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Elite creator David Braben believes that the second-hand market is killing off single-player games.
“The real problem when you think about it brutally, if you look at just core gamer games, pre-owned has really killed core games,” said the veteran British developer, speaking to Gamasutra.
“In some cases, it’s killed them dead. I know publishers who have stopped games in development because most shops won’t reorder stock after initial release, because they rely on the churn from the resales.
“It’s killing single player games in particular, because they will get pre-owned, and it means your day one sales are it, making them super high risk. I mean, the idea of a game selling out used to be a good thing, but nowadays, those people who buy it on day one may well finish it and return it.”
Braben later explains that this is one of the major reasons why The Outsider, the fourth in his hugely influential series of intergalactic trading sims, has been put on a back burner.
And while he acknowledges people’s right to sell on what they own, Braben believes the used game market is responsible for the high cost of new titles.
“People will say ‘Oh well, I paid all this money and it’s mine to do with as I will’, but the problem is that’s what’s keeping the retail price up – prices would have come down long ago if the industry was getting a share of the resells.
“Developers and publishers need that revenue to be able to keep doing high production value games, and so we keep seeing fewer and fewer of them.”
Braben has admitted that The Outsider is currently on hold, though he hopes it will be finished at some point in the future. Perhaps the Kickstarter route might be an option?
