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New US site wants to promote "circle of life" in retail environment

New US online retailer EKGaming intends to share 10 per cent of pre-owned games sales with publishers and developers.

The company said it wants to promote a "circle of life" in the retail environment, creating a new revenue stream for publishers and developers, as well as allowing consumers to continue to buy and trade second hand games.

"Publishers are spending record amounts of cash on new game development. This increase in dev costs is steering them in directions that don't necessarily jive with gamers, causing them to take less risks on new and potentially exciting IP's or game mechanics and sticking with tried and true properties that are more of a guarantee," commented CEO Mike Kennedy.

"We want to share our used game revenue with them so they can continue investing in new gaming experiences without worrying about the negative effects used games could be having on their operations."

The retailer also said it intends to "guarantee" better trade-in credit for games compared to the High Street competition - up to 30 per cent - taking advantage of the low overheads of the online marketplace. It currently offers $40 trade-in credit for titles such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, The Witcher 2 and Assassin's Creed Revelations, and $30 for Kinect Star Wars and Mario Party 9.
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If it takes off it could preserve retail and lack of DRM on consoles, which would be nice. Not sure they really deserve it, but it could benefit us.
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StingingVelvet: If it takes off it could preserve retail and lack of DRM on consoles, which would be nice. Not sure they really deserve it, but it could benefit us.
I imagine at this point it'll probably just be a bandaid until it actually dies out. But it could be a decent middle road while it lasts.

The topic should stir up quite a bit though I imagine since there seem to be a load of people who feel developers don't deserve anything off second hand sales (like in non software sales ...)
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Pheace: The topic should stir up quite a bit though I imagine since there seem to be a load of people who feel developers don't deserve anything off second hand sales (like in non software sales ...)
I'm conflicted. I think lack of DRM and resale is important for preservation, but I also think everyone playing a game should support the developers if possible.

So... arg.
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Pheace: The topic should stir up quite a bit though I imagine since there seem to be a load of people who feel developers don't deserve anything off second hand sales (like in non software sales ...)
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StingingVelvet: I'm conflicted. I think lack of DRM and resale is important for preservation, but I also think everyone playing a game should support the developers if possible.

So... arg.
Maybe someone should look into setting it up like they do for movie theators: Negotiate a deal with the studios that says that after such and such time the cut of profit decreases on the developer side. So say, the first 3 months used games send 20% to the developer, then 10%, 5%, 3%, 1% or something like that.