Rick the Reseller vs Pete the Pirate, who do you think gamedevs hate more?

Submitted by aoeJohnson t3_z91war in gaming

Both lads love gaming. However Rick only buys his games secondhand, either from facebook marketplace or gamestop. Even his console was a used one. He usually buys the games when they are half their original price. When Rick finishes playing, he resells the game again at the price he bought it. Sometimes Rick is unlucky and has to sell it at much lower price. Either way Rick tries to save as much money as possible since his job doesn't pay well. He lives paycheck to paycheck and gaming is an expensive hobby to him.

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Pete is your average above median income fellow. He's pirate because why not? Why buy something when you can get it for free? Pete buys his console/handhelds brand new. But if he can pirate the games he's interested in then he will pirate them for sure. No DRM? Free games. Homebrew? Free games. Pete's whole 3ds library is basically full with pirated games. However Pete does sometimes buy merchandise of the games he played, from plushies to artbooks or just figurines. Pete makes enough money so he's willing to spend some on physical things to support his favorite franchise.

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Gamedevs will basically never see a single cent from Rick, however everything Rick does is within the law. While Pete is basically a bandit, he atleast is giving the devs money in a way.

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This is just a fun little scenario, don't take it too serious guys. I just want to hear your opinions.

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Comments

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bideodames t1_iyejv8o wrote

Unless it's a small indie studio the devs don't care. They are usually contracted for the game development and that's it

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knfrmity t1_iyekvz5 wrote

Most devs probably don't care. They get their paycheck and leave after they've put in their eight hours a day. Sales figures don't determine what someone at the bottom of the pyramid makes.

The owners of the publishing companies probably do care about equally about both - note how hard it's become to resell a game in recent years. But I honestly couldn't care less about those fat cats making billions doing nothing while their employees only get thousands for their immense efforts.

It's also worth noting that an unpaid or resold copy isn't equal to a lost sale. Lots of people look for alternatives because new game prices are simply beyond their means.

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aoeJohnson OP t1_iyenx5y wrote

Can you explain further why it's more difficult in recent years to resell games? I don't really play console. I heard some companies just put download codes inside physical copies, it it because of that?

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BadReubenNoConcubine t1_iyevv37 wrote

It’s the publishers who care. The devs are just the artists and are glad to be putting out something people actually play.

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radiantmemories t1_iyf0pe7 wrote

If devs get a percentage of the sales or want to make sequels, pirating really hurts them. It’s a massive issue with the book industry (several authors have talked about how the almost couldn’t publish their next books because the first books got pirated so much that sale numbers were down (falsely showing they weren’t popular) and they weren’t making enough money) and at the time, game devs spoke about how it was also an issue for them.

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HoshiChiri t1_iyer45w wrote

I would assume Rick is better recieved than Pete... by propagating a secondhand market, Rick increases the percieved value of a game, thus allowing the publisher to charge more for it. Pete's actions cannot inflate the game's value & could jeopardize customer data if the hackers are good & the publisher did a shoddy job on the release.

However, I imagine gamedevs are more bothered by the publisher/corporate themselves, given the horror stories we often see. Also probably worse is Eddie the Entitled, an internet troll who's been sending the devs & their families detailed, specfic death threats because they made the main character have different hair in the sequel, or the release got delayed a month.

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