Xeno-what?

Xenoblade Chronicles is an excellent game. Many would say it’s the best RPG on the Wii, possibly the best RPG of last generation. There’s been a lot of attention attached to the title lately not based on its merit but its price. GameStop is selling pre-owned copies for $90. Let’s fight corporate profits.

I went on and on about gaming finances a while ago and it looks like a lot of what I said rings true about the used games market. Let’s have a look at what people are saying and the situation surrounding this “controversy”.

The internet is up in arms! Vloggers from all sides of Youtube and bloggers from the ends of the earth are screaming “Betrayal!” from whatever rooftop they can find. No one ever yells at the multitude of resellers on Ebay who’ve been hawking this game for over $100 for quite some time, GameStop just decided to price some of their games accordingly. Back in the days of the PSone they sold some used games at a premium like Dragon Ball GT Final Bout and Final Fantasy Tactics before its Greatest Hits reprint, so there’s really nothing new here besides the marketing.

When did Xenoblade become vintage? This is probably what bothers me the most about the current situation. The game was released April 6, 2012, that’s just over 16 months before this writing. It’s kind of hard to believe a game that came out a month after Mass Effect 3 is a vintage title; I’ll agree that it’s an extremely high quality game but it’s not quite dated yet.

What is a used game? I’ve wondered that many times, but I think it’s the sticker in the top right of the cover of the game. How many times have you purchased the last copy of a game where they hand you the display case with a sticker closing it to satisfy the “sealed” requirements? A lot of these “resurfacing” copies of Xenoblade are spotless with working Nintendo Club codes; they just lack the shrink wrap. I’ve never seen any declaration as to what constitutes what makes a game used. I guess GameStop owns the physical property and can do what they like with it. Would you slap a sticker on it and sell it for $40 less? It’s business, plain and simple.

GameQuestDirect is a company that reprints certain games under contract with the original publisher with a 50% splint in sales. So at least the original company is getting some sort of revenue from the units shipped. Several times before they’ve rerun games that were going for a premium in the second hand market (Guitarooman, Rhapsody, REZ, Fatal Frame series) and fulfilled demand to the point that drove the price down. Seems like a good deal; it’s a legit copy, you can find it clean, and avoid crazy resell prices. Here’s where it gets fishy, GameStop is the only company in the US that can distribute new copies of Xenblade so they essentially control 100% of the supply. Nintendo gave them a contractual monopoly.

The reseller’s market has determined the price of high demand games for years now, and the big corporations know it. With the obvious path to primarily digital distribution for video game consoles in the future GameStop has seen a few areas to get a few more dollars before their business model becomes “vintage”.