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Game developer Lionhead has declared that second-hand sales of video games for the Xbox 360 are a bigger problem for the company than pirated video games on the PC. In other words, the resale or pre-owned games cost the company more in the long run than piracy does.
"Piracy these days on PC is probably less problematic than second-hand sales on the Xbox," Mike West, the lead combat designer for Fable III, which is made by Lionhead, told Eurogamer. "I've been working on PC games for many years and piracy is always a problem. There are a lot of honest people out there as well, and if they like your game they'll buy it. The pirates, whatever you do on whatever system, they will crack it. It might take no time... I think the longest it's taken to happen is two days. Someone will crack it somewhere and there's not much you can do about it."
Game publishers and developers do not like second-hand game sales because they don't get any money for the transaction. The party doing the reselling, be it Amazon, EB Games, or another retailer, reaps all the profits. The store stops being the middle man by cutting out the head honcho. Gamers can also obviously sell games directly between each other and then there really is no profit on the actual sale.
Game companies have tried various methods to fight back against the resale of previously-owned games. The most popular initiative is EA's Online Pass: new games come with a free code that can be redeemed to enable multiplayer or receive downloadable content. The code can only be used once, which means second-hand buyers have to buy their own online for around $10 or they won't get to use all the features of a given game.
Let's revisit piracy. West says the fact that people don't think it's worth spending money on computer games is a depressing situation. He insists that pirates are making sure there are fewer games coming out in the future and more people are out of work. He also believes that the only way to stop a pirate from not paying for a game is to have a face to face conversation with him or her, in order to explain the consequences of their actions.
User Comments: 57
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this way they get a test run of the game instead of dropping up to $60 on a hunk of junk.
*cough* Brink *cough*
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You seem to have overlooked the entire entertainment industry.
EULA's are a con game. No other industry (that i can think of) demand to be paid a second time for their product.
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I do not use pirate games mainly as I have worked 15 years in IT and I know what it takes to develop software.
But I do believe that the best way to avoid games piracy is for the games companies to spend less money in marketing and more money in games developing and testing. Because after spending over 40€ in a game it feels pretty bad if it constantly crashes and the developers do not develop new patches for newer hard after 6 months of releasing a game...
At the same time cheaters are a plague that goes way ahead punkbuster or any other system (feels like virus antivirus wars...)
A game is not cheap and should have a longer life in our computers that 6-8 months, extend the life cycles and buying will be more attractive.
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mailpup said:
You seem to have overlooked the entire entertainment industry.You have a point to a certain extent but one difference between the general entertainment industry and games is once you buy and use a movie DVD or music CD you are free to sell it or even give it away to someone else if you want. -
You have a point to a certain extent but one difference between the general entertainment industry and games is once you buy and use a movie DVD or music CD you are free to sell it or even give it away to someone else if you want.With that said, studios and performers continue to receive royalties on future sales and public showings of movies, some income is from movies finally hitting broadcast networks. So, it isn't like they go to work one day, get paid for one day, and it's a done deal, like you or I would.
I saved this link from a old thread here: [link] It shows just how psychotic the RIAA actually is. I suppose the old Newtonian principle that, "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction" might apply if you balance this with the average music down loaders justifications. But really, this is where the industry stopped getting any support from me.
And, you're really not free to keep a backup if you don't have the original disc. Yeah I know, that sort of goes in circles.
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What a load of rubbish....
How is selling/buying a secondhand console game any different to selling/buying anything secondhand.
Should Ford get a cut of every secondhand car sold?? I think not.
This is just pure greed.
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He also believes that the only way to stop a pirate from not paying for a game is to have a face to face conversation with him or her, in order to explain the consequences of their actions
Good then while he's there the 'pirate' can ask him why the majority of PC games are released later than on consoles...
West says the fact that people don't think it's worth spending money on computer games is a depressing situation.Yup and like i said doesn't really motivate me to pay £40 for a game that my little brother has been playing on for months before hand.
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