Interview Chris Avellone on the Second-Hand Gaming Market

[commie]

Guys, guys, stop arguing! All of your points are moot.

Don't you know an invisible hand will automatically adjust the market?

In the RPG industry, it's not an 'invisible hand' but a very visible finger.

 

[Renegen]

What Feargus said there was very interesting. He basically said that as long as used-game reselling is prevalent, deep complex RPGs will be less affected than a 10 hour crappy action game. Therefore, RPGs would be more profitable for publishers. If anything, it means that we should support used games as much as possible, and so should MCA.

 

[circ]

to both the quote and your response

Back at ya. Make your case or don't bother.

I think the case was: you're retarded.

 

[SerratedBiz]

Doesn't make for a very elaborate DISCUSS!ion.

 

[tindrli]

i used to make games...Then I Took an Arrow in the Knee

 

[Skittles]

Quite frankly, digital distribution isn't going to save them as long as they are marketing themselves to console users. Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo will be loathe to use digital distribution as a primary game delivery platform for full price titles. They know that users ability to rent, borrow, and buy used is a huge draw to consoles. Popping in a disc and playing the game in your living room with no muss, no fuss, is another big advantage consoles have, one that digital distribution takes away from a lot of people. It's just not gonna fly, at least in the short-term, on consoles.

I may be ill-informed, but I was under the impression that at least the most recent round of consoles were sold at a loss or at least at very, very low profit margins because of the competition between consoles and console-makers' belief that they could capture more profit from games.

After all, most people aren't going to buy more than one or maybe two consoles from the current generation (though the group of people who post frequently on a gaming site--even a PC focused one--may). Once somebody buys your console, then you can make profits from the games sold for that console.

Do Microsoft and Sony make money off of royalties or do they only make money in one go for each new game (as opposed to copy) produced, selling licenses or something? If royalties, then it seems like they lose the same as publishers due to used games sales for the current generation.

That aside, the efforts those companies make to increase the number of console users connecting to the internet with their consoles and to develop game markets online seem to indicate that they're comfortable with the idea on some scale and may eventually hit a point where digital distribution is the norm on consoles--even in the short term, on the current generation of consoles.

 

[Mozgoëbstvo]

Commie, I was about to put a finger instead of trollface, but I had to run off. You got the spirit of my post, though.