Work has had me on the road a lot this week (750 miles worth) so I have been playing catch-up on my gaming podcast listening. For some reason the discussion about what the used game market does to game publishers. In my catching up on the topic (about a week late) there was a Penny Arcade comic on the August 25th that insinuating that buying used games from GameStop was equavalent to piracy. There is a great discussion about it on The Legal Satyricon. There was also talk about it on CagCast with some surprising comments from Wombat stating that the Penny Arcade guys should practice their own motto of “Don’t F***ing Judge Me”. I think that this was fitting, and they had the discussion about how some in the gaming media are getting too close to the developers that make the games.
Let’s be honest, most of us normal schlubs can’t always afford to plunk down $60 every time a game comes out. The gaming press get advance free copies of games for review, and it gives them the ability to look at game very objectively. We rely on these reviews to help us make decisions on what games we should be spending our hard-earned greenbacks on. There will always be the groups of gamers that have to have a game as close to release date as possible. I have bought new games at GameStop with money I got from trading in old games. I might take a chance on some Wii shovelware in the used section, but buying from GameStop is not my primary method of getting games. Over the last 18 months most of my game purchases have been made through Gamefly. Mass Effect 2, Borderlands and New Super Mario Bros. Wii all have come from the Keep-it option.
The other hot topic that was covered everywhere was the Xbox Live price hike for next year. I have to say that this couldn’t have come at a worse time for Microsoft. It may be a play just to show that you get what you pay for in counterpoint to Sony’s offering. Since everybody ran out and got a PSN premium account right?? Not really… I think the hike will go largely unnoticed since a majority of smart people buy the subscription cards at a discount rate. I think I purchased mine from NewEgg for $30. If you look for like 5 minutes you can find them online for a reduced price.
Use Coupon Code TENDAY to start your 10-day free trial today to GameFly!
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