In a interview with Eurogamer, Lionhead said that pre-owned sales on Xbox 360 are worse than piracy on PC. Despite already covering developmental costs for Fable III with new sales of the Xbox 360 version, they said that piracy on the PC version of the title (and presumably any PC game) will always be a problem. Lead Fable III combat designer Mike West had this to say: “Piracy these days on PC is probably less problematic than second-hand sales on the Xbox. I’ve been working on PC games for many years and piracy is always a problem. There are a lot of honest people out there as well, and if they like your game they’ll buy it.”
Lionhead does not seem too bothered by piracy, mostly because they feel there is nothing you can do about it. Consoles like Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 have measures in place to counteract piracy, but in the world of PC gaming the problem runs rampant. “The pirates, whatever you do on whatever system, they will crack it. It might take no time… I think the longest it’s taken to happen is two days. Someone will crack it somewhere and there’s not much you can do about it.” Mike West commented. He stated that piracy is a big problem and that it is really sad that people will not spend the money to buy the game. With piracy running rampant on PC titles, developers are laying people off and the games themselves are sitting dusty on shelves.
The biggest problem developers are facing though is pre-owned sales. The reason why is simple: game developers and publishers do not make any money off of these pre-owned sales. The shop that sells them reaps all of the benefits. This is why several game publishers, such as EA, have implemented an “online pass” system. This online pass is a one use code that is packaged in with new games, and enables online play and downloads. If you were to buy the same game pre-owned you would have to buy the online pass separate, which could cost you around $10. This method seems fool-proof, if players even want to play online.
Pre-owned sales hurt game developers so much because they have become a more popular concept as time has gone by. It is partially the fault of how popular games have become. With the popularity of this form of entertainment came an overabundance in the supply of games. Hand in hand with this surge in supply is the fact that people are not collecting games like they once did. Sure, there are a good number of people that still collect their games but more and more people are just trading them in to save money. For some reason, games have lost their collectible value. Unfortunately until pre-owned sales have waned, developers will continue to experience a slump in new sales.
[Source: Eurogamer]
[Images courtesy of Lionhead]
