News
10Quantic Dream says Heavy Rain preowned sales caused major losses
Quantic Dream co-founder Guillaume de Fondaumiere says “between €5 and €10 million worth of royalties” were lost due to second-hand sales of the developer’s interactive thriller Heavy Rain. Though he understands the plight of a customer, trapped in a recession and faced with full-price retail, Fondaumiere is keen to find a solution to the problem. “I've always said that games are probably too expensive so there's probably a right level here to find,” he said. “And we need to discuss this altogether and try to find a way to I would say reconcile consumer expectations, retail expectations but also the expectations of the publisher and the developers to make this business a worthwhile business.”
Source: Gamesindustry.biz
Comments
10Have a violin.
Gah double post
Here's a solution for you. Make a better game next time. Actually, just try making a game. Maybe that way less people will be inclined to get rid of it.
Just a thought.
They made a pretty good game, that was well worth £40.
I thought it was okay but my gosh it tried too hard. It was like it was actually trying to be depressing for the sake of being depressing, and not to try and enhance the story. And yes, I was one of those pre owned buyers. It was just too expensive, just like most games. Make the RRP 20 quid and I'll buy new every time. Otherwise it'll be bargain bin and pre owned for me every time.
Just to clarify, I wouldn't go out of my way to by pre owned. I just have a ridiculous amount of CEX cedit thanks to selling them half my unplayed games. And alas, they don't sell new games.
The solution is online distribution, and it'll be king in just a couple more years.
And then watch as revenues plummet because people won't be buying anywhere near as many games and the industry becomes a sort of English Premier League if you like, where Activision are Manchester City and EA are Chelsea. Smaller studios will be fucked and the industry will suffer a dearth of creativity and innovation. Retail won't be going anywhere for a long time. Piracy is always one step ahead. Cheap games (read: free) are out there in their flocks.
Quite - online distribution isn't the industry magic silver bullet and it certainly won't be consumer friendly.
Being able to sell a finished game is essential, that's why I don't like online distribution.
And I understand that some games are less replayable than others. There's no point whining about losses due to secondhand gaming: if publishers want people to keep their games, they should just work on better products... For example, I would never consider parting with LBP, Burnout Paradise or GT5, but I gladly sold Mirror's edge, Assassin's creed... My point is: some games are worth keeping, some are not.