Pre-owned sales have "no benefit" to publishers - Livingstone

[wraggster]

Eidos life president Ian Livingstone has slammed the pre-owned retail market, stating it has no benefit for developers or publishers.

Retailers are able to cut out the creators and publishers of the product and make a higher margin on second hand sales, often reselling titles multiple times, he added.

"The pre-owned market is a serious problem, because there is no benefit to developers or publishers," Livingstone told the BBC.

"A shop makes a bigger margin on a pre-owned title, and can sell them six or seven times, so there is no incentive for them to reorder and the content creator gets no slice of the action."

According to the report, Livingstone suggested second hand sales make up around a quarter of a retailer's turnover.

However, he noted that retail outlets are still a necessity for games publishers, not just to sell new titles, but to help market products to consumers.

"These aren't just shops, they are a marketing tool, a window into our world where software houses can display their wares."

Livingstone is the latest veteran to add to the ongoing second hand sales debate. EA Sports boss Peter Moore recently toldGamesIndustry.biz that pre-owned sales are a retailers prerogative, and it's down to publishers to invest in ways of seeing a return on the business.

"Our point as publisher would be that the business exists, it's a multi-billion dollar business - our job would be to figure out how we treat them as any other customer, how we monetise that consumer," he said.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...rs-livingstone

[VampDude]

Pre-owned sales having no benefit to the publishers is a load of crap, mainly because the cheaper pre-owned title which the publishers have already earned from could encourage the buyer of the cheaper pre-owned title to buy a full priced newer title in the near future.

The retailers benefit from the sale of pre-owned games, but they offer more in return than the publishers themselves as they are encouraging gamers to trade old for new which I don't see the publishers doing or even putting their hands into their ever so tight pockets. If the publishers were to partially fund a pre-owned market, they could possibly benefit from the resale of used titles. Though they don't, and it's the retailers such as GAME, GameStation and all the other retailers who put money into the sale and re-sale of videogame titles.

I feel that publishers are just getting greedy these days, knowing that the videogame industry is already raking in millions to a few billion per year. A few months ago, I read that certain publishers were going to make it so users could only register their games once and then when someone else purchases that game (pre-owned) in the near future they have to pay an additional fee in order to activate for features such as online play and bonus features (X-Box 360).

[Qmark]

Lower the prices, and the used market will shrivel up.

The only reason anyone pays $60 for the 'newest' overhyped game is the knowledge that the store will buy it back for about $30, to resell it at $40.

[VampDude]

Lower the prices, and the used market will shrivel up.

Technically, that made no sense... You have completely forgotten to mention the retro market, or the titles that have had their run of prints, all the games that are no longer available to purchase from new on all the current games console aswell as those from the previous generation that are still hanging on (but selling).

The only reason anyone pays $60 for the 'newest' overhyped game is the knowledge that the store will buy it back for about $30, to resell it at $40.

People buy new games because they want to play the latest titles, not the fact of getting a high return if the game is traded within a few weeks. Myself personally, I buy games because I enjoy them. If not, then I will trade them for something else not really caring for what I get against another title in return... Mainly people trade their games because either (a: They cannot afford to buy a newer title without first trading/selling from their collection. (b: The game just wasn't worth the money, a rental could have sufficed. (c: Nothing left to accomplish, no replay value after completing every mode or unlocking all the unlockables. (d: Not everyone wants a large games collection, some people think 10 or even 20 is too many (I laugh at them).

So all in all, it has nothing to do with the price of newer titles. Or the fact that some people may want to complete their game quickly to return 50-75% of their completed game... If you did your homework, or knew about how the game industry works, you would know that the pre-owned market is all about demand. Panzer Dragoon Saga anyone?