chess

I don't shop there other than B2G1. I'm just saying that I've never been motivated by the support the developer argument.

Michael Corvin

It depends on the developer and the game. Activision and the COD franchise certainly aren't hurting but I won't be buying something like Beyond Good & Evil 2 used at GS.

BTW, I think the B2G1 is on this weekend

jeffbase34

Yeah, I used to make money off Gamestop buying expensive used dvd boxsets in these sales. Sure miss those days. One time I found perfect used copies of the Rhino OOP Transformers dvds.

My main issue with gamestop is those ugly yellow stickers on used cases. When the game gets old, the stickers are melded to the case. I can't sell the games with the damn stickers so i would scrap with goo gone and curse Gamestop. lol

orangecrush

The mom wouldn't have in your senerio

orangecrush

That is a pretty fast turn around. Didn't they just have a B2G1?

Michael Corvin

Front page of CAG says it's through Sunday though.

tonyc3742

So a 35 dollar used game is OK, but a 55 dollar used game is not.

If the principle is "the developer doesn't see any of that", then *no* used game should be sold. Nor should used books--entertainment or textbooks--cars, houses, DVDs, etc.

If the principle is "I'll pay X dollars more to buy new, but not Y dollars more", then the principle is no longer a principle.

I usually opt for what's cheaper for me though, and I guarantee Jane Sixpack does the same 9 times out of 10. I am not personally motivated by that reasoning. I'll buy the game from the place that has it for the price I want to pay for it and doesn't abuse me as a customer (the only real issue I've had at GS stores is that they are too hot, I just tune out the preorder/EDGE scripting; I don't know where they hire these aggressive rude jerks that apparently every other GS is infested with.)

Jeremy517

Buying used games indirectly helps the developers. If there were no market for used games, many people would be a lot more reluctant to spend full price on a game.

Giantrobo

Yes. And this one started yesterday and goes through Sunday. I was next to a GS yesterday when they were putting up the signs and asked the same question.

Goat3001

You should have faked a nervous breakdown and pretended that you were crushing under the pressure of pre-ordering more than 2 games... then ran out of the store in hysterics. That'll teach him to keep pushing shit.

maxfisher

I don't have a problem with the pricing, only because they offer coupons and sales so often. With a 25% off coupon and 10% off Edge card, that $55 drops to around $35. With B2G1F & 10% off Edge card, three $55 games drop to $33 each. The pricing kind of sucks for those that don't sign up for their coupon emails or have an Edge card, but they're pretty good if you do it right.

mhg83

This was a really good blog post:

http://stupidevilbastard.com/index/s...r_david_jaffe/

Basically David Jaffe (creator of god of war) got into a heated debated with this blogger about used game retailers such as Gamestop and how they're ruining game sales for the developer. He even told the guy to go fuck off even after the blogger admitted he was a fan of Jaffes games. I'm guessing the guys not a fan anymore

pinata242

I just read that as a result of this, Jaffe has gone into public communication lock-down. No blogging, no tweeting, no nothing that isn't direct PR for his job.

Won't affect me, but I can't wait to read through the debate with the anonymous, illiterate morons of the internet.

http://www.destructoid.com/david-jaf...s-146811.phtml

BTW, that dude at stupidevilbastard looks like a smug douche. I'm sure this was all for publicity

foxdvd

Used games sales have been around for a while...and it does not seem to be hurting game sales. Places like XBLA and PSN really are a gold mine for developers because we have given up our right to sell a game after we have played it. Even if you don't sell games, other people do, which ultimately lowers the price for used games, which even if you don't buy used, lowers new game prices quicker. With the new PSP that only works with digital games, and more and more developers releasing DLC that can't be transferred, we are slowly getting away from the used game market.

Not saying it will ever happen, but if they thought they could get away with it, developers would release digital only versions now.

pinata242

Yup, as I'm reading this I'm wondering why PSPGo wasn't thrown in this dude's face. There's your future.

Jaffe appears, although rather abrasively, to be saying "hey, GS, you better figure this out because things are changing".

