollar industry. Hey sell your games at $30.00 instead of 60 and I am sure you will sell double the copies make the same amount of money and allow us as gamers to be able to afford more.

It reminds me of the doctor my surgery is costing me $100,000 (I am fighting bullshit right now where my new insurance is trying not to pay anything because they said it's preexisting but I will win because I never had a lapse in coverage I had to quit my job to have the surgery because it was my back and I would be out for so long so I got on my wife's insurance) why does it cost $100k? Yeah, thanks for going to school Doc to do the surgery but do you really need to charge that much? Don't you think if you dropped it to 75k you could still buy your BMW? I think you could and not fuck me. I feel the same way about games but I do spend $60.00 when I have a job on 95% of my games.

@TeflonBilly: You and I disagree on this but I do have to say that was probably the most I have ever respected a reply from someone who disagrees with me. Well said.

So, I am not able to buy Saints row 3 since I quit my job and haven't got a new one yet because I am heading to China for a month. My roommate and I are dying to play this so he decides to get this for me and for him for Xmas. We head to Gamestop and they are having a buy 2 get one free deal on the used. They happened to have two copies and Skyrim so he makes the purchase they are 47.99 each not bad at all 13 off is a deal and there are no scratches boom.

Then we got fucking owned when we got home. I was not aware this is a game where if you want to play online you have to pay $10.00 so now I have to dish out $10.00 if I want to play online (I know I didn't spend the money for the game) but that blows that basically means he paid $57.00 for a used game which is so stupid. I was already frustrated when I rented Bulletstorm and I had to pay $10.00 for a game I didn't want to own but wanted to play it for a bit.

I can understand why they are doing this but shit they need to meet half way somehow drop the price or at least give a free trial so you can find out if you like the multiplayer (actually bulletstorm did do that...) but many games don't.

@The_Laughing_Man: It was $60.00 new but my roommate really didn't shop around I mean he still did get a good deal technically because he did get Skyrim free when he bought both copies of SR3 because of the special but again just sucks it's that close.

I really think people are misunderstanding my real beef. I even said I understand why developers do it. I was saying we got owned because we thought we were getting a good deal and the online pass is fucking that deal we might as well of bought it new. In fact I have bought so many games that are $17.99 used and the new is $19.99 and I don't risk the scratch and buy the new despite the game probably being out of print and doesn't matter if I buy it new or not.

GameStop has horrible used game prices this close to a game's launch. If you want to be mad at anyone, be mad at them instead of THQ. Assassin's Creed Revelations right now is $55 used (and on a side note, you should look at this page I loaded to double check that. New $49.99, Used $54.99. GameStop's pricing schemes in a nutshell,) and that game has an online pass. So if you buy it used and want to play online, you're paying $65 plus tax. Both companies are being greedy (that's what a business is,) but GameStop wants that full $55 to themselves while Ubisoft (or THQ) want $10 from people who want to play online.

I hate to say it, but there's a simple answer to your problems.

Don't buy used games.

You're mad at Volition for trying to make money of off their game.

Volition didn't charge you 50 dollars for the game, Game Stop did. Volition only charged you 10 dollars.

@EightBitShik said:

All of you are fools if you believe that because a used game is out there it really effects a game company sure they would like to have the extra money but honestly Saints row sold a shit ton of new copies made their money back and now a person can get the game at a cheaper cost because they don't work in a million dollar industry like said game company.

Yeah I know, right? What kind of fool wants to make more money when he's making adequate money? Next time you're up for a raise (assuming you have a job) just tell your boss, "Nah, I'm cool. I mean I would like some extra money, but what I have is just fine."

@Creamypies said:

I hate to say it, but there's a simple answer to your problems.

Don't buy used games.

Change that to "don't buy recent used games" and I agree completely.

There's nothing wrong with picking up a Gamecube or SNES game used.

@McGhee: sigh You were so excited to say that you really missed my point.

That would only apply if I made $50 million and I was worried about another $59. When I probably made another $1 million because people traded in Uncharted 3 to get my product.

@EightBitShik said:

@McGhee: sigh You were so excited to say that you really missed my point.

