There's a few things I take issue with in that Cinemablend article and while I'm not in sales and marketing I have seen how our higher-ups have clamored for change and how the industry has been changed because of the used games hit. The development process had to be changed about 6 years ago because publishers needed (or jumped on) a new business model to recoup development costs which skyrocketed in the PS3/360 generation.
The first thing I want to mention is that the numbers don't reflect all used games sales. They're leaving off the sales that happen via personal sale, eBay, or Craigslist. The second thing is of course DLC is up because it's become almost mandatory for games to push out DLC. The whole debacle with Capcom and the on-disc DLC was really telling, even though there was significant backlash about the on-disc DLC (which I personally feel is a total rip-off to the consumer) they still made a great profit with the DLC of SFxTekken and RE:6.
Designers will sit back and tell you things like "We have tried to mitigate it by creating games that offer re-playability, by supporting them with DLC that's worth hanging onto the game for, or offering tools that let them take things further." However, it's the investors and publishers who are dictating the amount of DLC to be added NOT the designers. Obviously, we want to keep you playing and we want to give you the best experience possible but for a designer to sit back and say that DLC is a service to the player is plain BS.
DLC is there to make money and is a direct response to the rising costs of development and needing more profitability. You should all know by now that most of the DLC was already planned from conception and has been held back so it can be released later for profit. Now I'm not saying that all DLC is 100% done by launch (make no mistake, some is) but they certainly have already had massive work put in during the normal production cycle and very well could have made it into the shipped game. Sometimes things are held back because they're not done, if first week sales are strong enough the investors will be willing push out DLC for more profit and give a little more time and money so that the DLC can ship. How many times have you played some DLC that feels like it was just a left of level/scenario or that it was something that got resurrected from the cutting room floor? How many times have you sat there and said why wasn't this just included in the normal game? I'd love to sit back and say that DLC should be delivered in a better manner with higher quality content or expansions but as long as you guys keep buying it it's never going to stop.
In the same vein, the more that you guys clamor for used games the more that the publishers and investors know that you will continue to pay for them. So why not cut out the middle man? Why shouldn't the publisher's and the console makers themselves reap the all the rewards. I've NEVER been against used games for the consumer, I've been against retailers like Gamestop, reselling and getting rich off of the hard work of other people and still screwing you over with crappy trade-in value and prices. Gamestop earned roughly 48% of its gross profits from used games, that's half their freaking business. It disgusts me. As a retailer they should be making about 30% on new game sales. When there's a used game sale first of all you get shafted on trade in value and second they're keeping 100% of the profits. The break down looks like this for new games (based off a $50 price tag)
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I want a solution where the developers console makers and publishers all get a cut without a middleman. I want the consumers to get a FAIR price for their games and to be able to access them from anywhere. I DO NOT want people to STEAL games like they STEAL music. If that means there has to be authentication checks through the internet then so be it.
The last thing about that article that bugs me is the statement "Used games only account for $1.59 billion in revenue, which means that a year's-worth of the used game market barely makes up for a fraction of what Activision Blizzard or Electronic Arts make in a single quarter." Right there you're looking at the two giants in the industry. The rest of the publishers aren't raking in near the amount of money as those two behemoths. Losing 1.59 billion is nothing to scoff at.
I'd go on about mobile gaming but honestly I don't want to even get into it in this post. The majority of publishers and developers are fine with what the mobile market brings to the table. Mobile games do not replace console or PC games and mobile game revenue can be used to supplement bigger budget console games.
Oh and someone asked a few pages back why I won't disclose who I work for. Well if you look at just the content of this post there's more than enough of controversial statements that could reflect back on me personally or on the studio I work for. Not to mention my other personal opinions here on NT. It's nice to be able to remain semi-anonymous on here and be able to discuss and post the information that I do in here and other threads without feeling like there could be recourse in my current or future job. If I want to get into a lengthy professional discussion devoid of opinion I'll use my NeoGAF account for that. I don't want to end up like this guy:
http://kotaku.com/5966058/ex+developers-rant-reveals-why-madden-is-a-dream-job-and-disillusioning