Nintendo Wipes Out Wii Speak Resale Value
Source: Tom's Guide | Keywords: Nintendo, Wii, Speak, Code | Themes: Digital Entertainment
While it’s no secret that gaming publishers and developers detest used game sales, Nintendo apparently wants to stomp out the business by making hardware sales permanent.
According to MTV Multiplayer, Nintendo’s first step into squashing out used games sales is through the release of the upcoming Wii Speak headset. Apparently, the peripheral comes with a sixteen-digit code - or rather a "Wii Download Ticket Number" - required to unlock the Wii Speak channel. Without the channel installed onto the console, the Wii Speak microphone is useless. The catch is that the code can only be used once, and Nintendo clearly states in fine print that it has no plans to re-issue codes.
So what does this mean to gamers? The Wii Speak peripheral cannot be sold used, and those who initially buy it new and thus lose the number are stuck with the useless thing forever. "A Nintendo rep further clarified to me that the channel won’t be able to be downloaded through any other means," wrote MTV Multiplayer’s Stephen Totilo. "You won’t be able to get it off the Wii Shopping Channel manually, nor would you be able to buy it. Essentially, the Wii Speak Channel will be available to new purchasers of the Wii Speak mic and that’s it."
While it’s no secret that publishers and developers want to cash in on used games sales, Nintendo is one of the first to address the hardware aspect. However, just last week Epic Games’ president Michael Capps spoke out about used games and rentals, saying that some developer comrades were pondering over the idea of making end-game battles downloadable content to purchase, thus forcing the "secondary market" to shell out bucks nevertheless. Thus, the company released Gears of War 2 with a special download code for five classic maps that can be used only once.
But if Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft decide to address hardware sales as well, that may ultimately hinder overall sales of gaming equipment, forcing gamers to decide if the purchase is worth a lifetime commitment. After all, most consumers are accustomed to "upgrading" hardware by bringing the equipment in to retails shops such as EB Games and GameStop and receiving a credit towards the purchase of a newer model. These retail outlets in turn also depend on the sales these used games and equipment, as all profits go straight to the company, and do not filter down to manufacturers. A new copy of Alone in the Dark Inferno will sell for $50 when released this Tuesday, yet EB Games will purchase a used copy for $19 and re-sell the game for $45. That’s $26 Atari will never see.
But if the industry moves to digital distribution, local used game stores and industry giants like EB Games will face a huge crunch in numbers, possibly closing some retail outlets altogether. But publishers and developers couldn’t care less: they just want to see green, and Bungie’s audio director Marty O’Donnell hinted to that when talking about used games sales hurt the Halo franchise.
"It’s hard to gauge the effect of used game sales on Halo, but I’m sure it’s big," O’Donnell commented. "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."
He’s correct in that aspect, and perhaps in the near future there can exist a happy medium for gamers who purchase hardware and software new, and for those who like to wait to pick up the items at a cheaper price. Perhaps the answer to the whole deal is to simply cut the retail cost of everything, then perhaps said companies could rack in sales where otherwise would go to other outlets.
But locking consumers to the hardware they purchase? That’s just crazy, and apparently Nintendo has no problem forcing consumers to shell out $30 for a microphone that will eventually become useless. Let’s hope that the auto industry doesn’t catch on and force consumers to keep their cars forever and ever.
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I'm a hardcore gamer, and I do believe that both developers and platform holders should reap the benefits of making a successful product, but their desire to cut out the used market is a short sighted point of view.
While game stores like GameStop do pocket a lot of money from the sale of used games -- and sometimes at disgusting margins -- the existence of such stores is one that has an overall positive effect on the industry.
GameStop drums up a lot of excitement for new games, as the stores feature demo kiosks and constantly have trailers playing on the TVs. The clerks will also pester customers to pre-order the next big hit.
The move to make hardware pieces non-resalable also seems short sighted. Even if Nintendo loses out on profiting from the sale of a used Wii Speak, that new owner could potentially purchase new software to use with that peripheral.
