larvi said:
Umm..the rental companies don't print their own copies of the games as far as I know. They buy multiple copies from the publisher creating a demand that wouldn't be there if the renters weren't there. It's like saying people that go to the movies aren't supporting the movie studios because they are paying the theater and not the movie studio directly.
A rental company buying 100 copies only to have 10k people experience them (totally out of my ass figure) is very little revenue. Thing is, this industry seems to be struggling to find enough userbase to sustain rising cost, a lot of people think next gen won't even be a leap because publishers won't want to fund even higher budget titles to take advantage of the hardware. Even though the videogame industry may gross similar to the movie industry, the amount of actual people who partake in it is much much smaller I imagine. Movies also have many ways to reach people, the theater, dvd/BR, on demand, movie channels, then hitting network tv, where as games kind of release at full price, go budget price, and then just stop gaining revenue it seems.
My issue with the industry is how much extra bullshit publishers add to games, I rarely pay 60 for any game nowadays because I'm certain they are gonna release some kind of DLC i'll want later and probably should have been on the disc in the first place, but I still choose to buy new to make sure my money ends up in the pockets of X publisher that put out the game I enjoy. I outright didn't purchase MVC3 because of shit like megaman not appearing and their proposed (but canceled?) dlc bullshit, but in the event I DO buy it, I will at least ensure that whatever amount I put to it, will be in the publishers pocket. They can see i'm willing to pay 20 bucks for a great but nerfed product, and hopefully learn i'll happily pay full price for a product I feel is complete.
The industry needs to either expand to more people so that games can naturally sell a million to support higher budgets, or publishers need to find ways to stem the loss from users who do enjoy their experiences but end up not paying them anything for it. I'm not trying to take any kind of moral high ground, but I rarely buy used and when I do, its because I'm uncertain if I'll even enjoy a game, but when i end up buying used and liking it a lot, I make sure that in the event a sequel occurs, I kind of throw my money at them to support it.
Common sense, we see a lot of developers folding, we see rising budgets, and a lot of bullshit is occurring because of it, and while market expansion not occurring isn't our fault, not paying the people who put 2+ years of work into the game you're playing is, and if the publishers want to fight that off, annoying as it might be, I can see where they are coming from. I love games, I want the people who make them to get money so I can keep getting them.