I think the game industry is in a much more realistic position to go all digital than the music industry ever could be.

foxdvd

Yeah, because it is complicated to hack a game for a system like PS3 or Xbox...thought computer games are still hacked a lot. I think Gamestop's future is numbered for two reasons.

1: The growing digital age.
2: more and more competition for used games from ebay, amazon, and in the future Wal-Mart.

pinata242

I've been curious, whereabouts in OK are you, fox?

foxdvd

Muskogee...The heart of Green Country....thank god for the Internet....

mhg83

I really hope it doesn't go that route. The area I'm in can only get 1.5 mbps dsl speed so my internet connection is crap. It takes eight hours just to download a 1gb file. Imagine how long it would take for a 5 GB full game file I'm sure I'm not the only one in this situation. Add in the fact that people are still on dial up and you're ignoring a large portion of the game market that would ultimately hurt game sales rather then help it.

pinata242

I hope it doesn't go that way too. But 5 years or so is a long time. I'm just saying it's possible. It wouldn't be that bad for a place like GS to be a central hub for high-speed downloads. You take your hard drive or memory card or whatever and buy the game from the publisher via a retailer.

Retailers could offer discounts still this way or specials. Amazon already does this on a smaller scale with the XBLA and PSN stores. Sure you still use your bandwidth to pull the data, but the concept is the same. Using a 3rd party to acquire the license for digital distribution.

Drexl

The gaming industry isn't ready to switch over to digital distribution just yet. I think there will have to be a time period where all, or at least the vast majority, of the games are available on discs or for download. That's how it is now with PC games and music, pretty much. You can't just introduce a new console generation with nothing but downloads before it's ready (Phantom, I'm looking in your direction).

Next generation that could start, and from there it will just be a matter of waiting until downloads dominate the market before they phase out discs. It will take a while though, since we're probably talking the generation after the next.

Places like Amazon and Wal-Mart are better equipped for this, because they still sell so many other things, the XBLA/PSN deals are like a side business for them. Gamestop might not have much to sell besides the hardware, and without used games, what's the feature they have that the big retailers lack? Their days could be numbered, but we'll see.

Supermallet

Here's what I don't get. Retailers pay almost the full price of a game for every new game they order. Suppose they order 10,000 copies of God of War 3 to sell in the Los Angeles area. That's 10,000 multiplied by $54.99, and that all goes to the publisher and developers. Whether or not the gamer buys it new or used, the retailer has already purchased the new games. In other words, the pubs and devs make money on units shipped, not units sold. So, really, it sounds like their issue is that Gamestop isn't continually ordering new copies of each title in large quantities, which is kind of like Warner Bros. getting angry at Best Buy for not ordering 10,000 copies of The Exorcist every month.

Drexl

The idea, as far as I can understand, is that the presence of a used game market reduces the number of copies of new games that are sold. That in turn means that retailers won't order more copies next time. In your example, say that those 10,000 copies are sold by the retailers, and half of them get traded in and sold again on the used market. So 15,000 copies are sold overall, but the retailers only ordered 10,000. Sony would think they got cheated out of 5,000 potential new game sales.

It's just like how they assume that anyone who (illegally) downloads a song or movie would otherwise have bought it if it wasn't available to download. It's flawed, because you never know how many of them who bought used copies would have bought new if there was no used available.

darkside

As much as I want to support developers I hate this smug attitude that I'm not allowed to resell my games or movies and CDs for that matter. Basically, screw these "artists". If the game is good enough I will keep it and I have a huge collection of games, but to say I have to keep it is more than I can stand considering most full priced games are not worth $60. If I have to keep the game then go all digital distribution and make sure the games are $20 or less. That way I don't have much to recoup if the game is mediocre or worse.

I'm no fan of GameStop, but they have a right to sell used games and so do we. What is next DRMed cars that we can't resell? DRMed houses maybe? F&@k Jaffe.

al_bundy

to any devs that are complaining, look at Blizzard. Very successful, all their games have been best sellers, have stayed on the sales charts for years at a time and they take the time to polish up their games before shipping them.

if you don't want people to resell your games, ship something on the level of a Blizzard game where people will want to play it for years.