Do Games Industry Folks Buy Games New or Used?

Gamasutra has another of its usually-interesting Question of the Week features up, and this one deals with the issue of used games. The question : Do Games Industry Professionals Buy Their Games New or Used? A lot of anonymouse answers this week. From one mouse: "I buy both used and new games, depending upon what the price differential is, and availability (old games are hard to find 'new'). I think the used games market is good for the industry for two reason: * it increases the value of game--people buy games knowing that they can get money when they sell it back, and * the game gets greater exposure--the purchaser of the used game might not otherwise have played it. This does not mean that people have the right to steal our products by copying them, reselling the originals, and playing the copy. But we made a product and sold it to them. It is theirs. They are free to resell it, the same way you're free to resell your car, house, or furniture. - Anonymous, Microsoft"

Re:For those who make games.

[LavaDog]

It's pretty much the same where I work. Since everyone's into video games I find out more about games that I'm interested in more than when I worked outside of the industry. If there's a lot of buzz about a game that I might like then I'll buy it new. Most times people will play through games and you can buy the games off of them really cheap or just borrow it. We have people that don't have some of the consoles, but will buy or borrow games and play them at work.

I don't think we're any different than just a bunch of friends that like games. As far as the article is concerned I don't even know if the people in the industry making purchase decisions are enough to affect the overall economy of the industry.

eBay

[Anonymous Coward]

What's odd to me is that they all talk like buying used games only happens at GameStop. Places like that are a huge ripoff. Almost all the games I buy are used and there are only two places that I really look:

1) eBay gives you essentially the "real" value of the game.
2) Amazon used&new will (rarely) give you a better deal than eBay and (usually) give you a higher confidence in not getting screwed over.

I've found that eBay and Amazon used&new will typically have used stuff at similar prices. And always* significantly lower than going to a physical store.

*Unless the game JUST came out.

Re:I buy new

[CastrTroy]

I buy used specifically because I never get around to playing them. There's plenty of old used games that I haven't tried yet. Why would I spend $60 on a new game when I know that there's plenty of games that I haven't played, and want to play just as much for $15? There are a couple that I've bought new, but the vast majority of my games are bought used. And most of them remain unbeaten because I don't have the time to play all the way through.

Re:I buy new

[Penguin's Advocate]

Well...I pretty much have all of those "old" games because I bought them all when they were new... I usually pre-order every game and go get them on the release date. If they have a collectors,limited,or in any other way "special" edition, I get that. Sometimes I even play them within a week of release, but most often I get around to playing them about a year later, if at all. Usually it's when somebody says "hey, you have to try x" that I go home and dig it out and play it.

It's probably some mild form of insanity, but despite the fact that I could just wait until I'm actually going to play a game and then buy it (most likely for a far reduced price) I can't stop myself from going through that pre-order rack and pre-ordering any game (or console) on it, sometimes multiple times (unintentionally, those are the games I'm actually specifically interested in). I also never sell or trade in anything, I still have every game and console I've ever bought.

The only exception I have to this is sports games. I have less than no interest in them. The newest sports game I have is Blades of Steel for the NES. (Although, maybe the Wii will renew my interest in sports games somewhat).

Get out more demos

[RyoShin]

Incidentally, I've been part of a debate on 4chan (ZOMG) over the past day or two about the comparison between piracy and used games. Someone mentioned that they would be more interested in buying games new if they could get a demo for the game.

Frankly, I agree. These days, especially as a college student, I'm hard pressed to shell out for a $50 that got so-so reviews, only to be able to get 60% (if that) of my initial purchase by selling it used if I think it sucks. A lot of the people I know who pirate games say they do so to give it a "test drive". While they certainly could be trying to clear their conscience, I think this makes sense. The problem is that for those who do it, they usually finish the base game and have no real reason to go out and pick up the real copy at that point.

What game companies (and I mean ALL game companies) need to do is put out more demo discs. Yes, they cost money, but that would likely be offset by more new sales.

Hell, they might not even have to take a loss on it. I would gladly pay a small monthly fee (~$5) to receive a demo disc each month for games coming out in the next month or three. A level here, a video collage there, and it would really help with my decisions and picking where to spend my money. Not a small picking, either; even if all I get is a movie, I want at least 10 previews on each disc. Even a full battle from an RPG would work, as I could gauge the battle system.

The Big Three already do this, but the discs are only available for retailers and generally are only updated four times a year (if that!). A few PC Game Magazines also have this, but I've seen none for the XBox or PS2 (and I don't actively look, so I could have missed them).

With all three consoles coming online, hopefully demos will increase. I believe XBox Live already has free downloadable demos, while Nintendo (and possibly Sony) have hinted at a similar thing, which will also work with their handhelds.

People buy used because they're worried about the financial hit. As the prices of games increase (might we see $80 for MGS4?), the demand for used games will only increase.