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| Microsoft considering digital trade-in program | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 21 2016, 10:35 PM (639 Views) | |
| browland1 | Mar 21 2016, 10:35 PM Post #1 |
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This article caught my eye yesterday: http://www.gamesradar.com/xbox-one-digital-trade-in-used-games/ The TL;DR version of the article: Microsoft is testing the waters to see if there is interested in a digital buy-back program, in which you can sell your digital games back to Microsoft for 10% of the games price in the Xbox Store. For a $60 game, that would be $6 worth of store credit, with the price presumably being adjusted as the price of the game fluctuates. Personally, I like the idea of being able to get something back if I have a digital game that I don't plan on playing again. Outside of the Steam refund policy, there is literally no other avenue to get money back if you don't like a game. This is one of the reasons I've stuck to buying physical games, even though they are being rendered obsolete as the 8th generation focuses on downloadable games. 10% is not a great trade-in value and most people would balk at the idea of getting $6 for a game they just paid full retail for, but it's something. If the program launches, perhaps Microsoft will have a pricing scale to provide more for newer releases. What would the benefit to Microsoft be? They are giving you store credit that will encourage you to spend more in the Xbox Store. $6 won't get you much unless there is a good sale going on, but that might compel someone to buy a game they otherwise wouldn't have. It's a case of spending money to get money, and in that respect, it makes sense. The other benefit is a competitive advantage over Sony, since it's no secret that the Xbox One has been playing second fiddle this console generation. Their move to backwards compatibility and the option to get some money back for digital games puts them in a more favorable position. Sure, some won't care about this, but it could be a value-add for others. What are your thoughts on this? Would such a program interest you or perhaps make you more likely to pull the trigger on getting an Xbox One? |
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| NinjaPenguin8969 | Mar 22 2016, 06:30 PM Post #2 |
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I SUCK AT GAMES
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I already have an Xbox One but it wouldn't make me go digital. That's worse than Gamestop's trade in value by a large margin. I'm just not a digital guy unless there's an insane Steam-esque sale. I see no point in paying the same price for a digital game (on consoles) when I could get an actual item that I own, let friends borrow and vice versa, can sell for more money than this, and I'm not at the mercy of the service being active still. I doubt anything would happen to Microsoft, Valve, etc but Sony was in pretty rough shape a few years ago so it's not unfathomable. Steam sales are the only thing that make digital games worth it since they get so cheap that they basically become dispensable in your mind. Edited by NinjaPenguin8969, Mar 22 2016, 07:10 PM.
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| Unclever | Mar 22 2016, 08:00 PM Post #3 |
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Level 5
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So I will give Microsoft some points for trying, but that is not going to be enough of an incentive for me to sell a game. I get that they are never going to be able to buy back games at the same prices of physical one because there is no direct profit they can make from the purchase, but less I down right didn't like that game I would rather keep the game on the chance that I might want to revisit it some day than get $6 for it. The only exemption I can think of is if I didn't like that game but I am trying to think of the last game a bought at full price and didn't like. I have went digital with movies, if they really want to encourage me to go digital with games they need to do 2 things. 1) Give me faith that I will have access to these games 20 plus year from now. On PC I am 100% Steam, weather it is a new $60 game or just some $1.50 thing on sale. I big part of that is me knowing that I will have access to that game for the foreseeable future. 2) They need to give me some kind of reliable option for having a large library. Either get streaming to work well (and yes I realize none of the video game manufactures are in charge of the US internet infrastructure) or start putting in a much MUCH bigger hard drive in their systems. |
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| ShadowBlaze | Mar 22 2016, 08:20 PM Post #4 |
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Hail the Sun!
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Well, theres always the external option if you really like digital stuff. And just don't delete your titles so you always have access to them. Yeah, streaming isn't going to change until fiber optics becomes a commodity in every area of the US for cheap. I think streaming is dumb and is a waste of my consoles hardware. PS Now can suck it for all i care. Physical > digital anyday when I have an option. Download only games? Thats a different story. |
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| Unclever | Mar 22 2016, 08:46 PM Post #5 |
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Level 5
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I think the external hard drives are a great option that should be available. However my current Living Room TV setup is PS3, PS4, WiiU, Vita TV and streaming box. So that is 5 things plus a TV that I need to plug into 1 outlet (we can argue semantics if I really need the Vita TV or steaming box). So adding another 1 or 2 external hard drives to plug in isn’t really a great option. Also like I said, this is my Living Room, I think through in external hard drives into the setup looks ugly. I get not everyone has this problem but external hard drives are not the best option for me personally. |
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| ShadowBlaze | Mar 22 2016, 09:12 PM Post #6 |
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Hail the Sun!
