So it just hit me yesterday that buying a ton of used games at Gamestop doesn't really do anything but help GS (and maybe myself to some cheap games), but what about the publishers and developers?

As of now, I'm going to try to buy nothing but new games to support those who really put their hearts and souls into the games they develop (and you know what? If it sucks I'll just trade it back into GS or GC for credit towards another NEW purchase). But here's my conundrum, if I buy a game on clearance, does any of that money trickle back to the companies responsible? And what about price drops? I know GS makes about $6-$10 profit on the new games sold, but say when a $60 game drops to $30 in about a week or two (I'm looking at you Legendary) would Sucker-Punch still make money?

Another big one are Amazon deals. Say I picked up DQIV when it was Amazon's DotD at $20. You can't tell me that a $20 difference doesn't screw someone out of their monies. So who eats it? Amazon? SQEX?

Last week I bought a brand new copy of Little Red Riding Hood's Zombie BBQ and you know what? I felt good. Real good. Like I was part of the solution and not the problem. So thanks Gamestop and every other store for years of providing me with used games that I'll play (eventually) but as of now, I'd like to give my money to those who need (read: deserve) it more.

Please discuss. I'd love to get everyone's take on this.

That's very honorable of you, man. I don't have any solid information about clearance, Amazon deals or price drops, but my hunch is that the retailer (GS, Amazon, Circuit City) pays for the games at X amount of dollars for Y amount of copies and plan to sell them to the public at Z dollars. If they need to sell it for less to clear their inventory or make some money back, then the retailer would be taking the hit, not the original publisher, since the company already sold their Y titles and made X bucks on it while the retailer would make less than Z dollars for the title.

Personally, I do not buy games from Gamestop anymore. I'm in a bit of a different market than you right now, though - I don't support or own any current gen system so most of my purchases come from the second hand market anyway, which leaves me to eBay and forum posts for my titles. I don't trade my games in to Gamestop because I don't want to support the store, so I usually just sell them on eBay and donate the profit to charity. At least that way I feel comfortable with where the money is going and eBay only sees a very small percentage of the sale (if you donate 100% of an item to charity they give you credits on your insertion and final value fees). Win-win-win, I say. It makes me feel like...

I have to agree, I find it very hard to support gamespot and/or EB games anymore - even though the one guy there was pretty cool with me yesterday - but that was more the guy being cool than the store/corporation; it's important not to mistake the two.

I don't have any current gen-systems either and with a store in the other neighboring town carrying retro games it's a pretty easy decision where to go. It's not just what they carry that makes it more attractive, the environment doesn't feel as soulless and I don't feel like their only goal is to sell me something like then I go into an EB or Radio Shack.

The argument that buying new is somehow better than used for the company is flawed. Without getting into the potential "copy and sell" issue, you need to remember the simple fact -- when you buy a game used, the original buyer bought it new. The company got the money for THIS copy, it just wasn't given by you. Any money exchanged between you and the original buyer isn't related, but the other person can't play the game any more.

What he's wanting to do is chalk up a 2ND sale, since the manufacturer's sales tally is counted by the total number of units moved.  That used copy sitting in the bin is still only 1 unit. 

When he lets that used copy stay sitting there and goes to buy a different new one, that sale is now a 2nd unit, which now ups the total units sold for the manufacturer.

Not to mention most of the time Gamestop will buy back a game from someone and then sell it for like $5 less than a brand new copy (unless its REALLY used; i.e. scratched to hell/coaster-ized). Just the other day I was in there and they were ripping off a kid trying to trade in a PS2 + 6 games for $6 in-store credit...

I stopped buying new games from Gamestop ever since they started their policy of selling opened, shrink-wrap-free games as new. I also tried trading in to them once, and was shocked by how little I got in return.

Still, you gotta give them some kudos for still accepting used sports games year after year. There are always stacks of old Maddens in every Gamestop.

I have to say I'm down with the "screw Gamestop" crowd.  I typically only buy a game there if it's a brand new, just released title and they're offering some kind of sweet pre-order bonus.  If not though, for new games my shop of choice is Amazon or eBay/forums for used games.  In a perfect world I'd buy all my new games from any non-Gamestop store and all my used stuff on eBay from someone like Zane who offers portions of the final bid price to charity.. because come on, if your purchase isn't supporting the creators directly (which only really happens when you buy a brand new game), you might as well support an awesome charity.  Speaking of.. Zane, buddy, put up some decent games and I'd gladly bid on some of your auctions.

-Mike

Hey, some of those games I have up now are damn good! But the real good ones are all staying in my collection, man.

Same here.  I also like buying new games in general because I hate how HORRIBLY people treat their games before selling them back in the US.  Yikes, I'd forgotten just how different it is buying a used game in the US vs. buying one in Japan.

Yeah but then it'll just goto someone else.

