New or used?

[Chris2]

Personally, this is why I like steam. They sell their games cheaper,

Lol? Steam games are really overpriced and don’t drop in price for a long, long time. Steam is only good during their sales, rest of time I buy from the shops or from online retailers.

[Humate]

Cant you get a legit copy from the 10 dollar bin?

[morguen87]

Rent it. If you like it, it’s worth the $17 or whatever it is on Amazon somebody posted a link to earlier. If you don’t, it’s probably not even worth the money used.

edit: err, I glanced at your post history because I thought I remember seeing you in other threads regarding gameplay and it sounds as if you’ve already played; if that’s the case my advice is kind of useless. Are you planning on buying a second copy for a different platform or what?

[sereNADE]

heard alot about used game sales here but in practice who has been hurt or threatened by them? bobby kotik’s job is used but i can say with certainty if we sold it to the highest bidder millions who enjoy making and playing games would profit in more ways than $. oh yeah, those used game retailers are often spending big biz money on promoting new games so…

off topic - games are less enticing new now than they ever were. new fees for social apparatus, multiple dlc packs on top of full retail entry price (capcom is king of ridiculous dlc thanks to sf4ae and sf3o), redundant drm schemes, focus on profit at expense of game quality. and then you gotta maybe buy a used game after it *****s through all that slag…

and a reminder for everyone as to the current state of dlc, fighting games are now charging 3 dollars a pop for “color packs”. if you don’t know what that is it is just a palette swap for your characters costume. nothing hand drawn, no content developed, just a color change for 3 dollars per pack and multiple color packs per game… the best part is is that are people defending this. i find the offer itself insulting.

[zenstar]

[QUOTE=sereNADE;377384]heard alot about used game sales here but in practice who has been hurt or threatened by them? bobby kotik’s job is used but i can say with certainty if we sold it to the highest bidder millions who enjoy making and playing games would profit in more ways than $. oh yeah, those used game retailers are often spending big biz money on promoting new games so…

off topic - games are less enticing new now than they ever were. new fees for social apparatus, multiple dlc packs on top of full retail entry price (capcom is king of ridiculous dlc thanks to sf4ae and sf3o), redundant drm schemes, focus on profit at expense of game quality. and then you gotta maybe buy a used game after it *****s through all that slag…

and a reminder for everyone as to the current state of dlc, fighting games are now charging 3 dollars a pop for “color packs”. if you don’t know what that is it is just a palette swap for your characters costume. nothing hand drawn, no content developed, just a color change for 3 dollars per pack and multiple color packs per game… the best part is is that are people defending this. i find the offer itself insulting.[/QUOTE]

Big publishers still get big money. It’s true. Smaller publishers are harder hit though. Fewer new games on display means it’s more difficult to get your game on the shelf if you’re not one of the big names. You also rely more on every sale. The big mainstream titles probably garner enough cash off the new sales to pay for themselves, but the more indie / experimental houses are finding it more and more difficult. This is also why a lot of publishers are moving to XBLA and other digital distribution platforms. So that sales are actually sales and they get a better chance at “getting onto the shelves”. And the marketing money spent on advertising doesn’t go back to the industry. That’s really the retailer advertising themselves by saying “come shop with us because we have the best products”.

On your offtopic: I agree with you. All this multiple preorder gumpf is getting over the top. I like the good old days where everyone offered the same preorder bonus and it was either “get a couple of $s off” or it was “have this inqonsequential hat that every store will give you for a preorder”. This nonesense with different preorders from different stores is super annoying.
I’m happy with proper DLC that actually expands the game content by a fair amount but a lot of DLC nowadays is ridiculous. Recycled maps from previous versions of the game or stupid colour packs aren’t DLC. They’re stuff that should be included in the base game or given away free to entice new purchases by showing that you’re still supporting the game and expanding the content.

DRM is another matter entirely. It’s stupid and barely deters piracy at all. If they really wanted to deter piracy they should have codewheels like the good old days except, if you get the code wrong it doesn’t kick you out the game it just puts up the goatse picture in the top right corner for the rest of the game. DRM will always be cracked, normally before release (how do they do that?) or immediately after and the only people left punished by it are the people buying the game legitimately.

And more companies should have the philosophy of “It’s done when we’re happy with it” instead of pushing out unfinished builds to capture the money and simply patching in fixes at a later date. I’d also like to see game companies trying more new things instead of just churning out the next itteration of a used title. I don’t mind sequels, but put some new angle into them at least. Simply upping the texture details and poly count and slapping in some new maps does not make a new game.

[MrFoxer]

[QUOTE=*goo;377345]
Actually, Brink does have a Special Edition. See?[/QUOTE]

What… Oh, that’s UK only.

[sereNADE]

im not sure smaller publishers are too concerned with retail shelf space. digital distribution has already made a big enough impact to change the game. in many cases they already have their niche cornered and had a limited pressing which sold out. if their titles happens to show up used it does more to raise awareness for their games. if the likes of microsoft would stop f***ing it up; digital distribution could be even better.

[RabidAnubis]

Lol? Steam games are really overpriced and don’t drop in price for a long, long time. Steam is only good during their sales, rest of time I buy from the shops or from online retailers.

Civ 5 for 17 bucks? Last time I checked that game had pretty good stuff going. TF2 for Free?

That’s much better than MOST people.

@goo And yes, part of the online pass should go the developer. My issue is the risk is on the developer and the publisher, not with the retailer. And the retailer is getting much richer off of this. XD

[zenstar]

im not sure smaller publishers are too concerned with retail shelf space. digital distribution has already made a big enough impact to change the game. in many cases they already have their niche cornered and had a limited pressing which sold out. if their titles happens to show up used it does more to raise awareness for their games. if the likes of microsoft would stop f***ing it up; digital distribution could be even better.

You have a point there when it comes to the small indie houses I suppose. And yeah, I’d like to see better digital distribution too. Less control and more experimentation. I’m happy with some quality control and checks to make sure there is no malware etc, but when it takes months just to pass a simple platformer because you don’t have the wheight of a big name then something has gone wrong.
One of the reasons I like Steam. They seem to give the owners more freedom. You pay a bit of a premium for that though, but they have great sales

@goo And yes, part of the online pass should go the developer. My issue is the risk is on the developer and the publisher, not with the retailer. And the retailer is getting much richer off of this. XD

If the developer has to host servers for the game then they should definitely get some money IMO (like the cost of an online pass if the game is second hand) to pay for the upkeep of those servers.

[gooey79]

@goo And yes, part of the online pass should go the developer. My issue is the risk is on the developer and the publisher, not with the retailer. And the retailer is getting much richer off of this. XD

Note you’re saying ‘should’, there’s no evidence profit from the online pass scam is seen by the developer. In terms of designing and issuing a product, the risk is on the developer and publisher, yes. But retailers still experience risk every day. They’ve got to make money to stay in business just like everyone else. If they’re not able to do that sufficiently with new sales, they’ve got to seek revenue elsewhere.

[Chris2]

Civ 5 for 17 bucks? Last time I checked that game had pretty good stuff going. TF2 for Free?

Civ 5 less than £3 (new)

http://www.gamestracker.com/buy-civilization-4-compare-prices-pc.htm

A free to play game that is free? That proves what?

Also they are old titles, 9 times out of 10 I can get new title on release day much cheaper from else where than steam, I recently pre-ordered the new batman for £20, I’d assume the Steam price would be around £30, the last Batman game is currently selling for £15 on steam which I can get for £5 new.

So yeah, I rarely buy new games on Steam and buy old ones during their sales in bundles and such.

[Duraigo]

Thanks for answering my question.