Microsoft survey asks "Would you sell back your digital games for 10% of purchase price?"

[Liquid]

Because steam is all digital. All profit.

On consoles physical games still sell a hell of a lot more digital.

Steam is the reason PC gamers saw the value in all digital, there was still a healthy amount of sales in the PC aftermarket via eBay/Amazon/Half and other places selling games with the installation keys included. That went away once people saw the value in buying games so cheap that the potential resale value didn't matter.

Microsoft and Sony can give people those 2 licenses for $72 and not lose any sleep. You are going to have an easier time selling someone a game for $54 straight up over $60 with the potential to get $6 back afterwards. Gamestop doesn't like it? Too bad, they already have what they want in the ability to sell used games.

Remember Steam didn't start out the monster that it did, I can't even remember the first huge summer/winter sale, but I think it might have been 2008/2009? @daze23 @Ciggavelli @2gunsup

It definitely wasn't within the first 2 years after launch.

 

[MeachTheMonster]

Steam is the reason PC gamers saw the value in all digital, there was still a healthy amount of sales in the PC aftermarket via eBay/Amazon/Half and other places selling games with the installation keys included. That went away once people saw the value in buying games so cheap that the potential resale value didn't matter.

Microsoft and Sony can give people those 2 licenses for $72 and not lose any sleep. You are going to have an easier time selling someone a game for $54 straight up over $60 with the potential to get $6 back afterwards. Gamestop doesn't like it? Too bad, they already have what they want in the ability to sell used games.

Remember Steam didn't start out the monster that it did, I can't even remember the first huge summer/winter sale, but I think it might have been 2008/2009? @daze23 @Ciggavelli @2gunsup

It definitely wasn't within the first 2 years after launch.

Well you are comparing apples to oranges.

Steam is in a very different situation than Sony and M$.

Their customers have different habits.

Steam doesn't need to sell hardware.

There's so much more to it than saying. Why can't they just do what steam does.

 

[Kamikaze Revy]

No. I wouldnt.

 

[Liquid]

Well you are comparing apples to oranges.

Steam is in a very different situation than Sony and M$.

Their customers have different habits.

Steam doesn't need to sell hardware.

There's so much more to it than saying. Why can't they just do what steam does.

Gamestop still sells steam hardware

 

[MeachTheMonster]

Gamestop still sells steam hardware

Yeah and it's stuck in the back corner with almost advertisement space.

And steam doesn't rely on hardware sales. They don't need a retail partner at all

 

[winb83]

Losing a game for $6.

Hell fukking no. Rapestop is better than that.

$6 fukking dollars. Who would do that?

You can't sell it back at all now. The option is better than not having it at all.

 

[Liquid]

You can't sell it back at all now. The option is better than not having it at all.

One could look at it that way, but why not see it for what it really is? That is an absurd amount to give back on a purchase. It's an incredibly disrespectful amount to give back to someone on any good across the board. Where have you seen that you buy something and immediately return or resell it for only 10% face value? That sucks.

10% is basically a digital middle finger as far as I'm concerned, not even gamestop is that bad and people love to complain about them.

Don't get me wrong, I hate how digital purchases are handled and at the end of the day I will only go as far as to say that this is a move in the right direction, but no person should be agreeing to just a 10% credit back after being done with the game.

 

[winb83]

One could look at it that way, but why not see it for what it really is? That is an absurd amount to give back of a purchase. It's an incredibly disrespectful amount to give back to someone on any good across the board?

10% is basically a digital middle finger as far as I'm concerned, not even gamestop is that bad and people love to complain about them.

It's not like they can resell your digital purchase. There's no value in them "buying back" a digital purchase so why should they give you more than a nominal amount for it? I look at it like this some people have old digital games they'll never play again and if they can get something back for that then good for them.

Gamestop is bad because they buy your games back at a very low price and turn around and sell them for a high price. Not because they give you that low price on the buy back. The value of what you're selling to Gamestop is what they're ripping you off on.

