Ready at Dawn co-founder Ru Weerasuriya has said that the used games business model is not good for the industry, saying the ‘flawed’ system where revenues bypass the people who make the games needs to be fixed.
“I think the problem is right now, there are retail outlets that are really taking everybody for a ride,” Weerasuriya told GamesIndustry.biz. “You can’t make a living at the expense of everybody else. Unfortunately they’re not just making a living at the expense of developers but also the consumers.”
Game retail giant GameStop, which makes a good chunk of its profit from used games, regularly argues that the ability to sell back and trade games helps sales of new games. Weerasuriya doesn’t see it that way. He says used game sales equate to losing revenue for developers and publishers, which affects how much they’re willing to reinvest in making new games. The result is that they’re forced to put out fewer releases. He also questioned the priority GameStop puts on pushing used games, which have higher profit margins.
“I walked into a GameStop, asked for a new copy of a game and without telling me he tried to slip me a used copy and wanted to sell it to me for $5 less,” said Weerasuriya. “I flipped out in front of the guy. There are developers out there who are making games for [years], and some of them will go down purely because the revenue stream is basically flawed and creating this place where developers don’t see even a little part of it.”
Weerasuriya doesn’t think ridding the market of used games altogether is the answer. He says that a system should be put in place where the developer gets a portion of used game sales.
Ready at Dawn is currently developing the new PS4 game The Order: 1886.
Source: GamesIndustry.biz
