Used games have been a staple of the video game industry basically since the beginning, and lets face it its a brilliant business model. You don't play your old games any more? Ill buy them from you and you can take use that money to by newer more popular games that you want to play.
Not only are you monetarily gaining from games you don't play anymore, but that in generates used games sales which you also benefit from greatly. This business structure has found its way into all facets of physical media, I believe its most prevalent in the video game industry primarily because a twenty dollar movie is a lot easier to deal with than a sixty dollar video game. The big topic of discussion today on the other hand is digital games, and their pro's and con's.
COST
The first downer is, for most, likely to be the cost. With most digital games costing very close if not matched to the identical game in physical counterpart. As well both new and used physical games go on sale a lot more so then digital games do. I feel this is because digital games are sold in an entirely different eco system that differs greatly from your traditional brick and mortar store, and its customer base.
So on this topic I would have to admit it does seem more spend to pay premium prices for your digital goodies. However, even though your general consumer cant see this on a superficial level, I feel there is a lot more vale in a digital copy of a game compared to its physical counterpart. First example how many times has one fatal mistake, one disc left out, or one accidental laser burn turned your 60 dollar game in to a worthless mini Frisbee? With digital games we as consumers have something we've been avidly seeking out for decades, and its right under our noses, and that is an indestructible media format. You cant scratch a file, or laser burn a digital game or even forget to put it away or have it get misplaced or stolen. In an absolute worst case scenario files may become corrupt, if this is the case it takes nothing but a little time out of your day to re-download the game which on basically all platforms today can be done at any time.
Secondly your games are always organized and streamline in one simple place you wont find yourself searching your room for where you put the new call of duty, or switch disc when you've had enough and want to play some little big planet. In one word it can be summed up and that's simplicity.
THE GAMESTOP FACTOR
Another valid argument, and seemingly the most prevalent, is that digital games have no resale value. This is an important factor for two reasons. One being that you no long have the ability to turn your un-played games into cash, or the more popular “in store credit”, it also, theoretically in a totally digital world, will eliminate the discount received on used games.
In this case I would have to refute the first problem and that is the ability to sell your games. The problem with reselling your games to popular companies like gamestop is that more often than not this is how the situation will play out. Your “done” with a game you've been playing for quite some time now so you take it to gamestop and sell it for guaranteed less than half of what you originally paid for it and put that, with some cash out of pocket, towards the new big thing. Now how often do you find yourself going back and repurchasing that same title later down to road to revisit the elements of that game that pleased you enough for you to buy it in the first place. If your answer to this question is never then you win on this point, but something would tell me that many others would have a different response.
When you buy a digital game you own it for life. If you ever do decide to come back to it later in life you can, like ive said before, worst case scenario re-download it, and just accept the fact that your not going to get any money out of the original purchase. Look at it this way on average a game that your love or even just like your going to spend a minimum of 20 hours playing even at full retail of 60 dollars, that is like paying 3 dollars an hour, where in the last time I went to the theater I paid almost 15 dollars for a mere hour and a half of entertainment, roughly 10 dollars per hour and I never once though, I wish I could some how sell the experience I just had to save on my next movie ticket. Back to video games on the other hand when you buy a new title that is popular and worth buying but you get it used your looking at a price point of 54.99, 49.99 at best, so your saving 5 to 10 bucks at the register, on the flip side of that the developers are not just losing out on 5 or 10 dollars of the profit, their loosing out on the entirety of the profit for a game they poured their blood sweat and tears into, which is bad for business, and long term will hurt the possibilities of a sequel. So don't look at is as saving 5 or 10 bucks see it as making a small 5 or 10 dollar investment in the possibility of a sequel to a game you obviously thought was good enough to spend a significant amount of money on in the first place. Because that's exactly what it is.
As far as older games are concerned in know that the PlayStation store, and I would assume xbox life, is actually rather reasonable when pricing games based on how long they've been out. Your games such as dead space 2 are already available on the PSN for 19.99 a very reasonable price for a game offering at least 30 to 40 hours of entertainment to any science fiction or survival horror fan.
THE REDBOX AND GAMEFLY RELAVENCE
Along with the stated above game rentals are a consumer service most people don't want to see go away. This problem unlike others requires some effort on behalf of not only game companies, but us as consumers. On the game company side of things there is already some really solid effort in the works in the form of playable demo's and more recently new programs like Sony’s 60 minute timed trial, which unlike a demo, that is mainly a sales tool and usually only showcases a small selection of gameplay, that's main purpose is to show the games finer moments, and “sell” the game. A timed trail is handled by Sony letting you actually download the full game and allowing you a full hour to do as you please. This works because one hour is more than enough time to get into the meat of a games controls and core game mechanics, its also enough time to give you a taste of an enticing story. It can also show you poor controls and a story line literally not worth finishing. I don't look at video game rentals as an outlet for the “I'm going to try this out to see if I want to buy it” mentality, most gamers can easily push though an entire game's campaign in one week (which is the average time frame for a rental) leaving a customer who even if they liked or more so loved the title, are less likely to purchase it because they've already “beat the game”. Which again hurts developers and as stated before is a one way ticket to no sequel or future new IP's.
The other half of this effort, is on the consumer to “shop smarter” putting it bluntly. Don't listen to that gamestop employee attempting to rope you into throwing your 5 dollars down on every title coming out next year, wait read reviews, watch video's or watch video reviews. The ability to resell your games is not some kind of all covering safety net to protect you from bad decisions, making a poor choice to buy a game that even just 2 reviews could have told you was garbage will still result in a loss of most of what you spent on it in the first place. Basically digital games with no return policy just adds more gravity to your decision, and will, in my mind, cause a trend where we will see less money going to poor developers and more profit going to top notch developers.
GETTING READY FOR THINGS TO COME.
In one sense going digital with your collection now is a smart way to future proof your passion in games, why would I say this? Its apparent now that the console generation we are leaving now is starting to focus heavily on digital. The generation we're heading into is confirmed to still support physical media, but will undoubtedly have an even stronger focus on digital media. Which leaves me with no other deduction than the generation we see after in 10 years or so will solely be focused on digital media, and it wouldn’t surprise me in the least to see a console come out with no disc drive and to be a platform that only supports digital game's. That said buying digital now is smart because it is more likely than not going to be backwards compatible with the future generations of consoles to come.
DONT TAKE THIS THE WRONG WAY
I am not in any way saying that buying physical games is a bad idea. It all really comes down to the opinion of the individual. This is all just simply based on my opinion.
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