Will digital distribution kill 2nd hand gaming?

[Paratech]

I found out why I've been getting such "good deals" at the local 2nd hand store, the owner will be liquidating all his inventory EXCEPT XBOX 360 and PS3 games and MAYBE DS games.

He will no longer take in Atari, NES, SNES, N64, Playstation, Playstation 2, or any other games, including PSP games...

I think his decision is bad, but I can understand liquidating say Atari 2600, Jaguar, and Genesis games, but no longer selling PS2 or PSP games seems a bad move?

I snagged Popeye and Dragonfire for the 2600, Virtua Racer for the Genesis, Space Station Silicon Valley for the N64, and 2 Alex Kidd games for the Master System, but that was it.

Again, I figure I'm the only one buying Master System games, and maybe even Atari 2600 / NES games, and I think he was crazy to take Jaguar games in on trade, Sega CD as well, but I think he's going to be slitting his throat business wise to stop selling PS2/PSP games.



Do we blame this on digital distribution, emulation, or both? or neither?

__________________
-Dreams of getting a new 360 XBOX in 201x.
-Current consoles: Playstation 2 and Wii, also has DS/GBA and a PSP 3000
-PC: AMD 5000 2.6 Dual Core, 2GB Ram, 8600 GeForce GT video card, SB Live!, Win XP SP3

[Spyhop]

I, for one, welcome our digital distribution overlord.

__________________

WINTERFELL - C2D E8400 - DFI Lanparty JR P45-T2RS MATX Motherboard - Mushkin Redline PC2 8000 DDr2 - EVGA Geforce GTX 285 - Silverstone SG01 case
RIVERRUN - Pentium DC 2.5ghz - 4GB OCZ DDR2 - Cheapie ASUS Motherboard w/onboard vid - Antec Sonata III
KING'S LANDING - 80GB Playstation 3

[Typhoon 01]

I think we should blame it on time, DD is inevitable and there is nothing we can do to stop it whether we like it or not (i do!). But the matter here is that very, very, very few people are going to buy games for systems that are over 2 generations old not to speak of failures like the Jaguar and the Sega CD.
Most people that grew up with Atari 2600, NES, Master System etc... have a life that leaves very few time to play games or let alone hunt for 4th hand 2600 cartridges.
Not carrying PS2 and PSP games might be stupid but i always give people the benefit of the doubt and i think the store owner knows what he is doing.
2nd hand gaming will exist as long as there is physical media around and it will be around for a while.

__________________

-----------------------------------------------------------

Asus Eee PC 1000H

Sony PS3 80Gb ~ Sony PSP ~ Nintendo Wii ~ Nintendo DS Lite

-----------------------------------------------------------

[snickothemule]

I don't think necessarily that digital distribution will be the sole reason for the demise of second hand gaming, but rather a contributor along with some of the bigger chains like EB Games, Gamestop and Game stores who all sell second hand games at ridiculous prices.

Obviously if they want to make a profit they need to sell second hand games with a fairly big mark up, but when a second hand copy of Resident Evil 5 or Street Fighter 4 sells for exactly the same price (if not more) than a new copy (I've seen these two games go for AU$119.95 each) then you know that the second hand prices can sometimes way overpriced. Coupled with the ridiculous trade in deals, such as your old PS3, with 4 games and get a measly $200 off the price off a new PS3 along, then something isn't quite right.

__________________

The ngemu Ghetto Art competition 2009 - now with real prizes!

[Exodus]

Originally Posted by Spyhop

I, for one, welcome our digital distribution overlord.

And I hope the collective power of retailers prevents it from becoming the only option. Some how.

__________________
No, I don't like anime, Street Fighter, Japanese music or download video game music. Yes, I know, I'm weird.

[Paratech]

Originally Posted by Exodus

And I hope the collective power of retailers prevents it from becoming the only option. Some how.

Yeah, with digital only there aren't demos, no renting, no bringing your game to your friend's house, you depend on a hard drive instead of a Blu Ray / Optical media, have to download ~50 GB games, and that's just for starters.

No trading in games, no buying them used, no variety of stores to price compare, no liquidations of old games, after the console is no longer sold, you might not be able to play the games as they might stop supporting downloads for the system.

You won't be able to resell your console, won't be able to trade it in to get a better one. Imagine if it gets hacked and your account banned like has happened to people on Steam!

***EDIT***

I forgot as well that some people have caps on downloads, and not everyone has high speed Internet, or wifi, or wants to share downloading with multiple systems at the same time, and who's going to pay for all this bandwidth? and are gamers going to want to share digital movie downloads, music, and games on the same hard drive?

__________________
-Dreams of getting a new 360 XBOX in 201x.
-Current consoles: Playstation 2 and Wii, also has DS/GBA and a PSP 3000
-PC: AMD 5000 2.6 Dual Core, 2GB Ram, 8600 GeForce GT video card, SB Live!, Win XP SP3

---

Last edited by Paratech; October 9th, 2009 at 15:48..

[Spyhop]

Originally Posted by Paratech

Yeah, with digital only there aren't demos

BS. Yes there is.

no renting

True, but video stores are also dying anyway.

no bringing your game to your friend's house

I imagine this might matter to kids.

you depend on a hard drive instead of a Blu Ray / Optical media

Horray!!!!!!

have to download ~50 GB games

10 maybe. I'm sure you could cite a game or two that managed to push close to 50gb somehow in an attempt to support this argument, but realistically, most games are 7-8gb. Not a big deal to download.

and that's just for starters.

But wait! There's more!

No trading in games, no buying them used, no variety of stores to price compare, no liquidations of old games, after the console is no longer sold, you might not be able to play the games as they might stop supporting downloads for the system.

Any steam veteran knows this is not a concern. Most oldie but goldie games on steam are disgustingly cheap, much like buying second hand or on clearance. And they're always offering up old old games.

You won't be able to resell your console, won't be able to trade it in to get a better one. Imagine if it gets hacked and your account banned like has happened to people on Steam!

Remove your account from the console and sell away. It would be pretty stupid if your account was not valid on the next generation of console.

__________________

WINTERFELL - C2D E8400 - DFI Lanparty JR P45-T2RS MATX Motherboard - Mushkin Redline PC2 8000 DDr2 - EVGA Geforce GTX 285 - Silverstone SG01 case
RIVERRUN - Pentium DC 2.5ghz - 4GB OCZ DDR2 - Cheapie ASUS Motherboard w/onboard vid - Antec Sonata III
KING'S LANDING - 80GB Playstation 3

[Noja87]

STEAM > Gamestores

As much as i like having the nice looking case and booklet its just way more conveniant with Digital Distribution. A cd/dvd/bluray can break and you have to buy again. You dont have that problem with DD.

__________________

[Spyhop]

Empire: Total War is only $25 on Steam right now.

__________________

WINTERFELL - C2D E8400 - DFI Lanparty JR P45-T2RS MATX Motherboard - Mushkin Redline PC2 8000 DDr2 - EVGA Geforce GTX 285 - Silverstone SG01 case
RIVERRUN - Pentium DC 2.5ghz - 4GB OCZ DDR2 - Cheapie ASUS Motherboard w/onboard vid - Antec Sonata III
KING'S LANDING - 80GB Playstation 3

[Exodus]

And what if the sales on games is only because there's the alternative physical version of the game?

__________________
No, I don't like anime, Street Fighter, Japanese music or download video game music. Yes, I know, I'm weird.