The Recent Decline of Value
A vicious cycle is rapidly gaining pace in the gaming world. Publishers continue to raise prices while cutting back on content. Where we had $40-50 games with multiplayer included and 10-14 hours of single player, we now have $60 games with 4-6 hours of single player, and a pass code for online.
While raising their prices they’re shooting their sales in the foot as many gamers can afford to buy fewer and fewer games per year. So gamers turn to second hand copies of games, because that’s all they can afford.
Unhappy that their profits are dwindling due to their high prices and poor quality, short games, the industry in turn decides that they will start pulling content out of the games to make a bigger profit.
In Defense of Used Game Sales
First, it was DLC, downloadable content packs that expanded the game. However, many seem to have started to pull out content from a complete game, still charge $60 for that game, and then charge gamers $10 or more to get the rest of the actual game. Yet another reason gamers look to second hand to get the games they want.
Now, the advent of the online pass is gaining far more momentum than is good for gamers and the industry on a whole. To fight back against second hand sales, the publishers have decided that they will now also pull out multiplayer gaming and create a pass code for it.
If you can afford the new game, you’ll get the multiplayer (but still not that extra content they’re calling ’expansions’ and charging extra for, which is always ready right at release meaning it was certainly ready to be a part of the shipped game, i.e. removed to make more money it seems). If you can’t afford the new game, you’ll still end up paying extra thanks to the online passes and the DLC.
Now DLC does also serve another purpose of extending the lifetime of a game and giving gamers a reason to hold onto the game. Not all DLC is pulled right from the main game. Games like L.A. Noire, Fallout 3 and Borderlands are good examples of how they extend the life and value of the game over time. I’m not against DLC in general, just when it seems like it was part of the original finished product, then pulled out, like what it looked like for Mafia II, and made into DLC.
