The truth of used games and Xbox One

[winb83]

Publishers to receive cut of Xbox One pre-owned sales at retail | Games industry news | MCV

Retailers will be free to charge whatever they wish for pre-owned Xbox One games, but both Microsoft and publishers will take a percentage cut of every sale.

Retail sources have told MCV that Microsoft has this week briefed key retail partners on how it intends to take ownership of the pre-owned market.

This is how we’ve been told it will all work:

A gamer walks into a retailer and hands over the game they wish to sell. This will only be possible at retailers who have agreed to Microsoft’s T&Cs and more importantly integrated Microsoft’s cloud-based Azure pre-owned system into its own.

The game is then registered as having been traded-in on Microsoft’s system. The consumer who handed it over will subsequently see the game wiped from their account – hence the until now ambiguous claim from Phil Harrison that the Xbox One would have to ‘check in’ to Microsoft’s servers every 24 hours.

The retailer can then sell the pre-owned game at whatever price they like, although as part of the system the publisher of the title in question will automatically receive a percentage cut of the sale. As will Microsoft. The retailer will pocket the rest.

Unconfirmed reports on ConsoleDeals.co.uk suggest that retail’s slice will be as little as ten per cent. That’s a significant cut from what it has become accustomed to from pre-owned sales and more in line with what they would receive from the sale of a new game – hence, the value of the pre-owned market to the retailer is effectively destroyed.

These same unconfirmed reports also suggest that the activation cost for consumers buying or borrowing pre-owned software will be £35.

When contacted by MCV Microsoft responded with the following statement: “We know there is some confusion around used games on Xbox One and wanted to provide a bit of clarification on exactly what we’ve confirmed.

"While there have been many potential scenarios discussed, we have only confirmed that we designed Xbox One to enable our customers to trade in and resell games at retail. Beyond that, we have not confirmed any specific scenarios. Another piece of clarification around playing games at a friend’s house – should you choose to play your game at your friend’s house, there is no fee to play that game while you are signed in to your profile.

TLDR: Used games can be traded in at Microsoft approved retail stores that use Microsoft's system and retailers charge and offer what they want but both Microsoft and the publisher get a cut of the sales.

So basically your system has to phone home daily to check the rights to all the games you have. also this effectively kills off and eBay and Craigslist markets and endures minimal resale value for used games (Gamestop trade-in prices become king). it also kills off trading games with friends.

this is a disgusting practice. its an underhanded way of killing off used sales. selling a used game yourself nets you 2 to 3 times what someone like Gamestop would offer you. much of the time its not worth trading in games at Gamestop for the low credit they give unless there is a promotion going.

 

[Liquid]

Its time you all drop these console toys and graduate to the PC already.

We will help you, stop fighting it. Join us

 

[Cheez]

what i get from this is that publishers and developers finally see some percentage from used game sales. right now, we don't know where sony is headed in terms of their used games scenario. but they just *might* adopt the same strategy. if devs sees a cut from used games on Xbox One, and not on PS4, then the devs go where they can make money.

imo, this is where the next gen is headed. sony will also have a used game stategy. we just have to wait until e3 to find out the plans.

 

[winb83]

Its time you all drop these console toys and graduate to the PC already.

We will help you, stop fighting it. Join us

i'm already a beginner PC gamer ever since i got a GTX 670. in all honesty though all systems have some exclusives that are worth playing.

i'm looking towards Sony who probably won't be able to directly copy this system now. if they have an open game market i'll likely only buy multiplatform titles there.

the only games i buy on the PC are the games i can get cheap like i got Metro Last Light for $24 on eBay. at that price i don't care if i can trade it in.

 

[winb83]

what i get from this is that publishers and developers finally see some percentage from used game sales. right now, we don't know where sony is headed in terms of their used games scenario. but they just *might* adopt the same strategy. if devs sees a cut from used games on Xbox One, and not on PS4, then the devs go where they can make money.

imo, this is where the next gen is headed. sony will also have a used game stategy. we just have to wait until e3 to find out the plans.

there is no such thing as a "used game" on Xbox One. all the games are digital and the disc is just an avenue to install a game. you can just as easily download the game.

what you're really selling is your digital license back and Microsoft, the publisher and the retailer all split the profit. this means retailers will be inclined to buy lower than they do now and sell higher because they get less than they used to.

the benefit to something like Steam is they'll sell you a digital license dirt cheap. obviously that's not likely to happen in a console space so games will likely be $60-$70 for digital downloads and when you sell the license back you'll maybe get $20 if you're lucky and probably buy a license for $55+. that whole ecosystem still won't beat out the normal deals you'll get on something like Steam.