Going back to the car analogy, a sale of a used car may not profit the manufacturer directly, but there's still profit to be had in service and parts.
Nintendo has been retarded for a number of years now. The DS is a gimmick with very few games really justifying two screens, the GameCube was a poorly supported mistake I was stupid enough to pay $250 for on launch day, the GBA/GCN connectivity was an instant failure they didn't support past one E3, the E-Reader which cost $40 was dropped after something like 20 games, Iwata firmly told gamers that they didn't want online gaming after which Nintendo included a half-baked bit of connectivity on both its next generation console and handheld... the list goes on and on. Nintendo stopped being an innovative force that actually gave a flying crap about its hardcore fanbase just about a decade ago. I respect all Nintendo has contributed to this industry, but they've been unmitigated tools with no sense of direction for years now, despite the Wii's sales.
If they weren't so greedy they wouldn't be having this issue. If games were $25 they would increase sales, and decrease second hand sales.
I'm not sure about the hardware device, but for games, game makers need to ask themselves one question: will they sell as many units if people don't know they'll be able to get some of the money they paid for a game back if they resell it?
This issue of stopping the resale of video game hardware and software is going to come right back and hurt the developer in sales/profit. Like others have said, if someone knows that they cannot resell a game/peripheral people will be more cautious about what they buy to make sure it is worth the money. Being able to trade games in allows people to purchase new games that wouldn't be bought without the income from the used game. I hate how the industry is becoming so short-sighted with these issues and trying to milk every dollar they can out of the consumer without giving a crap.
One more of the many reasons I'll never buy a console to play games on.
In fact, I'd rather never play another computer gane than to ever buy or use a gaming console.
I hope they all go out of business.
Would serve them all right.
They need to concentrate on making GOOD games, not all the trash they pump out day after day, year after year.
If they were putting out good products they'd have a leg to stand on.
But they rarely do, so they will go out of business in short order.
So go ahaead game companies & gaming hardware companies: bite the hand that's feeding you, look that gift horse in the mouth, and put a bullet through the heart of all us geese who lay your golden eggs.
Without customers for your pathetic games, you are worth less than zero. And your games are worth less than half of that.
"F" 'em.
"F" 'em all.
Imagine the outcry if some music label (let's say Sony because they'd probably do it) found a way to render CDs unreadable if purchased used or borrowed from a friend. Imagine if plugging new speakers into your stereo meant that you couldn't resell them later, or even return them to the store if they didn't work out. What if CD players tattled on the CDs you listened to and prevented you from playing them on other devices?
They're not becoming like the RIAA. Even the music industry isn't this insane yet.
JordanPlayer hit it on the head. Not only do people buy games with the intent of selling them back after they are done with them, they use that money to in-turn by more games. I know people who have traded entire systems in to move to another platform (i.e. XBox -> PS2). I think these game companies assume their customer-base has an endless supply of money. In reality, their customer base probably has an extremely limited supply of money, seeing as most of them are Highschool-College students with limited incomes. Yes, more adults are playing video games (as they have for the most part grown up with them), but that's certainly not the majority of their market. I know I rarely play games anymore, but in College I used to play daily.
This issue has been out forever (every buy a used book at the bookstore, think college textbooks here). The law is extremely clear that consumers have the right to resell items they have purchased. Since the same physical item is being resold, the manufacturer has no claim to any part of the transaction (how expensive would used cars be if Ford/GM/Chrystler wanted more money each time? and we know they could use it). To enter a market knowing this, and then complain that it is happening is assinine.
Wouldn't the more savvy players use Teamspeak/Ventrilo and a laptop while playing their Wii titles? I would think that mostly free options like that would be made even more attractive in light of developers locking out technology that is already common place.
