PlayStation®Network General

[nilet]

sad times for us who disagree with this, the way they have gone about it has put me off big style, and like a previous comment mentioned the DLC at ridiculous prices must make them money? If im paying for online then give us the free DLC, worst thing is releasing a brand new game then a week later DLC that we have to pay for... ***** is should be included in a £40 game.

[Wrathchild68]

Once EA started doing this I knew that others would follow. It will make trade-ins now obsolete and already you are getting hardly anything for a game.

[AAAAAAAARRGH]

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Oldest_Ancient wrote:

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AAAAAAAARRGH wrote:

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Oldest_Ancient wrote:

Second hand sales can in a roundabout way be responsible for games being canned and devs being shut down.

Please quantify that statement because it makes no sense whatsoever. What developers have gone down because of the second-hand market?

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It is impossible to completely blame second hand sales for a devs closure but being that second hand sales reduce the sales figures of any games it can contribute.

Plenty of studios have been shut in the past due to poor sales figures, Bizarre Creations being the biggest in recent memory. I'm not saying that if everybody had bought new this studio would definitely still be around but it certainly wouldn't have done any harm.

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I would suggest that is more to do with the quality of the games and how they are marketed rather than the pre-owned sales.

The studios have already been targeting the second hand market for some time with games repackaged as "platinum edition" or "game of the year" not to mention the now-standard stream of DLC to optimise revenue. As much as they are trying to kill second hand sales, I would go so far as to suggest that they can actually help generate new sales.

Some people pick up games second-hand they may not otherwise have bought at all. They may well go on to enjoy it so much that they explore other games in particular franchises such as Uncharted, COD, FIFA, etc while also buying the DLC.

Then the developers have what they crave: new fans to a series and brand loyalty.

With these passes I would hope that they keep and maintain the servers for longer (EA are pulling the plug on some games less than 2 years old) as otherwise it's unfair on people paying that kind of money only to find that there is little to no online community, or that the developer takes the servers down shortly thereafter.

[Oldest_Ancient]

@ AAAAAAAARRGH

I would imagine you're correct in the fact that pre-owned sales can help bring fans to the franchise in the long term but the likes of CoD, FIFA etc are not going to have problem with sales whereas new IP's from lesser developers are likely to be the ones hit hardest.

I agree about the server issue companies, EA in particular can be too quick to pull the plug on their servers, without offering an alternative (I'm guessing these games could be patched to allow P2P instead).

[Mikal_Drey]

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mont348 wrote:
I have no problem with this i 95% of the time buy new and usually after 3-4 weeks games drop below the £30.00 mark so pre-owned plus pass = should of bought new.

have you ever stopped to consider why there is such a dramatic price drop ?

early uptakers buy at the premium price and hand have a tendency to trade in the game. That traded game provides those second hand buyers a slightly cheaper game as early trades are still highly priced and they can still get in "early" with a new title.

after 3-4 weeks those mentioned above have traded the games either for a second time or a later trade-in from premium.

The retailler now has an excess of stock of a title in "second hand" and the premium priced game will start taking a sales hit. This is where it all starts going wrong... .

The retailler now has to discount the game (at their cost) and either sell as a loss leader or cut the margin to the bone.  The trade in price lowers and the premium game remains just above the second hand price.

Those who always wait to buy a game when its dropped in price are just as guilty and are benefiting from the second hand market.

From a publisher perspective their game sales slow and drop down the charts and the retailler doesnt replenish their stock ergo the publisher loses money.

There are other factors to consider too but people here are insanely blind to them and are blinkered by the online pass Vs second hand arguement.

There are many other aproaches that publishers can take but the simple fact is that an online pass generates money in the fastest possible way. Its greed, pure and simple.

[burtie80]

I only buy a few brand new games a year (mainly games I love) and the rest of the time I buy second hand games (because of budget restraints) I often end up playing on line and purchasing any extra DLC.

Now how can second hand games be hurting the publishers if I am buying extra content for a second hand game? 

If they want to go down the road of charging us for a pass then I wont be buying it and I also then wont be buying any extra DLC. So really they would be loosing out. I refuse (and in most cases unable) to pay the ridiculous price on most brand  new games especially for online play as I don't really get a lot of time to devote to it, so why would I want to pay extra for something I would only use occasionally?

Having online play is a nice little extra to have should I fancy the quick game but by making us pay extra for it it will turn people like myself away and then the numbers of people playing online will drop.

Its just greed, and they are trying to screw us for yet even more money.

I really hate the way this generation of consoles has gone, I've been playing games for close to 30 years and this IMO has to be the worst its ever been. The fun and enjoyment is slowly being squeezed out of it and if it continues I will turn my back to online play and just stick to single player games just like in the good old days.  Yes online play can be amazing and fun but there are to just to many negatives and it seems to be getting worse not better.

Its really becoming a headache having to deal with all this crap.

[JOHNY--BRAVO]

If this is true then its simply down to greed, playstation plus hasn't taken off and their looking at other ways to cash in. The games industry is getting way too gready, its bad enough sony released a console with such a short lifespan and refused to accept a design flaw. They gave us crap fot the hacking scandal but at least we got something, now they want us to pay more. Free online play is one of the main reasons people choose playstation, once that incentive to help customers choose playstation has been lost they will loose many customers, its the only reason my nephews chosen to stay with playstation after his third ylod

[mont348]

Nah the main reason prices are dropping so fast now is the worldwide recession and people dont have the disposable income they 2-3 years ago.

I think the stores that set the crazy pre-owned prices should incorporate a pass with the resale i have regular seen pre-owned prices virtually the same or sometimes more than new in Game and Gamestation.

[Wait-Jester-Sec]

Another Article on the matter

http://smarthouse.com.au/Gaming/Online/N6B7F8S5

[Mikal_Drey]

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mont348 wrote:
Nah the main reason prices are dropping so fast now is the worldwide recession and people dont have the disposable income they 2-3 years ago.

I think the stores that set the crazy pre-owned prices should incorporate a pass with the resale i have regular seen pre-owned prices virtually the same or sometimes more than new in Game and Gamestation.

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the recession has only exacerbated the issue.

Games have slowly risen in price and they have almost hit the ceiling to how much they are worth.  This next gen we are in has also made everything much worse.  development costs has risen to cinematic proportions and gamers expectations have grown simmilary.

Crazy second hand prices exist because the first week you can get serious cashback from a tradein and with games often having shockingly short play time you can buy a game and complete it within 2/3 days.

I've personally got £30 from a trade in the first week.the retailler has to resell that as quick as physically possible because as the trades come in the price keeps dropping. the £30 they paid to the first few trades will become a loss for the retailler when the trade prices comes down over time.

Gamers have been milked for their disposable income for years and will continue to be for as long as they get away with it.  Disposable income has squeezed because prices are going up faster than your income is. However; gamers will always have disposable income because of who they are.

I really would like to blame the recession and I fully agree that its a serious factor involved. Traditional retail is dead. The highstreet will soon be a bedtime story you tell your children.  Removal of the second hand market will destroy game/gamestation, CEX and the smaller independents.