That would only apply if I made $50 million and I was worried about another $59. When I probably made another $1 million because people traded in Uncharted 3 to get my product.

No, I just didn't think your point was very good, but everyone enjoys a laugh.

You have to take into account that all the money made from this game is not given to one person but to a team and company of hundreds. If they do not turn a profit than they are forced to lay off a lot of people. Companies like volition make their money from "new copies" being sold.They put the online pass in games to deter people form buying used. Volition needed to make a big profit on this game or there was a good likelihood they would be layed off. THQ already had trouble selling red faction and saints row was another ip that needed to sell or major in-house changes were needed. And as for making games half price and selling double, thats not how economics work. Game companies, much like any companies, are trying to compete with other companies to make a profit. Im sorry if you feel "owned" but if you want to complain, complain to adam smith.

@EightBitShik: Your situation is a pretty good suckfest (not actually good) but there a way to stop bullshit like this from happening: Don't support Gamestop and their underhanded used-games market. There's ways to get a legit new game for less than full-price (read: Amazon).

If people stop supporting Gamestop, game devs and publishers won't have to resort to online pass wankery because Gamestop won't be undercutting their profits anymore.

Don't buy used games. It's a poor way (read:actually hurts) the industry. Blame the store for not telling you what their version of the game was missing.

The actual moral of the story is do your research, don't be a blind consumer, nobody fucked you over, you fucked yourself.

@EightBitShik: then why didnt your rent the game in the first place? its like 1.99 a day at Blockbuster? i never understand why a lot of my friends never rent, what the big deal? only time i ever buy a console game is if i cant rent it, or if its got HUGE multiplayer value like well COD...

Anyways yah that does suck, BF3 was like that for me. all these new games are coming out with 'chageable' multiplayer where you have to pay extra for it. would make sense if it was liek this all new huge multiplayer game, but its not, its always the same FPS type games and they didnt improve shit. just have to pay now to play online. i wont do it. TIP. If you rrent a game on its first day of release before anyone else a lot of time the store will leave the pre-paid codes in the box, so you get the code as if you bought it.

@lusence: Seriously? because it was sold out everywhere the only place I could find it was the red box and it was only ps3. It was a xmas gift from him to me I'd like to of had it new but I'm not going to be upset if he wanted to save some money. Plus I am not spending money myself because I lost my job when I had back surgery.

@EightBitShik: no i said RENT it. its only 1.99 a day spend 6 buck and you could beat it. but yah its was rented out for me for like a week before a copy came in that wasnt destroyed. well, enjoy the SP for now i guess... nice roommate btw...

@ModerateViolence: Yeah it was my fault that I didn't check the Giantbomb page for games that require online activation while I was at the mall and my roommate decided to buy me a game. I fucked myself. Seriously half of you are fucking retarded for getting so up tight about this shit the moral of the story is We didn't save that much money after all. That is it end of story. If any of you were in the same situation you would be like "Oh fuck".

It's funny how half the duders want to be against whatever the person posting is saying just to be against it. My god.

You people are fucking idiots.

Online passes are a terrible business practice. Why should the developer earn twice the profit on a single copy of a game? You fucking retards keep forgetting that if you sold your game to gamestop, you don't own it anymore. You no longer have access to its content, and are due no services. Those services and the content on the disc then go on to the next person who buys that copy. So tell me exactly why it's just for publishers to want to double-dip? It's like getting a fuckin' reach around from a crusty old man with a thinning hair-line and jowels bigger than my testicles.

The worst thing about this, however, isn't the publishers and retailers being cock-ends about online passes. The worst part is the supposed games community acting like belligerent cunts to people who buy games used. It has nothing to do with SYMPY or whether or not it's "moral" to do so. Second hand sales exist in every industry, in every business. The idea that gamers act against their own best interests by supporting these woe-as-me developers and publishers makes me wonder if the community at large is just a bunch of evangelical douchebags who have bent over for publishers so many times, they've forgotten what it's like to be a consumer with rights.

TL;DR - stop badgering the OP and open your fucking eyes. Bunch of fuckin' children up in here.

