End of pre owned games

Big software bosses are becoming aware of the massive pre owend games market, they are trying to put a stop to it. In my opinion this could not happen because it you bankrupted too many companys.

www.mcvuk.com...

[edit on 15/1/2006 by kenney]

I can understand that it damages the industry, but if this does happen, I can see many buisnesses failing and me without as many games as I usually do.

It's not entirely clear what they could do about it though. Surely if I legitamately buy a product, be it a game or anything else, I am the legal owner and can choose to sell it to whomever I like.....?

I have just looked in the copyright section in the booklet for one of my PS2 games, and there is absolutely nothing in there saying that it is illegal to re-sell the games. I will send a email to the Trade and Standards to see what they think about it.

I doubt it is because of the legalities of reselling games. It's due to greed, the big gaming companies want all the money associated with the exchange of their product. The main objective of a corporation is profit, a monopoly is their goal, they desire peak profit with no competition.

- Attero

[edit on 15-1-2006 by Attero Auctorita]

What about the reselling of previously rented tapes/dvds at Blockbouster. Isn't this the same thing?

I'm going with the corporate greed out of control again take on this one.

What a load of crap. I bet GM and Ford are watching this closely. I mean, how dare some stupid customer buy a car, then have the nerve to resell it later? When the car is done, you need to trash it and buy new. Same with old CDs. The companies need that money. This is garbage.

I have countless games on xbox and ps2 that are loaded with bugs. Do I get to trade em in? Do they patch them? Nope. Your up s*** creek with no paddle. Ohhhh... but try and dump em off for 20 bucks, and thats soon to be a crime? Come and get me... I dare you!!

It is 100% legal to re-sell a computer, PS2, or other video game, as long as when you do so, the seller destroys all copies on their hard drive and all their backups, so that they no longer actually have the game any longer. If you keep a copy of the game you are selling, that is illegal.

bad move imo

would cause more pirating in return. idiotas.


i love going to gamestop and trading in crap games

I remember hearing that the upcoming PS3 could possibly contain the software making it non-compatible with borrowed or resold games. If so, I'm not getting one. So if you bought a bunch of new games only compatible with your specific PS3, then your console needs to be replaced, this renders all of you're previous games usless? I can't really see them doing this.

So now EA is on my crap list now joining Microsoft and Sony on the steaming heap of crappola they call the future(their future not ours) of the Video Gaming Industry.

DiabolusFireDragon, PS3 is rumoured to have a "feature" that will lock a certain game to a certain console serial number. I've heard Sony will eventually implement this on BluRay movies as well for some stupid reason.

Originally posted by sardion2000


DiabolusFireDragon, PS3 is rumoured to have a "feature" that will lock a certain game to a certain console serial number. I've heard Sony will eventually implement this on BluRay movies as well for some stupid reason.

is this even legal?????

Originally posted by Neew World Leader

Originally posted by sardion2000


DiabolusFireDragon, PS3 is rumoured to have a "feature" that will lock a certain game to a certain console serial number. I've heard Sony will eventually implement this on BluRay movies as well for some stupid reason.

is this even legal?????

Why wouldn't it be? It's their product they can do anything they want to it. All it will mean is that millions who were gonna buy a PS3 will probably go with a 360 or PC. :shrug: Would it make sense to do it? Hell no(this is Sony we're talking about They don't do things that makes sense), but it is perfectly legal.

[edit on 15-1-2006 by sardion2000]

Is this true?!?!?


NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

That's really what this is all about.

People buy new copies of good games and they're less likely to sell them back. It's generally the crappy games that people sell back, and then when somebody who doesn't know it's a crappy game goes to buy a copy, there's already a pre-owned copy available. In time, there will be scads of pre-owned copies available, which is a sure sign to most gamers that it's a crap game.

The good news is that there's probably nothing that the game publishers can actually do about this. They can't legally prevent people from reselling games-- as mentioned, once one buys a game it becomes one's own property, to dispose of as one chooses. They might strongarm some of the larger retailers into at least cutting back on their pre-owned game sales, but only if the loss of that publisher's new games would cost the retailer more than the loss of the pre-owned games sales. Their potentially most effective option would be, as has already been mentioned, some sort of technological fix. However, that would certainly lead to a consumer backlash that in the end would cost them more than any fix would save them. And one would think that Sony in particular would be painfully aware of that eventuality.

