Quote Originally Posted by Bojay1997 View Post
Except that even when they do put out something people want to buy, people buy it used or pirate it or rent it and deprive them of any profit from that subsequent purchase. While I agree with you that we have no obligation to provide subsidies or support for the game industry, it's extremely naive to assume that simply creating a great product will solve all their problems. Similarly, used game sales are driving more and more DLC which is hurting those of us who buy new and hate having to pay more to own the "full" game. I don't know what the solution is, but I have no doubt that the days of physical media are numbered.
It's not simply creating a great product. If other things are really eating into their profits, the onus is on them to do something about it. Adapt or die. I remain skeptical of this supposed crisis, however.

Like I said, used sales have been around a long time, so how come it's only suddenly a huge problem for the industry as of a couple years ago? Piracy has always been a problem, though I'm not sure how much of a "problem" it really is. It's pretty hard to pirate PS3 games, isn't it? Yet that doesn't seem to result in proportionally better game sales compared to other platforms. By contrast, PSX games were super easy to pirate. And renting? That's gone down, if anything.

Everyone's an amateur industry analyst these days. I refuse to join the chorus of crocodile tears over those poor, defenseless game corporations losing profits to big mean Gamestop. I'm not Gamestop's biggest fan, but Gamestop didn't put THQ out of business.

If they get rid of used games, they've lost my business. Period. If you (general you, not you, personally) genuinely don't mind, that's cool. But apologism over it, and scapegoating Gamestop in the process, is ludicrous. When the game industry considers going in that direction, they will have to consider the balance between any recovered profits and the loss in profits from losing the business of people like me. If the former outweighs the latter, I will certainly not like it, but so be it.