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Well luckily for you, you can manually add in whatever size hard drive you want to your PS3 and PS4. I have a 750 gig drive in my PS3 currently. WiiU, I opted for a 64 gig USB drive since they were on sale for like $10-15 on amazon at one point. They even make drives with much more Gigs like 128 etc. Definitely wouldn't cramp your style too bad. |
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Games I have for trade! Youtube Gameplay Channel
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| NinjaPenguin8969 | Mar 22 2016, 09:38 PM Post #7 |
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I SUCK AT GAMES
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Are you able to use the storage on your PS3 fully? I bought a two terabyte HDD for my PS4, but I can't use the last 100GB's or else games won't download any updates or install :[ |
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| eSkilliam | Mar 23 2016, 09:15 PM Post #8 |
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Gamer. Graphic Designer. Geek.
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I've wanted to fully embrace digital and at least for the PC I have although I don't buy games over like $20 there anyway. My problem with digital vs. physical has always been if I buy the game and I don't get along with it, with physical, I can recoup some money and buy another game. In that case Big gaming has theoretically sold two games. Good for me, Good for Big gaming. With digital I'm stuck with my purchase, I don't recoup any money, I don't buy another game. Only one game purchased. Bad for me, Bad for Big Gaming. There's also the fact that Unclever brought up. Can I still download my game 20 years from now? I'm going to go with no on that one, because as you can see from Wii, DSi, and Original Xbox, once those networks are no longer viable the companies drop them like a bad habit. Those games are forever gone. PC has the unique ability of ultimate backwards compatibility, and modding new networks to play old games, which is why I don't mind Steam so much. 10%? not enough for me to buy in to full scale games on digital, even if I had 100tb of space on my console. I understand that if they reimbursed more money than that then they would lose money. It's not like there are a finite amount of downloadable copies and they can't exactly re-sell those copies. I think a better option would be a points system, and the more digital games you buy from Microsoft, the bigger discount you get on future titles. That would entice people to buy more that way. You buy 12+ $60 titles in a rolling year and any titles past that can be purchased for 75% of retail cost. And I still think it's shite that these companies can drop out all manufacturing costs, which they used to claim was what raised the price of the games so high, but still sell them at full retail price when going digital. I can guarantee you that the storage, and bandwidth required to sell a single copy of a game digitally does not even come close to the manufacturing costs of the case, insert, disc, and manual. Do manuals even exist anymore? You used to get a high quality sometimes thick full color manual with every game. It was part of the cost, ya know? So of course companies want to push digital. The selling platform barely costs them anything and they still get all the money they would for a fully manufactured game, while at the same time killing the used market they hate so much... It's a smart business move, but it exploits gamers. /rant sorry, topic got to me lol Edited by eSkilliam, Mar 23 2016, 09:16 PM.
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| Unclever | Mar 24 2016, 11:08 AM Post #9 |
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Level 5
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So I am actually going to defend this point. I know that you are hardly the only one making this argument but video games are hardly that first form of entertainment media that has gone to digital distribution. Music, movies, and books have all already done it. In all the other cases the digital form of a newly released product is the same as the physical. So I don't know why gamers seem to have an expectation that video games would end up working differently. Also, maybe I am interpreting your statement wrong, but I don't remember video game companies making the statement the manufacturing costs are the reason for game prices. Certainly there have been statements that development costs for video games have gone up. But that wouldn't be any different from digital to physical distribution. And to asker your question, no you do not get manuals in games anymore. |
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| ShadowBlaze | Mar 24 2016, 12:36 PM Post #10 |
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Hail the Sun!
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Its not about who did it first, its that digital vs physical is never going to be of equal value. Having something in your hands is worth much more than just being able to use it. Being able to sell your items is something everyone should cherish, not just gamers. Movies don't come with manuals, and neither do books, so I dont see what you are getting at with your different expectations point. We have always been given game manuals physical. All of those things, books, music CDs, movies, and video games have digital distribution options but ALSO have physical versions released. (minus media that is digital only, but thats not the discussion here.) Books are the only thing that haven't skimped on production in the slightest in terms of quality of their physical media. Theres mass market paperbacks, but theres also greatest hits for games. Physical movies COME with digital copies of the movie themselves 9/10 these days if you get blu-ray instead of the movie chapter guides that used to come in some DVDs. Vinyls, which are pure collector or audiophile territory, even have download cards so you don't have to damage your media. Not the case with video games. Minus the PS3/Vita digital copies we got at the beginning of the Vita lifespan, we have yet to see this anymore. We have gotten shafted the most in this respect with certain companies releases. Some awesome companies like XSEED and ATLUS have continued to give us game manuals as well as art on the reverse side of the artwork insert as opposed to the health warnings seen in these spots with the manuals being digital on most games these days. I will argue that the statement "In all the other cases the digital form of a newly released product is the same as the physical." is wrong. Sure, its the exact same game, and it isn't going to change if you have it physical or digital. But $6 for a digital trade in on a new Xbone game vs at least $30-40 at even GameStop is a huge difference to many. You can sell your brand new $60 game on ebay for usually $50 in most cases if you beat it or hate it in the first week. But with the trend of companies omitting the nice collector friendly nature of their products, I have stopped buying most games at full price and will not support companies at that price range unless if their games are top notch. Nintendo are the only ones I will buy from at a full MSRP price because I know most Nintendo games keep their value, and are very very well made. And for the last thing I bolded, it is clear that game development costs have gone up. That's why we mainly only see the same types of games released yearly, they have proven to be successful to developers so they are much more likely to greenlight those projects. (aka CoD, Ass's Creed, EA Sports games, now the Souls series if you count bloodbourne last year+the rerelease of DS2, Halo, Gears is getting there) I'm sure that the omission of all the collector friendly stuff is an attempt to recoup development costs in their physical media by spending less money. Its business at the end of the day, afterall. Edited by ShadowBlaze, Mar 24 2016, 01:07 PM.
