The gaming industry is like the car industry, some people buy games with older gamers in conjunction with money. Whether or not the game companies like it, this is something that cannot be stopped. There is however, a guide of how successful a game can be and how often your game could get traded in. Obviously the retailers profit off the eventual used games that come in, so this complicates long term success of most games. Our next stop is Sony’s PlayStation 3.
The PlayStation 3 has what might be, the hardest library to discuss about. With a smaller install base and library, getting an accurate analysis on their customers was difficult. Secondly, the customers’ purchasing patterns are extremely hard to pinpoint as it was with the PlayStation 2. Obviously because of the factors, the PS3 article was the longest to analyze and compile.
Like the Xbox 360, Sony adapted the next generation standard price point: $59.99 with prices dropping after a few months after launch depending on the game. The PlayStation 3 library consists of games similar to the Xbox 360, mostly the sports and action types. Mostly the PS3 versions of games don’t sell as well as their Xbox 360 counterparts and the system has fewer exclusives, but PS3 customers rely on those games along with the great first party games like Resistance, Killzone 2 and LittleBig Planet.
PS3 customers aren’t revolved around game stores like GameCrazy or GameStop, they’re fans of Best Buy thanks to a non-stop marketing campaign for the system due to increase Blu-Ray movie sales. That’s common to see stores rally marketing towards their personal or potential money maker. GameStop always point to the 360 while it’s hard to even see into a Toys R Us gaming section without the blinding white from Wii product placement. Therefore, you don’t see gamers trading in games at the gaming retailers. Of course it’s not a stereotype, because few PS3 gamers do go to gaming retailers like 360 gamers go to Best Buy.
The busier GameStops have a lot of used product that doesn’t sell, so naturally that means PS3 games trade in for less, right? Not really because there’s another fact that keeps it equal to other versions: the lack of banged up defective disks. Blu-ray disks are lined with an anti-scratch coating on the bottom of the disk, making them scratch resistant. Because of it, customers and retailers won’t need to worry about a used PS3 game being defective. Oddly enough those PS3 gamers don’t buy used even though the games are rarely beat up, but that can be a lack of knowledge on the subject.
So after literally months of getting data on PS3 customers, the best conclusion is that PS3 games get bought and traded in as fast as any 360 gamer as long as the game sells. So when you walk into a game store, don’t be shocked if you see three copies of Killzone 2 used after two weeks next to new copies of Eternal Sonata and its six months of junk sales. However, laugh when you look down to see a new copy of Genji rotting away since its release on the PS3’s launch. When PS3 games don’t sell: they DON’T sell and that becomes a game you don’t find used often either. While you see dozens of copies of Resistance and Uncharted, don’t be shocked to not find Folklore or Valkyria Chronicles.
Now do PS3 games get traded in fast like 360 games? Yes they do surprisingly. In the PS2 era, it wasn’t common to see this buying habit due to people not knowing much of the concept of trading games or that they didn’t need to. With the rise of popularity of games and a worsening economy in this newer generation, people feel less enthusiastic about owning a library of games and feel more to just play then sell. For those with that habit, a recommendation to services like Gamefly is in order. A monthly fee costs less then what you lose on one game, so gamers should really stop doing this wasteful purchasing habit because these games are not cheap!
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