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Is Buying a Pre-owned Game Wrong?

If your the same as millions of other gamers in the world, you’ve probably bought a second hand game at a cheaper price, a couple of weeks after the initial release, knowing fine well that the game will be £10/$15 cheaper than its brand new price.

If  you are, then you probably don’t realise it but games companies think your being a bit rude. Think about the amount of times you’ve been into your local swap-shop and the friendly chap behind the counter says to you, as you walk toward the counter with a brand new box, “Do you know we’ve got a pre-owned version for £32 instead of £45?”

“I’ve been in a shop where I’ve tried to buy a copy of a relatively recent game, and I’ve taken an empty box off the shelf and they’ve given me a pre-owned copy. That, I think, is disgraceful,” said Elite Founder David Braben recently in an interview.

But is he right? Are games companies the ones getting harmed? The way i understand it, is that retailers buy directly from the publishers, in bulk and at trade value, so they are still getting the money they rightly deserve. Surely the only ones losing money are the retailers themselves.

Well, not so, the idea from a retailers point of view is that they encourage you to buy pre-owned as they make more money on them than brand new. Think about it. Lets say the a retailer buys the game at trade value, say £25 (i’m guesstimating). Customer A buys the brand new game in 2007 for £40. He trades it back to the store in early 2008, and gets about £12 from the shop, which he instantly spends back in the store (if you imagine most retailers give you credit notes as opposed to cold hard cash). Customer B wanders in and sees the now pre-owned title, and buys it for say £25. So now the shop has made £52 from these two exchanges. Now i’m no mathematician but that’s much more than if customer A had walked in, bought the game and never came back. If he’d have done that the shop makes £15, and customer B won’t exist.

Its just a simple case of win win…er…win. The publisher wins from the cash from the retailers. The Retailer wins, due to the infinite selling capabilities, and the customers win because we have the right to choose to buy a low cost game if we want to.

Developers have started using sneeky tactics to force gamers to buy brand new games. For example, if you want to play the extra multi-player level on Gears of War 2, you’d better buy it at full price, as it comes with a one-time download. And you can expect a whole lot more of that, as developers try to fill their pockets in the middle of the global credit crisis.

Tags: Gaming, Pre-owned, Thoughts

Top 7 Most Controversial Games Ever

Over the years we’ve seen some pretty controversial games land on our shelves, but what are the baddest of the bad in terms of on-screen nasties and off screen media scare tactics? Here’s our top seven. Why seven? Well its lucky innit…

7. Carmaggedon

The classically violent-for-the-sake-of-violence Carmaggedon, upset a bunch of people even before the game was released way back in 1997 on the PC (dos version) when the publisher SCi submitted the game for rating to the BBFC for classification to boost its publicity, even though they didn’t have to (the game featured no video footage, therefore was exempt from classification).  Sadly for the team, the move backfired and the board demanded that the violence be cut - which to them meant changing the human pedestrians in the game to robots and zombies instead. They appealed, and after a long ten months the game was released as intended.

Even with its troubled past, this game’s influence is clear to see. Just look at your games shelf, is that Grand Theft Auto up there?

6. Mortal Kombat

FINNISH HIM!! Do you remember the first time you were asked to do that? Although tame when compared to today’s gaming bloodbaths, this beat ‘em up caused chaos on its release in 1992. The mixture of detailed deaths, and brutal combat caused parents across the land to condemn the game. Publisher Midway slapped a ‘Mature’ rating on the game, but critics still complained and ask your friends if they remember being told “you can’t play that fighting game under this roof” by their parents. The game has courted controversy throughout the series, with Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance criticised for “inciting violence” by the media when it was released. But c’mon, whats so bad about tearing someones spine out?..

5. Resident Evil 5

This game isn’t even out yet, and its already courted controversy for the predicted levels of violence and the more serious allegation of racism, as an early preview showed a Caucasian male killing hostile African villagers. Supporters of the title said that the scenes were necessary given the setting of the game, but a number of its detractors say that the images were insensitive at best.  This one will surely be allover the media, and if you close your eyes you can even see ‘The Sun’s’ (idiotic uk newspaper) title: “Shock racist African murder game: do you know what your kids are playing”. Capcom better hire a decent lawyer.

4. Wii Fit

Nintendo and its squeaky clean image took a pounding from the media a couple of months back when the balance board, when sensing that a heavy thing was on it, announced to an eleven-year-old gilr that she was overweight. One reporter got his knickers in a twist flapping “what right does a video game have to call a girl fat”, and Nintendo were forced to apologise to the little chubber. Rumours that they sent round a box of donuts as a peace offering have been entirely made up by me. Brilliantly, the usually easily pushed around, Nintendo have refused to put a label on the box letting users know of the games limitations.

3. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

No surprise that this has made it in to the top seven. The game just asks for trouble with its plot lines including; stealing cars, shooting cops, and a running gang. The game got into even more trouble when the ‘Hot Coffee mod’ was discovered. The mini-game allowed your character to take part in fully-clothed sex with a pixel chick. The media went mental, and nerds all over the world learned that there was more than one way to have sex (sitting hunched over your computer at the dead of night is not the only one after all).

