China Electronics Wholesaler

Epic Games president Michael Capps has commented on the state of the secondary market in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, and presented a controversial idea for dealing with it. "The secondary market is a huge issue in the United States," he said, referring to resales and rentals, both of which bring no income to the publishers. Naturally, companies are starting to search for ways to compensate for the missed revenue. "We don't make any money when someone rents it, and we don't make any money when someone buys it used -- way more than twice as many people played Gears than bought it."

One suggestion Capps says he's heard is to make players who haven't bought the game pay a little extra for the entire experience. "I've talked to some developers who are saying, 'if you want to fight the final boss you go online and pay USD 20, but if you bought the retail version you got it for free.'" This comment has stirred some negativity across the internet for a few reasons. Given that sales of used games are sometimes only $5-10 off the full retail price, that would actually put the full cost of a game over a new copy. Not to mention, as pervasive as online functionality is, some players don't have connected consoles, and they would be effectively cut off from the option. Epic is experimenting with similar (though less drastic) moves with Gears of War 2, which offers five DLC maps with newly purchased copies.

If this comment is making you scared that the hypothetical Gears of War 3 will pause just before the final boss encounter and ask for your credit card information, don't worry too much. Capps isn't necessarily advocating this kind of move, but it shows insight to how keen developers are growing on taking back their revenue from the used game and rental markets. We've contacted Epic Games to ask for comment on the quote, but haven't heard back yet.

Capps was careful not to point the finger of blame about the secondary market towards the players, though. "I'd hate to say my players are my enemies -- that doesn't make any sense! But we certainly have a rule at Epic that we don't buy any used games," he said. "This is how we make our money and how all our friends in the industry make money."

Finally, Capps commented that he thinks downloadable content will make a big dent in the problem. "We love Steam," he said. "I know that day... not only do I get the check that day for all the games that sold, but I also know we sold 28 copies of UT in Poland yesterday. We're able to respond immediately. That model's so wonderful from a developer perspective, knowing where my customers are and being able to make them happy."