Witcher dev: Blocking used sales 'can be a bad thing'

who's really gaining and who's really losing out If resales are stopped altogether?

thats the real issue.

cod will not be affected much im sure.. any sports games.. HA. water under the bridge.

who loses out? im not sure.

the average person i bet.

it turnes into an investment to buy games.

making the game u buy garbage after your done with it.

no more small outlet stores that thrive on used games.

as always there are those who try to trow into the consumer their exclusive problems. Like CD Project said, if companies do enough to appeal to players to keep their games instead of selling, it would be a much more constructive stance than simply trying to forbid. ME3 is doing just that, with the multiplayer weekends. They can already block used multiplayer. Why bock the whole used game? People sell the games, mostly because they are very expensive to begin with, forcing people to try and recover part of the investment, many times, an investment made in a product that has a life of a few hours ( which is how long you take to finish it.)

This topic seems to be spilt down the middle.

@Fo_Fai i don't sell them so much anymore but as a kid (before gamestop came to town actually first with a store called game force) if i collected too many games my parents threw them out or gave them away clamming I "didn't play them anymore" to which i always said i did but lost the fight so the trade in was a way to make new games cheaper and not throw away the old ones. Far as CD Projekt Red they are my hero's when i saw the reviews for the enhanced edition i got nostalgic and decided to load up the witcher 2 for another play through(didn't feel it worth it to re-buy a game i had even if it was much improved) only to be upgraded to the enhanced edition for free couldn't hardly believe it makes me want to buy it again anyway just because of that

Nothing new to see here guys. CD Projekt Red has been doing this since day one, they fight for the gamers, and they blame themselves when something goes wrong. Truly astounding developer, truly astounding games, and probably one of the last shreds of honor we have left in the business world of video games.

I like CDPR so much and their product the Witcher that I'd give it the game of the millennia if it was up to me! These guys are just awesome. And they do this awesome thing because they love to, not for the money involved.

@Fo_Fai.... Not everybody has the disposable income to buy new games all the time. Most people care more about playing the game than having it in their collection. If there's 3 games coming out that you want, but you can't afford to buy them all for $60 each, alot of people will buy 1 and finish it. Then they'll trade it in and use the credit to buy the 2nd game and so on. Also, because trading in a newer game gets you a much better price, people are more willing to trade them sooner, when they'll get a good return on it, rather than later, when they'll be offered a few dollars. Most people don't buy new releases as used copies. Most used game sales are on older games that you missed when they came out, or on games you didn't "HAVE" to play but wanted to try. Most people would rather have the new game for $5 extra. But buying a used game for $19.99 over the new copy that's $39.99 is a no brainer. That's where the used game market excels... with games that are 3-6 months old. I live in NY and the only place to rent any games was Blockbuster Video. Being Blockbuster claimed bankruptcy and closed down stores close to me, my only option is to buy games. If there's a game that I don't know if I'll like, I buy it used because I'm able to return it. You're not allowed to return a new game that's been opened. So there are alot of factors that go into people buying used games nowadays.

Pretty much everything's been said on this article. I got nothing to add but this. Why do I get this intense feeling of rage whenever someone states they continually sell their old games after they've beaten them? Sure, you own it, it's your prerogative but...goddamn show some passion for gaming. What the hell happened to building a collection? Maybe if people stopped being so fickle about games and buy to keep, Gamestop wouldn't be bathing in $100 bills right now. Banning used game sales isn't the answer but neither is buying used from GameStop. It's become a necessary evil. Then again....I'd glady buy used if it meant I could play a game while choosing to not support stupid evil companies like Capcom and EA. Man...I am so on the fence about this.

Meh, pretty easy to completely stop this s***... just remind the ``government`` just how much tax revenue is generated by the used sales.. the `new`` game industry will have to answer for that lol -=- also, i see ebgames(gamestop) and such always promoting trade in special offers if the credit is used towards a new game... not to mention the amount of advertising these ``used game criminals`` do for the games they sell NEW. Look how many jobs exist because of this used industry... and then to have 70,000-80,000$ a year people telling me i need to spend MORE of my $24,000 a year to buy everything new... no thanks.

