Incentive DLC Won’t Stop Used Game Sales
Used games are a hot topic for developers in the gaming community. Game studios often get the shaft when it come to used game sales of which they see zero profit for. Some developers and publishers have even taken it upon themselves to include exclusive DLC with new purchases. The strategy is that gamers who purchase the game used will have to pay for the DLC that was free to the original buyer.
However, GameStop CEO Dan DeMatteo doesn’t feel this will put much of a dent into his business. He is confident that this new DLC program EA has implemented with Mass Effect 2 and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 will do little to stop used games. DeMatteo reminds us that GameStop will be offering DLC at their own store locations.
“Through our years in the used business, we have learned that the second-hand user is a value-oriented consumer… we don’t believe that a $10 add-on piece of DLC is compelling to a used game buyer. Publishers can participate in our used business by offering add-on content for the most popular used titles, creating a win-win situation for publishers, retailers and consumers. We can market and execute DLC sales right in-store. There’s a tremendous opportunity for us to encourage software developers and publishers to create DLC because we’ll be able to market it. It’s very difficult to discover, find… add-on content with the tools available [currently].”
DeMatteo revealed plans that employees will be fully trained to offer DLC at the counter.
[Source]
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10 Responses to “Incentive DLC Won’t Stop Used Game Sales”
I disagree. If it’s a game I care about like BC2, then it’d be awfully stupid of me to buy it used to save 5 bucks when I’d have to buy a 15 dollar vip code.
Other games like The Saboteur, where the code in the box was only to make all the girls in the game nude, its not worth it.
The best way to kill used games sales is to offer better day 1 deals. For example big discounts on multiple copies bought on day 1.
Also another way to deter used sales is for Sony to step in and run the used game sales.
As far as GameStop, I’m sure they’ll be perfetly happy to assure customers that the used games have all the content of the new version, no matter if they do or don’t. How many of their employees actually know this stuff, much less care? And how many customers are going to check their used game vs. a new version, and how many of those are going to return it to the store and complain? Not enough to significantly impact their profit margin.
As far as publishers, taking content out that then needs to be downloaded (even if it’s free) just fills up hard drives and makes us wait for it to download. And it’s certainly not much of a stretch to think that as long as they’re taking stuff out, why not just give us most of it back for free, and maybe keep this little extra bit here to sell as a $10.00 DLC later on?
Just a lose-lose situation for consumers. Win-win for the people trying to make money off of us.
It’s crazy how everyone demonizes used game sales (with some even equating it to piracy).
So why aren’t we condemning used book sales…or used car sales? People sell their used products all the time because that is their RIGHT to do so. They have paid for it and they can sell it if they want.
There are used book stores, used car lots, used music/movie stores which are a legitimate and legal business, but sell a used game and it’s PIRACY!!! EVIL!
What should be considered evil is places like Gamestop selling opened/used games as new at full price. I remember looking for a specific game and after phoning around one store had it. I went in and asked for it and they employee asked me to wait while he got it. He went into his backpack, took a disc out of a sleeve, stuck it in the game case and rang it up for $69.99 (new)…I walked out and never returned.
i don’t get the point of used games , your geting ripped off you sell your copy you paid 60$ for 10-15$ back , while gamestop sells those copies back to ppl for 50$? idk i like keeping all my games so i can play them whenever i want to. pluss with all the dlc you buy , the dlc is useless with out the game.
I think that most people that buy used games return them as soon as they complete the game so they use GameStop as a rental store. So DLC would not matter to those gamers.
I wonder if he also realizes that informed buyers find his stores to all be run by the same type of scam artist- sleeze bags…
i’d radther just go to best buy there free gamers club the points add up, i’ve gotten almost 150$ in gift cards buying games the past couple of years. while you have to pay for gamestops lame program that is good for used games. i used to use ebgames to pre order games when i was younger for years and years , untill best buy came here. i can’t remeber the last time i preordered a game from them, the ebgames/gamestop in my area closed down in favor of the funcoland/gamestop store that was also in the same location. your much better off seling your games on ebay , than all the money goes to you.
@Robotron – right on the money, I’ve been thinking that for a long time. The only reason I demonize gamestop is that if I sell them a used game anymore they give me $2.50 tops for it, no matter what it is (unless its about a week old). Then they turn around and put it back on the shelf for $40-50, which is ridiculous. They should be paying me at least $10-20 for that disc,,, so I’d rather go post it on e-bay for $20 and see what I get for it. Then its win-win for buyer/seller.
[...] used sales model. When the advent of digital distribution came around, the game retailer merely brushed off the idea of digital content effecting their business. However, as time went on, they began to see how the [...]