Dr Michael Capps, Epic Games’ President, has said that the second-hand market for videogames is becoming a ”huge issue in the United States” for the industry.
Retailers make tons of money from second-hand game sales but none of that green gets back to the developers. Saying gamers are to blame ”doesn’t make any sense!”
”Our primary retailer makes the majority of its money off of secondary sales, and so you’re starting to see games taking proactive steps toward that by… if you buy the retail version you get the unlock code,” said Capps, speaking with GamesIndustry.biz.
”I’ve talked to some developers who are saying ‘If you want to fight the final boss you go online and pay USD 20, but if you bought the retail version you got it for free’. We don’t make any money when someone rents it, and we don’t make any money when someone buys it used - way more than twice as many people played Gears than bought it…”
Epic doesn’t blame this situation on the videogamers though, after all we’ve got the wellbeing of wallets and credit cards to think of, oh, and our loved ones etc.
”I’d hate to say my players are my enemies - that doesn’t make any sense! But we certainly have a rule at Epic that we don’t buy any used games - sure as hell you’re not going to be recognised as an Epic artist going in and buying used videogames - because this is how we make our money and how all our friends in the industry make money.”
Dr Capps is investing a lot of his hopes in the PC Games Alliance, hoping that the consortium of developers will be able to come up with creative enough solutions to help keep PC gaming vibrantly alive.
”We’re trying to fix it, there’s a new alliance of companies trying to make PC gaming work again. But if people are playing games without buying them, then the games aren’t going to keep coming,” he explained.
Click here to read the full interview between Dr Michael Capps and GamesIndustry.biz.
