I want to talk about video games for  minute. Apparently, video game developers are unhappy because they see only initial profit from a game. They say that a game sells initially and within a a couple of weeks gamers turn to buying used copies and rob them of profit. They see none of this money and merchants like Game-Stop get to pocket that precious profit.

I find a multitude of things wrong with this thinking and anyone who buys into it. First of all, if your losing significant profit on new game sales from used game sales within two weeks of the release of a game it is because the game was worthless and everyone dumped it. This could be for a bazillion reasons, all valid.

Secondly, you are overcharging for these games. These companies and developers complain at a loss from used sales, from pirating, and more. Let’s be honest though, when a game comes out that is popular to any real degree, these companies can’t even keep the game in stock for more than a day. If they see sales climbing to this degree step up production. At rates that are nearing the 55-65 dollar range they should be able to. The same goes for the consoles themselves.

Sell these games for less and enjoy selling far more copies. This is easy. Obviously the amount of people who simply do not find these games worth that price is not just growing but is in the majority. Perhaps these people are not all bad but are rather are offering up a huge glaring loud statement to the saleability of what these companies have been producing, worth playing but only if drastically cheaper or free and either way used. How many more copies will they sell if they rearranged their business model to reflect this? All of those pirates, I am quite sure, wouldn’t mind instant access  to the product without long download times the benefit of physical media and the accompanying art, info and more if it were priced correctly. People who do wait for used status, even those who actually hold out for long periods to pick up titles used would be far more likely to simply buy the titles new if they were priced correctly. Game downloads are great and all but I would be happy to get well priced games without having to wait, for the physical media which benefits me aesthetically and if I choose to sell used, etc.

I do not think you can avert everyone who waits for used games, but then it would not matter if you made enough money in the first place. Ignorance seems to be the only excuse/reason.

Finally, most companies in most industries do not get any kind of share of used status sales.  Perhaps they should just deal with it like everyone else. Welcome to business in this paticular “free” society.