@EightBitShik said:

@ModerateViolence: Yeah it was my fault that I didn't check the Giantbomb page for games that require online activation while I was at the mall and my roommate decided to buy me a game. I fucked myself. Seriously half of you are fucking retarded for getting so up tight about this shit the moral of the story is We didn't save that much money after all. That is it end of story. If any of you were in the same situation you would be like "Oh fuck".

It's funny how half the duders want to be against whatever the person posting is saying just to be against it. My god.

I think it's just that people might have been expecting a more intricate story. Personally to me 10 bux either way is literally not a huge deal. I'm not rich by any means but thats just whatever. I do agree though that people will generally act contrarily often for no apparent reason. Here everyone is all about protect the publisher/developer. When Infinity Ward stated "some retailers broke street date please don't play the game early ONLINE or you might get your account blocked" people were up in arms like FUCK those guys thats not my problem, those retailers have a right to sell it and I paid etc etc blah blah. Nobody was defending the developers right to please ask you don't play the game before release date then.

In short yah it sucks you just saved on tax but you didn't really get owned that hard.

Well it makes sense in this case. SR3 is such a new game, that getting it used is only about 5-10$ cheaper than getting it new. That is to say, no matter what if you want the full game, you'll have to give the creators money somehow. For a game that isn't two months old I think that's quite fair.

Like I get it if you want to buy a used game that's a couple years old and still having to pay, yeah that'd be a little lame since no one probably plays it anyway, but for a game that's so new, I'd like to see the creators get theirs.

Yup, it isnt so simple anymore. I remember leaving games months before buying them. Now its up to buy them now or buy them new later. Which still can be almost full price after 2 years in some places. My friends currently trying to figure out how to get the cheapest deal on BF3 Limited edition. He could buy a preowned copy then buy the online theeeeen buy the dlc.

Or hunt around and spend time and effort trying to get it in package unopened. So he dosnt end up spending an extra 12 for dlc at minimum. would be so simple to just pick up a cheap a slightly cheaper preowned and spend it on the DLC. However with the online pass in play it makes it more expensive to buy preowned and that's just what all the companies want.

Its not a case of preowned users take up unpaid space on the server. They take the space that was taken up by the original owner. So in the end its just so they get more money. With Xbox live involved as Vinny pointed out in a Bombcast. There is double dipping at the same time.

Welcome to being DPed everyone!

@Humanity: Yeah, it wasn't the $10.00 that was really the big deal it's the $10.00 on top of a $47.00 game which means we should of just of got the new for that price. I'd be happy to pay the $10.00 to the dev I just wish my roommate didn't get fucked on the $47.00 part of it on top of that.

@KingWilly: thanks

@lusence: No, I know you said rent. When I said sold out I meant rented out I guess.

Wow man, I know th Gamestop i went to, they totally gave me the Online pass for Saints Row3 Uncharted 3 when I went there awhile ago. I guess it wouldn't of hurt to ask if they could hook you up.

also, you do realize the game has system link... just saying...

Is multiplayer advertised on the packaging? Does it state that an online pass is required to play and that said pass is only included with a 'new' purchase? If not, then GameStop mis-sold it to you and should give you a refund.

If it is made clear on the packaging and you just chose to ignore it, well... be more careful?

Okay, first, grammar and punctuation are your friends, you should learn how to use them. People might take you more seriously if you did. Secondly, you need to get more angry at Gamestop if you're going to get angry at anyone other than yourself. It's not the publishers fault; in this case, they're only seeing $10 from a game that they just released this quarter... Thirdly, your insight on how Gamestop would make probably the same amount of money if they lowered the price of their used games is flawed. They only have a certain number of copies of certain used games, not an unlimited supply, and, since people like you/your friend are clearly willing to pay their listed price for a game, they have no conceivable reason to lower said prices. That's Econ 101, friend: Supply and Demand, and Utils.

In short, this is why you never buy things at Gamestop -- It is a company whose business model is based off of taking advantage of the consumer in as many ways as possible.

Actually, the onus is on Gamestop at this point to inform players of the Online Pass in the store and drop their prices on used games with the online pass. That is, if they want to continue making money off of these titles.