Xin42 User Info

July 17, 2009 3:33:50 PM

@DavidThomas:

I think most of us are taking the long view, overall. I pointed out that in the long run, with new distribution, Gamestop's model of reaping 100% profits on used sales will disappear. There will be a novelty market for old games that they can sell, but they can't repackage bits on my hard drive.

I haven't ever blamed the consumer for this problem. It's entirely on GameStop. It was one thing when used games were a small part of their business. When they got aggressive, when they started offering used over new, that's when they really screwed up. It will not work out well for them in the long term, so it's hard to care too much at this point. However, for now, it DOES affect developers' bottom lines.

I think it would simply be best if you thought a little closer to home before making the argument. What if sites reposted your work, charged money for it, and didn't send you any cut? You'd be annoyed, yes? And they sold it cheaper than you can and still cover costs, so you lose a great deal of your readership/ad revenue. Then what?

My point was simply that we're not driving Lamborghinis to work whining because we have to wait a month to put in a shark tank. We make average salaries, and our ability to provide for our families is directly impacted (to varying degrees) by a shift in sales from new to used. Your assertion that we're just greedily whining deserves a bit of a rethink, in my opinion.

July 16, 2009 5:51:19 PM

Ok, so I'm a game developer. I work at a top tier studio, though I don't, nor does anyone I work with, have a Scrooge McDuck money pool.

In fact, I earn a marginally lower salary than I could doing other kinds of programming, simply because of the industry I'm in. If you factor it over the hours I work, it's quite a bit worse. That's ok a) because I love my job and b) because I get bonuses based on the number of sales of our titles that make up the difference.

Oh wait. So I used to get bonuses based on sales. With the insane uptick in used game sales lately, I haven't seen a bonus in almost a year. I've seen the XBL and PSN stats on our last round of titles, the number playing is easily 3-4x the number of sales we've been paid for. So...the used game sales have literally taken money out of my paycheck.

If you want to rationalize your purchases, go right ahead. But most actual developers (not execs or figureheads who take home most of the bonus cash, but programmers, artists and designers) are in this situation, and are not rolling around in the money from their initial sales. In fact, these days, a greater portion of profits goes into funding larger budget next-gen titles or a wider array of titles than into the developer's pockets.

I don't foresee this continuing to be an issue, as digital distribution takes over on the consoles, and as services like Steam, Greenhouse, and Impulse continue to take over on the PC. At that point, we'll be in a situation where new game sales make up the insanely gross majority of sales out there, and sales will actually reflect the real market.