Well this is simple then...just give it to me for free then no one can make a profit...that's it, problem solved.
what would happen if I bought a lawnmower that I could never sell to a friend? Or a coat for my son that I could never sell at a garage-sale once he outgrew it? The lawnmower maker or clothing manufacturer do not see a dime of profit in any resale.
IMO this is the same thing. I see game PURCHASE the same as a movie PURCHASE or bicycle PURCHASE. I own it and can sell it whenever. I am not paying for a service, (MMO's and the like notwithstanding) I am not renting a car. I am buying a product.
End of argument.
In fact, I'd rather never play another computer gane than to ever buy or use a gaming console.
you must be rich then or have rich parents then man. everyone knows when you buy a PC for gaming every couple months you will have to keep pouring money into upgrading your PC to play current games at the time. especially with graphic cards
Imagine the outcry if some music label (let's say Sony because they'd probably do it) found a way to render CDs unreadable if purchased used or borrowed from a friend. Imagine if plugging new speakers into your stereo meant that you couldn't resell them later, or even return them to the store if they didn't work out. What if CD players tattled on the CDs you listened to and prevented you from playing them on other devices? They're not becoming like the RIAA. Even the music industry isn't this insane yet.
Actually, the music industry has tried this a few times. It has gone to court and always gotten smacked down because of First Sale Doctrine. They have been trying to make a shift to not selling ou the CD, but licensing you a copy of the music so you only own the plastic and paper, but do not have the rights to do anything with the contents.
This will end up going to court. Gaming companies are just testing the waters with and gambling that they can pull this off while still maintaining profits.
If they were clever, they would just sell everything through an online store and go away from physical media. Steam is an example of this, but they don't sell at a cheaper cost though. You're still playing the same price as having the physical media.
It was said, if they lower their price point, then everyone would win. There might be some truth to that...except when a game is a total bust.
Does Nintendo want to lose the advantage they have now? You don't piss off your customers....
you must be rich then or have rich parents then man. everyone knows when you buy a PC for gaming every couple months you will have to keep pouring money into upgrading your PC to play current games at the time. especially with graphic cards
Then they are idiots, the 7950 I got last year, which is now like 3 years old since release, can still play any game out there on max, non-DX10 graphics. The only reason why I upgraded to a 9800 GTX a few months ago was to have DX10.
I can spend 1000 dollars on a computer and still have it beat consoles easily, and not have to upgrade for a while.
Learn about facts before you speak up, also get friends who aren't idiots.
you must be rich then or have rich parents then man. everyone knows when you buy a PC for gaming every couple months you will have to keep pouring money into upgrading your PC to play current games at the time. especially with graphic cards
Kami3k's response to this was good... I will add though that w/ that 7950 and "max" it is not at 2048x1152 resolution or anything, but at 1440x900 (16:10 19" wide standard) or 1280x1024 (4:3 rough equivalent) it will more than hold its own on modern games.
I too run a similarly aged system w/ a x1900xt 512 that screams at that resolution on everything I have tried. (yes, crysis hurts... but crysis hurts EVERYONE) Getting close to upgrading yes, but it is a solid performer still.
I have made the arg many times that once you buy the console, the HD set to get anywhere close to comparable graphics quality to a PC and pay for the online service to play some stuff along w/ the cost increase on games... over a 3 year span you will be spending near identical money as on a solid midrange PC with a top-end graphics card. About 1500 bucks +/- depending on TV size and PC components. (must be top end graphics at any give time though... midrange graphics do not last that 3 year span like a top end card does)
Crysis hurts even god, so it's performance doesn't even count.
Oh and your friend are either idiots or graphic/FPS whores. Either way, using them to say how expensive PC gaming is is idiotic.
Why not just put a $5 levy on used game sales that goes back to the publisher. You could only do it on stores, but it would solve the issue of the publishers getting ripped, and would only push the used price up by five bucks.
