VP of Epic Games mad about pre-owned game policies
Mark Reins, Vice President of Epic Games (makers of the incredibly addicting Unreal Tournament series), believes that much of the worry over the higher costs of games stem from relations between the developers, retailers, and console makers. Reins does not believe the cost of the games should go up, but ultimately "games need to be the same price as DVDs"
He thinks developers would be more inclined to do that if "[developers] were able to share with [manufacturers] the money they make from rentals and retail, that could help lower the price." On the subject of pre-owned games, Reins is also wishing that outlets such as EBGames and GameStop would share the enormous profits that they make off of secondhand titles and establish an "official refurbished games policy" with some developers.
The latter is a good point – take a game like Metroid Prime 2: Echos, for example. If you walk into GameStop and sell the game to them, you will receive somewhere around $6 or $7. Then they go around and put it on sale for $30. The markup is huge, and it is pure profit for them – so the question begs, should the developers receive some of the revenue, or should retailers start giving us more of our deserved money back when we sell them games? A lot of issues Rein mentions stem from tech support for people who have bought refurbished games, but I am inclined to believe that the game should be supported regardless of the current owner.
[via Evil Avatar]
