I also mentioned that one of the reasons why there is a second hand market is because of crappy games or games with short game play with no replay value. I find that a lot of the games on the second hand shelf are the crappy ones. If you find a copy of a game second hand shortly after release you know it is really crap. For example I found a copy of Duke Nukem Forever shortly after release. I stupidly bought it for nostalgic value, well that was a crappy game of note. So I traded it in shortly after buying it second hand. So this game was already sold 3 times but only once new. People trade in crap games because they have no use for them and will never play them again. It also hurts when you fork out R600-700 on a game and it is really crap. So of course you want to try and recoup some of your money. In this case there is no doubt that the second hand market has a negative effect.
I think I have covered all the bases regarding the effects of the second hand market. I think it is quite clear that the second hand market has a lot of positive effects that should be embraced by developers.
But there is definitely a negative effect when it comes to substandard games or games with short game play/no replay value. I think this is one area where developers and publishers lose potential sales because these substandard games are recycled repeatedly with no new copies being bought. I used the example of my buying the Duke Nukem Forever game second hand and traded it in shortly afterwards. Now this certainly would not have happened if it was a good game. So the developers and publishers only have themselves to blame for releasing substandard titles and not making money on the second hand market. I’m surprised that this is the only one possible negative effect I have uncovered. With all the bitching that developers do, I was expecting to find more negative effects.
So in ending, developers and publishers should quit moaning and embrace the second hand market. The second hand market actually improves sales of some new titles as well as any future sequels. Developers and publishers need to stop blaming the second hand market when the release a crap title. They need to pull finger and start producing good titles if they want to make new sales.
Last Updated: July 7, 2011
