Used Games, Good for Everyone

Have you ever owned a used car?  Me too.  How about a used book; maybe an old paperback or a rare first edition?  Have you ever pulled a comic book out of a white cardboard box, already bagged and boarded and re-priced?  You’ve probably flipped through the overstock bins at the video store (remember those?) wondering who would want to own Free Willy 3.  Have you ever been in a pawnshop?  A consignment shop?  A vintage clothing store?  Goodwill?  I know you’ve been to eBay, I know you have.  When you were paying for all of the previously owned things you’ve purchased over the years, did Toyota or Marvel or Doubleday ever contact you insisting they get their share of the resale profits?  Did MGM want a piece of your video purchase?  Was Ralph Lauren in your email asking for his 40% from your eBay sweater?  Did someone at Fender threaten to weld shut the output jack of your pawnshop electric guitar if you didn’t send in a check?  No.  That would be absurd, right?  While secondhand commerce may not be popular with retailers, it is, and always has been, a prevalent segment of the marketplace.  So it can hardly be a shock that gamers are outraged over video game developers considering, and even implementing, plans to block consumers who buy pre-owned games from using those games’ online components.

The argument for video game companies refusing to serve the owners of second hand games is simple.  Developers and distributers don’t profit from second hand games.  Therefore, the owner of a used game is neither their customer nor their concern.  This argument is fallacious.  More than that, it is terrible business.

All customers, and particularly all gamers, have the potential to become repeat customers.  They develop loyalties (and boy, is that an understatement).  They talk.  That has a name… what’s it called… oh yeah, word of mouth… buzz.  Buzz moves product like nothing else.  Buzz sells DLC.  Buzz sells sequels.  Buzz is priceless.  The more people playing and the more people talking… or posting or tweeting or putting up gamerscore… the better, no matter how they got their hands on the game.

People buy second hand games for a reason.  Maybe they aren’t sure if they’re going to like a game and don’t want to gamble the full retail price.  Maybe they just don’t have the cash for retail.  Most kids and college students don’t.  Maybe they missed the game when it was new a couple of years ago and want to see what they missed before the “hotly anticipated” sequel hits.  But guess what happens if they like their secondhand purchase?  They buy the DLC.  They ask for the sequel for Christmas or their birthday (which is exactly what happened at my house last winter with Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2).  They grow up, graduate from college, get a job, stick a few bucks in their pockets and remember how much they liked playing John Q. Gamecompany’s game with all of their buddies in school and maybe the guys can get together again online for the sequel… and the DLC… and the next sequel… and the next sequel.  Oh, and they can’t forget to renew their Xbox Live membership either.  What’s that?  The next-gen console is coming?  Someone has a new peripheral?  There’s a guide?  A toy?  A t-shirt?  A movie?  I need a new video card for my PC?  Forget that, I need a new PC and make it the biggest, baddest, ballsiest PC any wonder-nerd has ever had the audacity to construct.  Bill Gates will be jealous of my PC.  I’ma have Skynet on my side when I’m kicking your ass in Modern Warfare 8.  And so the marketplace rumbles on.

Companies that refuse to service used games are short sighted, probably poorly managed, almost certainly cash-strapped, and are likely trying to sell bad games at a premium.  These are companies that have no confidence in their product. They have no interest in your satisfaction.  They don’t want your loyalty.

If a company doesn’t believe you are a customer, don’t be.  Buy someone else’s game.  When you do, Microsoft will notice.  Sony will notice.  Apple will notice.  Amazon and Best Buy… even GameStop will notice.  That company’s displays will be moved to the backs of stores.  Its games won’t make the front pages of web sites, or the newspaper filers or the email ads.  Its booths will be set at the backs of convention showrooms, far, far away from the mothership brands…. removed from the traffic, from the customers, from the people who got their start, who fell in love with gaming, playing a used copy of a great game.

How many years will it be until all of this is moot anyway?  An all download digital marketplace will be the end of second hand games; maybe the end of retail software sales as we know it.  Amazon and Best Buy and GameStop will notice that too.  At the beginning of this piece, I jokingly asked if you remembered video stores.  How about record stores? What else are we going to laughingly reminisce about in a decade or two?  Oh… one last thing… do you think the price point will drop when games are download only?  No, neither do I.