Gamestop president:"Digital games are too cheap"

[zacRupnow]

I have no idea who told you that but he/she is wrong. It is not sharing because you are making a copy of it. It's "sharing" in the same sense as you copying and printing new copies of let's say 50 shades of Gray is "sharing". The creator(s) of a work (digital or not) has exclusive rights to distribution of said work. In order words, you are not allowed to make a copy of the work without the permission of the original creator.

If I am wrong then feel free to point me to the loophole in the law, because as far I know it does not exist.

Its not a loophole, its simply not written in a way that bans anyone from making copies

[LAwLz]

Its not a loophole, its simply not written in a way that bans anyone from making copies

Yes it does! That's exactly what copyright is. Copyright means that you are the only person who has the right to copy your creation.

 

 

From the EU Copyright website:

What does copyright protect?

Copyright, a form of intellectual property law, protects original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, Web sites, and architecture.

Copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems, or methods of operation, although it may protect the way these things are expressed.

What rights does copyright provide?

[...]

The creator holds the exclusive right to use or authorize others to use the work on agreed terms.

The creator of a work can prohibit or authorize:

• its reproduction in various forms, such as printed publication or sound recording;
• its public performance, as in a play or musical work;
• its broadcasting, by radio, cable or satellite;
• recordings of it, for example, in the form of compact discs, cassettes or videotapes;
• its translation into other languages, or its adaptation, such as a novel into a screenplay;

[...]

 

You are not allowed to make copies without the permission of the copyright holder. It's written right there in plain English. To reproduction is allowed.

[MattLantis]

It's have GameStop and the console plebs have fun with marked up prices. I'll keep steam and their deals

[zacRupnow]

Yes it does! That's exactly what copyright is. Copyright means that you are the only person who has the right to copy your creation.

 

 

From the EU Copyright website:

 

You are not allowed to make copies without the permission of the copyright holder. It's written right there in plain English. To reproduction is allowed.

and the holding companies allow copies of purchased content for personal use

[FreeDiver]

Yes it does! That's exactly what copyright is. Copyright means that you are the only person who has the right to copy your creation.

 

 

From the EU Copyright website:

 

You are not allowed to make copies without the permission of the copyright holder. It's written right there in plain English. To reproduction is allowed.

I'd imagine the US laws are different from the EU. I am not familiar with the copyright laws of either locations, so both of you may be right.

[LAwLz]

and the holding companies allow copies of purchased content for personal use

Copying it to someone on the Internet is not personal use. Even making copies for personal use is not as clear cut as some think. The copyright law states that:

§ 117. Limitations on exclusive rights: Computer programs

(a) Making of Additional Copy or Adaptation by Owner of Copy. — Not withstanding the provisions of section 106, it is not an infringement for the owner of a copy of a computer program to make or authorize the making of another copy or adaptation of that computer program provided:

 (1) that such a new copy or adaptation is created as an essential step in the utilization of the computer program in conjunction with a machine and that it is used in no other manner, or

 (2) that such new copy or adaptation is for archival purposes only and that all archival copies are destroyed in the event that continued possession of the computer program should cease to be rightful.

 

 

I'd imagine the US laws are different from the EU. I am not familiar with the copyright laws of either locations, so both of you may be right.

Well that part is the same in the US and EU. Hell it's even in the name. "Copyright". It's that the creator has the rights to the work. You are not allowed to copy it and send that copy to someone else without their permission.

[Toggle]

Well, okay then Gamestop. It looks to me like you simply didn't see the digital market rising and are trying to cover for the losses that come with it.

[deviant88]

What about countries outside US that dont have Gamestop you know its not all about north america,if games become higher priced in NA that will lead to more expensive games everywhere which is terrible.

[MattGameDev]

If they (Gamestop/EBGames) were smart, they would stop forcing physical copies at everyone for $70 a game and lower it to $35. If a game was at $35, i'd be much more inclined to buy more then one game per trip to my local store. Instead, i'd rather build a PC that can run games at max FPS (and even most stock "gaming" pc's at a local store can grant you decent FPS fi you can't build one) and spend $5-10 per game during a steam summer sale, at which point (if you did the math), 20 games for the price of $100-200 vs a maximum of 4 games at roughly $210.

Finally, the digital age has begun to take over, to which, retailers are starting to wake up and realize that if you don't move on with technology and focus on the consumers buying YOUR products, you lose and your company disappears. With that said, we still need competition; if Gamestop when out of business, steam would start to have less sales and charge normal prices for games. I do NOT want that to happen.

[ComradeHX]

What he meant is that his disgusting used-game sales are dropping since you can't resell digital copies like disks.

Good riddance, used-games are not much better than pirated games to developers.

[AHaskin14]

I like how he mentions games being bundled into other deals like consoles. I'm pretty sure that if the company was concerned about profit then they wouldn't do it. Maybe if game stop did something called "sale" people would start buying things there and continue to buy things there even if it was full priced.

[Redheadsrule13]

Well, maybe if we start getting games that aren't horribly broken, and include all the content that was actually produced for them, we might consider them worth more, and then pay a higher price.

[Ertman]

Kind of reminds me of the whole video rental stores vs Netflix and/or red box thing.

[SteveGrabowski]

Lol so now 60$ is a minimum price? GTFO gamestop, As if AAA developers didn't get enough money already and indie developers weren't completely shut off from physical media. 60$ always was bullsh*t for a videogame, but I could kind of understand it because of shipping costs, storage costs etc. With digital distribution it just doesn't make sense anymore. Gamestop, either you can afford to price stuff low (which you probably can you greedy bastards) or if you can't, give it up or open a website where you sell steam keys.