So this would mean the death of all those game rental places, I see a lot of sues there, plus this would be interesting to watch in the states, since coming up with a product that cannot be resold would be a green light to all sorts of lawyers choping at the bit to sue Microsoft....BTW the only games I have ever bought withing a week of the release day have been the TES games and NCAAs for the consoles, other than that I have always been perfectly capable of waiting a couple of months for the price to drop to a resonable level before buying; I bought Dragon Age Origins with all the DLC and Awakenings for a meassly $20 and a copy of the Witcher for $10...does Bioware prefer to get my money almost 3 years after the fact or that I had simply downloaded their games? Oha nd I still remeber Assassin´s Creed 2 for the PC....nice

The market will dictate how pricing plays out in the next gen. There's nothing wrong with new games, it's the price that's the problem. I honestly believe the only games that would benefit from a used ban are AAA+ games like CoD, BF, Madden, etc. As such, I think we'll see a more attractive pricing structure for new games. Right now, If I go out and buy a new game for 60 bucks that I know I'll play for 15 hours and then be done with, I know I can get rid of it for 30 when I'm done, so the net cost is 30 dollars. This game's net cost appears like it will double in the next gen, so I won't even buy it. Even if consumers don't do the math, their wallets will still stop them from purchasing games in this scenario.

Don't forget about prices for the poorer crowds that cannot buy more then 1-3 games every 3-6 months. I wonder why I buy more games then I ever did before during a steam sale, compared to a $5 store discount I would get 1-3 times a year if I am lucky for something I am actually wanting...... Last time I checked not everyone is rich enough in this world to pay for several $60+ games a month >.>

Finally, a voice of reason.

Makes sense. Make us want to buy your product with content and reasonable price and we'll buy it. Downloading and streaming is our present and future... we are moving away from physical copies of things... it's a given, ask your cd collection.

Gawsh Mr Game Developer, you use your mouth purrtrier than a £20 whore. If you want people not to pirate your games or sell them, make better games that people want to pay for, to support you. It sounds so simple.

God to see a game company who cares about the gamers. I preordered the Witcher Black Edition and counting down the days. Companies complain about used games but I wonder how much they make off of DLC, online passes and such. They need to understand that not everyone can buy every game they want new. I miss alot of games because I choose to buy others new and pick them up later used when im done with what I am currently playing. I'm still wrapped up in Skyrim so i'm not buying to many games at the moment and the same will happen with the Witcher i'm sure. Not to mention I have 2 X-box consoles, mines and 1 for my daughter which also means I buy double of some games. Example, 2 copies of Gears of War 3 so I can play with my daughter. I bought the second copy used recently but I paid for the DLC on her's and my account and pay for her live so i'm sure they were compensated for my second hand purchase. Also locking out used games means even if I buy a new game and let my daughter play it on her box it will lock it out as used if they do indeed lock out used games, just not good business practice IMO. If they do lock them out I will be finding another hobby.

CD Projekt RED, I wanna have your babies...

Bought Witcher 2 yesterday, I'm 5 hours in and it's still the prologue!

People were fine with just getting the check taking a Sh*t. But nope. Not anymore. Now we gotta pay "fertalizer" taxes

Lower the price So every one can buy new instead of used

@David_Boreanaz "Used" does not mean "Gamestop". It also means ebay, flea market, guy who sits next to me in Calculus class. Buying used games at Gamestop might not be that much of a deal, but I can often pay more than gamestop would give for a used game and get it for less than what they would have sold it to me for. Even if you go to Gamestop, if you buy a lot of games, $5 adds up. If you buy a game a month, for instance, at $5 a month you save $60 a year...which happens to be the price of a brand new game. And DLC is completely optional; I rarely buy any, and certainly don't buy all of the DLC for a game unless I get it in a GOTY edition or something similar. CD Projekt is one of the best developers out there, and not just because of this. They make damn good games, and treat their audience with respect. The Witcher 2 just moved up my "buy" list, too.

@David_Boreanaz That's not true for me at least. I don't buy a used game until it is much cheaper than the game new. It's quite a leap to assume that every used game that gets bought is from Gamestop at $5 cheaper than brand new. For instance,where I live is a private business called "Disc Replay" where you can buy used movies,games,music,and even consoles from bygone eras. All at decent prices,many times half the new price.

