Game Brain: feeling a little cheap and used?
By Brian Diefenbach
Western Herald
You can’t get much more mainstream America than Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
And when the biggest retailer in the United States gets in on the used game business, it’s a safe bet that the practice is here to stay.
For those of you who’ve never been in a GameStop, they are a store that makes a good deal of profit off of the sale of pre-owned video games and consoles.
Wal-Mart is the first large retailer to offer this service to consumers.
According to Wal-Mart’s Web site every pre-owned video game is polished, tested and inspected prior to shipping to ensure that it performs properly.
They claim all games will be delivered with original product packaging, shrink-wrapped and with a sticker designating them as pre-owned.
That’s a darn better sight than the state of many pre-owned games. Often, the boxes are cracked and full of stickers, the manual is gone and the disc scratched.
Not that you’ll find every game in this state, but when you consider the sheer volume of boxes and discs that are passed through game retailers like GameStop, it’s understandable.
When you can buy some kid’s copy of Halo 3 for $5, turn around and sell it for $30, you probably don’t care about appearances.
Speaking of appearances, it’ll be interesting to see how this new business angle will play out for Wal-Mart. Will they bust out those infamous “everyday low prices” and undercut the video game pawn shops? Consumers certainly hope so, but the game industry isn’t too happy with any person or business dealing in used games.
It’s understandable why used game sales are a sore subject for publishers and developers.
Most sales happen in the first three to six weeks after a game’s release.
Afterward, used game sales – when publishers get no percentage of the cut – take over.
It doesn’t help that alternative forms of acquiring games have really boomed in recent years.
There are legitimate services like Xbox Live Arcade, Steam, and GameTap that offer digital downloads for less than the retail price of a new, current-generation game, which is normally around $60.
Then, of course, there’s the piracy issue, with torrents of cracked (disabled disc security) games available to anyone with hard drive and Internet connection. Wal-Mart already offers music downloads over the Web so who’s to say they won’t offer games in the future?
Wal-Mart is my preferred choice of retailer when it comes to buying games new. Their games are usually a few cents cheaper than other stores and though it’s not a huge discount, it helps.
Also, Wal-Mart usually has a few games that are six months to a year old retailing from $20 to $30, and are not just the games that sold badly. Just the other week, I spied “Mass Effect” and “Assassin’s Creed” on the discount shelf.
So on one hand, I’m a good guy to the developers and publishers because I buy the majority of my games new. On the other, I’m cheap for even setting foot in a Wal-Mart.
I guess I could skip both Wal-Mart and GameStop and just buy everything on Amazon.com. But wait, Amazon requires shipping, which burns fossil fuels and contributes to climate change.
I could also get ripped off buying a used game from an unscrupulous seller. It looks like there’s no perfect solution to supplying my demand.
A friend of mine works for the local GameStop on West Main Street. He’s usually bragging about the latest trade-in deal, all while sporting an Xbox 360 lanyard.
In a lot of ways, he’s a video game pimp. I like to talk smack at the Mack Daddy about GameStop being little more than a pawnshop for games.
He denies this, of course saying GameStop is a legitimate business at which many customers are happy to trade games for cash and vice versa.
When it all breaks down, it’s a free country and a free market. We can choose when and where to purchase our video games; even if they are used.
So what if some EA executive is crying like Glenn Beck over lost revenue?
We’re consumers, and we get what we want, when we want it for as little as we can! Despite all the groaning and moaning from developers and publishers, I believe that used game sales are actually good for the game industry.
Think about it.
A consumer is more likely to buy a new game if he or she thinks they can resell it and recover some of their expense.
So if we shut down the used game market, we’d actually be damaging the original market for games.
I’m not majoring in economics. I didn’t even do that well in my macro and micro economics classes. But maybe if we buy enough video games – even used ones – we can get out of this recession a little quicker.
Buy a few titles for me while you’re out, would you?
Brian Diefenbach, a copy editor and columnist for the Western Herald, is a senior majoring in imaging. For more Game Brain, visit gamebrainonline.blogspot.com
Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=9442
Posted by heraldstaff
on Oct 7 2009. Filed under Weekend Scene.
