In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Guillaume de Fondaumiere (co-CEO and founder of Quantic Dream) expressed his opinion of how used video game sales are damaging to the video game industry.
In particular, he cited sales figures of their hit, PS3 exclusive, video game Heavy Rain. According to Guillaume, Heavy Rain was played on more than 3 million PS3 systems (based on Trophy data). Since they recorded sales of only 2 million copies of the game then he estimates that over 1 million copies were purchased second hand (I assume including rentals & borrowed copies).
To quote Guillaume, “…my calculation is, as Quantic Dream, I lost between €5 and €10 million worth of royalties because of second hand gaming.”
Now, I’m sure Guillaume is a great guy, but that’s a pretty bold statement. Almost like he believes people who purchase games used are no better than software pirates. 😯
I suppose he might not like to hear it, but I too played Heavy Rain and I didn’t buy it new either. Actually I didn’t even get it used. I rented it for $6 and finished it over two days.
I’m glad I did too because once I finished it, I had no interest in playing it again. Don’t get me wrong I loved it and I had a hard time putting it down. After I finished it, I looked up details of the different endings online. Satisfied with the ending I received, I returned the game very satisfied.
In the article, Guillaume admits that he agrees that video games are too expensive and that a middle ground should be found.
Perhaps video games should be priced base on projected playthrough time and replay value? As an example, I purchased Mass Effect 2 brand new for around $60. I played it for easily 60+ hours ($1/hr). Heavy Rain takes around 10 hours to complete. At that rate, Heavy Rain should retail for about 10 bucks.
Now I wonder, would Guillaume prefer 3 million copies at $10 or 2 million copies at $60? I would assume at $10 they would have sold significantly more than 2 million copies, but would they have sold 12 million?
Maybe he should be happy with they success they had and move on.
ComputerAbuser
