Epic doesn't like rentals and used game stores

L

Leon

A Smooth-Skin
Second-hand game sales are "a huge issue"

Michael Capps said:
"I've talked to some developers who are saying 'If you want to fight the final boss you go online and pay USD 20, but if you bought the retail version you got it for free'. We don't make any money when someone rents it, and we don't make any money when someone buys it used - way more than twice as many people played Gears than bought it..."
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Michael Capps said:
"And I think DLC will be increasing in scope just because in the US we really need to make strides against the second-hand market."
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He also speaks a bit about digital distribution from a developer's perspective, which is interesting.

Thoughts?
 
Maybe if they made games that were worth buying they wouldn't have a problem [/cheapshot]

I don't see why 2nd-hand sales are such a big issue, the film industry deals with it just fine.

Hell, if it's such a problem, they shouldn't sell their products to the places that rent them out, see how well that turns out for them.
 
A little late - I had to start a fire because my god damn furnace is broken - but here's my take on it all.

Being able to force people to buy only new copies, or charging people for every use/playthrough is an industry wet dream, to be sure, but will never be a viable business model. I can't help but be reminded of Divx.

People like Mr. Capps are looking at used game sales as being the same as piracy. It is a valid point that piracy (which is very different from the rental/second-hand market) is a problem, but attacking it (DRM) has only resulted in alienating legitimate customers while pirates use trouble-free cracked versions. Attacking the second-hand and rental market would most likely lead to incredible backlash as well.

I think that too many people are shortsighted by greed, only seeing the initial profit and coming up with equally shortsighted ideas to maximize that initial profit.

What about those that make a living by selling used goods or offering rentals, and those that rely on the ability to utilize said services? If it wasn't for the second-hand market, I wouldn't have been able to acquire a vehicle.
 
Sheesh... If games didn't cost me as much as seeing 9 movies (movies are about $8 here and games come out at about $59.99 + tax) I'd be less inclined on buying used games.

I'm tired of whiny millionaires.
 
Oh that is just great. Now they'll start criticizing the second-hand market. WTF? What if someone buys a game, tries to play it and finds out it's total crap? What should he do then? Just put it in the cupboard and buy something else (new of course, not second hand)? Or just toss it in the garbage bin? Eh? Second-hand market = a way of recycling. And guess what: recycling = good. It helps the environment.

These capitalist crackheads are starting to annoy me more than usual. And it's Fall, dawgunnit. You don't want to annoy me in Fall. I need hugs in Fall.

Hugs. :puppy-dog:
 
It's nothing new. Game EULAs forbade renting, borrowing and reselling since the dawn of time.
 
Sorrow said:
It's nothing new. Game EULAs forbade renting, borrowing and reselling since the dawn of time.
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Well as the old saying goes: Fuck 'em!

I hate the whole 'treat the customers as cattle' approach that has been going on for quite some time now.

The demand that we turn over to consoles to play games, draconian DRM schemes and all that crap and now an end to the second hand market.

Remember the time that the customer was actually king?

Well Epic does not have to worry, with exception of the original Unreal and expansion I have never bought any game from them and will not likely do so in the future.
 
generalissimofurioso said:
Maybe if they made games that were worth buying they wouldn't have a problem
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Pretty much.

When a company makes a game that's either horrendously broken, or takes ~4 hours to complete... and then charges $60 for it; what the fuck do they expect people to do? (rhetorical question, I know they expect consumers to lap that shit up).

They're going to rent it, get everything there is to get out of it in a day or two; and be done with it.
 
Where do Epic get the balls to complain? They sold millions of copies of GOW and made a crap load of money. They had an achievement in GOW where you needed to buy some DLC to unlock it; how shitty is that?
 
maximaz said:
Where do Epic get the balls to complain? They sold millions of copies of GOW and made a crap load of money. They had an achievement in GOW where you needed to buy some DLC to unlock it; how shitty is that?
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But! But! But some people played the game without giving them monies!
 
maximaz said:
Where do Epic get the balls to complain? They sold millions of copies of GOW and made a crap load of money. They had an achievement in GOW where you needed to buy some DLC to unlock it; how shitty is that?
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Really, and what achievement is this?
 
Their heads would probably explode if they knew you could loan their games for free at my local library.
 
rcorporon said:
http://www.xbox360achievements.org/game/gears-of-war-2/achievements/

I don't see anything there about needing the DLC.
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Because those are for GOW2, I was talking about GOW achievements.

rcorporon said:
Really, and what achievement is this?
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It was called "Down With Epic?" or something like that and it required you to play on different maps that you had to buy as DLC. Maybe they're free now but when I had the game, you had to pay for them. That's indeed as low as charging for horse armor, if you ask me.

Witcher EE was released free for those who purchased the original, you think Epic or Beth would ever do something like that?
 
maximaz said:
It was called "Down With Epic?" or something like that and it required you to play on different maps that you had to buy as DLC. Maybe they're free now but when I had the game, you had to pay for them. That's indeed as low as charging for horse armor, if you ask me.
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That was new Achievements for paid DLC. If a company puts up new content they are allowed to put in new achievements and there is nothing bad about it. You can still get all the original ones, just not ones tied into the new content.
 
Nobody should be able to sell used cars, because the original manufacturer of the vehicle doesn't make money from used-car sales. Everyone should have to buy brand-spanking new cars, and old cars that the original purchaser no longer has any use for should just go straight to the junkyard even if they're in perfectly good condition.

God. What an incredible tool.

Oh, and Epic hasn't made a really good game since the original Unreal. That's their problem.
 
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