 

[daze23]

selling a used game yourself nets you 2 to 3 times what someone like Gamestop would offer you. much of the time its not worth trading in games at Gamestop for the low credit they give unless there is a promotion going.

this is what everyone used to complain about. gamestop would give you $4 and sell it for $40

 

[MeachTheMonster]

this is what everyone used to complain about. gamestop would give you $4 and sell it for $40

People just like to complain. All the dudes that are upset about the used game scenario, used to bash the idea of buying/selling used games. Now they are all champions for the used game market

 

[daze23]

i'm looking towards Sony who probably won't be able to directly copy this system now. if they have an open game market i'll likely only buy multiplatform titles there.

I think people are tripping if they think one console will have a vastly different system from the other

 

[Rekkapryde]

this is what everyone used to complain about. gamestop would give you $4 and sell it for $40

Not really.

Here's my take

- How does the deactivation process work when you sell? Does MS do it? Do you tell MS when you sell it? Does Rapestop do it? What if you sell your game and don't deactivate it? They need to address this.

- MS/Publishers win since they get a cut of ALL used game sales, not just games for multiplayer where some publishers used online passes

- Rapestop continues to rape. But only now since they have to adjust their overhead to include monies to be paid to MS/Publisher for ALL games, the person trading in the game will get even LESS

- Will you be able to play your game at a friends house or someone else's house who has no internet? (Unfortunately there are still lots of cats without internet nowadays...). Can you even play it in that situation offline?

- Borrowing a game from your friend and trying to play under your account is pretty much dead. Can you even play it offline if you borrow it?

 

[King Sun]

I think people are tripping if they think one console will have a vastly different system from the other

wii u doesn't have it

 

[daze23]

People just like to complain. All the dudes that are upset about the used game scenario, used to bash the idea of buying/selling used games. Now they are all champions for the used game market

everyone here HATED gamestop for that shyt

there's been plenty of threads like this:

http://www.the-coli.com/arcadium/62155-****-gamestop.html#.UZ98JkAuXh4

http://www.the-coli.com/arcadium/77155-spin-reasons-you-hate-gamestop.html#.UZ98U0AuXh4

 

[Marci-Senpai]

Its time you all drop these console toys and graduate to the PC already.

We will help you, stop fighting it. Join us

shytt, sure ill drop the consoles....when u give me the money to buy a high end PC i will

 

[MeachTheMonster]

Not really.

Here's my take

- How does the deactivation process work when you sell? Does MS do it? Do you tell MS when you sell it? Does Rapestop do it? What if you sell your game and don't deactivate it? They need to address this.

- MS/Publishers win since they get a cut of ALL used game sales, not just games for multiplayer where some publishers used online passes

- Rapestop continues to rape. But only now since they have to adjust their overhead to include monies to be paid to MS/Publisher for ALL games, the person trading in the game will get even LESS

- Will you be able to play your game at a friends house or someone else's house who has no internet? (Unfortunately there are still lots of cats without internet nowadays...). Can you even play it in that situation offline?

- Borrowing a game to play under your friend's account is pretty much dead

Regardless of what the policy ends up being. The ability to access my entire games library on the fly instantly, trumps the ability to trade games with little Timmy down the street.

Gaming will be more expensive this gen( as it has been with each prior gen) as long as the experience improves I see no problem with it. In any other industry inovation is met with open arms, even if it costs more money.

Gamers want to hold on to old ideas, yet press for inovation, and complain about the costs. Sometimes it seems the entire industry is just a bunch of grown ass spoiled, whiny, babies.

 

[daze23]

lol @ the "sony will do the same thing" statements when they already said otherwise

have they made a statement since this?

Now, new statements from another Sony executive have thrown Yoshida's supposed assurances into question. When NowGamer asked PlayStation UK Managing Director Fergal Gara to confirm reports of Yoshida's earlier "used games are OK" statements, his answer was a bit less than reassuring for potential PS4 buyers.

'Well, first of all, we haven't stated that second-hand games... we haven’t made a statement on the second-hand games question," Gara said. "The answer to the pre-owned question isn’t clarified just yet and we’re working through that and we’ll announce our position in more detail as and when we can."

 

[The Frozen One]

big question is why would Gamestop do this..

It's not cheap to implement a POS system just because M$ said so. Also, gamestop would be stupid to adopt this since they are only getting 10% of the cut. What's more is why would people trade in their new games when they'll be worth $10-$20 and M$ and publishers can recharge again to the new customer buying the now used game.

Makes no sense for gamestop to adopt this system.