 

$60 isn't bullshit for a video game. I remember in the 80s paying $30 for NES games that could be developed by a few people in a few months. Factoring in inflation, those games were a little more expensive than modern AAA games that have huge development, art, and QA teams and take years to make. It always blows me away that we only pay $60 at launch for the quality of games we have now. I think we have it pretty good.

[Jerakl]

Isn't price fixing illegal?

Yes, it most certainly is.

[Nowak]

Perhaps companies should spend their money more wisely, in a way that gives great customer service, instead of spending it on bullshit "news" articles trying to convince their customers to pay more for less.

But remember, $60 for all of 3 hours of gameplay, 25 minutes of which are actually entertaining, and broken multiplayer is PERFECTLY reasonable!

 

We'll see you in three months too, when the new DLC with 5 "new" maps and 3 "new" weapons is released for $25! Better buy the season pass for $40 too, it'll give you the first two DLCs for free*! Oh, wanna pre-order Overhyped Sellout Lens Flare Dubstep Zombies HD 5 for the Playbox One U 4 while you're here? I hear it's gonna be a great game! How about some guidebooks for this game you're buying? It's just another $20!

 

*not actually free since you paid money for them

 

All Gamestop corporate jokes aside, they're just digging their own grave at this point. Like Ubisoft.

[Spev]

Who freaking cares. Gamestop makes so much freaking money off people's used games. They buy games for $5 and sell them for $20. They have no reason to whine about money considering what they do to gamers. Personally I could give less of a shit if Gamestop makes less money. Maybe the pres can't buy another lambo next year, suck it up.

[Sauron]

$60 isn't bullshit for a video game. I remember in the 80s paying $30 for NES games that could be developed by a few people in a few months. Factoring in inflation, those games were a little more expensive than modern AAA games that have huge development, art, and QA teams and take years to make. It always blows me away that we only pay $60 at launch for the quality of games we have now. I think we have it pretty good.

 

In the 80s the market was drastically less profitable. Videogames were a niche product. Now if you take a look at the numbers you'll see AAA games profit in the order of dozens of millions, and that's profit, not raw income. If you factor in that the developer only gets about 20 bucks from those 60 when you buy the game in a store, you'll see that paying 25$ on steam is much more reasonable.

[jarr456]

I'm glad gamestop, who pushes for used games that give no money to the developers, is now all worried that the people making the games might not be getting enough money. Shut up gamestop, you're just scared of becoming obsolete because you are.

[That Norwegian Guy]

He does make a decent point, super cheap AAA games aren't sustainable and will lead to lower quality. I am not saying discounts are bad, but the people who make the games need money too.

 

Bullcrap, Divinity: Original Sin and The Wolf Among Us are the best games of the year so far and neither of them cost more than two thirds of what a supposed "AAA" game costs, like some of the spectacular trash that came out of the "AAA" industry this year like Ryse, The Evil Within, AssCreed: U, Aliens: Colonial Marines, and I could go on for several paragraphs.

 

Hell, TWAU was €20!

 

If the "AAA" industry is dying it's because it deserves to.

[Trik'Stari]

But remember, $60 for all of 3 hours of gameplay, 25 minutes of which are actually entertaining, and broken multiplayer is PERFECTLY reasonable!

 

We'll see you in three months too, when the new DLC with 5 "new" maps and 3 "new" weapons is released for $25! Better buy the season pass for $40 too, it'll give you the first two DLCs for free*! Oh, wanna pre-order Overhyped Sellout Lens Flare Dubstep Zombies HD 5 for the Playbox One U 4 while you're here? I hear it's gonna be a great game! How about some guidebooks for this game you're buying? It's just another $20!

 

*not actually free since you paid money for them

 

All Gamestop corporate jokes aside, they're just digging their own grave at this point. Like Ubisoft.

I can't believe all the money I wasted on shit like that.

 

Edit: You know, all this stupidity going on lately by the gaming industry makes me think the console industry is about to die, and they know it. Call it wishful thinking, but aren't "old tigers near the end at their fiercest"?

[Thony]

Motherfucking greedy ass gold digger !

PS. Second post in a row that made me swear today...

[Nowak]

I can't believe all the money I wasted on shit like that.

 

Edit: You know, all this stupidity going on lately by the gaming industry makes me think the console industry is about to die, and they know it. Call it wishful thinking, but aren't "old tigers near the end at their fiercest"?

I stopped shopping at Gamestop a year ago, and honestly, I'm glad I did. Although I realize I forgot one thing in that initial post, GameInformer. They like pushing that too.

 

I think that as more gamers wake up and realize how terrible the PS4 and Xbox One are, and switch to the PC as it's the only real viable option for high-end gaming, then yeah, this might just be the last console generation. We might be witnessing the end of an era indeed.

[Mooshi]

Nintendo never got that memo, their eshop games cost the same as the game that actually required a budget for packaging materials. Gamestop president needs to shut up and know his role. I'm personally tired of Gamestop hogging up exclusives for everything. Greedy entitlement at its finest.

[Trik'Stari]

I stopped shopping at Gamestop a year ago, and honestly, I'm glad I did. Although I realize I forgot one thing in that initial post, GameInformer. They like pushing that too.

 

I think that as more gamers wake up and realize how terrible the PS4 and Xbox One are, and switch to the PC as it's the only real viable option for high-end gaming, then yeah, this might just be the last console generation. We might be witnessing the end of an era indeed.

Not just for high end gaming, but for affordable games, and a system that isn't quite so limited in what it can do. Not to mention free walkthrough guides etc.

 

A few weeks ago the ENTIRE saints row series, with all DLC, was on sale on steam for less than $15.00. I'd challenge ANYONE to find a better deal than that in gamestop.