How to Make Me Buy a Game New

It seems like “I honestly can't figure out how buying a used game was any better than piracy,” was all Tycho had to say to re-ignite the new and used games debate. Whether or not it’s right or wrong in the eyes of the developer, what I’m trying to figure out here is why consumers do it, which is probably the key to everything.

The worst part about publishers’ resistance to used games and piracy is their blunt attempts to stop it without actually looking at the root cause.  DRM, crammed-in multiplayer, and withholding content for DLC aren’t really gonna do it.  The best way to stop these things is to try to strike right at the players’ incentive for buying games used or pirating them.

I probably have bought quite a few games used over the past few years – not from GameStop but from GameFly.  Combined with coupons you can actually choose to keep a game you’ve rented for a good $20 off the full price not even a week after its release.  Most recently I bought Final Fantasy XIII for around $40 basically at launch and I was the first person who had “used” my copy.

My main reason: I firmly believe that most of the games coming out on consoles this generation are not worth $60.  Almost everywhere I go online I see people and comments carrying the same sentiment with their own ways of shaving off prices.

Usually when a mid-tier game comes out that people want to play but don’t want to slam $60 on, it’s not unusual to find them just waiting for it to hit the bargain bin at $20 or $35.  If that’s happening, I say its a good indicator that your game doesn’t need to be $60 in the first place.  I personally won’t buy a game at full price if it’s just a single story that I’m only going to play through once and never touch again.

What games will I buy at full-retail price?  Games that successfully draw me in and make sure I want to keep playing for a fairly long period of time.  It’s not even about dollars per hour of entertainment for me.  It’s just a matter of how much I enjoy playing a game and how much I want to keep playing it.  Actually, that’s kind of my policy with buying all media, like buying a book versus checking it out at the library.

As good as inFAMOUS was, a rental was enough for me because I didn’t feel compelled to keep enjoying the game after the first time I beat it whether that be another run of the story or any extra content.  Who the hell could have expected to justify a full-price purchase of Heavenly Sword – a game I was done with after one night?

On the flipside, I bought Grand Theft Auto IV for $60 because of how complete that game’s world felt and how much there was to do in it.  I also paid $60 for LittleBigPlanet because that’s a game that I could come in and out of over the course of years and watch it constantly change. 

Conversely, I also paid full price for Mirror’s Edge despite its short campaign because I actually enjoy replaying the story missions a lot.  Even though I don’t give a shit about Uncharted 2’s multiplayer, I still bought the game full price because its campaign is something that I will definitely want to experience more than once.

Because I know most games won’t actually reach that level of quality, I really do think the retail space needs variable pricing.  More games probably need to come out at $30 and $40.  This goes all the way back to the issue of too many games these days having inflated budgets.  Many of them need to step back and realize that they aren’t gonna sell as much as Gears of War or Call of Duty.

Really though, if you want me to buy your game at full price, just make a really good game.  If you can’t do that, then at least make a game that’s going to keep me busy for a while.  If you can’t even do that, then don’t ask $60 for your game.