___________
I've quoting from another post here (buried somewhere in here: http://www.emusic.com/messageboard/view … Id=134250)

I don't view reselling as harmful for the following reasons:

1) Reselling of used product affects every market equally: cars, books, DVDs, furniture, clothes, etc.
2) Like with those markets, the artists have made money on every copy in the marketplace: they made the money on the first sale.
3) Since used products are a finite resource, new CDs continue to get sold as the market expands. If 200,000 copies of a CD have been sold and an additional 300,000 people want it, that translates to at least 100,000 additional sales.
___________

...so yeah. Would record labels/game companies/whatever WANT everyone to buy a new copy? Of course. But if everyone did that, there'd be less sales over all as more people would be paying more per item.
Not to mention, when stuff DOES go OOP, the only way to get it of course is used.

I personally don't have anything against Gamestop, but I rarely shop there since I can easily buy things cheaper or sell things for a better price elsewhere.  Their pre-order bonuses have enticed me inside a few times, and it's always nice enough to browse, but it usually comes down to price for me.  Generally, things are distinctly cheaper on eBay or Amazon even with the high shipping costs these days, and there's also no sales tax -- take that, local government!

However, I almost always buy things factory sealed.  I keep most of the games/CDs/movies I buy, so I'm pretty picky about condition and it's somehow nicer to be the only owner of stuff that's in my collection.  Of course, out-of-print stuff is an exception, so I take what I can get when it comes to that.  Honestly, this forum is about the only place I buy used CDs -- both because a lot of this stuff is hard to find elsewhere, but also because most of the people here actually appreciate their CDs and don't treat them carelessly.

On the topic of retailers, my (perhaps mistaken) impression is that it works something like consignment.  The game publishers send out their product to the stores, who then pay a share of the retail price back to the publishers once the item sells -- we'll say 50-50 as an example.  So if you buy a $60 game, the retailer gets $30 and the publisher gets $30.  If the retailer puts it on sale for $50, that missing $10 comes out of their share (unless the publisher is funding a promotion), but if the game permanently drops in price, they split the take again -- when it goes down to $40 they each get $20, etc.  This is obviously way oversimplified and also ignores the possibility of distributors, but that's the general idea.

So the upshot is that as long as you buy the game new at retail, the publisher is getting something.  But if you really want to help them out, you could try buying stuff at their company store.  Most of the big publishers have online stores, and I think EA even offers free shipping.  Or even better is buying stuff from their store digitally so they don't even have to spend money on packaging.  Of course for my own part I don't feel bad in the least about buying stuff from the secondary market as long as it isn't stolen or bootlegged -- my money is usually helping individuals instead of large corporations that way.  I don't begrudge the publishers money, but since somebody has already paid them for the item that I'm getting, it doesn't really hurt.

I am disturbed by all this digital distribution, though.  If I buy a game or whatever and decide I don't like it or won't feel like experiencing it again, I darn well want the freedom to get rid of it and get some compensation back.  More importantly, I like having something cool on my shelf that I can thumb through or take with me to a friend's house or whatever.  This digital distribution thing gives much too little in return for its disadvantages.  But since the publishers make way more money that way and people are willing to get sucked into it, digital distribution looks like it will keep getting more widespread.  Meh.

I don't mind digital distribution as long as it's dirt cheap.  I would prefer a physical copy, but $10 for a brand new Mega Man game is hard to argue with.  Sony has done a little experimenting with selling disc-based PS3 games as downloads, but the price difference hasn't been significant enough to make it worthwhile, IMO.  Now, if HD space wasn't an issue and Capcom released RE5 for $60 in-store or $30 as a download, I don't know which I'd choose.  Maybe I'd pay the extra $30 for the physical copy because it's RE, but what if it was a new IP whose quality was unproven?

Something to keep in mind is that the existence of a second-hand market causes many people to buy games that they wouldn't otherwise buy. It's a much easier decision to pay $50 for a new game if you know you can turn around and sell it for $30-40 if you don't like it or get tired of it. And many used games likely go to people who wouldn't pay full price for them anyway. I would guess that second-hand markets probably hurt profits overall, but not as much as you'd think.

There's no way that a store would make $30 off of a $60 game.  It's got to be $5 - $20 at the most. 

So, if I can sum this up correctly, publishers already make money based off the number of games sent to the market [/i]to be sold[/i].  If that brand new game gets sold, they make a little extra, right?  Not only that, but they can chalk up a "sale", not just "we shipped ### units to the marketplace." 

The more and more I look at it, I believe I'll be doing alot of shopping from Amazon for the aforementioned free shipping and freakin' amazing prices.  Look at one of the deals today - Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts for $26.xx.  That's awesome.  The best part is, you're getting a brand new game, and you're supporting the developer/publisher at a decent price.  Odds are Amazon has a ton of BK's and is willing to drop the price to get more sold and not have to sit on a ton of unsold games.  (Money in hand is better than potentially more money, right?)

a store that orders a case from a distributor makes about $8-$10 on a $50 game.
a big store or chain that buys full pallets (about 4000pcs) of the same directly from the company makes $20-$25 profit each piece

That would explain why Gamestop did so well when GTA4 came out last year.