When Game Developers Say Stupid Things [Used Game Sales] 0

by Adam Blue • Editorial

Jameson Durall has been in the indsutry for sometime.  He’s made some great games that rake in the cash.  The problem with this affects both developers and gamers; we’ll see high-budget games that are just not that fun.  The games don’t sell well so the developers like to put blame somewhere – used sales.  Jameson was one to cry about this (the comments are lovely).

Used-goods economics has been around as long as the FIRST MATERIAL ITEM (probably like a bloody spear with some animal hair).  People sell of their stuff.  Used stuff gets bought at a discount from those who don’t have the budget for full-priced items.  This has been fine in the gaming industry since inception.  Now, games are given unnecessarily high budgets where return is given a margin-less threshold.  If that return isn’t made back?  Then it’s the pirates and used game buyers!  Yeah, whatever…

I like this quote:  “We are losing money not because of pirates; we are losing money because people decided not to buy our game.”

And that’s all there is to it.  Make the consumer want to buy your game.  If they are buying it used due to budget constraints, they weren’t going to buy it regardless.  Any other reason would be because maybe the game isn’t so hot.  Publishers need to start lowering budgets with even lower projections.  Focus more of those resources on tightening gameplay and consulting/focus groups.  That’s how Notch is making his money…and money is apparently all you guys want, right?

I’m going to end this by reiterating my point:

Jameson: People often don’t understand the cost that goes into creating these huge experiences that we put on the shelves for only $60.  They also don’t seem to realize how much they are hurting us when they buy a used game and how pirating a copy is just plain stealing.

Adam Badowski: We are losing money not because of pirates; we are losing money because people decided not to buy our game.

 

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