This is a continuation of the first part of the article, which can be found by clicking http://www.senore.com/Second-hand-games-are-going-to-cannibalize-the-industry-1-a140587.
By ‘anything else’ the Silicon Knights boss, Denis Dyack, meant the need for developers to push post release Downloadable Content down the consumers throat as they fought to keep a steady stream of revenue that would otherwise be lost to them.
“I would argue, and I’ve said this before, that used games are cannibalizing the industry.” Reiterated the boss of the studio, before continuing, “If developers and publishers don’t see revenue from that, it’s not a matter of hey ‘we’re trying to increase the price of games to consumers, and we want more,’ we’re just trying to survive as an industry.
He also explained how factors such as second hand gaming and the need to get strong early sales have led to inflation in the video game industry. “People won’t make those kinds of games. So I think that’s inflated the price of games, and I think that prices would have come down if there was a longer tail, but there isn’t.”
The debate is a sensitive one especially how consumers initially reacted strongly against the imposition of online passes. These were one time use codes that allowed gamers to access online content of a game and second hand gamers had to pay a certain amount extra in order to receive a fresh code.
This kept the stream of revenue open for developers and publishers even after release and in essence it sounded like a fair trade. However, even that becomes less effective for games that do not have multiplayer components.
One can see a number of franchises adding multiplayer to their single player heavy games such as the Uncharted series, Dead Space and Assassin’s Creed and although a number of their multiplayer components do work, it just emphasizes the very point that developers cannot rely on single player games only if they wish to secure their survival.
One solution that publishers seem keen on pushing is digital distribution which effectively eliminates any chance losing revenue through the sale of second hand games.
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