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Wow. So, if you deal in used video games, you are a pawn shop? Uhhhh, no. See, words “mean things” and in Michigan being a pawn shop means you have put a large (I believe $50,000.00) bond on file with the state – just to use the term, and act as a place where consumers may leave their merchandise in exchange for a small cash loan.
Quite to the contrary, my store buys and sells a lot of used entertainment merchandise. Including Video Games & Systems. Our prices are similar to that of GameStop (also, not a pawn shop), but our selection is far different since we deal in almost no new Video Games at all. We also carry systems and games far older than that which GameStop, and forseeably WalMart, will deal in.
I find it odd that Brian prefers WalMart over smaller, probably locally owned stores that would likely beat WM on price, and service the majority of the time. But, to each their own. Afterall, WalMart has been in the used video game business for 10 minutes. I’ve only been doing it for 20 years.
Marcus King
Titan Games & Music
Gamers commonly refer to used game sellers as “pawn shops”, and while this may be a technically incorrect usage of the term it shows the common perception of these stores and their business practices. Now I actually didn’t see Brian comment at all on small / locally owned stores that sell used games, just Gamestop. I have been to stores that sell used games and do so in a perfectly respectable manner, but this is not the image of Gamestop among most gamers I know.
One reason many gamers choose to buy new games at Walmart or Best Buy is the fact these stores have copies of new games in stock, while Gamestop employees are notorious for using the phrase “you should have pre-ordered”. A week after the game was released, these stores typically have no new copies of the game, but will have multiple used copies marked down slightly from the “new” price. And, as opposed to the selection you describe, most used game stores I have been to have nearly no merchandise older than 1 or 2 years. Most people I know see Gamestop as a place where you can save $5-10 on the price of a recent game, but what you get will most likely have a beat up case, a disc covered in scratches, and will be missing the instruction manual.
Good selection, good customer service, and quality products create a good public image. The quality and selection of the products they sell, along with fact the makers of the game will not see a dime from its repeated resale, are why the public perception of most used game sellers is so poor. The fact Walmart plans to have some level of quality controls over their used games is a good thing. Other used game sellers who already have or plan to implement such practices will likely benefit as well.
Games these days are much more mainstream than they used to be, but still have a long way to go before they match the kind of ubiquity and variety that you find in film, music, or television. Personally, I look forward to the day when I have the kind of variety of experience available when I game that I do when I listen to music or watch a dvd.
To that end, I think used video games are a good thing. I also think that pirating games is a good thing, though of course not necessarily to the designer.
I once was a penniless but avid gamer. Used games, and yes pirated games as well kept me a gamer, when my alternative was not gaming at all, or only gaming around Christmas and my birthday. Lots of folks pirate or buy used when they have the means to buy new, but I’d rather not throw out the baby with the bathwater. I want to see more people game, and more people try games that they may not be sure about– sure enough to pay full price new for. I want to see unusual games sell well, and they won’t until people put down their Madden or Halo and give it a try. Most folks don’t want to gamble their $60 on a game they don’t know they’ll like. (We’ve all seen the GameFly commercials, right?)
However, I have friends in the game industry. So buying used games feels a lot like stealing from them. Fortunately, I have a job, so I can afford to buy new, and I can afford to “vote with my dollar” to encourage designers to design and publishers to publish the kind of games I want to play.
So yes, buy used, even from a company as nasty as Wal-Mart. Pirate games if you have to. At least occasionally by a new game, to support your favorite developer. As long as more people play more games, our favorite hobby can only get better.
Postscript: Worrying about ecological effects of shipping & handling from Amazon is a moot point. After all, wasn’t the game you bought at Wal-Mart shipped to that store? If you’re wanting to reduce your footprint, downloading the game probably has less impact on the environment. There’s also less waste in terms of packaging. But of course, if you’re using electricity, you’re contributing to ecological harm (where does your electricity come from?)
thank you for share