Game companies plan to eradicate the second-hand markets.

[Nightwatch]

As Crystal Dynamics' global brand director Karl Stewart said to CVG Gaming Magazine, game companies like Crystal Dynamics', EA and Ubisoft (also, as we've learned, some other high profile companies, who have not yet publicly confirmed such a move) are planning to make the Downloadable Contents for their games available only for "first-hand brand new product" buyers, a move which is seen aiming to curtail and eradicate the second-hand gaming markets.

Stewart told CVG: "Retail, I don't see it going away for a long time yet but I do see us having to be more creative in the way we blend the two together." He is reported to continue saying: "I think the model as we see it right now is a frail one. Having the used market is not beneficial to any of us. Some of the plays that have been made more recently about having DLC available when you buy the game and then adding a charge to the consumer who buys it second hand, I think that's just naturally the way it's going to have to go to deal with those kind of situations."

Crystal Dynamics' global brand director Karl Stewart added in his interview with CVG: "At the end of the day we take huge risks and we invest ten of millions of dollars in making a game and marketing a game and to think, stock turn wise, we could sell one but four people could play it, I just think that it's something that we have to manage very carefully."


The full article and the responses to it can be read in its extent on CVG here:
http://www.computerandvideogames.com/ar ... ?id=247197


It's understood that gaming companies are planning to introduce the Downloadable Contents as pre-enabled with the original "brand new first-hand bought" game, while considering to make the contents available to the second-hand buyers of those games as of payable material. However, there's a distinct possibility that Downloadable Contents may not be made available to the second hand market at all.

[rockingmtranch]

If I buy a used game and cannot get any DLC with it, I won't buy it to begin with. But really, for pc, I don't think I'll ever buy a used game.

[audioave10]

Its not so much piracy they are after but the used game market. They have been working on that for over two years now. Especially the consoles since you simply wait a couple of weeks and then rent the game cheaper. This is where Gamestop makes money on the game but the developers do not.

[MeanderingBeing]

I don't like the idea of the software manufacturer penalizing consumers for doing what they do: consume. Hell. If I buy a game, play the shit out of it, and a friend wants it, what is the big deal if I give/sell it to them? Once a product leaves the shelves, its up to the consumer to decide what to do with it (within the limits of the law, of course). To take away the rights of the consumer, to me, is just a reflection of all the other bullshit in the world: Corporate America has everyone by the balls, and they keep squeezing more and more. (I hate to be so graphic about it, but that's how I see it...)

To make a point of comparison, it'd be like me buying a lawn chair and not needing it after a couple weeks. So instead of throwing it in the garbage, I give/sell it to a friend. But then this cop and a representative of the manufacturer show up, telling me that I am not allowed to give/sell the lawn chair without myself or the second-hand owner being penalized (monitarily, benefits, warranty, or otherwise). I, and I'm pretty sure the majority of you folks, would tell the cop and suit where they can shove their penalties.

Trying to abolish the second hand market is not the way to go. It'll only alienate the consumer (as if EA hasn't done enough of that already) and force them to look elsewhere.

So what if four people play a game per sale! Quite frankly, I think they're overestimating the second-hand market. Hell, if thousands of people are pirating a game, and in reality the companies are only losing 0.0001% (Number taken from some PC article about pirating) of their sales as a result, then 4 people would only cause a 0.000025% loss!! Maybe these big companies need to shut the F*** up and eat the losses just like every other industry does, instead of trying to DICTATE everything the consumer does. (as if they don't already)

Personally, if any gaming publisher makes this move, I will immediately start pirating all of their software (civil disobedience is the only solution sometimes, as Dr. King proved in the 60s) and re-distributing it. And that is a bloody promise AND a threat.

First it was Rampant Copy Protection Software, now this... what next? McDonalds is going to tell me I can't have salt on my fries anymore?

[Balious]

Meandering has said pretty much everything on how I feel about this.