Bungie: Halo sales affected by pre-owned market

Maybe they should make games that people want to play again and again and again and not games where you only finish it to see what the story is and then sell it because it wasn't worth playing the first time (eg. the Darkness, SoF Payback, Black etc)

"complaining about sales when you have a multi-million seller is somewhat difficult to justify, but it seems to me that the folks who create and publish a game shouldn't stop receiving income from further sales."

This has to be what Henry Ford said in response to all the used car lots springing up all over America 100 years ago.

So, should we do the same for cars? What about computers?

Sorry Marty, but that's pure BS.

If I buy something with my money, it becomes MINE (unless otherwise stipulated via contract). Sure a company is out to make money, but there comes a point at which the consumer is getting completely screwed over by these companies.

Lesson for Bungie, et al.:

You will lose customers to this mentality.

Lesson to the rest of you:

If you don't like these business practices, don't buy their products, let capitalism take its toll on bad business.

so the expansion pack will be DLC only

I'm not sure why the videogame industry always seems to harp on the second hand market. Every product has used sales and it's something that companies have always dealt with before.

I just don't understand why this is a special case and there is so much complaining going on lately.

I don't get it. I was buying used games at Funcoland in the early 90s. This is nothing new.

Yet another omen that Disks will someday be dead. Pity those without an internet connection.

If gaming goes digital distribution only, I think I'm done. They don't need to be complaining about the used market. That's the only way some people can afford games. Get over it!

"It seems to me that the folks who create and publish a game shouldn't stop receiving income from further sales."

This guy doesn't want us to own what we paid for and I think that's bullshit.

Anyone who is for sole digital distribution is crazy. That's the day that game ownership dies. There's no way that I want to have all of the money that I've sunk into games tied up on one console (especially when that console has a high failure rate). Digital distribution is just a way to force you to buy the same game over and over again.

Do you like playing Halo 3 or COD4 or any other game that you have on your current system? Do you think there's a chance that you might want to play it on the next Xbox? Well, you can if you own the disc. But as soon as digital distribution becomes the way of gaming, that will quickly disappear. You'll have to buy it again, or else keep a boatload of systems strung everywhere and pray that they keep working.

Digital distribution is great as an alternative for people who want it, but the day that it becomes forced will be a sad, sad day. The gamer will be the huge loser.

I agree. I wouldn't have bought nearly the amount of games I have if it wasn't for buying some of them used. How many millions of dollars have they made off of Halo 3 and it's not good enough. Cry me a river and stop being so greedy Bungie.

Its economics. Those people buying pre-played games as I do, would not be buying the game for full price in the first place. If they dislike it so much, buy Gamestop and EB games and make money a second time.

Hey, if I want to save 5 bucks and let GameStop profit, that's my prerogative. okay?

I think an Audio Director should get his nose out of business end and start making the guns sound more rad and the music sound more kick ass.

well, that's all part of the world of consumer products... for bungie, it doesn't really matter since they sell a ton of the games anyway that used sales won't sink the company.

for smaller companies with a tighter budget, they should just do digital distro (like braid, geometry wars, etc.).

no point in buying a game brand new when you can just get it used (as long as you're guarenteed that it works). much better than pirating it at the very least.

if they really want to throw a kink into used game sales, use cd-keys and link them to live/psn accounts. not that it couldn't be bypassed, but it'll surely mix things up for a little while.

Digital distribution will never be solely used, never!

Bandwidth caps anyone?

Shorter Marty O'Donnell: "Where's my cut of Gamestop's very successful business model? Oh woe is me!"

What they are really trying to get at here is the fact that companies such as gamestop are just as bad as piracy for the game market. Think about it, someone buys a game for $60, beats it in a week, trades it in for $25 and gamestop turns around and sells it for $55. That's Making $30 off that product which is in virtually the same condition as a new one but for five dollars less, and often without tax (With the gamestop cards as they wipe out a % of costs on used games).

So now as a game maker you have your product which is sold once, which is fine, but then another company begins to make profit off YOUR product OVER and OVER and OVER without a penny in royalties toward you.

The Answer: Steam. They have it right. Especially in combination with Valve. Those are really the only games that I purchase legitimately for a few reasons:
1) QUALITY games that I want to play over and over

2)Great communities, and tools for the communities to further the experience

3)Frequent and FREE updates are an added value to the product

4)Affordable price

What more could you ask for?

This guy needs to shut his hole, I have a lot of respect for Bungie in that I believe they have good intentions but this guy is sullying that reputation.

This future sales stuff is BS, every product has a used market and that is they way it is. If they want to increase the value of their new product include more print extras with value without charging more for collector editions and the like.

"...it seems to me that the folks who create and publish a game shouldn't stop receiving income from further sales..."

That's great and all, but it seems to go against the First-sale doctrine:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right_of_first_sale

I usually just rent my games from Gamefly, and buy them if I like the multiplayer component... digital distribution took my baby!

If Halo 3 had anything to worry about in regards to used sales, it had to do with 1 thing and 1 thing only. THE ENDING OF HALO 2. I myself refused to buy Halo 3 new after the way they set us up for frustration at the end of the previous installment.

You want more money? MAKE BETTER GAMES.

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=18163

"OTX’s study noted there may be a positive effect of used game sales for game publishers. Of the 26 million sellers, OTX have found that there are 21 million “category re-investors” who sell their games to save towards any video game related products."

Good reading, especially for greedy mofos like Marty..

When the music industry started with copy protection which hindered me to legally rip music for legal private use I stopped buying music. I even stopped being interested in music at all.

If the movie, software and games industries switch to digital distribution, I'll stop buying DVDs, software, games. Instead I'll use open source and play games with family and friends in real world. MiltonBradley/Parker/Hasbro and the local pub will be the winner.

A company that wants to sell something to me will NEVER EVER tell me what to do or how to use something i bought. I pay, I own. I don't own, I don't pay! As stated above, I can live without them. Can they live without my money, or yours?

The solution to stop this is make a quality game that isn't a cash grab or rushed out the door. I never sell a good game, even if I don't play it anymore at the time. Never know when I might want to go back to it. And I never buy a game used unless I decide it isn't worth the money and only want to play it out of curiousity and think I may want to keep it.

If game developers simply do their damn job right then they should never have to worry about lost sales.

Another thing to note is that there is ZERO quality assurance for the consumer and the market is saturated with shamefully terrible or worthless products. Most markets now have standards for quality and even if the majority of products aren't the best there are still policies in place to protect the consumer from the lemons.

I realize a return policy would be a bit odd for entertainment but a simple 12-24 hour full refund grace period for a game would be incredible. If I pop my game in and cry from how terrible it is I should get my damn money back (looking at you Red Steel, which I did get my money back for).