Saturday, August 8, 2009

New/Used Games

I played the Batman: Arkham Asylum and X-Men Origins: Wolverine demos on the 360 today, and as Batman's not out yet, I decided to go and pick up a copy of Wolverine. I also wanted to pick up a copy of Fallout 3 for my brother (Happy Birthday bro!)

So the family and I headed to the local mall and I went to the game store there, who shall remain nameless. This store had a plethora of 'used' games for sale, easily twice as many 'used' games as new games.

As a developer, I know that the people who actually make games only make money off of new copies that are sold. So after a bit of hunting I managed to find the games I was looking for. When I took them up to the counter, I was given the hard sell:

"You know we have both of these games as used copies?"
"Yes, but I'd rather pay the extra $5 and make sure the developers get some money."
"You could save yourself some money..."
"I'd rather they be able to continue making good games"

Yeah, I'm an idealist...and I do actually say stuff like this in real life.

I realize that this chain makes a lot of money by selling a new game for a bit of profit, buying it back for $20-$30, and then reselling it for $54.99...over and over again. I can't blame them for wanting to make a profit, and I can't blame gamers who go into a store to buy a game, see two nigh-identical copies of the game, only one being $5 cheaper...of course it seems like a win-win for everyone involved. Except for people like me who rely on game sales to pay our rent.

But what really chaps my ass is that even after I explicitely asked for a new copy of the game, and paid for a new copy of the game, when I got home I realized that one of the games I'd purchased is clearly not new.


There is no shrink wrap, the price tag is affixed directly to the cover, and instead of the official XBox seal the case is simply taped shut with a strip of white tape.




Now, when I say I wanted a new game, what I meant was I wanted a new, unopened, guaranteed-that-at-least-some-of-the-money-I'm-handing-over-will-find-it's-way-into-the-hands-of-the-people-that-made-the-game game. With the game in this condition, I have no assurance that this isn't a second, third, or fourth hand game. I know that this case as at least been opened.

It's possible that the box was opened, the disc stored safely away from the display shelves, and then everything re-assembled when I purchased it. But as the copy of Fallout 3 has not gone through this treatment, I simply can't know that this game has not been used.

I will be returning both games tomorrow and buying them from another source from now on.

And for those of you who still want a deal on games, I would direct you to this:
http://kotaku.com/5332358/best-buy-now-matching-gamestops-used-prices-on-new-games

14 comments:

  1. Trust me I understand. I used to work at an independent game store ages ago and had to be on the back side of the whole new/used business. The ONLY thing the used games are good for is finding the titles that aren't carried new anymore.

    'Course where I live the only local place to buy games is that store or Wal*Mart... none of those "big chains that sell used games are anywhere closer to here than an 50+ miles away"

    -Jester from w00t Radio

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  2. Jeas, another blog I need to follow...

    That's pretty shifty though. I can say, after learning about this, that as a consumer, I'd rather pay the extra money so I can get some more kick ass games.

    And I think I have an idea of who did this too (the store) but since you didn't say I won't either.

    -Vojin, CoH forums.

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  3. i agree i would return them too there is no reason why after you telling them no that you someone ended up with a used game.

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  4. I'm also curious if they charged you for 2 new games as well. That's double shady.

    --Soulie

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  5. By no means what so ever will I defend the Game store that shall not be named, I used to work for them (I recognize the price tag from the photo so I know which company it is) but I would like to clearify one thing. To deture theft, it's company policy to not put put Live product (IE: Unopened cases with Games still in them) on the floor. Now, for reasons that are beyond me, the company does not see reason to order dummy cases for games. So the employees are forced to open 1-4 copies of a game, store the game and manuel and put the Empty case on the floor. The tag across the open is the best they can honestly do to reseal the game.

    Do I agree with it? hell no.
    But Given the choice between arguing it with my district manager, loosing the argument and then loosing my job for failing to follow company policy, or shutting up and doing what I'm told even though I think it's brain-dead stupid idea... yeah.

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  6. Addition: It's "supposed" to be company policy that they sell the gutted copies LAST! but I know from experience that many associates find it easier to just grab the guts, stick 'em back in the case and sell that first. Why they think that is beyond me.

    Bottom line: having worked for said company, I will NEVER engage in business with that company again. It is bar none, the worst run company I have ever worked for.

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  7. yeah - if they are giving you the shelf version, or a former shelf version, they should *Tell* you.

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  8. By the way, what keyboard is that? Looks like a Logitech G15 or G15 Gaming.

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  9. o^o yeah sorry man, I currently work for the company that shalt not be named.Like Torreos Prime stated, we have to have a floor copy out there and MOST of the time we do not have dummy copies. Either you got the last copy that particular store had or it was a lazy guy grabing the gut (or the disc from a floor copy). Honestly doing the later is more work then its worth.

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  10. It's hard to blame their business model; I doubt they could be in business without the bigger margins of used games. It feels like all they did was extend their death sentence a few more years, though. The more things go online, the more pointless Gamestop becomes.

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  11. I adopted the same policy about a year ago. If I don't find it new then I move on to a different store.

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  12. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8210622.stm

    Even the BBC covers this as an issue.

    Ian Livingstone is cited as estimating the 2nd hand market is more than 25% of UK store game sales.

    Its little problem for me to buy new, outside of COH I only buy maybe 2 titles/year and I wil continue to do so.

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  13. Unrelated to the overall content--apologies--but did you ever pick up Arkham Asylum? Curious what you thought of the overall game--as well as how you handled the explosive gargoyles!

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  14. I actually had a situation where they did this to an MMO. I bought the MMO, took it home, and discovered that there was no game key. I tried talking to MMO's support staff first, but they gave me the "Are you SURE it's not in there?" talk. So I called the game store I purchased it from and they said they would NOT take it back because I cannot return "opened" PC games.

    I took it to a DIFFERENT store from the same chain and explained the situation. Fortunately, the manager listened to my story and found me a replacement copy at a third store.

    By time I got home from literally a day's worth of driving around, MMO's support told me that they would be more than willing to give me a code for it. =P

    Seriously, [game store] had no business opening the game to begin with.

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