# GameStop and other retail outlets taking consumers for a ride, says Ready at Dawn boss



## Ares (Nov 23, 2009)

*GameStop and other retail outlets taking consumers for a ride, says Ready at Dawn boss*

Ready at Dawn boss Ru Weerasuriya has lamented the negative impact of the pre-owned market on game developer revenue in a new interview, suggesting that while he likes used games he’d like to see GameStop pass a percentage of the income along to developers.










Speaking with GI.biz, Weerasuriya – whose team is currently working on the PS4-exclusive action romp The Order: 1886 – argued that greedy pre-owned tactics harm developers and consumers alike.

“I think the problem is right now there are retail outlets that are really taking everybody for a ride,” he began. “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 because the consumers will see less and less games come out if developers can’t get revenue to make more new titles and keep going as a business.

“I think this is something we need to curb on the retail side. We’re putting the consumers in an awkward spot and we shouldn’t have to.Why should they be the ones to deal with a flawed system? They are the guys we do this for. They are the ones who should be able to benefit the most from being able to buy it.”

He recalled an experience he had at a GameStop store, in which an employee tried to aggressively sell him a used version of a game, and added, “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.

“I don’t think we should stop used games, but we should do something about getting part of the revenue back from GameStop and places like that. That’s not penalizing the consumers; they’ll still get what they want. But I don’t know who’s going to address it.”

Microsoft did try to address this issue with its unpopular Xbox One DRM policy, which would have seen retailers installing systems that tracked pre-owned sales, along with fees for consumers looking to activate second-hand code. The policy was quickly abandoned following E3 last month.

What do you make of the above? Can anything be done about this issue? Can a middle-ground be reached where retailer, developer and consumers get a solid deal? let us know below.

Source: VG24/7


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## Mike Edwards (Mar 10, 2011)

sorry now THIS I WILDLY disagree with. they're ticked off that they aren't getting more money from the USED market. this is the free market and and they're frustrated with their results. I don't have any sympathy, if they can't make it on the free market on their own merits they really don't deserve anything from the used market unless THEY are selling used games.


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## phillihp23 (Mar 14, 2012)

Nothing but greedy developers/companies. They get $60 bucks a game new. They just want to get a piece of the pie anyway they can slice it. I guess they don't understand that we purchased a product. They think everything we pay for is just loaned for a price. 

If this was the case you couldn't resell a house without giving the original manufacturer a slice of the sales, or resell just about anything you buy without giving a percent back to the producer of the product. Redicoulus!

If they had their way all media would be destroyed if it left the hands of the original purchaser. They would rather it not exist if they can't make money of it.


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## Tonto (Jun 30, 2007)

I couldn't agree more. If you folloe this philosophy, if you bur a use car, the manufactuer gets a cut of the resale price. That is just not the way it works. If they go out of business, then their overhead is too much or they are wasting/poorly working their money. So far I don't see them struggling.


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## chashint (Jan 12, 2011)

My family and I do business with Game Stop and for the most part we are very pleased.
Maybe buying and selling on craigslist, or auction sites could be a little better for each individual but it is certainly easier to use Game Stop.
This whole idea that you don't own software outright and you always owe the developer something to use it is a bunch of malarkey.


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## Ares (Nov 23, 2009)

Wow, ok everyone please express how you really feel.  This issue will never go away it seems, I personally believe once I bought a product it's mine and I'm free to do whatever I want with said product. The Devs and Pubs should be happy that they got gamers paying for day-one DLC and call it a day which was something that I was opposed to since the beginning but they got their way.

MS found out that even the attempt of imposing DRM to curve used games was a bad ideal and got beat like they stole something in every gaming forum across the web. If a dev, pub, or company try to impose something that we as gamers feel is unjust I suggest we speak to them in the language they understand....Money.


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