Game Retailers Not Liking EA's Project $10 Tactics

It is just another attempt to generate revenue.

Just penny pinching. Not to mention lame. Games for the most part are already way overpriced. There are very few games that are worth the $50-$60 price tag. What will end up happening is people will wait till the game has been out for 6-12 months and the retail price has dropped in half or more cause no one will want to pay full retail or a "used tax". Pure and simple greed... not like the developers are gonna see any of the money.

As somone who almost only buys used games from Gamestop Ive always supported not Copying games, just buy them if you want to play them, or wait for them to hit the 20 dollar price range. But if they start doing this I will swap to the "pirate the hell out of games" side! I think this is complete BS. And instead of buying games legit at a used discount price, I will steal them instead!

Good, screw gamestop , they buy back games for around 10-15 dollars, then charge ppl 40+ for the used game. Alot of times i find them selling used games for 5-10 less than a brand new game. Also most of the time that ppl trade a bunch of games in for a new one, its a "new Used" game anyways.

If they're so butt-hurt about it, maybe they should actually make games that are good enough that I want to keep playing them once I'm done, instead of flipping them for something else once I'm done. Of course EA wants to cash in on the second-hand market, but this sucks. I haven't bought a game in five or six years that I didn't trade at least one older game in for, and a lot of my games have been funded entirely by trade-ins.

If EA and Sony manage to change the landscape to a point where I stop being able to get meaningful amounts for my trade-ins, I'm not going to be happy. I can't blame EA for wanting to deepen their pockets, but damn, give us a break.

Second hand games are lower priced because you lose a lot of the benefits associated with buying an unopened game - returns/refunds for defective products, the certainty that you get buying a game new, knowing you're the only owner, promotional materials, any manufacturer's warranties, etc. You don't get any of that when you buy a game used - you get whatever the seller is willing to offer you. Some retailers are kind enough to offer a limited return policy for used games, while others sell used games "as is". Being forced to fork over extra cash to the manufacturer, without getting back any of the protections enjoyed by the first owner (if any - this is inapplicable in some, if not many cases) is a load of crap.

Will I boycott EA/Sony because of this? Highly unlikely. Will I be pissed that the trade-in value of my games is decreasing? Absolutely. Will I buy fewer games in the long run, if my trade-in values decrease? Almost certainly. And the greedy manufacturers will have no one but themselves to blame for it.

But then, I'm just one guy. They'll probably survive.

Although I'm not much of a rap fan, to paraphrase Eminem: EA can kiss my butt, lick fumunda cheese fumunda my nuts.

It sorta gives pirates a way to save their souls

Why is hating on Gamestop such a fad these days? Used games are worth what people will pay for them. If you don't like Gamestop's model, don't give them your business. You are perfectly free to sell your used games on Craigslist, eBay, or anywhere else.

The fact of the matter is that a lot of people are perfectly content trading in at Gamestop. For me, being able to immediately dispose of a game I'm not interested in by trading it towards something that I am interested in is absolutely worth whatever "loss" I might sustain by not selling it directly to someone else. The time and effort I save suits me perfectly.

EA's "Project Bend Over" will be countered with many users' own "Project Pirate the Shit Out of Your Products to Spite You."

This is just another way these companies are trying to generate revenue. But the basic issue is whether or not somebody own the game in the first place. If you've ever read the EULA for most games (if not all) they say that you are buying the right to use that game/software but not the game itself. This issue has been an ongoing legal battle that, unfortunately, the big publishers are winning because they have a better legal team, against "Joe Public", and the fact that they already state the terms. I do not support this. If you pay money, it should be yours to do with what you wish-PERIOD. Our justice system really needs to take a close look at this and hopefully they'll come to their senses.

To the "I'm going to pirate" guys:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/2010/2/19/

Piracy is part of what brings about thing like these, you pirate and you create the need for these things. I think it's brillant. They don't force you to pay anything, you get a bonus for doing so. Shut up and stop whining, a developer spends millions developing a game and then has what 25% of their revenue taken by pirates and another 30% or whatever taken by gamestop and the like. What do you think they should do? Subsidies your broke ass?

I don't think it'll work. People will most likely just buy the game (at an even more reduced price) used then find a crack to unlock the content on the disc they physically own.

I doubt a legal case would stand against someone accessing files they paid for.

Umm, downloading games isn't "stealing" at all, it's file sharing! I paid for the system I use to share with, and I pay for the bandwidth to download it with, and that file WAS paid for and then subsequently shared. So please, adjust your vocabulary and not let EA and the rest make you think it's actually stealing...

EA's greed knows no boundry.

This is by far the shittiest move EA ever made and its going to pissed off lots of potential customer.

If I purchase something, what gives the original owner (or original seller in this case) any right to it when I re-sell it?? I purchased it, I can sell it to whomever I want!

I don't know, limiting the number of installs still seems the shittiest to me. Still, this is pretty bad. Good to know the gaming industry is still coming up with new ways to alienate their paying customers.

publishers live in their own little world.

I happen to know of another place that constantly profits from the sale of used goods with no money going back to the original manufactures.

I believe its called ebay.com

I didn't see the maker of my bed come to my door asking for a cut after I sold it at a yard sale?

LOL. Imagine my surprise when I brought him my used television only to find out I had to pay Samsung $35 bucks to use the HDMI ports. Otherwise it's just Component.

It's outrageous. Who the hell do they think they are? No other industry in the world could get away with crap like this.

Bottom line: I don't care how good a game is. I'm not buying a game if I know the re-sale value is limited by some stupid add-on fee. Not buying it at all. If that means no more Madden then so be it. If I want to play a game that badly and it has this "feature" I'll be downloading it online, playing it, then trashing it.