Crysis hurts even god, so it's performance doesn't even count.Oh and your friend are either idiots or graphic/FPS whores. Either way, using them to say how expensive PC gaming is is idiotic.
lol, yes... crysis sucks the life from the fountain of youth.
and yes, anyone still using the "my method is cheaper than yours for gaming" argument is just plain dumb. It is all expensive, just like most "hobbies".
yes but using a console for gaming will last you 3-5 years cause you don't have to spend more money on it when your in the 3rd year on your PC and want to play the latest games to find out your PC chokes because you do not put the money into it to upgrade it. think about it you go out to buy a console that costs now 200-400 bucks with additional controllers and the odd game can reach close to 1000 bucks and that can be for a 3-5 year period without any upgrading. with a PC you may have to do a 200-300 upgrade just for the graphics card to play a modern game with all the eye candy and great sound
hardcore PC gamers are mostly anal when it comes to games meaning one small slowdown and they go out and upgrade there PC's.
This is the way it always is with PC's if you going to try to play the latest and greatest FPS games
now i will just sit back and wait to get flamed by the roper room kids as usual and i bet the biggest one of them all kami3k 11 will chime in again too
If this behavior is allowed we could possibly be facing a risk of video games fading out. The average Joe simply cannot afford every single game he desires to play and will often wait and buy a used game.
This will cause gamers to be more cautious and only buying trusted titles such as Grand Theft Auto and hurting the sales of the less popular titles. Making developers and publishers scared to try anything new. Eventually this would cause prices to go up to make up for loss of profits which will just lead to even less sales. And we all know what would come of that.
Nothing good will come out of this.
wow these game companies are getting so damn greedy these days. theyare wantign to pcket money off resale now when they already got eh money from the first time the game was sold.
man the game industry is going to hell right now becuase stupid publishers are getting thier heads stuck up thier south entrance
Ea adn companies like them are trhowing securom virus ware on theri games , to force PC gamers into a "rental mentality", and now theya re wantign to unfnished games on console just so they can lock us in by forcing us to pay more for the ending? daaaaaammmnnnn they can't possibly be serious. these publishers with ehse ideas need to go live in some place like china where the government and companies always get to push consumer rights out of the way. the i see ALL pc games carryign securom , and all console games forcing mroe money from us or their endings , is the day i stop being a gamer , you GET this PUBLISHERS , STOP your BS or you will be shooting yoruself in teh foot i for one wont give money to any industry/company when it thinks it can step on our rights
EA startign throwing securom on all their pc games , i stopped buying EA games , period (and no i dont pirate them either i just boycott , adn do with out. i dont even know how to go about pirating games)/ and if i ever see a console game that forces me to pay more for teh ending , who ever makes the game can rest assured that thier name will be added to my boycotte list currently EA and UBIsoft are on there for securom usage in their reccent games ... whos next ?
in regards to a certain idiot that is talking out his rear about pc gaming
you obviously haven't gamed on pc's reccently, sure what you say might be true for 1992-1999 but for the last 5 years comp ahrd ware has remained fairly power fuor a few years before needing an update , and that aside any oen working a minimum wage job can builda new gaming comp every year with thier tax return (that is what i did , my gaming comp runs any thing i throw at it and it only cost me 789 bucks which still left me 300 bucks from my tax return for other things) my last computer made it 4 years before needign any upgrade to deal with games i expect this one will take me atleast three years befoer an up[grade is a requirement. so before you go insulting people or asking them if they are rich in a snotty tone you shoudl do your home work, go over to tom's hardware and youc an even see where tehy built a gaming sytem to jsut 500 bucks that gmaes pretty good when overclocked. oh also not your console prices go up ever generation , eventually your consoles will cost every bit as much as a gamign pc does.
oh also , let tally up the cost of a good gaming system ill even be fair and use the lowest prices avaiable online.
