What a novel idea!

posted by 3Suns

Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 09:24:41 PM EST

Shacknews has posted a brief article on the efforts that game developers and publishing houses are taking to encourage customers to buy their product new, rather than second-hand.

In a nutshell, give them reason to want the new copy.  Give them added value.  What a novel idea!

I have been saying this for years now.  That is all the record companies need to do.  Give people a reason to want the CD for more than just the music.  These things cost manufacturers a fraction of what the vinal LPs cost back in the day, but don't come with those awesome album covers, or a lot of the great extras that often came with an LP - AND they cost the customer 2 to 3 times as much!

THIS is the solution!  Just give them something they can't get, in addition to the music, that will make fans want to buy the product new.  DUH!

All negativity aside, I am VERY pleased to see that Epic is one of the leaders in this new "frontier".  I hope it really brings in the bucks for them.  It is my pleasure to buy the new product, and get a little extra for my patronage.  I would be buying it new anyway, but there are other games, should they be similarly packaged, that I will not want to buy used because of this new marketing strategy.  KUDOS!


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Comments Disabled | 4 comments

  •  This is a really interesting situation... (none / 0)

    What's better for the developers? No trade-in.

    What makes the most economical sense for consumers? Trade in.

    With games getting more and more costly (other things we are paying more for means the cost of getting a game has increased) it will be interesting to see what happens. Will gamers buy less games because they want those special bonus's acquired with getting the game new? Or, will they buy as many games as they can afford through trade in?

    Great discussion!

    by SweetTea023 on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 09:44:15 PM EST

  •  Yes! (none / 0)

    That is quite a novel idea indeed!

    There's just some wierd chemical reaction that goes on between the cat food, beer, and glue that makes you feel really sick!

    by Eggo Rofls on Fri Oct 03, 2008 at 09:58:52 PM EST

  •  I am all (none / 0)

    for this new movement.  Its been an ongoing topic of conversation over at evil avatar and its been very interesting seeing everyones view on it.  I know that Burnout has done it with the motorcycles being added, NBA09 is doin it with their 365 feature(it updates rosters every day) and if you dont get it new and want the feature its gonna cost you 19.99.  There may have been a few others but those are the ones that I can think of off the top of my head.  

    This may come back to haunt the developers with some backlash from the community. But hopefully it turns into something that will give us better products with more extras, that is if you're willing to pay for that crisp new disc.  

    Oct 21/08 Nov 7/08

    by carr on Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 04:19:03 AM EST

  •  The old maps are great (none / 0)

    what a good deal

    by Noobpancake on Sat Oct 04, 2008 at 04:54:12 PM EST

Comments Disabled | 4 comments