Quote:
Originally Posted by mr dave
sorry but this is a load of crap on the same line as "p2p killed the music industry".
there's been a significant resurgence of independent developers releasing on the cheap for the last few years now. look at the amount of gaming apps available for any phone. HUGE market and it's starting to cross over into the pc market again, and with digital distribution being built into modern consoles the indie devs are actually provided with more opportunities than they've ever had. you won't necessarily get a Ferrari out of the deal but you can make a living.
the groups fighting the used game sales at Gamestop etc. are the established publishers, they're also the ones who control most of the money and the overall direction of any project that needs venture capital to get moving. it's the same logic that's running most large entertainment studios music, movies, tv, whatever into the ground - don't take a real risk / rehash rehash rehash / new paintjob = new product - aka Capcom. really though, thanks for the 153rd Street Fighter game in a row $60 brand new... really.
the idea that a used sale is a loss for the developer is a fallacy. the consumer who buys used does so because they are not willing to pay new prices; it's either used or pirated - neither provides back to the developer, and only one helps the business that caters to the particular interest.
also The Witcher2 is $35 at gamestop this week picked it up tonight  |
Huh?
This post mostly supports what I'm saying. I said their best bet to to support a downloadable distribution method. However, just because their is a booming market with apps, doesn't necessarily mean it will equal success on the consoles all that soon. A lot of those games are cheap and meant to be played for 2 minutes, I still believe people play console games for a 8+ hour expireance, excluding multi player.
If your trying to release a "full length" game for download only on consoles your talking 30 gigs, and then you have to hope all the people interested in your game have a hard drive.
I'm not even talking about indie games necessarily. More along the lines of a "grasshopper" studio's who's games get limited distribution already and need a decent sales figure ( and meta score) to get the greenlight for the next project.
The person who buys used isn't necessarily a cheapass, he might just walk into the store and notice that an identical-looking copy of the game is five dollars cheaper so why the **** not. It's the same guy who ends up getting an edge card and a subscription to game informer. The casual consumer is more likely to buy used .
It's really only the japanese market running things to the ground, ubisoft and ea lower the prices of their games aggressively, and make sure to release some new ip's every year.
I can sympathize with developers for trying to fight used game sales. It isn't just gamestop anymore either-best buy, target, walmart, etc are all adding used game sales. Your seriously going to tell me every giant corporate chain selling used games won't see some kind of effect on sales?