2.  Doom

Released in 1993, Doom was an instant hit with gamers the world over. Graphically violent, the game’s weapons included chainsaws, shotguns, and gave birth to the legendary BFG (Big F##king Gun). The game involved ruthlessly slaughtering your way through levels and levels of monsters, and has been blamed numerous times for being a “mass murder simulator”. In 1999, almost six years after its initial release, the game found itself in the centre of a media storm when it was linked to the Columbine High School Massacre, when Klebold and Harris were said to be huge fans of the game. The games legacy continues to endure however, and its influence can be felt in pretty much every first-person shooter in the last 15 years.

1. Manhunt/Manhunt 2

Banned for “casual sadism” by the BBFC, Manhunt 2 was effectively banned from sale in the UK and Ireland. Although the game has finally been given an 18 certificate and will go on sale this year. The worst thing about this particular controversy was the media all jumping on the bandwagon. The fact of the matter is that because the game was near impossible to get your hands on, how the heck did the media seem to know so much about it. It seemed every mainstream paper wanted a piece of the hate filled pie. You have to feel sorry for Rockstar (but not that sorry, cause they’ve made millions). They have become a target, and every release from now till eternity will be scrutinised by know-it-all, do-gooders. The BBFC was condemned by gamers for its double standards. Movies like Saw and Hostel are aloud to show explicit violence, and that looks far more realistic.

And thats yer lot. I think the problem is, and will always be the media. These people need to write stories, and the gaming industry is an exceptionally easy target. However, with all controversial moments, the publicity inadvertently created helps these games sell hundreds of thousands of copies. Game publishers are going to have to get used to it, but I’m sure looking at their money in the bank they’ll feel better.

Tags: Article, Controversial, Games

Rubbish Video Game Characters in Fight to the Death

We love games, and we love all the heroes of these games. Who can’t love Mario, Sonic, Snake, and other iconic characters. But have you ever met a terrible character in the game that you wish you could pit in a battle to the death against another such bit part player? If so, how would the fight do down? Who would win? Well wish no longer as I present: The top five rubbish video game characters in a fight to the death.

Round 1.
The dog (Duck hunt) Vs One of the Rabbids  (Rayman Raving Rabbids)

Both of these characters would start their battle by hiding, neither of them wanting to appear unless they can cause maximum annoyance to each other. After a while the rabbid would get impatient, call for back up, and send wave after wave of little white critters yabbering toward our hapless hound (who’s still hiding as ever), before the mutt realises going on, he’s pounced on by hundreds of rabbids who disco dance there way over his face, trying to smash Fido into submission. But its not over yet, our faithful mutt calls on his own backup, and a spotty 13yr old takes aim with his plastic NES laser gun, and after years of torment takes aim and blows man’s best friends stupid little head off.

Winner: Rabbids › Continue reading

Tags: Gaming, Nintendo, Sega

Bungie Post new Teaser Trailer

All it says on Bungie.net is this:

“We hope you haven’t dedicated too much time and stress to this 12-hour long countdown event.

We’re excited to finally share this with you.

This is will be available on Marketplace shortly.”

I’m excited, but i don’t know why…

Tags: Gaming, halo, trailor

Smash Bros Brawl: Overrated

We all know what hype does, it builds and builds a product or idea until our brains are ready pop before it even lands on our shop shelves. well my friends, i generally try to avoid hype - especially in the gaming world.

It happened mildly with Halo 2, then subsequently 3, as Microsoft/Bungie tried to make the Master Chief synonymous with the word ‘gaming’. On every bus in the land was plastered ‘a hero never dies’, the same went for billboards, bus shelters and magazines. The result was a buzz that made the mole on Sarah Jessica Parker’s face seem insignificant - people started to believe in the hype, and if I’m being totally honest i was sucked into it as well.

Now we all know what happened next, yes it sold millions of copies to people who would probably have never picked the title up in the first place, but as a fan of the first one, and a bit gutted at the second, i had some pretty high hopes that the developers would do right, and not release a polished looking version of Halo 2…what they did? Shit.

Thats right, although the mass media thought it was groundbreaking, the gaming community were overall disappointed. Yes, i know the games magazines gave the game nines out of ten, but with a marketing budget that large, i think its fair to say people were bought off…

Now that I’ve set a back story for my gear grinding rant, i want to mention why I’ve titled this literary outburst “Smash Bros Brawl: Overrated”. Its quite simple really. When the game came out in Japan, people went daft fro it, proper excitement ensued, and natrually the hype-y band wagon came over here and was plastered all over the gaming mags (OK not to the same extent as Halo 3, but you couldn’t miss it) .

Now, although i have a history of manly games playing with my Xbox, and Playstation variations over the years, I’ve become (after buying one for the missus) a bit partial to the odd bit of Wii action. I’ve got Mario Kart, which is a nice nostalgic number, that although has its flaws avoids any flack from me. Smash Bros. Brawl on the other hand is a pile of crap. Its a painfully boring game, with each character (of whom only about 3 are worth playing as) have only a few limited moves. The story line is OK, but having to essentially repeat the same combat situation over and over and over again totally blows.

The characters themselves are terrible - picachoo: stupid rodent, completely unfun to play, and he’s yellow. Kirby: Pink thing, reminisent of a ballsac. there are others, but to be honest i don’t want to talk about it.

The main reason for this rant of sorts, is that I’m just plain fed up with over-hyping stuff. I understand the need for advertising, but when it becomes more important than the product itself, that surely can’t be a good thing. Maybe game developers need to remember why it is we play games.

Tags: Gaming, rant, wii, xbox