Digitally yours, forever.
We love digital distribution services like Steam. They provide a great place that keeps track of your games, while you don't have to keep track of physical media or serial keys.
Even though there isn't much of a used games market for PC games, the way digital distribution works today makes reselling something you own impossible. Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter spoke in an interview with NowGamer about some kind of Steam trade or exchange service: "Steam gives gamers enough other stuff so that they don’t resent the fact they can’t trade in their games. And you know, name all the Steam games that you’ve purchased that you’ve traded back in to somebody else for credit. Steam’s about to let you do that supposedly, you know like trade and exchange, but they’re going to take a fee from it."
Before you celebrate about how you may be able to send your digital games back into the Steam stream for someone else to enjoy, Valve's Doug Lombardi killed the notion with the following statement to Blue's News: "Untrue. We've never met with Mr. Pachter."
The only reason for a 2nd hand games market to exist is for buying games cheaper and Steam games are cheap enough already (I recently got every Doom title ever made for a whopping £7.81)
The second hand games market is a leech on the industry and the developers don't see a penny of the money that circulates through it. So what is better for the end user?
1) Games distubuted in a way that the 2nd hand market does not exist, every penny goes to the developers so they can reinvest in more and better games and the high uptake of sales means that the cost is reduced for the customer. Quality is increased, cost is lowered.
2) Games are allowed to flourish in a re-sellable marketplace, a single sale of the game can lead to dozens of separate owners so the uptake is lower, this leads to higher costs for the games and the amount available for reinvestment is also lowered. Quality is lowered, cost is increased.
Time for this leeching industry to die, if you work in CEX or GameStop then time to look for a new job in KFC, it's not like you had a highly paid position of skilled qualification to begin with. The ultimate winner here will be the customer - we get better quality games and pay less money in the long run.
The only reason for a 2nd hand games market to exist is for buying games cheaper and Steam games are cheap enough already (I recently got every Doom title ever made for a whopping £7.81)
The second hand games market is a leech on the industry and the developers don't see a penny of the money that circulates through it. So what is better for the end user?
1) Games distubuted in a way that the 2nd hand market does not exist, every penny goes to the developers so they can reinvest in more and better games and the high uptake of sales means that the cost is reduced for the customer. Quality is increased, cost is lowered.
2) Games are allowed to flourish in a re-sellable marketplace, a single sale of the game can lead to dozens of separate owners so the uptake is lower, this leads to higher costs for the games and the amount available for reinvestment is also lowered. Quality is lowered, cost is increased.
Time for this leeching industry to die, if you work in CEX or GameStop then time to look for a new job in KFC, it's not like you had a highly paid position of skilled qualification to begin with. The ultimate winner here will be the customer - we get better quality games and pay less money in the long run.
I simple agree with back_by_demand that the games are already cheaper than the physical, shelf market. I to bough doom collection but for 39.99 two year ago. With costed me +- R$ 80. Just Resurrection of Doom goes out for R$ 50, and it's not even available anymore in physical shelf market here in Brazil! Tell me if that isn't a bargain!