Limiting the number of installs sucks but it is completely logical. It makes sense to have a system similar to the iTunes system where a song can only be authorized to play on five simultaneous computers. You can de-authorize and authorize other computers but never more than five. That makes perfect sense in my eyes.

Trying to charge for a game that has already been purchased is absolutely ludicrous. Video games aren't the only products with re-sale value but they seem to be the only ones that can somehow be charged to re-sale. Don't you think Ford would love to make some money from people selling their used Mustangs? Hell yeah they would.

Exactly. They already made their money when the product was first purchased. Now the customer owns it. So when the customer then sells it second hand, EA think they have a right to get some more money from it? Absolute BULLSHIT.

GG you greedy ******.

Its just going to make me think twice before I purchase a game. Its not like I have purchased a lot of console games to begin with, but now I am definitely going to think twice.

when i sold my Q9650, EP45 UD3P and 4GB of g-skill ram to pay for my i7 setup, you know how much money intel, gigabyte or g-skill saw of that? (bear in mind before i bought my new setup) $0 until i bought a new i7 860, P55 board and 4GB DDR3. all EA is doing is hurting itself with this measure because like was stated in the article, games are usually sold to pay for new games. this just proves my theory that EA is run by a bunch of penny pinching, masochistic, blood sucking vampires

I'm definitely not buying EA games until this goes away.

I don't agree with these kind of tactics. When you purchase a new car, the money goes to the car manufacturer (and sales people also). When this same car is bought used, the car companies don't come in and gouge you for a cut!?!?! This is completely absurd, and is sure to drive people away from games altogether. LISTEN EA, the world is in a recession or just getting out of it!!! Krist people are stupid, arrogant to suggest such things, greedy and again greedy!!!!!

And thus I won't be buying such games till they go below $15 with shipping on new egg . I never really sell or trade in my games ( I usually keep them so long I just end up giving them away ), but moves like this just piss me off.

First, I have to say this is sad. I see people saying this justifies stealing the game from EA. That doesn't actually hurt EA, it just makes them insist on harsher, stupider controls that make the game buyers suffer.

What does hurt EA is getting an e-mail from every gamer saying something like, "I thought this game looked great and was going to buy it. Then I found out that your DRM is invasive, restrictive and annoying, so I decided to buy a game from a competitor instead. They don't do things like this."

Every time EA makes a game that looks good, but cripples it with DRM like this, every gamer who wanted it but decided they didn't like the restrictions needs to tell them they just lost a legit sale. Don't "pirate" it - that lets them justify more stupidity on their part. Refuse it, openly, loudly, clearly. Then EA will take notice.

That's my first 2 cents worth, but it also includes this downloadable content, free - sometimes I like to give my games away to others. I have made some young friends on tight incomes very happy this way. EA is now developing a business model that means I can't make some kid happy anymore. Do I profit from giving it away? Oh yeah, but I don't think I can give a cut of that to EA. They don't understand what it means to get pleasure from doing something nice.

By the way, EA has been crying about piracy since the days of the Atari 400. It was a great threat to them, and they weren't sure if they could survive as a company, if it kept up. Now we're told it's even worse than back then. So how did EA survive all those billions of lost revenue? How did they become this behemoth company today, with all those losses over the years. Why, I bet they can barely pay their CEO minimum wage nowadays - what do you think?

Finally, I was thinking of getting Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed II, until I found out that you can't play it without an active internet connection. They've lost my money, and I won't download a crack of it either. I can't blame them for trying to protect their work - I just don't like how they've done it for this one. Can't find an email address to send my note to, so it has to go by postal service - hope it makes it there.

This makes total sense to me. WoW charges a monthly fee to use their services why shouldn't EA charge a fee to keep all of their servers and online services up and running for people that didn't give them one red cent.

I understand that games are expensive to make. The gaming industry is becoming the new Hollywood (judging by advertising, the number of sequels, and the quality of product).

However, I am in agreement with most people here. EA wants to get a share of the reseller market, but they do not want to share the risks that someone in the resale market takes. I know people think the markup is great for Gamestop, but after working a computer Renaissance I can tell you that it isn't that great. As a game gets old the new price drops, the number of people trying to sell it increase, and the number of used customers greatly drops - meaning they are risking a lot when buying. Honestly, look at the number of games in their bin, and realize that they often shift inventory around stores in order to make it look like everything sells. (Things that stay on the shelves leaves no sense of urgency to buy - things that disappear, even if in the back room, means buy while its there or you may miss out.)

My question is what are we really buying? Its not the code, its not a physical disk - are we merely token-plunkers in an arcade? Are we only buying the right to play the game? If so, why am on not charged by play time? If I am buying play time, why am I limited to the number of installs? If I am buying play time, why do I need a disk to install the game and often an internet connection to register?

Is this a recent thing? EA has screwed me over so many times my as.s is raw. The last straw was when they canceled NBA Live for the PC and Madden, games I bought every year for the PC since the dawn of EA. They claimed pirates made the PC unprofitable and they were "rethinking" the system to provide a "better experience. "

I have since never bought a damned EA product (distributed, produced, whatever) since two years ago. I want to play Left 4 Dead 2 but it's distributed by EA so f* ck no.

I take superb joy in every quarterly fiscal announcement by EA, when the ret ard trots out sheepishly and tells their investors that due to "market forces" their profit sucks bal ls.

This is not DRM or anything related to DRM. You can still buy the game used, you just dont get the downloadable content that is not required to play the game. Its extra, you want the extra you pay. DLC is microtransactions at its finest, you dont need it, stop complaining about not getting bonus things for free. They could just as well not add it in to the new copy and make everyone pay or save people who buy new the trouble and give it away. Makes sense, seems fair , they want their money for the extra content.