I think you're missing the point, the second hand market is full of gougers and price speculators. On top of that, try to steal a car, furniture, etc. A dev not making 500 bucks off of Little Samson means that you, as the buyer didn't support the game when it came out, but let someone else dictate the price you paid. Erosion of rights? Renting is what you do anyway as it is, it's stated in every manual on games dating back to the NES. When you buy a CD, it even says that the company that owns the IP can enter your house and terminate your "license" If you want to kill the first party, by all means pirate away. When they no longer are around making games because everyone steals the games, don't say I didn't say so.
No, I get your point, but I believe you're wrong. Why do you refuse to answer my question about used cars, used houses, etc, if the facts are what you say they are?
You say "the second hand market is full of gougers and price speculators." as though that's unique to used games. It applies to antiques, classic vinyl records, and anything else where there's a wide range of items covering a a wide range of prices. Used car salesmen are proverbially dodgy in that respect, for example.
You also say "A dev not making 500 bucks off of Little Samson means that you, as the buyer didn't support the game when it came out, but let someone else dictate the price you paid." but this applies to all used things. If I don't buy a house when it's new, but I buy it used and for more than it cost originally (houses tend to increase in value over time) than according to you that's bad because the house maker didn't get a penny from me, right? If not, then again, please tell me why buying a used
house is different from buying a used game.
You also say "On top of that, try to steal a car, furniture, etc.", and your meaning isn't exactly clear, but if you mean that you can pirate a game but not car, then tell me what has piracy go to do with it? Nothing, or we wouldn't be talking about buying a used game, we'd be talking about NOT buying a used game and instead pirating the game.
You don't 'rent' a game, you buy it outright. Renting means that you have to pay for it regularly, whereas buying means that when you've paid the money then you own the item. I own hundreds of games, in that (a) I own the hardware the game comes on (disc, cartridge, etc), and (b) I have the right to play that game for as long as I own the physical hardware that contains the game.
You also say "When you buy a CD, it even says that the company that owns the IP can enter your house and terminate your "license". Please show me where it says that. And do you honestly believe that whoever owns the rights to the music can force their way into your home against your will?
And you say "If you want to kill the first party, by all means pirate away. When they no longer are around making games because everyone steals the games, don't say I didn't say so.". What does piracy have to do with it? You said "Don't get me wrong, I'm all about destroying the second hand market as there is no money for the dev to make there", which is NOT piracy. And I said "Seriously? So you wouldn't buy a used car, a used house, a used book, a used TV, etc?", which you've avoided answering. What is your stance on used items other than games?
Sorry if I sound a offhand in this reply, by the way, it's just that I see this "Games are somehow different to everything else, and shouldn't be allowed to be resold" argument from time to time, but no one ever gives any good reasons why that should be so.
And it's not like games makers are exactly reasonable in their pricing themselves, is it? Today I bought Prey for the PS4, brand new, for £27 from a shop in town. That's the physical disc, including the box. Now, whenever a shop sells something, they get a cut of the price, which is the shop's profit, right? Might be 20%, might be 50%. Plus the distributor who delivers the games to the shop effectively gets a cut from the game's price (unless the distributor owns or is owned by the shop, or the shop's staff went to the warehouse to pick up the games). Plus, making a disc, and the disc box, costs money (not much, just a few pence when made in bulk, but still, the cost is there). Right, so out of that £27 the shop is charging for Prey, somewhere between £5.40 (20% of the £27 cost to the customer) to £13.50 (50%) goes to the shop.
So the maximum profit Prey's makers will get from the sale of that game to me is £13.50, half of what the game cost me. Prey is also available to buy digitally, on the Playstation Network. The same game, but as a digital download, so with no disc or box. And do you know how much it costs there? £49.99. That's right, fifty quid (minus one penny). It costs them nothing to distribute the games digitally, so they could charge less than with a retail copy, which passes on the savings to the customer, and Prey's makers still get as much money, or more, than when selling a physical copy in the shop. Think about it, they could charge £13.50 for the digital downloaded version, and they'd make the full £13.50 as profit, the same as the shop bought version does, but the customer would only be passing the very tempting price of £13.50, which is half of what he'd pay in a shop.
But no, the company is greedy, and so sells the digital version for £49.99. There are lots of shops that sell the physical game, so the shops reduce the price to compete with each other, but there's only one Playstation Network, so Prey's makers don't need to compete with other online downloads for the game, so they charge nearly £50.
It's greed, pure and simple.
Regarding the Switch, personally I do hope that the Switch doesn't get cracked for a few years, as most people will just use that for piracy, rather than homebrew, and no one wants to see the Switch killed off by piracy.