 

[MeachTheMonster]

One could look at it that way, but why not see it for what it really is? That is an absurd amount to give back on a purchase. It's an incredibly disrespectful amount to give back to someone on any good across the board. Where have you seen that you buy something and immediately return or resell it for only 10% face value? That sucks.

10% is basically a digital middle finger as far as I'm concerned, not even gamestop is that bad and people love to complain about them.

Don't get me wrong, I hate how digital purchases are handled and at the end of the day I will only go as far as to say that this is a move in the right direction, but no person should be agreeing to just a 10% credit back after being done with the game.

So if 10% is a digital middle finger, then what is the current 0% ?

 

[Liquid]

It's not like they can resell your digital purchase. There's no value in them "buying back" a digital purchase so why should they give you more than a nominal amount for it? I look at it like this some people have old digital games they'll never play again and if they can get something back for that then good for them.

Gamestop is bad because they buy your games back at a very low price and turn around and sell them for a high price. Not because they give you that low price on the buy back. The value of what you're selling to Gamestop is what they're ripping you off on.

How is Gamestop ripping you off? You guys really need to let that shyt go with Gamestop. It doesn't matter what Gamestop is selling the game for...that shouldn't be any of your concern. Gamestop needs to make a profit as well.

You know what is nice about Gamestop? You go back...sell a relatively new game for $30-$35 store credit and come out with another game for $20-$25, less if you buy used and are a pro member. Time invested? Maybe 10 minutes in the store. Want to go to eBay? Sure you can make some extra cash but at the end of the day you are only looking at about an extra $10 gained by selling it that way (outside of rare/hard to find/complete games) and a mountain of potential headache with a shytty buyer. Other than that, it's pretty tough to beat Gamestop and I have yet to be proven wrong when it comes to them. I don't even care for physical media and don't understand the backlash when it comes to Gamestop. Even Amazon/Walmart/Best Buy tend to fall behind what they offer in credit compared to most games at gamestop from all that I have researched.

So if 10% is a digital middle finger, then what is the current 0% ?

Nothing, you still keep the license and the download delivery/cloud service that comes with it. Why would any trader buy a game for $60 and know that the return value will only be $6 MAXIMUM? That's WILD man. We have already established that people who trade games shouldn't be buying digital at this time, but 10%? You might as well keep the damn license. That number does NOTHING to alleviate the concerns people have with digital purchases. More flexible pricing and maybe a few returns allowed per year based on spending activity will help much much more.

Hell, I think renting digitally is a much better alternative to this nonsense.

 

[daze23]

Start there and keep going. Steam should be offering 20% off pre-orders as well, I am going to email Gabe about this soon.

that kind of stuff is up to the publisher

 

[Liquid]

that kind of stuff is up to the publisher

I am not sure I follow? I always thought Valve actually bought keys at a rate and then set the pricing themselves? Isn't that how they have always been able to control those mass summer/winter sales?

I think they actually "ran out of keys" for some of those huge sales like Max Payne 3 and Prey way back when they marked it down to $2.

I could be wrong though, but vividly remember a publisher saying that Valve ran out of keys to supply the unusually high demand.

 

[daze23]

I am not sure I follow? I always thought Valve actually bought keys at a rate and then set the pricing themselves? Isn't that how they have always been able to control those mass summer/winter sales?

I could be wrong.

no valve just collects their 30%. all the pricing is up to the publisher

 

[Liquid]

no valve just collects their 30%. all the pricing is up to the publisher

Yeah 70/30 is the standard rate on all these platforms. I thought it operated a little different with how massive those sales were, I didn't think all publishers had to dip into the system to set the prices during those crazy sale periods.

 

[daze23]

Yeah 70/30 is the standard rate on all these platforms. I thought it operated a little different with how massive those sales were, I didn't think all publishers had to dip into the system to set the prices during those crazy sale periods.

I think Valve basically asks them how much they want to discount their games during the big sales