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> 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
by jonknee 11y ago
> 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.
- Houshalter 11y agoAnd 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.
- rangibaby 11y agoThey 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.
- Houshalter 11y agoI 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 or Google let you sell used apps, steam has never allowed used game sales, etc. And it makes way more sense this way. You are not buying a physical object that took labor and resources to produce. A physical object that would go to waste otherwise. You are buying a bunch of bits which can be copied endlessly. There's no depreciation over time, no downside to buying used over new. No personal attachment to a specific object when you can just download it again when you want to play it. No middlemen to take a cut out of the trade so that you can just buy and sell it at exactly the same price.
- rangibaby 11y agoThat 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.
- Houshalter 11y agoAs 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.
- fulafel 11y agoMaximising developer income != maximising utility.
- Houshalter 11y agoWell 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.