Quote:
Originally Posted by shaowebb:
I did my college thesis on the used game market and did a lot of digging on some numbers.
used games only account for 1/3rd of the game sales out there. New games sales still equate for the other 2/3rds and sell more than used titles still.
for roughly every 2% used game sales increased in 2012 digital game revenue increased by nearly a full 1%. Used game sales were letting publishers sell DLC so they were penetrating that market and likely making multiple DLC sales per single unit made as it got resold.
75% of games traded in were traded in toward the purchase or pre-order of NEW games or hardware. The used market was making it affordable for the weary pockets of consumers to afford their games.
Around 100 million units of used games were sold in 2012 on estimate equating to around $2 billion sold. However, for the summer quarter alone digital game revenue equaled $1.47 billion in the US and $983 million in Europe...this means that quarter alone saw the videogame industry make more from digital revenue than it lost the whole year in used sales. Digital revenue goes up as market penetration of titles increases.
The actual number on that 1% digital revenue increase for every 2% comes from the rate at which digital revenue increased last year compared to used game sales. It increased at roughly 46% what used games increased which is almost a ratio of 1% for every 2% increase, but you get the idea.
Eliminate the used game market and you not only eliminate a ton of digital revenue potential, but its incalculable how many new game purchases you'll limit yourself to without a used market for consumers to trade titles back into for money to aid them in the purchase of new titles in this economy. Not to mention its also incalculable how much popularity some series will be costing themselves without a used market to help them penetrate into more units of their title in households. 100 million used units a year is a big number and you can bank that without that number a lot of titles wouldn't have as big of a fanbase as they do.
Games wont get cheaper to make, but used markets aren't killing them. Its the development and monetization models of the studios that are to blame.
Originally Posted by SOURCES CITED so you can check my facts:
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Originally Posted by AstroNut325:
Your very first bullet point is the reason devs and pubs want to block used game sales. 33% of game sales are going to pre-owned games. For a game like GTA which sells upwards of 20 million copies that's 6 million copies associated to pre-owned sales. Let's say that each of those pre-owned sales is for $20. That's $120 million in revenue. You're telling me that this revenue is meaningless?
Im saying that while they are losing that revenue that the numbers I posted for digital revenue increase at a very impressive rate with the used market. In a year its about $2 billion in used game sales in the US alone. In a quarter last year the digital revenue for the world equaled OVER that same $2billion dollar amount. In other words, YES its irrelevant because they get a lot more market penetration and a lot more digital revenue this way. Actually more digital revenue than they ever could otherwise since the more people end up owning a single unit as it churns through the system the more DLC gets sold off a single title. This breathes market longevity back into some titles in the form of digital sales life over shelf sales life.
Plus you have to admit with anywhere from 70%-75% of trade ins going to the purchase of new games that the used market is helping to allow consumers to buy those titles new. Factor in that 1/3rd of of the market is used games and realize that the people in that category may not have gotten into the series otherwise and you have an incalculable amount of product saturation that could have been lost.
TLDR and if you don't get the math.
People still buy more new than used games
The used market is driving up Digital Revenue sales for games so high that the industry makes back in a single fiscal quarter what it loses in a year in unit sales revenue
Without a used market many wouldn't have become familiar with certain titles and supported them later on with sequels
Without a trade in market many can't afford games new. 70%-75% are trading in games towards the purchase of new games or hardware.
In other words what they lose do to used games is NOTHING compared to all the ways they profit and improve their brand value from such a market existing. Simple math and economics.