Chris Avellone on the Second-Hand Gaming Market

In an interview published a week ago, Chris Avellone noted he hopes “distribution stabs the used game market in the heart.” This got a lot of negative responses, as you’d expect. Chris Avellone has clarified to use that his problem lies primarily with the specific business models in the second-hand market, not with consumers looking for cheaper games. He provided a full reply in email to a fan here, reproduced here with permission.

Thanks, —–. I can understand the greed label by folks, and I appreciate your take on it. That’s not my reasoning, although I admit that my reasoning and research stemmed from financial frustration.
We’re not independent, we run month to month based on the graciousness of our publishers and our deliverables, and we’ve had to let people go solely for financial reasons, not for performance reasons. I’ve had to let those people go personally, even after not being paid myself and other folks have taken pay cuts. It really makes you examine where the money goes.

That said, the used game market is not to blame for this.

In short, let me explain:

– People are free to sell their purchased games whenever they want. They’re like books, cars, your DVDs, etc. This is customary, accepted, and makes sense based on our market.

– When I say “market,” that’s too broad for what I mean, and I should clarify. I’ll refine that by saying that I wish people would be more careful of the market who they re-sell to, as some institutions I have no respect for and I don’t believe they deserve the re-sell business that are given to them – not only because of their business practices with regards to used titles, but other practices those institutions are engaged in that makes me no longer shop there. That said, the concept of selling used games is not to blame and people are free to sell to whoever they want.

– Lastly, I believe the end result is people want cheaper games. It’s why you sell games back in the first place – to get some of the initial money back. I firmly believe digital distribution makes costs lower, based on my personal experience it makes the games better, and while this may be a PC/Steam-centric attitude, some Steam sales are pretty insane. Furthermore, digital distribution on Steam makes me play many more games than I would otherwise because of the exposure and how the market is organized on the menu screen.

Anyway. Hope this helps. I’d be happy to discuss any of this further.

Chris