Topic: Used game sales hurt Halo

[idolminds]

Ok, you can stop laughing any time...

"It's hard to gauge the effect of used game sales on Halo, but I'm sure it's big," O'Donnell told GamesIndustry. "Complaining about sales when you have a multi-million seller is somewhat difficult to justify, but it seems to me that the folks who create and publish a game shouldn't stop receiving income from further sales."

From further new sales? You're right, and they do. From used sales? Sorry, but no. We have laws on this, and they are really nice laws.

They need to say what they really mean, though. They probably don't care if Billy sells his copy to Timmy (if they do care, fuck 'em). If they want to be mad at anyone, its Gamestop. They actively push the used copies of games over the new copies that are sold in the SAME STORE. But how do you punish them? They aren't doing anything illegal. You could "boycott" them and not allow them to sell new copies of your game, but they could still buy up used copies and resell those.

I can see why they are upset, but I can't think of a solution. No, DRM that doesn't allow you to resell your game is nowhere near a solution (seriously, Ive seen people claim this is why EA puts install limits on PC games. Is there even a used PC game market thats large enough to worry about? I don't even know where to go to look for such a thing other than ebay.)

[Cobra951]

I have no sympathy at all for Gamestop.  I despise their tactics.  That doesn't mean I want to see new laws restricting under some IP banner our rights to do whatever the hell we want with our games or anything else we've bought.  You know that's what's being lobbied for here.  Like they've trampled all over fair use, now they want to step on the first-sale doctrine.  Be absolutely sure that future consoles will try to restrict usage of disc-based games, if they don't succeed in eliminating offline media altogether.

Greedy fuckers.

[Quemaqua]

I'd talk about how it all fills me with hate, but that would be expected.  So I won't.

[Ghandi]

How is Halo any different from any other game? The market is what it is - I don't understand how used game sales are any different for this game than any other.

Admittedly, I didn't read the article. Maybe that explains it?

[Cobra951]

It's really simple.  Let's say you make and sell chairs for a living.  If you could whine and lobby your way to keep people from selling chairs they no longer want to others, everyone would be forced to buy new chairs all the time, presumably giving you a boost in business.  If you're a rich enough self-serving bastard, you might be able to buy enough congressmen to pass legislation making it illegal to sell used chairs.  The reasons don't have to make much common sense.  They only have to fit some legal mold--say that you're not selling the chairs, you are only licensing them for use by the original buyer's ass.

[Ghandi]

I understand all of that, my original point was asking how Halo differs in relation to used sales from the rest of games? Shouldn't used game sales affect the franchise the same as all others? Or is Halo being resold at an usually high rate?

[idolminds]

I would imagine Halo was quite a popular game for resale simply based on its popularity. Same with GTA series.