Over the last year we’ve seen developers scrambling to find “value add” features to new game purchases. Their goal is to convince the customer to buy new instead of used because developers don’t see a penny from a used game sale. While GameStop sees 48% profit margins from the used game market developers struggle to stay floating in the industry.
This is not the fault of GameStop and their 48% profit margins because they’re only getting 7% to 20% profit margins (say analysts) on new game sales. As someone that’s run a game store online, if you’re getting 15%+ on a new game you’ve got some great hookups in the distribution channel or are buying in huge quantities.
Buying games in huge quantities to build profit margins can be a huge mistake in this industry. Gamers are fickle little creatures and they’re going to buy their top tier games for a few weeks and then sales will drop significantly. No retail chain wants to purchase a thousand copies of GTA IV (only as an example) and sell seven hundred over the first few week to be stuck holding onto a few hundred copies when the dust settles. Now you’ll have to put them on sale to get them out of the store because the hardcore gamer have already done their shopping and you’re not going to get any price protection if you’re not a major player in the industry.
Why take 7% profit margins when you can get 48% on a used game? The gamers don’t seem to mind because they’ll trade in a used copy of a sports title like Madden to save $5.00 on the latest franchise release. Gamers will buy Fable 2, beat it in a week and rush to the store to get the “most for their dollar” before the game gets stale and buy-back prices drop like a stone. Why not rent Fable 2 and save yourself $50.00? Of course, renting pisses off developers as well because they see no additional revenue.
While the economy struggles and consumers fight for their jobs, the entertainment side of life continues to grow. People would rather “cocoon” in their homes playing video games and watching movies on their brand new HD television because it takes them away from the low points of the economy if only for a few hours. History has shown us trends in entertainment during the down points of economies, it’s natural to want to get away for a bit.
But, consumers want to play these games on the cheap because their job may not be there tomorrow. Saving $5.00 knowing the store just took the title in for half the price doesn’t bother you; $5.00 in your pocket is better than in their pocket right? The fact that they just pocketed upward of 40% on the game doesn’t matter to you — it’s all about your bottom line!
While we’re bargain hunting during the recession developers are going to try and up sell you to a new copy of the game. If that means giving you special game items and features with a “one time code” upon purchase, it will be up to you to decide if it’s valuable. All the while GameStop will lock out the game industry from selling used games because 42% of their overall gross profit is from used game sales.
You, the consumer, benefits from a slightly cheaper game, bargain bin fire sales and additional game features if you do choose to buy new. The economic down turn is a great time to be a gamer, as long as you remain employed.
Hi guys.
As always: thanks for the episode, it was fun to listen to it 🙂
Regarding your topics in this episode:
I am very hyped for the new Atari console, but i can´t describe why. Maybe because the Atari 2600 was my first console as a kid, and i am a little bit nostalgic? The new one looks good, but as Jonah mentioned: the console will rise or fall with the games and they did not show anything right now (or i did not see anything).
I never played Ys as a kid, because as far as i know, the are not available in german, and as a kid, i was not able to understand english 🙂 The bumping mechanic seems a little bit awkward, but on the other hand it´s something different to everything else 🙂 I saw some videos about the newer versions of Ys (PS4 releases). Did one of you play them/one of them and can tell me, if one of them is worth playing?
I play Fortnite on PC sometimes with my friends. I did not bought the game, so i only can play the battle royal part and this is fun to me, if i play it with friends. I also played it on my mobile … for 2 minutes … its unplayable in my opinion … as expected 🙂 But if you want to play a round on PC with Discord or TeamSpeak to coordinate, let me know. My ingame Name is the same as here : Jackosis.
I have one question to all 3 of you: are you thinking about streaming some gaming of you or do YouTube Videos? Some kind of Let´s Plays or sth like that? I think it´s more work, so i don´t know if you would have the time for that 🙂
And for the OffTopic: right now i am into the a very old series: SpinCity with Michael J Fox (in germany its called Chaos City … don´t ask me why) and i started watching The Walking Dead.
I wish you a great week and a happy easter weekend and hope to get a new episode very soon 🙂
greetings from germany,
Ralf