4 ms·

You only have to pay the $10 if you bought the game used. If you bought the game used, you are paying a fair bit less than $60.

by sdm 16y ago

henrikschroder 16y ago
Yes, but the people who buy their games used do not want to pay full price or near full price for their games. They are extremely price-conscious and instead of suddenly paying $10 more for their used games for no good reason, they will just not buy as many used games as before. It's the same mentality as the whole pirate discussion. If you are a game publisher, the people who buy the games used are not your customers. They clearly state that they do not wish to buy your product at your price point. Same with pirates, they also clearly state their preferences. Neither group is your customers. However, people that buy your games new and sell them on are your customers, but with this move, your product becomes less valuable to them ($10 to be exact) and this probably makes a few of them not buy your game in the first place. What EA dearly wishes to happen though is that Gamestop and similar should soak this cost to keep the used games market running exactly as before. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. At least EA is trying stuff so it will be interesting to see how this plays out.
- seekely 16y ago
  This is not the same mentality as the pirate discussion. A pirate gets a $60 game for $0. That's a huge price discrepancy. At used game stores like Gamespot, the difference between new and used is often $5 or less. It also doesn't matter what the retail price point is set at. The used game price point will always be lower. Since new games are currently identical to used game, why not pick up the game for $5 less? This helps Gamespot and hurts EA. Now, more a burden will placed onto Gamestop. They will have to lower prices on used games to compensate for the new 'taxes'. If anything, this is a win for used game buyers at the expense of Gamestop (an undesirable company from the perspective of EA).
jrockway 16y ago
I think this is going to push the price of used games down; meaning that EA gets $10 they didn't get before, and people selling used games get $10 less.

You only have to pay the $10 if you bought the game used. If you bought the game used, you are paying a fair bit less than $60.

by sdm 16y ago

You only have to pay the $10 if you bought the game used. If you bought the game used, you are paying a fair bit less than $60.

henrikschroder 16y ago

Yes, but the people who buy their games used do not want to pay full price or near full price for their games. They are extremely price-conscious and instead of suddenly paying $10 more for their used games for no good reason, they will just not buy as many used games as before. It's the same mentality as the whole pirate discussion. If you are a game publisher, the people who buy the games used are not your customers. They clearly state that they do not wish to buy your product at your price point. Same with pirates, they also clearly state their preferences. Neither group is your customers. However, people that buy your games new and sell them on are your customers, but with this move, your product becomes less valuable to them ($10 to be exact) and this probably makes a few of them not buy your game in the first place. What EA dearly wishes to happen though is that Gamestop and similar should soak this cost to keep the used games market running exactly as before. Maybe it will, maybe it won't. At least EA is trying stuff so it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

seekely 16y ago
This is not the same mentality as the pirate discussion. A pirate gets a $60 game for $0. That's a huge price discrepancy. At used game stores like Gamespot, the difference between new and used is often $5 or less. It also doesn't matter what the retail price point is set at. The used game price point will always be lower. Since new games are currently identical to used game, why not pick up the game for $5 less? This helps Gamespot and hurts EA. Now, more a burden will placed onto Gamestop. They will have to lower prices on used games to compensate for the new 'taxes'. If anything, this is a win for used game buyers at the expense of Gamestop (an undesirable company from the perspective of EA).

jrockway 16y ago

I think this is going to push the price of used games down; meaning that EA gets $10 they didn't get before, and people selling used games get $10 less.