A new market study conducted by research firm Newzoo indicates that trading games is the most popular game of all. More than half of the 82 million gamers in the U.S. don't spend money on games, and of the 44 percent who make game purchases around 85 percent regularly purchase pre-owned titles. Around 23 percent of the game-buying public spends 23 percent of their gaming budget on pre-owned games says Newzoo.
The report also predicts that the DLC market will be worth $960 million in US sales by year's end. Around 12 percent of money spent on games in the US goes towards DLC, according to Newzoo. The research firm also predicts that U.S. and European consumers will spend $1.7 billion on DLC in 2011.
Publishers and developers often lament about the used games market because they don't make money off anything but the first sale. Obviously they have turned to code-based systems as means of charging a gateway fee to those who buy used and want to play online.
Source: The Escapist
Comments
Re: Newzoo: 56 Percent of U.S. Gamers Regularly Buy Used
dumb thought but if they lowred the prices back down to $40-$50 USD range this wouldn't be as big an issue.
most people buy used because the asking price of a new release used game (at most stores anyways) is anywhere from $50 to $55, a whopping 5 to 10 bux off!
not much you say? seems to be enough to get people to go for them.
simple inital exam would say, sell at that price new, and new sales would clearly go back up. people had already voiced their opinion of this $10 hike years ago. i don't disagree and think there shouldn't have been some raise. but given the quality and rehashed content lately, even i'm skeptical of pricing half the time. i Mean when most games are barely an expansion of the previous game (such as each CoD lately having been nothing but minor engine updates and new stories/perks/weapons, most of it sold as DLC AFTER release but on disc) it gets questionable.
especially with SP campagins getting short handed for add on content that clearly was intended to be part of the game, MP getting minimal maps (maybe 5 or so at first) and then companies charging up to $15 USD for THREE maps... half the contents there for twice the price...
Re: Newzoo: 56 Percent of U.S. Gamers Regularly Buy Used
What publishers (and to a lesser extent developers) often seem to forget here is that if you have a lot of used games for sale, you evidently had a lot of new sales. Used games don't just appear on the shelves by themselves.
Re: Newzoo: 56 Percent of U.S. Gamers Regularly Buy Used
The thing that drives me nuts about this is that it could be fixed by setting it up so used games gave a percent to the publisher like new games do, and it wouldn't be much harder to set up than the new game system is either.
Re: Newzoo: 56 Percent of U.S. Gamers Regularly Buy Used
That's bullshit. Should the people that made your clothes or furniture get a cut if you sell them? How about auto makers? Should they get something when you sell your car? Game publishers aren't entitled to anything in a secondary market. If they want to make money from those people buying used, they should just adjust the price where those people would buy it new instead.
-Greevar
"Paste superficially profound, but utterly meaningless quotation here."
Re: Newzoo: 56 Percent of U.S. Gamers Regularly Buy Used
With the number of closures and mergers and name changes and buy outs etc that happen in the industry, it is far harder than it sounds. Especially when you go back to previous generations of consoles.
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Re: Newzoo: 56 Percent of U.S. Gamers Regularly Buy Used
I guess that puts me in the 6.6% trying to send the money where it belongs: to the people who will make more games.
Re: Newzoo: 56 Percent of U.S. Gamers Regularly Buy Used
News Flash: Whether you buy it new or used, your money goes to the same place: The retailer, person, or entity you bought the game from.
In fact, the developers and publishers already got their money the moment the game hits the shelves. So don't fool yourself into thinking you're supporting the developer by buying new.
So unless you buy your game directly from the publisher, you're not doing them any favors one way or the other.
Atlanta Video Games Examiner for examiner.com
Re: Newzoo: 56 Percent of U.S. Gamers Regularly Buy Used
Cool story, bro. Whatever helps you sleep at night.
Re: Newzoo: 56 Percent of U.S. Gamers Regularly Buy Used
So basically you have absolutely zero idea on how retail works.
Re: Newzoo: 56 Percent of U.S. Gamers Regularly Buy Used
because every game is always being sold in every store /sarcasm