As years have passed by and I’ve gotten a bit older, piracy has become less and less interesting. Now, I’ll admit that some Japanese music that would be extraordinarily hard to find on disc has found its way to my computer, but even then I’ve purchased three or four CDs from Japan this year. Dear friends, keep going to Japan!
I have a Zune subscription for music, Netflix for movies, Gamefly for games—though admittedly I buy more of those than most other things—and a DVR for television that isn’t going to make it to DVD. There’s just no need for me to pirate stuff anymore; it’s too easy to get the stuff I want.
With that said, the market for used products is still alive and well, and has its place. While I don’t sell many of my games, I don’t mind buying used games. The ongoing argument about the role of retailers in game sales made me think about this a bit. While I prefer to buy games new, I think that the used market is absolutely necessary. Many gamers wouldn’t game if it weren’t for GameStop and the like.
Each time one of these developers goes off about the used market cannibalizing sales, I want to ask if they’ve ever bought a used car, an older house, a DVD from a bargain bin, or a book from Half Price Books. Buying things new is best when possible. If everyone only bought used, no one would make anything new. But if no one ever bought used, no one would buy anything. Except rich people. I would totally buy rich people.
Wait a second, that’s not what I meant.
Anyway, games have a limited life-span. Except StarCraft, apparently. And the great thing about console games is that they’re easy as heck to sell. Sure you could laze it up and go to GameStop (lazing it up has nothing to do with lasers), but if you’re a real savvy entrepreneur you could hit half.com or Gamefly’s used-game service and get more for your game. You could also visit Goozex and barter your way into new games, neither contributing nor taking away from the economy. Win-win!
Without those used game sales, you can bet that developers would be fretting that much more about new game sales.
You know about me and my JustTheDisc.com addiction - they provide me with more than enough surprises dirt cheap. Pirating most anything is fairly silly these days now that the same mechanisms that we used to pirate these things can get you in touch with dirt-cheap copies of the real thing.
I think the real problem with used games comes down to how extremely short and volatile the game market as a whole is. It really doesn't compare to books, movies, or cars at all when you get down to it. Do people buy a brand new car, take it for a road trip, and trade it in once the weekend is over? Of course not! But gaming is such a casual and ultimately disposable endeavor that used copies show up often times not even 24 hours after release. Bearing that in mind, YES used games sales seriously cannibalize new game sales and I for one have no qualms about defending developers bemoaning used game sales.
I think that used games compare very favorably to used books and used movies. You may be right about used cars not being quite so disposable, but I think the idea is the same - you're "hurting" the new sales business by buying a used product in both cases, even if it's not quite as throw-away.