I think that sometimes used games sales can hurt the industry.
Gamestop used to and probably still does(I don't go to Gamestop anymore) buy up used new releases and resell them at $5 less than a new copy and heavily push selling their used copy of a new release. I would think that that would undercut sales of new releases somewhat.

Of course that may be an excuse to try and end used sales completely, Nintendo tried that with game rentals when I was a kid.

No I don't. There's plenty of used games I've bought over the past 12 years or so and there's times when I've played a game used and loved it and when the eventual sequel came out, I bought it, based on playing the first game used. What they don't understand is that a lot of us gamers, like me, have bought games without a demo because we were hoping it'd be good, and it turned out to be crap. Games aren't cheap. A $50-$60 piece of crap game leaves an extremely sour taste in the mouth. If a game doesn't have a demo, I will not buy it new. Unless the price drops considerably, or in the future if I come around a new game that's under $20 or so, then I'll pick it up. But full price? Never, if there isn't a demo for me to try it out.

It hurts only the corporations. For customers, game makers, and for the culture it's good.

Many people buy games, finish them , sell them, and then buy another one. They wouldn't buy so many games, if they couldn't sell them after.

And were all rich, Right? Nope, i dont sell any of my games, but i buy alot of used games - its the only cheap way to get games here in aus, brand new they are $110. It's just publisher greed.

Plus the only reason they're able to get away with such massive margins on used sales is because currently no one is competing with them. If all the companies complaining actually got off their asses and offered their own used games marketplace with lower margins (say, buying for $15 then reselling for $25) then they'd steal away a huge chunk of the used games business from Gamestop.

Well, Toys R' Us and Amazon.com have both tried. Apparently this thing that Gamestop is pulling off successfully is kind of hard to pull off, even when you have fat piles of cash to invest in it. The gaming industry pretty much has only itself to blame for Gamestop. Bitching that they sell MW3 for only 5 USD less used and that somehow justifies bad behavior for developers is just nonsense. It's bad behavior from publishers and devs that cause it all in the first place.

Well, in fact, Polish lawyers think that game producers who put one use codes into games (online passes) may break the Polish consumer law.

This is because an oridinary person doesn't know about that kind of limitations when buying the game (small text on a box is not enough to inform them).

It may be considered unfair business practice by court in Poland.

Oh I agree, especially considering I used to be a console gamer myself. I have been a console gamer for years, until roughly 5 years ago when I bought a pc. After that, there was no way I could go back to playing console games. So believe me, I know all about the used game market since I used to trade games too :) Found it annoying I couldnt do the same with pc games, but after a while I realised that most pc titles have long term gaming applications, which means you can play for a long time and still not get bored. At least not for a while anyway :P Console games only seem to last a few hours, then you want to play something else.

...unless they can get it free as well.

Most people in e.g. GOG, Steam etc. seem to opt buying their games from sales, for a reduced price. That doesn't sit that well with the claim that they pay for their games primarily in order to support the developers and publishers, because then they would certainly be willing to pay the full price, if not even more.

Then again, yesterday I did buy the Penumbra Collection for a full price from the developers' web site, but I admit I also got Amnesia on top of it because they were offering with a 40% reduced price if they are bought together.

Anyway, if they had offered the Penumbra games also with discount, I would have bought them even more eagerly, even knowing that then I'd support Frictional Games less than I did now. My main motivation was still to get the games as cheaply as possible, hassle-free (including official support in case I run into technical problems with the game) and without consequences.

I do remember a faint political motivation when buying PC versions of Final Fantasy 7 and 8 (for full price, even), kind of trying to prove for my part to Square that it makes sense to make PC games as well. But that is a rare occurence, with most games I've never had much of political motivations behind it.

Well, It appears that the pirates buy 30% more cultural goods than non pirates.

It's mostly because pirates are more culture-aware. They're interested in new movies, music, games, etc. oridinary people go to the cinema once a year and that's all they do.

There are pirates who just download stuff and don't pay for anything, but in general, they buy more than common people. (at least in Poland, that's where that 30% more result was discussed in press lately)

Used games, videotaping, scanners and printers, etc.
Look at it! Music is dead! Video games are dead! Books are dead!

Oh, wait, that's only what the industry propagated. Nevermind...

A more sensible explanation (rather than that piracy increases the likelihood of legit purchases) is that people who are more interested into e.g. games, both pirate and buy them more often than "ordinary people" who are not that interested in games in the first place.

That does not automatically mean that if the option of piracy (ie. getting some of their stuff free) was taken away from the game-aware people, they would buy 30% less games, or other media.

I can relate to that with my personal experience. Many of my friends were avid pirates when they were younger and are now paying -a lot- on "cultural goods" (sounds better that nerd stuff ;-P). A lot more than those that only watch TV, etc.


Without piracy, I wouldn't be a gamer today. Simple as that.

Damn, I was pirating games when I was a kid too. It was just easier and faster than gathering money for legal games.

I tossed all my pirated games to garbage like 5 years ago (or maybe earlier), and since then I've bought hundreds of games, movies, etc.

I still watch TV series online though, cause they're not avaible in Poland anyway...