And there's always piracy. If the game publishers make enough people angry enough, all they'll do is encourage even more piracy. And they'll deserve it.

They can't legally prevent people from reselling games

Yes they can, just provide a limited Read/Write capability on the disc of the game you're buying and have a piece of code that locks in that particular game with a particular console. It's hackable yes, but most people in the console market will care less IMO. If they did care they'd be using a PC for their gaming needs and not a crappy console.

Or bribe some politicians making it illigal to resell games. They've been trying to do this for over a decade now.

[edit on 15-1-2006 by sardion2000]

Originally posted by sardion2000
So now EA is on my crap list now joining Microsoft and Sony on the steaming heap of crappola they call the future(their future not ours) of the Video Gaming Industry.

I have played SOE games and you taking about dumb asses! If you cry and be whiny they change or as we called it "Nerf" the weapons in game
And You are all basically correct here. The name of the REAL game here is MONEY!

Originally posted by sardion2000

Yes they can, just provide a limited Read/Write capability on the disc of the game you're buying and have a piece of code that locks in that particular game with a particular console.

What I meant is that they can't stop people from reselling games simply by some application of the law.

It's hackable yes, but most people in the console market will care less IMO. If they did care they'd be using a PC for their gaming needs and not a crappy console.

And if the console makers try to do such a thing, that's exactly what more people will do.

I haven't owned a console since the SNES.

Or bribe some politicians making it illigal to resell games. They've been trying to do this for over a decade now.

They'll never succeed though. To do that would require an impossible-to-achieve reworking of the entire concept of buying and selling private property.

Sony in particular seems hell-bent on doing everything they can to inspire consumer hatred. I'm not sure what sort of morons they've got running the company, but somebody needs to let them know that making potential customers angry is not the way to do business.



[edit on 15-1-2006 by Bob LaoTse]

I agree with Bob LaoTse's remark about preserving their right to sell crappy games.

But this is also about the intentions of the game makers to take the hard copy out of gamer's hands. As broadband becomes more widespread and all consoles acquire a hard drive, the gaming companies will go the way of the downloadable music model. When you take the physical game away, no one can truck it to the store and trade it or sell it. And no company can legitimately sell burned copies without breaking the law in this scenario.
The old model then goes underground and becomes illegal.

Buy a game on CD and you own it, and if your system crashes and you replace it, you can put that game back on there for free.

But if you have a download only game console, and it crashes, guess what, now you will have to purchase that same game again. And trust me, they won't care at all if you bought it before.

One, their profits go up because they can forego packaging and distribution, but two they have the opportunity to sell the same game to the same customer multiple times if something ever should go wrong on the gamer's end.

Sure there may be a fight to pirate those games to avoid the double dipping, but it may be difficult for the average gamer if the game console must be connected to a network so the gaming companies can prowl for pirates. Kind of like a cable company scanning for illegal cable boxes.

This industry is getting so huge, its attracting the interest of those people who know how to squeeze a dollar out of blood.

Originally posted by CAPT PROTON

But this is also about the intentions of the game makers to take the hard copy out of gamer's hands.

That's an interpretation I hadn't considered. I think you're onto something there. I don't believe that that's the entire point (as you obviously don't either), but I think that could well have something to do with it.

It's an odd and unsettling thing of which we're beginning to see more and more. Somebody in business schools must be teaching according to the Microsoft model (or maybe it would be the mandatory auto insurance model), meaning that it's not necessary for a company to rely solely on a natural demand for a product, nor is it sufficient anymore to inspire demand through advertising. There seems to be more of a move to create an artificial demand by effectively forcing consumers to purchase something, or, as in this case, to repurchase it by only selling the use of it and not actually selling the product itself.

It becomes more adversarial all the time. It seems that more and more the consumer is viewed as the enemy who must be forced to hand over his/her money.

I would hope that that opens up the market for businesses that don't rely on such tactics, and in a truly free market, it would. Of course, in our current mercantilist/quasi-fascist economic system, the biggest corporations hold enough power to potentially prevent any such competition.

The future looks more Gibson'ish all the time. As the power and the blatant anti-consumerism of the corporations increase, so will the size and extent of the black market...