I might be an idiot! However, I pay at most 20$ for a used game. Guess living in Columbus, Ohio pays off, some way at least. I have 3 mom pop stores, 5 half price books and 6 buybacks stores to get my used games! Plus at least 4 other "mom & to pop" I don't like! (to much trying to be like gamestop) But hey, got a back log as it is, got steam, enough for me. Will play my old games and go back to the pc(at least on steam I can switch pc's)

First of all people who buy used games are idiots. I'm not trying to start a flame war or anything but it's true. You go into Gamestop and spend your $54.99 to get your "used" new release and that $5 you are saving is going to cost you far more in the long run. Since developers/publishers don't get any money from your purchase, they in turn decide to make DLC for games to recoup the losses that you, the consumer, are actually creating. So since you saved that grand $5 on your purchase if you want to continue playing your Call of Duty, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, Halo, or Fallout, you then have to shell out $15 for content that probably would have been included in the game in the first place if you didn't screw the dev/publisher out of their money. I never, EVER, buy used games and only purchase DLC if I truly adore the game for that exact reason. Secondly, I can almost guarantee that I pay less for the games I purchase than most of the people buying used. There are tons of places to buy games new, Newegg, Amazon, Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Target, Buy.com, O.com, Sears, Kmart, and countless others that have games on sale everyday that are CHEAPER THAN WHAT YOU BUY YOUR USED GAME FOR at Gamestop, you just have to look for them. In short, all the people complaining about how used games save you soooo much money, well you're the reason we pay so much for videogames and content in the first place, thanks.

@Serpentes420 Sure rental companies buy a lot of games to rent out, but those games are whored out to everyone that wants to try them. If these rental companies didn't exist, instead of say 1,000 sales renting out to 30,000 users in 2 years, those same 30,000 users would have to consider buying the game in order to play it. That would translate into at least 10,000 in sales (some titles would do better, others worse) vs the initial 1,000 that was purchased by the rental company. I don't know why that is so hard to comprehend.

Witcher 2 is $39.99 on Steam right now, looks like that will be my next purchase ;)

Unless the publishers start pricing games at launch for £10 ($15) they are too insensitive to expect people not to be able to sell their legal purchases. Imagine having this problem with everything like cars etc. Having multiplayer limited to one account is problematic enough with siblings in family having to either share an online account or fork out for second code/copy. (Lack of offline multiplayer does not help either!)

Bad customer service=no customers. A very simple concept, seemingly lost on many in the game industry. I'll be sure to but The Witcher 2, to support a company like this. Though I'm not big on Warner Bros, I would have preferred if Atari had remained the NA publisher for the 360 version.

I own the PC-DVD premium edition + the GOG download of The Witcher 2 and I can get the enhanced edition content for free. But I already pre-ordered the PC-DVD enhanced edition. Kudos CDP Red!!! PS I also own PC-DVD standard & enhanced + GOG versions of The Witcher.

Well said CD Project! I do a lot of research before I buy a game and I love all the games I have purchased. In some cases I even buy the games twice over when an expanded version comes out (the early Tomb Raider games, and the Baldur's Gate series, for example). I bought, paying full price, for both Oblivion and the GOTY edition. I support CD Project. The only way that we gamers can help this "battle" is to buy our games from them. CD Project own GOG games where you can buy early versions of you favourite games online, with NO DRM, and fully playable on VISTA and Windows 7. They have just recently added Deus Ex to their Catalogue. I have bought the Baldur's Gate series from them (paying for the games for the 3td time!). I am hoping that they will be adding the early Tomb Raider games to their catalogue soon. I do not work or have any commercial link to GO Games or CD Projrct. I just love their stance on DRM. Until the big console companies work out a fair DRM system, honest gamers are being treated like criminals, not allowed to play the games wthey have paid for and the pirates are winning, playing happily without strings. The system needs urgent reworking! Support CD Projrct and GOG Games.

@zod777 True in some ways rentals may seem to cost developers money, however, as someone else noted gamefly and blockbuster account for thousands of sales of a title and those are basically pre-release sales of just about all games, regardless of reviews or prior reputation, etc... Getting rid of rentals is not guaranteed to increase a game's sales either. For example there are many games I will play as rentals that I would never buy, like whichever is the latest Call of Duty. If I couldn't rent it I just plain wouldn't play it.

I am so buying the Witcher 2 new just because CD Projekt seems to be one of the last studios left that is gamers making games for gamers.