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Games I have for trade! Youtube Gameplay Channel
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| Unclever | Mar 24 2016, 05:47 PM Post #11 |
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Level 5
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I guess I will get this out of the way first. You keep on bring up the fact the physical game release are getting less stuff with them. You bring this up a few times within you arguments. I am unsure how this relates to what we are discussing. So I guess I agree with you that it is happening.
This seems to be the main part here. Based your comment, you don't understand my argument and I don't understand yours either because it very much matter what has already been done in the past. Any product that was basically data that is sold on a physical media (whether that be movies, music, book, Computer Software), when digital distribution start becoming a thing for any of them this the pricing model did not change between physical and digital. If a new music album comes out today, the digital version and the physical version are prices that same. That is true for all the other forms of media that I can think of. I go back to my original argument; if every other form a media that has made the jump form only having a physical version of their production to have a physical and digital version of their product didn't change the pricing between the physical and digital, why is there be an expectation that video game would work differently. Whether you believe those 2 thing to be equal in value is not my argument, you are free to have an opinion than that those are not equal value items. Certainly I would think most people in this forum would, however that does not change the fact that having the same pricing model for physical and digital is an already provide successful strategy. In short I am saying that a precedent for a pricing model when moving to digital has already been set.
This is valid point, except that this point can be made for everything else that has gone to digital (Movies, books, etc). Again if this same thing can be said for everything other media that has when to digital and they all adopted a pricing model of physical and digital being the same, why would video games have a different expectation. Edited by Unclever, Mar 24 2016, 05:47 PM.
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| NinjaPenguin8969 | Mar 24 2016, 06:50 PM Post #12 |
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I SUCK AT GAMES
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^ You're right that other media outlets priced digital the same as physical when starting the transition. I think I'm more open to the idea of digital music and movies because they aren't $60 dollars. I'm okay with digital only indie games since they're only $20 at most. If you buy a bad $60 digital game that stings a bit more :/ |
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| eSkilliam | Mar 24 2016, 07:10 PM Post #13 |
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I feel the same way about other digital media as well. I rely on redbox and Netflix for my movies or wait for a price drop. Same thing for music, which I rarely buy because of services like Pandora. In many interviews in the 90's and 2000's, leaders in the industry stated that cartridge production and later, case creation and disc printing were one of the things that spiked the price of games(by no means the whole cost). Once any semblance of digital distribution was on the frontier they all shut up about it. It was a common statement, but it was there, and there's no way I'd be able to recall where or in what magazines any of those were. You may recall that new games used to be right at $10 cheaper on PC. This was the case because that was the 'fee' basically that the console manufacturers took for their proprietary code and compatibility with the systems, primarily Xbox and Playstation. (or at least that's what I had been told over the years.) It makes perfect sense, you release a new game on Xbox and Microsoft gets a cut. PC games in the last couple years have jumped that $10 gap and now sell for the same price, and the game companies take that extra money now, and you also pay that extra for a digital download on PC. I'm not attempting to complain about it, that is just the way business works. But no company except for valve(in my eyes) has really tried to ease the cost of this hobby for the consumer. And that is one of the many reasons they get my money for digital whereas companies like Microsoft might not. Which kind of brings us back to the topic of Microsoft considering digital trade-ins. |
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| eSkilliam | Mar 24 2016, 07:12 PM Post #14 |
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This as well. I don't mind blowing $20 on a possible poor experience. I DO mind blowing $60 or more. And typically when I buy music in album format they are usually at the set price point of $9.99 online whereas a physical copy is $12 or more, and the same goes for digital books. The kindle version is usually a good percentage cheaper. Edited by eSkilliam, Mar 24 2016, 07:13 PM.
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eSkilliam on Steam - eSkilliam on Wii U - CetiAlphaVI on PS4 eSkilliamgaming on Youtube - eSkilliam on Twitch - eSkilliam on Twitter | |
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| ShadowBlaze | Mar 24 2016, 10:54 PM Post #15 |
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Hail the Sun!
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Sorry for the confusion Unclever, reading back I did miss the point of your comment and kinda took some things outta context. But what I was meaning to explain with all that is that the video game industry have been treated the most different than all other entertainment mediums. It's changed the most and is the most expensive by far so I simply find the changes unacceptable. And just like others have mentioned, the digital takes longer to go down in price too, so they really arent ever going to be the same thing. On a side note, I believe that this is a cool option to have if you do buy things digitally and that it's a step in the right direction for Microsoft in general. If we can get closer to the refund option like steam has, that'd be fantastic. Edited by ShadowBlaze, Apr 5 2016, 03:51 PM.
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