The death of used games - Sony files patent, MS expected to follow.

[Cowboy Brian]

http://n4g.com/news/1148690/sony-files-patent-for-tech-that-suppresses-second-hand-game-sales


Basically this has been rumored to be featured on both the neXtBox and the PS4 but this patent pretty much confirms it on Sonys end. I rarely buy games used so this doesn't effect me much but many people are reliant on used games. If I don't have the itch to play it at release I wait 6 months or so and by then the game usually falls to around $30 if not lower. However I always did enjoy picking up used games in the bargain basket for $2, $3 5 years after release and playing them for a bit just for fun.

The bigger impact of this will most likely be that it will pretty much kill all brick and mortar gaming businesses. The retailers for video games and systems have very small margins on the new systems, with a majority of their profits coming on the used items. (Buy used game from person for $3, sell for $19.99). This will now be obsolete. Gamestop directly employs 17,000 full time employees and I can only imagine the part time figure being well in the six figures.

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

Seems like the mobile phone market and it's games are a viable system they can use.

You don't get a physical copy when you download games for your phones now.

The best you can do is burn a cd/dvd of a backup of everything or have your digital (email confirmation) that says you downloaded a product or in your online (google play) system you buy from.

So there is a platform that has shown it works for games.

The sucky part is all of the people who will be out of work due to this (gamestop as you mentioned).

 

[Cowboy Brian]

Seems like the mobile phone market and it's games are a viable system they can use.

You don't get a physical copy when you download games for your phones now.

The best you can do is burn a cd/dvd of a backup of everything or have your digital (email confirmation) that says you downloaded a product or in your online (google play) system you buy from.

So there is a platform that has shown it works for games.

The sucky part is all of the people who will be out of work due to this (gamestop as you mentioned).

Problem with that system is that most video games are well over 10GB. Unless the system comes with something like 500GB storage it would be very difficult for that to be done.

 

[Hoofbite]

I don't really buy used games but I play many new games and sell them.

They eliminate the used market, I'll start modding.

 

[Nomad]

They already do that on Xbox Live where you can download full games, I'd say they have at least 250-300 games available and most are closer to 6GB in size, if you have a 250GB Xbox it's not too bad. The full version of Skyrim is only 3.68GB for example.

 

[Kangaroo]

When they tried that with music it failed and it will fail here people just adapt and move on to the next product or the hack etc

 

[JohnnyHopkins]

When they tried that with music it failed and it will fail here people just adapt and move on to the next product or the hack etc

Yep, pretty much. Someone will figure out a way to either get around it or jailbreak the system so it will allow it. Only a matter of time.

I don't buy used games myself, but it actually peeves me off that they are trying to do this.

 

[JohnnyTheFox]

This has been something that has been rumoured for a few years now. The used pc game market has been pretty much killed, look for the used console game mkt to follow suit.
Brick and mortar/physical retailers will get the short end of the stick while all the steam fanboys can claim how great gabe newell is.
Greed......Plain and simple.

 

[Cajuncowboy]

So how are they going to do game rentals? That revenue stream will dry up as well from places like Red Box etc.

And If I buy a game and two years later I am done with it I can't sell it at a garage sale? Really?

Odds are I won't buy the game at all.

 

[Dallas]

FYI

Most folks say this technology will not make the next gen console systems. Most of my investment friends are still calling stocks like GameStop a buy.

GameStop stock is about 1.30 less than it was yesterday.

It closed at 24.36 today down 5% from yesterday.

 

[Hoofbite]

FYI

Most folks say this technology will not make the next gen console systems. Most of my investment friends are still calling stocks like GameStop a buy.

GameStop stock is about 1.30 less than it was yesterday.

It closed at 24.36 today down 5% from yesterday.

How could it make the next console?

Those are likely already built and if they are just now applying for the patent, pretty safe to assume it won't be there.

 

[tupperware]

This has been something that has been rumoured for a few years now. The used pc game market has been pretty much killed, look for the used console game mkt to follow suit.
Brick and mortar/physical retailers will get the short end of the stick while all the steam fanboys can claim how great gabe newell is.
Greed......Plain and simple.

Well, Steam <is> pretty cool.

 

[Stash]

I can't see how they could get a patent.

Every other piece of merchandise in our free market society is eligible for re-sale, what makes them think that they're special?

 

[MapleLeaf]

How could it make the next console?

Those are likely already built and if they are just now applying for the patent, pretty safe to assume it won't be there.

...hardware or software?

 

[JohnnyTheFox]

Well, Steam <is> pretty cool.

Heres my problem with steam....
If you by a retail version from a brick and mortar store you are also paying for the shipping of said product from point a to b as well as the printing manufacturing costs of the disks,boxes and any manuals included for lets say 49.99.
The same purchase on steam the only thing you get is the serial key for the same price. The costs involved dont include what i listed in the previous paragraph.
The developer/publisher/steam is able to take a bigger slice of the pie with none of the savings being passed on to the consumer.

 

[Hoofbite]

Heres my problem with steam....
If you by a retail version from a brick and mortar store you are also paying for the shipping of said product from point a to b as well as the printing manufacturing costs of the disks,boxes and any manuals included for lets say 49.99.
The same purchase on steam the only thing you get is the serial key for the same price. The costs involved dont include what i listed in the previous paragraph.
The developer/publisher/steam is able to take a bigger slice of the pie with none of the savings being passed on to the consumer.

All that stuff is pretty much nothing for the manufacturer. Is there a tax on steam purchases? Time spent going to the store? Gas?

These would all be savings, IMO. I'm not sure the few quarters it costs for the discs, cases and booklets is worth getting riled up about. I'm guessing the distributor pays a little bit for the bandwidth of distributing GBs worth of game files times however many customers there are.

 

[Hoofbite]

...hardware or software?

Likely both. I suppose that could all be thrown in prior to production but who knows.

Also, if it's just an RFID chip, whats to say that a game doesn't come into close enough proximity with a demo console and completely shut the game down?

 

[tupperware]

Heres my problem with steam....
If you by a retail version from a brick and mortar store you are also paying for the shipping of said product from point a to b as well as the printing manufacturing costs of the disks,boxes and any manuals included for lets say 49.99.
The same purchase on steam the only thing you get is the serial key for the same price. The costs involved dont include what i listed in the previous paragraph.
The developer/publisher/steam is able to take a bigger slice of the pie with none of the savings being passed on to the consumer.

And you'll make up for that 10 fold when they put up their ludicrous sales of $50 titles for $10.