Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Stop buying used games

Everytime you buy a used game, you are hurting the videogames industry. I realize that they are cheaper, but when you buy a used game you aren't giving any money to the person that actually made it. You are only helping the retail store, most likely Gamestop, where you are buying it. Gamestop makes absurd profits on it's used games. When you trade in a game you get, if you are lucky, maybe fifty percent of what they are going to sell it for. According to Joystiq, Gamestop makes about a fifty percent profit margin on it's used game sales, compared to a twenty-one percent margin on new games. The company that made the game don't see a single cent of the profit from the used game sale.
If I buy a game I like, that means I probably want to see a sequel for it. A sequel for a game is more likely the more sales it generates. If half of those sales end up being used sales, we might never see a sequel to whatever that game is. So please, if you are going to buy a game, buy it new. It might cost five or ten dollars more, but it's worth it to support the people who make quality games. Also, don't sell your games to Gamestop, the trade in value they give you is generally crap. If you are gonna sell your games, at least use Ebay.

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