Xbox One second hand game fee may be as high as £45, 90% of retail price

The days of grabbing a bargain second hand Xbox game may be a thing of the past with the launch of the Xbox One. Tech Digest has learnt that the second hand game activation fee for Xbox One games could be as high as 90% of their original retail price, or roughly £45, on top of whatever was paid for the disc in the first place.

[OC_MurphysLaw]

Apparently all the rumors on the activation fee being charged to consumers are false. Eurogamer broke this news just now: http://www.eurogamer.net/ar...

so its the shops that are paying a fee to MS to re-activate the game...not the consumer. They then resell the game to gamers at whatever cost they want.

[NewMonday]

But can I play a game from friends or family without restrictions? Harrison sues "NO"

[OC_MurphysLaw]

remote play might be a possible solution there. Not ideal but atleast an option.

[shikamaroooo]

The retailer pays for it? Inflated pre owned games confirmed !

[CandyCaptain]

It's actually far more likely that the TIV will just be super low, like 5 for a new game we might be looking at. The disc is now just a method of distribution for the content. Licence to use it not included. Main benefit is(for the consumer at least(more like a silver lining really), if someone steals our games now, they'd be worth squat.

My mom's house was robbed earlier this week, and my little bro there lost all his games, and all my old ps2 games. It was disappointing to say the least to hear that over the phone.

[cyguration]

So what happens if you don't trade it at a retailer at Gamestop?
If you give a game to a friend and they have to pay for a license, how does it not cost them money?

[kreate]

I guess xbox one games would be difficult to trade on sites like goozex.

Buying used on craigslist is also a problem.

I guess amazon, ebay, best buy, gamestop wouldnt mind paying the fees for the consumers...... /s

[Kingthrash360]

by that logic for retailers to resale a game theyd have to treat it like a new game...I mean of I go into gamestop today and buy say bioshock infinite...it will cost 5$ less than a new game so if the fee is implemented then it would be pointless to buying used...either that or when I trade in a game they will rob me even blinder and give me $7 store credit for bioshock infinite.. all in all used games are blocked by this method and letting friends borrow a game....(something I do frequently) is not possible anymore .....whatever tho
....ps4 for me

[tuglu_pati]

I've seen a lot of used games at Gamestop at that price.

[DARK WITNESS]

it does not matter... the retailer will only pass that extra cost onto the consumer in one form or another.

either way we are going to be paying a lot more for pre-owned games then we would have.

[Perjoss]

I never buy 2nd hand games so this doesn't affect me at all. If anything its a positive thing for me as it means that the people who make the games will get the money from sales and not some money grabbing 2nd hand games shop who is not actually earning that cash in any way at all.

edit: it does really suck for people that mainly buy all their games 2nd hand, they should probably stay away from the XBOne.

[DivineAssault]

ya right! Smoking some good crack there if they think ill be paying that much.. No point in buying used unless the discs cost $5 or less.. Even then thats too much

[daggertoes83]

GameStop is done for if this is true.

[Lovable]

No not really. They can just mark up used games...

[Kingthrash360]

@lovable

thats just it mark it up to what reg retail prices?
they only take off $5 off new trade ins now.
gamestop is done for sure so is gamefly for that matter...fucc gamestop but gamefly is a great service

[tuglu_pati]

@daggertoes83

Gamestop already sell used games at that price.

[jc48573]

Only an idiot would charge that much. Man, they are basically taking used game sales into their own hands and kicking Gamestop out of it. What's worse?

[icecoldfire]

And that is 30 pounds too much.......

[dale1]

gamers pass there games around thats killed millions of sales of cosonles there

[Supermax]

Right now GameStop makes a 100 percent profit on a used game sale,what's goin to happen is now they will only get a 10 percent profit on it wich is the same profit margin they make on the sale of a new game.this divides the pie up between GameStop developers and publishers.microsoft and Sony don't take a loss right now to used games except on there first party ips,it's the developers and publishers that are doing this and ms and Sony will be enforcing it. This has been the course for PC games this last gen GameStop makes a 10 percent profit on a new PC game sell and nothing on a used.gamestop will not be going out of business in the near future,with next gen hardware and accessories and games combined with older gen consoles and the wii u and the trade ins of said current gen consoles however GameStop will need to cut back on number of stores.were I live there is 5 gamestops in a 15 minute distance some right across the street from each other.

