[quote name='stratmancj']i think the project 10 dollar philosophy sucks. great, ea is getting more revenue for new games sold, but now we, the customers have to buy a game with a diminished trade in value. whatever the trade in value would have been, it is gong to be worth 10 dollars less. gamestop isn't going to take a loss, they are just going to pay less for all the games with this dumb feature.[/QUOTE]
Not if they don't lower the price of the used copy anyway. Remember, a while back their stance was that their customers don't care about "extra content" because they are budget minded. I suppose that's why EA is stepping up and making these "bonuses" more and more significant parts of the game.
I really can't agree with anyone on this point: I hate how Gamestop operates... not because they make it hard for publishers(i dont think the game industry deserves freedom from the second hand sales that EVERY other industry deals with).. only because they are so anti-consumer... buying so low and selling so high (though they've been doing better lately - I've found some surprising used prices-like No More Heroes 2 for 20 bucks- and they've had some nice promos going consecutively for a while now.. hopefully they keep this up)
On the publisher side, I hate that they are beginning to treat used game sales as they do piracy. Think about it... you see the same approach to two different scenarios: punish the customers. Why should I, as a paying customer, have to spend ANY TIME at all entering codes to access what I purchased on that disc? Heck, being that all this stuff revolves around EA accounts, some consumers are going to have to go beyond that, calling customer support to figure out how to link their gamertags, etc. I remember a lot of issues with this stuff when Mass Effect 2 came out, and the people I heard it from were well beyond the level that the average idiot consumer is.
Even as a used buyer, why should I feel bad? Why does the videogame industry feel they are above a form of bartering that exists for every non-consumable physical good ever produced? Furniture, cars, music, books. Nothing is exempt from used sales. Media at least has one Ace card- they can, and should, remove their products from being tied to physical items. The music industry learned this the hard way, and the movie industry is finally following their lead(kicking and screaming). Books are making a big leap, but games really are not(except on PC)
..And what all these internet-dependent codes mean in the long run is that at some point, there will be no way to ever get that content back again. If I play Super Mario Bros. 1 today - on my Wii, NES, whatever... it retains the entire game. All the content that I paid for 25 years ago is there. What are the chances that I'll be able to pop in Mass Effect 2 in 2035 and be able to play through Zaeed's loyalty mission? I'm going to go out on a limb and say pretty much none.
my .02