I haven't bought physical media of any sort in years, but I also live in an area where I have FIOS and I can afford large hard drives/SSD's.
Those are really the limiting factors, I think.
As Downloads Take Over, a Turning Point for the Video Game Industry
61–67 of 67 posts
Re: As Downloads Take Over, a Turning Point for the Video Game Industry
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
> As for reselling games, that would seriously hurt developers. A single game could be resold 100s of times, but only the first sale goes to the developer, and everyone else in the chain plays for free. Video games have been resold since video games were invented and there still continue to be new titles.
And it has always hurt developers. Games could be cheaper or have larger budgets without Gamestop taking such a huge cut. The worrying thing about digital is it could be vastly easier to trade used games. There is no worrying about scratched discs, and you don't get pennies on the dollar for the trade. You could just play used games endlessly without ever spending more than an initial investment.
Maximising developer income != maximising utility.
Re: As Downloads Take Over, a Turning Point for the Video Game Industry
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
They are already cheap and have AAA games have budgets comparable to mid-tier Hollywood movies. Not being able to sell something you bought seems strange to me.
I said cheaper and larger. And that goes especially for smaller games. PC indie games would probably hurt the worst from this. Since I imagine there are far more used copies floating around than people actually playing them. When supply is greater than demand, the price goes towards zero. It's not really strange, it's been this way for years. When have you ever been able to sell software you downloaded? Neither Apple…
That should work both ways then. Games are $60 digital or physical, by your logic they should be way cheaper digital. Game studios can't have it both ways.
Re: As Downloads Take Over, a Turning Point for the Video Game Industry
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems like most complaints about Gamestop aren't directed at customer service, as the employees are usually pretty nice, it's about the prices and policies. They'll buy a used game or take it as a trade in for next to nothing and then turn around and sell it at almost retail price. Lots of kids are basically throwing games away at Gamestop.
Add to that, the fact that a lot of stuff can't be resold these days. Special gear, hats for specific versions, one time registration codes, etc. I'm all for buy low-sell high (I never sold because it wasn't worth the trade, but thats just me) - but buying from GameStop just leaves you with a gimp product. A large part of that can't be blamed on GS. Developers are all after the PreSale bonus', DLC and anything that s…
I don't mind that fact that I can't sell Steam games, because the tradeoff is that I can download the game whenever I want and don't have to keep track of a physical copy.
Re: As Downloads Take Over, a Turning Point for the Video Game Industry
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
They can't charge less for the digital version because of gamestop. Gamestop won't carry games where the digital version is cheaper. There might also be similar arrangements with the console makers themselves, not wanting to encourage the PC market. Games made only for PC are cheaper and have better sales. As for reselling games, that would seriously hurt developers. A single game could be resold 100s of times, but o…
This is called the doctrine of first sale, and it's been fine for physical products since forever. (The maker of the chair only makes money on the first sale of the chair, everyone else plays for "free") If you're going to say " But information products don't degrade", I'll note that a product degrading is not a condition of the first sale doctrine. You can sell your mint condition Mickey Mantle card, without giving…
Well chairs really are different than software. Most of the value of a chair comes from the labor and resources put into producing it.
Software takes 0 effort and 0 resources to produce more copies. All of the cost comes from the initial development. The actual disks or bandwidth for downloads costs pennies.
So when you sell a chair, you aren't decreasing the quality of future chairs in any way. Fewer chairs bought, just means there will be fewer chairs made the next year. Maybe a single chair maker will lose his job. Which sucks for him. But he really isn't needed because the world doesn't need more chairs.
With software, less demand means less quality. When you get less sales, then the budget for the next video game will be less and less. Fewer niche games will be made because the budget gets too small to support them.
Even though the demand is theoretically there - there are enough gamers willing to spend money on such a game to support it. The problem is it creates a free rider problem where no one wants to be the one to pay for it, when they can just free ride off of used games and not spend a dime.
Second, the very important difference is time sensitivity. Games get the majority of their sales in the first month, and it slowly declines after that. If everyone sells used, then all of the sales after the first month don't matter. So the vast majority of their income is lost.
Re: As Downloads Take Over, a Turning Point for the Video Game Industry
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
And it has always hurt developers. Games could be cheaper or have larger budgets without Gamestop taking such a huge cut. The worrying thing about digital is it could be vastly easier to trade used games. There is no worrying about scratched discs, and you don't get pennies on the dollar for the trade. You could just play used games endlessly without ever spending more than an initial investment.
Maximising developer income != maximising utility.
Well actually it kind of is. Developer income determines the number, budget, and price of games made. If you want more, better, cheaper games, then you basically need to maximize the amount of money developers can get from those games. Money fuels these furnaces.
Re: As Downloads Take Over, a Turning Point for the Video Game Industry
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
I said cheaper and larger. And that goes especially for smaller games. PC indie games would probably hurt the worst from this. Since I imagine there are far more used copies floating around than people actually playing them. When supply is greater than demand, the price goes towards zero. It's not really strange, it's been this way for years. When have you ever been able to sell software you downloaded? Neither Apple…
That should work both ways then. Games are $60 digital or physical, by your logic they should be way cheaper digital. Game studios can't have it both ways.
As I said, they are. Games made for PC are way cheaper and have way more/better sales.
The reason multi-platform games aren't cheaper on PC, is because Gamestop or console makers have contracts that prevent it. If you put your game on PC at a lower price, they will stop selling it.