This, of course, is largely due to publishers historically receiving nothing from second-hand sales, while retailers were able to profit significantly.
UNCHAINING DIGITAL OWNERSHIP A digital marketplace needn’t retain or replicate the pitfalls of the physical one, even in a world where gamers are permitted to actually own the games they pay for. It ‘simply’ needs to fuse ownership of digital games with ways for publishers to generate meaningful revenue from pre-owned sales. Better still, even implement systems that allow them to set the parameters of how this works - something Ultra is currently pioneering. While in purely economic terms nothing can match the direct sale of a full-price digital game licence to a player, the benefits for the entire gaming ecosystem could outweigh the risks. If consumers can sell titles they’ve completed or no
longer want, they can free up cash to spend on other game purchases. Creating a cheaper price point (subject to limited availability), the marketplace at large can open up to more consumers who may not have the means to consistently buy new, premium releases throughout the year. This favours indie and mid-size publishers who don’t necessarily have the resources to create and maintain live- service ‘forever games’ which can be sustained with battle passes and IAPs. A digital pre-owned games marketplace should be
handled with care, of course. A space that significantly devalues games is in nobody’s best interest. But with some controls in place, such as the option to choose a minimum resale price and what cut the publisher takes on the resale, the number of a specific title that can be resold, what period a title can be sold in, and which geos it can be sold to and from, developers can have a say over how this part of the market can operate profitably for them.
A COLLECTOR’S ITEM Debates over the secondary market in video games cut to the very heart of who we, as an industry, want to be. As digitisation rises and the things we buy become less tangible, we’ve seen huge rises in collecting games and game-related IP such as Pokémon cards. Video games are art, they’re culture, they’re moments in time. They deserve to live on in more than memory and data centres in walled gardens.
We can draw a parallel here with the music industry,
where physical records have seen a monumental comeback. Previously a niche collector’s item, they have boomed in popularity to the point that artists such as Taylor Swift have released vinyl editions of their latest albums. For me, the return of music on vinyl can be interpreted as a recognition of the value of the art form, the need to support artists and, to a lesser extent, a rejection of the way we’re constantly bombarded with the same earworm music all day everyday. In the gaming world, the equivalent is supporting our favourite developers, collecting our favourite titles and IPs, and taking a minute to enjoy an indie game rather than grinding to keep up with the meta in the latest live-service juggernaut. It’s likely, then, that publishers will continue to
produce physical items in some form, for example special edition boxed games and memorabilia. But we need to consider how a regular gamer can also curate their digital libraries without fear of losing them. Currently, when you die, your Steam account goes back to Valve. Closures of digital stores such as Wii U and 3DS mean that those games can never be sold again and are locked into individual accounts forever. Failing to cater to collectors in our digital world would be a monumental failure by the gaming community. In years to come, the lack of digital ownership will
come to be seen as an archaic practice, just like the 30% revenue share taken by platform holders has in recent years. A digital pre-owned marketplace would be pro- consumer, while also offering benefits for publishers, in a transparent manner for all. It’s time to create a new standard for digital games stores that brings them into the next generation while retaining what we all love so much about video games.
July 2023 MCV/DEVELOP | 43
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