I'm glad there are still some reasonable people in the gaming industry, too bad the majority are just greedy people who don't care about the consumer at all.

I agree with mrmiggins, I think this whole "stop game re-sale thing" talk is crazy. Either way people are buying games. It seems after the questions raised about SOPA, publishers and developers are looking to maximize earnings by any means necessary, I just hope they don't alienate retailers and consumers. There is a caveat with online consumerism and we need to find a balance because the retail industry is shrinking, Gamestop and stores like it would be in trouble. Look at Blockbuster and Best Buy.

Cd projekt is like... common sense in a box

One more argument : is it better to sell new games that will be sold second hand, or sell new games at bargain price two years later ? People will stop buying new games they won't be able to sell second hand, and they will wait for the price to drop.

Finally, someone that's willing to stand up and speak for the consumers. If Microsoft does block used games and the new system is not backwards compatible, then I'm switching to Playstation.

I have an idea to get people to buy new instead of used: a reasonable goddamn price!

I think that the games industry has to face reality. The days when people will happily spend £40 on a game are long since gone. They need to give us incentive if they wish to sell games for such a high price, namely, by making high quality titles. Sadly, they are more concerned with churning out the next COD or Halo than producing innovation. It was these same issues that caused the video game crash of 83 and its a persistant problem in all creative industries. Someone will always bow to the pressure of big profits and short term gain over long term profits and sustainable industry growth through innovation. It's a simple concept of value. Everything is worth what people are willing to pay for it. A lot of games are shallow and not playable long term, therefore are going to be traded in sooner and lose retail value sooner. The games that lose value fastest are the ones that are ten a penny.

I always trade in my finished games for a new game. If I couldn't do that, I probably wouldn't buy new games at all. Can't afford it. Games publishers need to understand this. CD Projekt Red obviously do.

its a bad thing!!

Block used games and see a spike in modded consoles/piracy. That simple.

These idiots don't seem to realize that poor people have no choice but to buy used games or wait a year or two for the titles they won't to drop. I never ever ever buy games on consoles new because they are a rip off. I'm typically a PC gamer because I just happen to have a monster computer and games are literally 30-40% cheaper and also a PC games on sale are usually close to or beyond 50% off, and also all PC games usually drop down to about $10-20 after one year from their release. Consoles usually stay in the $50 range FOREVER unless they sucked to begin with. There are rarely any console game sales that make any difference ($5-10 whoo hoo not a huge difference) and these games aren't what they used to be. A $60 game is maybe only playable once and lasts only 4-15 hours depending on the genre. Most of the time they are botched up to be great and typically don't live up. Man, even Skyrim would have been a let down if it weren't for the modding community. No game is worth $60 spare a few. If these retards block used games they are literally going to force poor people to simply say "F!@# this" and stop playing altogether.

Developers need to realize that the used game market drives the new game market. Think about it, if i can't trade in my old games that I don't play anymore, how am I going to pay for new ones? I don't have infinite amounts of cash -_- It's good to know that CDprojekt has some common sense.

I don't purchase used games myself mainly because the $5 savings that Gamestop gives is a joke and I don't sell my old games anyway. I agree with the statement that they should make it so that developers should want to create content for a game or even tweek games long after development so people will want to return to it. In the days of the PS1 the Monster Rancher games would allow you to swap in disks to find hidden "monsters" to use in the game. If you used certain games from the same publisher you would find some of the best stuff. Would it not be cool if Mass Effect 3 had a system in place where you could put in your disk in a menu and get bonus nicknacks and whatever as a small thank you for keeping your old games? Sure noting would stop people from borrowing from somebody who has the game from a friend but, it would be nice.

I didn`t say CDproject developed BATMAN !!!!!!!! i just said that they gonna do the same trick as batman dev did ... blocking content on disk ... and online pass bulls**t ... and they are proud of it !!!! if there is going to be anything like online pass system which was on BATMAN:AC - RAGE in this game - I`m not gonna buy it ...

They should break away from The Witcher for a while and develop something more original, not in theme but in gameplay.

I just don't see how the games industry is the only industry that doesn't know how to deal with used products. u don't see Car companies crying fowl over the sale of used cars same with furniture companies the only industry in the world that can't seem to get over the resale of there products is the game industry.

I'm throwing all my agrees at the screen but nothing is happening!