When does buying new no longer benefit the maker?

[Supercake]

First off, sorry if this topic has been discussed before, but it's something I'm curious about.

When Killer 7 came out, I was "lucky" enough to get a used, mint condition copy at Gamestop, so that's 44.99, plus discount card. It's been bugging me, because since I bought it used, I in no way gave money to Capcom/Grasshopper. I was one of those who thought K7 was just awesome, absolutely crazy, and loved it! But, Capcom will never know.

Another example, I bought Disaster Report 10$ new. Just when does Agetec stop seeing the profits? Where is the line drawn? In order for a company to see profits from me personally, when must I buy their game?

With certain games, I try my best to support the company. I'm a Konami freak, and will gladly pay full price for their games. Now, this has bitten me in the ass (Cy Girls), but also has been very worth it (Silent Hill, Contra SS, Castlevania GBAs). I'd like to do my best, and support companies that I feel deserve it. I'd be at peace of mind if I knew that waiting on a price drop on Castlevania Curse of Darkness, would still give Konami a piece of the profit.

Buying New release day is not cheap thinking, but if that means the company will see my support, I'd rather that.

 

[vherub]

In most cases, you are not buying the game right from the publisher, it is the store/middleman that is buying the game and reselling it to you. The new $50 game or the new discounted $10 game have been bought by the store and the publisher already has that money. They do not get "your"money, at least not directly. Now with pricedrops there is no rule of thumb, and the publisher could be crediting the store, or the store could be dropping the price themselves.
As far as supporting companies, there are other ways, for example:

http://www.capcom.com/BBS/

 

[kakomu]

[quote name='vherub']In most cases, you are not buying the game right from the publisher, it is the store/middleman that is buying the game and reselling it to you. The new $50 game or the new discounted $10 game have been bought by the store and the publisher already has that money. They do not get "your"money, at least not directly. Now with pricedrops there is no rule of thumb, and the publisher could be crediting the store, or the store could be dropping the price themselves.
As far as supporting companies, there are other ways, for example:

http://www.capcom.com/BBS/[/QUOTE]

Well, while the store may buy a bunch of copies, you show support by buying the game new. If the company sees that a lot of people are buying new games (with the increase in orders from the stores), then they will up the production of the game.

 

[eshbums]

In your Capcom example, they'd never see that as an additional sale, so it's not helping the distributor.

As for the Agetec example, it all depends on where you picked it up in the life cycle of that particular game. If you bought it and it was still 'active' in their assortment (still selling new copies to the stores) they might have been able to sell one more copy to the store to replentish...but if they've already discontinued it at that point, it's just the store trying to move through their stock, and the distributor would never know it sold.

Buying used games or games that are drastically reduced might not help the distributor on that sale, but in the long run it might help. If you bought "Generic Figher I" used for $9.99, they might not ever see a dime of that sale, but if you loved it enough to buy "Generic Figher II" the second it comes out, they make out.

 

[Puffa469]

I try to support games from developers I like by buying new. But In many cases I just dont want to spend $50 on a game. Especially when I know it will be $20 in a few months. If money wasnt an object, I'd gladly go out and pay full price for every game that I wanted, but Im on a site called 'Cheapassgamer' for a reason.

In the same way, I refuse to by games from certain companies new, *cough*EA*cough*. Because no matter what you pay for a game, if you buy it new you contribute to the number sold, which in many cases is more important to a company that the money made. Numbers sold determine which games get sequels, which genres a developer will continue to make games in, etc. So I gladly buy katamari Damacy new, but if I want a movie license game, or a tuner culture racing game, I'll buy that used, cos theres enough of those types of games already, I dont need to be encouraging more... But SNK releases... I'll buy all those new, as well as classic game collections, because I do want to see more of those released, etc.

 

[Zing]

The thing I have noticed for past few years is the incredibly short amount of time a game has before the price is significantly reduced. Pretty much any game, no matter how popular (except for the Sims, which could probably have retailed for $100 during most of its life) goes down so quickly in price, that someone paying MSRP in the first month is just wasting their money. I don't remember price drops coming so quick in the 90s. I remember SNES games pretty much sticking at $50 ($40 for first party titles) for the whole time they were on the shelf.

I have only bought maybe 5 games on release day in the past 4 years. The last one burned me and I swore to never pre-order or buy a game at MSRP ever again: Doom3. I had planned on waiting to pick it up a few months after release, but it was being bundled with KOTOR, which I had never played but was on my buy list. I coughed up almost $80 CDN on release day. I think it was a month and a few days later (just past the time I could get the price difference) that it was permanently marked down to $29. Doom3 hasn't been installed since that first month and KOTOR is still sealed in the box.

 

[kakomu]

[quote name='Puffa469']In the same way, I refuse to by games from certain companies new, *cough*EA*cough*. Because no matter what you pay for a game, if you buy it new you contribute to the number sold, which in many cases is more important to a company that the money made. Numbers sold determine which games get sequels, which genres a developer will continue to make games in, etc. So I gladly buy katamari Damacy new, but if I want a movie license game, or a tuner culture racing game, I'll buy that used, cos theres enough of those types of games already, I dont need to be encouraging more... But SNK releases... I'll buy all those new, as well as classic game collections, because I do want to see more of those released, etc.[/QUOTE]

Well, if you want to try and affect what games EA puts out, it's better to buy their good games (Burnout 3) new. Otherwise, you risk the less cultured masses buying up games like "Thugman in Gangsta Gangsta" in droves while their better games sit there collecting dust.

 

[eldad9]

You worry too much.

Part of the product's value is its resale value; if it was illegal to sell used games (or cars, for that matter) people wouldn't pay as much for them.

Buy what you want, when you want, and let Adam Smith take care of the rest.

If you really want to make a difference, buy directly from the publisher. That's about it.