Quantic Dream: €10M lost in pre-owned Heavy Rain sales
Second hand sales caused by recession.
Quantic Dream has lost €10 million due to second hand sales of Heavy Rain, according to CEO Guillaume de Fondaumiere.
Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, he explained that second hand sales were due to the recent recession.
"I would say that the impact that the recession had, especially on AAA games on console, was the rise of second hand gaming. And I think this is one of the number one problems right now in the industry.
"I can take just one example of Heavy Rain – we basically sold to date approximately two million units, we know from the trophy system that probably more than three million people bought this game and played it.
"On my small level it's a million people playing my game without giving me one cent. And my calculation is, as Quantic Dream, I lost between €5 and €10 million worth of royalties because of second hand gaming."
So far Heavy Rain has sold 2 million units.
It is thought Quantic Dream's next game will be Infraworld, based on a trademark filed by Sony Computer Entertainment.
User Comments
guyderman
ReadySteadyGo
On PSN I think some have multiple accounts to purchase stuff in America which isn't out in Europe yet as well as re earning trophies for games.
I think thats why a lot of games use multiplayer as model as it's less likely they will sell the game after they have done the single player, esspecially if there is a online pass that comes with the game as well as the option for DLC like we are now seeing in the Call of Duty franchise with the yearly subscription.
dav2612
pblive
Of course that doesn't help a game like Heavy Rain that has no online option. Perhaps they should have included a code to unlock the ending!
It's a similar thing with Blu-ray, they've cottoned on to the fact that providing digital copy codes with a disc means more new sales as the codes are usually used once they reach the second hand market.
But ultimately, as already mentioned here, pricing is the key and the reason so many people go for second hand over new.
munkee
Huge budget titles are risky business in today's industry/market. Unless your game has a 3, or upwards at the end of the end of the title.
guyderman
scaz2244
Woffls
And the methodology they used in the first place was utterly funking ridonkulous.
I'm making up words today.
[edit] Also, the picture should have been of Ethan crying his little eyes out.
Clockpunk@ Karlius
Should statistics like these be included in calculating such fuzzy figures? Potentially 4 sets of achievements/trophies from one copy? It is a sloppy way of estimating figures - you cannot deny that.
Karlius@ FantasyMeister
Not necessarily true. Users could have multiple PSN accounts. While I understand your logic it is in no way a sure thing.
FantasyMeister@ Clockpunk
Three ways to counter this for publishers:
1) Negate it altogether by issuing each game with a unique one-time use code (which would no doubt increase piracy levels)
2) Factor the 2nd hand market into RRP, e.g. launch at £39.99, after week one drop the price to £29.99, after month 1 drop the price to £19.99 and align your title's projected income model accordingly so you can budget for it.
3) Get royalties from 2nd hand dealers. It's the publisher's IP after all, no reason why the industry shouldn't align itself using the same principles used in the Movie/Music business. Having said that my local games indie also sells 2nd hand DVDs/Blu-Rays, so this option might take a lot of work to organise.
Clockpunk
Although he says 'between 5 and 10 mllion Euros', I would like to know how he came up with this figure, besides pulling it straight out of his behind in order to make headlines with such a high amount, given that the studio has been out of the spotlight for quite some time now.
Of course, if he wants more sales, his team could go multi-platform...
Karlius
If a company want to stop 2nd hand gaming then they should provide a hook that makes gamers want to keep hold of their games. (Not some interactive movie that has no lasting appeal past a couple of play-throughs) As the game moves on pricing should reflect the market. If a 2nd Hand game is priced at £17.99 and new £19.99 with some extra content then my belief is you'll get more 1st hand sales.
In my opinion if distributors targeted pre owned prices more directly and priced the rrp of new games accordingly the bottom would fall out of the 2nd hand market. Any sale is better than no sale after all.
Other research shows that people are spending more on entertainment such as gaming through the recession as a £40 game will have more lasting appeal and VFM than £40 on a night on the lash.
(Plus you get some cash back when you trade the game in LOLS)