If you build it…

Tue, Sep 30, 2008

Cheese, bucks, quid, greenbacks, whatever you call it, it equals MONEY. To say that there’s a lot of money to be made in the video game industry would be an understatement. However, according to a recent article there is not enough going around to share! A recent poll reported in June of 08 that

from ages 18-48 the average gamer spends over $30,500 on videogames and hardware. This amounts to about $765 per year for each individual gamer…

As one would gather, this figure goes to demonstrate the economic machine the gaming industry has become but a recent interview of some big name publishers indicates that’s not enough. The sticking point is that retailers such as GAMESTOP and GAMECRAZY, who sell used games, are cutting into their profits. The article quotes a Bungie executive as saying,

It’s hard to gauge the effect of used game sales on Halo, but I’m sure it’s big. Complaining about sales when you have a multi-million seller is somewhat difficult to justify, but it seems to me that the folks who create and publish a game shouldn’t stop receiving income from further sales,

It’s already been surmised that the game consumer is willing to part with their hard earned money as evident in the poll. What comes into contention is the quality of games and perceived value; I’ll explain my line of thinking.

Personally, I am a fan of the HALO series and I would probably pay any asking price for the ability to play. But IF I pay to play, complete my experience, and then choose to sell back my game in an attempt to recoup my money because I do not perceive the value of keeping it, who are they to criticize a business willing to broker that?

On the other hand, what if I am someone who did not purchase the game near the release date and buys a second hand copy either to save money or out of lack of initial interest? How can a game publisher expect to govern my purchase decisions? In either case if the perceived value was there I would have chosen to keep the game or I would have chosen to make the purchase happen on or near the release day.

So what does this mean to us Mr & Mrs gamer?

1. We are willing to spend the money on what we deem worthy.

2. It is up to the game industry to capture our interest and HOLD it as well.

3. We live in a free economy and it is OUR choice where and when we purchase our games as long as we do so legally.

We enable or disable the gaming industry accordingly with our purchases. If we, the consumers, allow this sort of thing to take root what is next? Pay to play or monthly subscription prices for games? To the gaming industry: If you build a worthy product we will purchase it but WE will decide where!