Game studios’ lives depend on doing whatever they have to do to increase NEW game sales, while Gamestop’s survival depends on increasing USED game sales.  One of the ways to increase NEW sales is to offer content that is only accessible with a new copy of the game, or preorder bonuses that encourage you to buy the game before there are used copies available.  Also, limited edition versions of the games that are truly LIMITED edition, or games that come with a physical item that won’t be available when it comes back used, like a figurine.

You guys will probably kill me for this, although you shouldn’t. I emailed a suggestion to 343 Industries that they include a code in Halo Reach that is required to play multiplayer.  If you want to play multi-player, you have to buy a new copy and get that code. If you only want to play the single player, then you can buy a used copy (or new.) On one hand, you lose the option of saving five bucks by going used.  On the other hand, you’re only playing with people who paid for a brand new game and not someone who bought used or borrowed from a friend, so you might actually be playing with fewer “jerks.”  Microsoft would still have the option of selling you a code for multiplayer for $5.00, closing the gap between the cost of a new and a used copy, and putting it in Microsoft’s pocket instead of Gamestop’s.  Also, DO NOT PASS THIS ALONG AS “SPACEGHOST2K SAID THIS IS GOING TO HAPPEN.”  All I said was that I suggested it to THEM, and I have not received a reply (nor did I expect one – if they decide to do this, they won’t reveal it through me, I assure you of that.)

Mikewarrior suggests that if they focused on quality instead of what to take out to entice buyers, that people will be more likely to buy them new.  A whole lot of really good games have sold poorly, and a whole lot of crap games have sold really, really, stupidly well.  I’m talking to you, Fiddy and Neo.  Teasing the gamer with the offer of a golden gun is like teasing them with an Achievement.  It’s a source of pride for the gamer that has them, and a source of grief for the gamers that don’t.  My Avatar has an E3 trophy that, had I known before I used the code, I could have sold for a HUNDRED DOLLARS! (Don’t think I’m making it up. Sure he might have not actually bought it, but I sold a custom faceplate for $500, so he really might have.  I blame Pokemon. “Gotta catch ‘em all!”)

In chasing that new $$$, Microsoft doesn’t want Sony or Nintendo to get it, and none of them want Gamestop to get it.  They will lose some gamers, but they will pick up significantly more new game sales that will make the losses a very easy pill to swallow.

So should you be looking at this like, “Well, that’s it. Game companies are gonna screw us and that’s all there is to it”?  No, you shouldn’t be.

Here’s what a Digital Download, Gamestop-free future will bring you:

- Every game available, all the time, when you want it. Never sold out. Want a game at three in the morning? There it is. Want a three year old game that nobody seems to carry anymore? Voila.
- Price promotions controlled by the game makers themselves and not retailers.  With the push of a button, a game is on sale for everyone, simultaneously.
- NO MORE PREORDERS.
- No enormous library of game discs on your shelves. Think MP3 player instead of Discman.
- No crummy trade-in value.
- No scratched or destroyed discs.
- Nobody pushing EDGE cards down your throat.
- No “Is this new? It’s open” issues. Every game is new and mint.
- Free games? Hell, yeah. Think I’m kidding? When Morrowind came out, Bethesda made Arena a free download. Nobody’s going to make a free disc. Maybe when Mass Effect 3 comes out, you can get Mass Effect 1 for free.
- Episodic games only work on DD.

Play the first level of Fable 3 for $10. Don’t like it, you’re out ten bucks, not $60. Get the rest of the game a little at a time.  For the biggest fans, the game would never have to end.  Hey, WoW players are basically buying Episodic content that they create themselves, and pay $14.95 a month to do it… with 10 million people pleased with how it all works.

And, most importantly, you’ll keep game studios making money, employing lots of people, and making games for years to come. Because if THAT doesn’t happen, the rest of it really doesn’t matter much.

Let me take a quote of Mike’s from his rant, concerning the restriction of certain game elements to new game buyers: “It is a failed concept especially when the content you usually cut out is a multiplayer level or two that people can’t afford to buy.” Gaming isn’t food.  There is always some point at which you have to decide, “Do I want to pay for this or can I live without it?”  If people can’t afford to buy it, then they should take up a cheaper hobby, or do without that map.

Bowling is expensive.  For a 16 week league for my son and I, it was going to cost almost $300. Guess what. I wrote a letter to AMF insisting they lower their prices, and they called the lanes and now we bowl for $100.  Oh wait, no they didn’t. I just chose to not join their league.  If I’m the only one, and the league is full on Saturday afternoon, then the loss of “me” is irrelevant. Unless I sit around crying about it, which I don’t. But if the league is NOT full, and other people agree with me and pass on the league, then the league WILL lower the price. They have to, to survive.  They have to keep the lanes full on Saturday afternoons.

I’ve got a thing I do on the side. I sell some life insurance.  In California, life insurance policies under $20,000 are called “final expense” policies, because they really only cover your funeral and that’s about it.  Right now, an average funeral is about $7,000. People are concerned about their cost going up to $10K, or $15K or $20K.  I tell them that it’ll never happen.  When funerals get too expensive, people just stop having them.  They don’t stop DYING, of course, they just choose cremation or a cheaper casket or pass on flowers. Funeral parlors have to sell funerals to “live”, pardon the expression, so no matter what happens, they will always be within reach of the majority of people.

Games will ALWAYS be within reach of the MAJORITY of people.  That said, there will ALWAYS be people who can’t afford it, or who run a generation behind.  There will also ALWAYS be people who want to have it ALL, and bitch that they can’t, because it costs too much.

Hi, Mike.

Gamers with “cash flow” problems as Mike puts it, are not the concern of the game companies. It’s the gamers with money who are the concern.  THOSE gamers need to have an outlet for their money that goes directly into game studios pockets.  What company would structure itself around people WITHOUT money?  Go ahead, start a business that caters to broke people, and let us know how that works out for you.

Anyway, Mike and I have beat this horse to death elsewhere, and now he’s written a rant for I dunno what purpose.  I don’t mind letting him have the last word, but I have to at least get one in.  But I won’t call mine a rant.  You know what the word “rant” means?  “To talk foolishly.” So maybe I’ll call mine “SpaceGhost2K’s Enlightenment.”

And you Mike, Mike…I’mma let you finish, but this guy had the greatest rant of all time.  OF ALL TIME!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdxkVQy7QLM

*this article was written by SpaceGhost2K

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