Console
xbox 360- 300 (with a hard drive, dotne ven dare yap to me abotut eh 200 dollar non ahrd drive version as it wont compare toa pc sicne it ahs no Hard drive)
cheap but deccent HD (27-30 inch) TVset - 700
online fee 250 dollars (roughly 50 bucks a year getting those subscription cards times thant by 5 years)
total - 1250 US dollars
PC
I'll be fair and say 1000 bucks since not every pc gamer knows how to build systems (which saves money)
comp- 1000
22 inch gaming monitor - 250
3rd year vid card update - 180 (this is a avaerage price of a mid end vid card but for note mid range does range from 150 -250 dependign on where you ger your card)
possible ram upgrade 40
total - 1470 US dollars
Note could say you built yoru own system to save cash and then got abetter vid card , but hoenstly numbers still come ratehr close, for that matter some gamers get only 42 inch and higher sized tv's which puts the cost of console gaming vs pc gaming neck and neck
i didtn bother figureing in 5.1 /7.1 surround systems into this cost chart becasue it woudl make litle differnece home theatre spekaers adn pc comptuer speaker cost are practially teh same so again would have made no diference on this argument so left speakers out of figures.
point is you are wrong and your friends are total douches and gamign is expensive on any platform these days regardless you wont see folks you met at the well fair office going home to consoles or pcs as either wil require atleast at least a minimum wage job and even then only when you get a tax return such as the case of when i bult this comp im on now (and game on pefectly even runs crysis fairly well)
oh and one more thing !
If adn when a pc breaks i can fix it myself with out breaking the various component's warrenties ! and i have NO down time waiting for the mail system, just the down time it takes me to fix the issue should an issue arrive (which rarely ever happens, if at all)
cant say that for a console
you must be rich then or have rich parents then man. everyone knows when you buy a PC for gaming every couple months you will have to keep pouring money into upgrading your PC to play current games at the time. especially with graphic cards
u act like we get nothing in return for our money. every purchase gets us better graphic. its the equivalent of sony releasing PS3/4/5, but we get the advantage by having graphics updated more often than every 3-5 years.
but for the "poorer" ppl (such as u imply to be), nobody is forcing u to buy the new PS3 and nobody is forcing us to buy the newer video cards. and in a year or so i bet the newest PC video games will look better on medium/low with our old cards than the PS3's max (if they dont look better already).
excuse the typos. we really need an edit button...
I wouldn't mind only paying for new games if the games cost say at $29.99 instead of at 59.99. I had no idea game companies didn't pull in any revenue from used games. I thought they at least got a 15 to 20% cut of the used sale. This could be something else game companies could look into. I think that ideas such as endings you have to download and/or buy is ludicrous. Not everyone has an internet connection, and not everyone that has an internet connection has it connected to their consoles. Just something to think about.
"One small step for corporate profits... one GIANT leap for eWaste in our landfills"
Thanks Nintendo - set a disastrous trend for others to follow by eliminating a primary method of recycling.
I'm sorry, but this is starting to go too far. A publisher makes money when a game is sold new, just like say a car maker makes money when a new car is sold. GameStop/EB Games are basically the used car dealers out there, and the car maker doesn't get any money when a used car is sold so why should a publisher? Wah wah wah, I want more money, EVERYONE wants more money for what they do, thats the way it works.
But if Car manufactures started saying that you buy the car, and if you want to be able to go over 40 mph in the car then it's going to cost extra people won't buy those cars. I don't care how "Critically Acclaimed" or "Best Game Ever" a game is, what we're talking about here is entertainment pure and simple and when publishers start doing what Nintendo is trying to pull here the entertainment value drops.
Publishers will keep trying to take as much money out of our pockets as they can just like the gas companies did and what happened? After it hit a certain point people actually started chaning their driving habbits and stopped driving unless they needed to, and people will sooner or later stop getting the games and systems that cause this kind of pain. There ARE other things to do other than playing games you know.
I truly hope that Nintendo receives a class action suit because of this and that it sets a precedent that consumers will not stand for this kind of 'shake down' corporate greed.