5 Nov, 2010
2010 has seen a full-scale revolt against the highly-populated pre-owned video game market.
More and more titles are now shipping with a variety of full-price purchase incentives, such as Mass Effect 2′s Cerberus Network package – a pricey 1200 Microsoft Points to those that picked up a pre-owned copy, but included free with new copies.
More recently, the console version of The Sims 3 comes with a code that activates its online features. Picked it up second hand? That’ll be £7.99 to you then.
It would seem that the developers leading this assault are feeling a little hard done by. But as games become more expensive to make, they become more expensive to stock and, together with the current state of the economy and the impending VAT increase, retailers make less and less profit on each copy sold. The pre-owned market is their life line and unfortunately for the developers in question, they’re not the only ones trying to make money in this business. Okay, soapbox, getting off of.
However, just when I thought I was pissing against a hurricane, Dawn Pinkney, producer of the 2010 Wii-make of acclaimed N64 shooter GoldenEye 007 has thrown her two cents in to this ongoing debate in an interview with CVG. When asked whether or not she was at all worried about the apparent withering effect of the pre-owned market on potential sales of GoldenEye, she said “Not at all. I’m more focused on the quality anyway, obviously it’s good if it sells, but no.”
“That gets the game to a wider audience anyway. So somebody who may not buy a full-price title would pick it up second hand and still get to experience GoldenEye, so no.”
Music to my ears, Ms Pinkney! Reviews for GoldenEye 007 have been extremely positive, with Gamespot awarding an 8.5, while Official Nintendo Magazine went one better with a positively glistening 9/10! GoldenEye 007 was released in the US on November 2nd and is available in Europe from today.
[Source: CVG]
They kept Judy Dench’s voice and redid the rest in a montage of 007 meets Call of Duty (so I’ve heard). At least Dame Dench is still there… ?
In my defense I’m not a Bond fan and I never had an N64 so forgive my vulgar display of ignorance… oh my GOD, Judi Dench is in this?! *buys*
She is “M”… she gives Bond his missions. Love her!
Of course she is! I remember seeing The World is Not Enough a billion years ago. I’ve slept since then, in my defense.
More to the point I did indeed purchase GoldenEye and have an evening planned with it xD