PS4 Not Playing Used Games, What Is This Hobby Coming To?

[j_factor]

There is actually quite a bit of price variation in MSRP on modern console games. For example, Anarchy Reigns just came out at $30 yesterday. There are also a number of other games released in the past year on 360 and PS3 that had MSRPs of $30, $40 and $50. When you add in all of the full games being released exclusively on XBL and PSN at $5-$20, you have plenty of price choices, it's simply that the lower end MSRP games aren't being released on retail discs anymore. That doesn't change the fact that they are readily available and at those price points.

I do know about Anarchy Reigns, but it seems like there are much fewer of those than there used to be. Ten years ago, I was buying new games left and right without ever spending $50.

I've been a computer gamer since the early 80s and I have quite a large collection of computer games in their original packaging including price stickers. There were $50-$60 games as early as the 1980s (although there were also plenty of games with an MSRP of $20, $30 or $40) and many, many $50-$60 PC releases in the 90s. In fact, I'm looking at my Sierra collection and most of those have $50 price stickers on them from Software Etc.

I was just talking with my uncle about this the other day. He used to have a huge C64 collection. (Oh how I wish he'd given it to me, instead of getting rid of it, but I digress.) He got one in '83 and kept buying games for it until around '91. And he is adamant that most games were $30 or less, a few were $35, and the only rare exception that was more than that would be something packaged with a bunch of extras, like Ultima IV. I clearly remember looking through his games some years ago, some of them did still have the prices on them. I remember looking at Tangled Tales and noticing its faded $29.99 price tag, I gave that one an extra long look because I had never heard of that game.

A disk was always significantly cheaper than a cartridge. I don't know what Sierra games you're talking about, but if they're from the tail end of the floppy disk era when some games went up to 9 disks, that would account for the increased cost. At the same time, there were still cheaper games around, i.e. smaller games.

Your facts on the various Gamestop mergers are just plain inaccurate. Gamestop is actually the product of the 1994 merger of Babbage's and Software Etc. in 1994 which at the time had a combined 700 stores. They reached 800 stores in the US before they declined down to 600 by 1996. At the time of the merger in 2005, after various sales and acquisitions, including Funcoland, Gamestop and EB had about 4000 stores combined. Today they have over 6700 stores with an average of 400 new stores opening per year since 2009. So, they are clearly in an expansion mode. I now have four GS locations within six miles of my home where five years ago there was only one. Other than the closure of local Hollywood Video, we never had any other used game stores in the area previous to this. While it's anecdotal, I'm sure my area isn't isolated in the transformation GS has made in providing a ready venue to trade-in and buy used games.

I suppose I stand corrected on the number of stores. But it's not like that in my area at all. Here, there are malls that used to have an EB and a Babbage's, and now just have one Gamestop. Additionally, there are now much fewer independent game stores than there used to be. Game Crazy and Game Rush are gone as well.

Perhaps you live in an area with a lot of recent population growth / new development.

Three years ago, as sales were collapsing on both DVDs and CDs, the music industry and studios tried various pricing experiments with $10 new release CDs and DVDs. It turned out that sales were just as flat as they were at $15-$20. The same thing is going on with Blu Rays right now and the average movie sells for $20 when a few years ago it was closer to $30.

I thought Blu-Ray prices dropped because it's no longer a novel format, and it's been more widely adopted? New CDs look to me the same price they've always been, $10-15. The only change I've noticed is that now old releases are cheaper.

As other posters have mentioned, there are other platforms (Steam, iOS, Android, etc.) where a secondhand market simply does not exist. Consumers are OK with that 'cause prices are more than reasonable. If Sony's ceiling for physical games is $10 I really don't give a shit if they do this. The problem is they won't, at least for physical PS4 releases. Once games are as mainstream as movies in terms of audience price will hopefully be less of an issue.

While there's no arguing that Steam itself is doing well, PC gaming sure ain't what she used to be. I can't help but feel that Steam has contributed to its decline.

I remember going to Fry's and being in awe at the racks and racks of PC games. Now, not so much. And I can't even be bothered with PC games most of the time anymore.