GameStop backlash continues as Halo 3 rep maligns pre-owned game sales

As publishers continue to beat the anti-GameStop/used games drum, they conveniently ignore their own higher game prices.

GameStop backlash continues as Halo 3 rep maligns pre-owned game sales

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

In a time when the video game industry as a whole is enjoying record profits month-over-month, you would be hard pressed to find a gaming exec directly asserting an anti-GameStop movement was taking place. Indirectly, however, the evidence is coalescing right in front of our eyes.

Earlier this month, GamePro reported that Criterion Games was releasing a rather robust--and rather free--motorcycle upgrade for the months-old Burnout Paradise. While the upgrade was great for gamers, one source at EA told GamePro that the move was more a counterattack against used game sales, than it was to satisfy fans of the series.

Then came the DRM-laden, well reviewed, life sim Spore from video game savant Will Wright. Anti-DRM advocates rallied against the game's SecuROM on principle, but their efforts may have unintentionally obscured the real reason EA included a 3-computer restriction: to prevent the enticing and gamer-honored tradition of selling the game back for cash (the DRM has since been "upgraded" to five systems).

Regardless, the game sold 1 million copies anyway, and it will be interesting to see how many find their way back to GameStop's shelves for a drastic markup.

And the most recent example of a GameStop backlash comes from the folks behind Halo. It's not every day you see a million-seller complaining about not making enough money, and yet there was Marty O'Donnell, in an interview with GameIndustry, waxing on about how GameStop ate into profits.

"It's hard to gauge the effect of used game sales on Halo, but I'm sure it's big. 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," he said.

GameStop, for its part, could care less. It continues to make oodles of cash every month thanks to the healthy industry it feeds upon, scorned publishers be damned. Even on the touchier subject of digital downloads (and that Burnout upgrade), the uber-seller was completely comfortable with the way things are--and will be in the future.

"We tell our publishers we're not afraid to compete with anybody on digital downloads. It's just they can't make it that they have an unfair advantage. There isn't. The customer can come into our stores and buy "Burnout Paradise" at the same time they digitally download it [on the PS3] or they can digitally download it from GameStop.com," said GameStop v.p. of merchandising, Bob McKenzie.

Of course, this whole discussion might be a lot different today if publishers weren't charging $60 for a video game. Many observers, GamePro commenters included, have weighed in on the issue. If games were reasonably priced to begin with, the appeal of a one-week-old used copy of Halo 3 priced at $40-50 wouldn't be so, well, appealing in the first place. Maybe instead of using GameStop's completely legit business practices as a scapegoat, the publishers should take a deep look at their own spiraling development costs -- $100 million for Grand Theft Auto IV, for example -- and go on from there.

Comments [45]

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bluer57

What the companies are saying makes no sense. How can they complain about used games sales and not getting a profit from that. Used cars are sold all the time and that is almost the same thing as used games. However the costs of making games is dangerously high. What if they spend millions on a game and it sells poorly. That could bring down a game company.

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war02orc

I don't buy used games unless the game is so old it's not available new. I hate buying used games. I also NEVER sell my games regardless of how crappy they are.

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kmharris

its a little different that that, i think. If gamestop sells a used game, that money is theirs and not the publishers. that's why you hear alot of these gaming forums as such, resist buying used games because it hurts the industry.

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Kubrick

polo972 wrote:

Halo 3 was not that good to me. But I never finished it.

Finish the fight.

Kubrick

I am against Game Stop and could care less about used games for the most part. It is only useful when you want an old game. Therefore Game Stop should not sell and new games open or sealed. Just old games. Or screw them all together and use EBAY.

Toneman

No wonder they're releasing more and more downlaodable games... you can't trade those games in for new ones.... you have to keep em.

greensabre

That's pretty odd, since Halo 3 had the biggest launch in entertainment history if I remember correctly. Those were obviously not used sales, but brand new games. I think the GameStops are a check against all of the shovelware that's being put out there in hopes that people will throw away $50-$60 on it. If anything, games like Halo 3 have proven that consumers will pay the $60 price for a GOOD game. Games that aren't worth $60 will end up being resold at Gamestop. In short: stop your bitching developers and earn that $60 your charging for games.

AANTHUNDER

Buying a used game is no different than buy a used car or previewed dvd at blockbuster. I very rarely sell my games because I won't get much back for them and I rarely finish them. Despite the fact that I don't buy new games at GS, I do buy used games that I might have missed when they were at full price. Like it or not, once I purchase something , be it game,car or dvd, what I do with it is my own business. If some store is will to take it back from you at a cheaper price and sell it for more, thats their business. Isn't it why they are in business , to make money?

slickjames

To me I think not having used games hurts the industry. I would never had bought a game like Baulders Gate new but I bought part 1 used and loved it so I got part two new. Gamers
aren't gonna waste $60 of their hard earned money on a game that they don't know is good or not, but if a game is cheap they'll give it a try and maybe tell their friends and boost the game sales. If there are no used games companies might as well just make sequels because new IP's won't sell at all. Also the day all games are downloaded instead of sold will be the day I quit playing games.

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