[TheMrMalro]

90%? Games in the UK launch at £39.99 in shops and £34.99 online (amazon etc)...

[CommonSenseGamer]

Its the way of the future. Hell, no one moans over not being able to on sell digitally downloaded games which cost more than retail.

[LeCreuset]

1) You have other options to digitally downloaded games, like their physical counterparts in most cases.

2) Can't speak for Xbox, but with Playstation some of the cons of a digital game are balanced by the pros. One example I can think of is a friend who bought Borderlands 2 digitally so that he and his wife can play on separate PS3s at the same time, without having to buy two copies of the game. What's the benefits under the Xbone system? We've already been told such a thing wouldn't be possible. If someone wanted to play the content outside of the original account they would have to purchase it in full.

3) I own my digitally bought games. I can disconnect my PS3 from the internet and never plug it back in again. I will still be able to play my games, unless they are freebies I got through PS Plus. And that's where the comparison really comes in. It's a point that has been drowned out amid all of the other negative Xbone press. Any game you buy for Xbone is no better than a PS Plus freebie as far as true ownership of it is concerned. For all intents and purposes that game is on loan to you from Xbox. You are never more than one Micrsoft banning of your account away from finding out who the true owner of your gaming library is.

[CommonSenseGamer]

Yeah, use to be able to do that with ps3 games. Buy once and download on all 3. Then Sony changed their DLC policy so I could only download to 2. They also labelled me a pirate because who could possibly need to download to 3 systems in the same house.

I'm not saying what MS is doing is right but I think we all need to get use to it as they are just following the lead set by Apple, Steam and Android. Sony will follow suit by the end of the PS4s life cycle.

[ThatEnglishDude]

The fact there's so much confusion over all this is not a good sign. They're confusing their potential audience and it's just pissing everybody off.

[XXXL]

MS has completely bungled their next gen Xbox announcement. Horrid reveal, the most important questions still up in the air, and a complete lack of focus on their core gamers. Simply awful.

[KarenYoung56]

uptil I saw the check four $5999, I did not believe that...my... friends brother had been actualey receiving money part-time from there pretty old laptop.. there neighbour has done this 4 only 21 months and just paid for the morgage on there place and bought a brand new Mazda. this is where I went, Bow6.com

[MysticStrummer]

Hopefully you'll use that money to learn how to spell and construct a sentence.

[PANTHER1030]

Another stupid Microsoft's policy. This time the Redmont's genius are trying to charge at Gamestop an extra fee for each game sold, they designed a new internet aplication called Azure, for each game sold Microsoft will receive money and more that the same store. The second hand games for the Xbox One will cost nearly 49 USD, ridiculous !

[kungfuian]

The problem as I see it is with physical games being fully downloadable to the hard drive. Because of this (something sony may be planning too) a system must be in place to validate you actually own the game. Otherwise you could give/sell the physical game and download it to an infinite number harddrives.

What makes sense is the system requiring a code (printed on the front of the disc) which must be entered and validated on the first use, plus the disc must be in the system to establish ownership. This ownership would be tied to your specific system and your account.

So anyone who plays the game in your home should be able to play it. The system may require those playing to be registered as guests or maybe be on your friends list and/or be in your family (parental controls). But anyone can potentially play on your system with no problem. I imagine kinect identifying players and/or controllers visually and requiring this for access.

If you want to visit a friend and show them a game or play on another system you would have to bring the disc and sign in to your account on their system. Possibly a guest account system or something like that will be need to be in place for this to work. Another option is for the system to require you to bring your controller from home (kinect will identify you from the controller and then grant access). So no problem with visiting and sharing games in this way.

Now if you want to loan or sell the game, the system is a bit more complex but still doable. You may have to de-active your ownership online prior to transfer, then the new owner or person you loan it to would have to reactivate it. So for example you buy a game from me. Then you take it home, install it, and go online to re-register it in your name. The system will say the game is registered on another system and would you like to transfer it. You say yes, at which point microsoft looks up your system and makes it unplayable on the other system prior to it being playable on yours. Thus the requirement for always online!

A game stop sale would work similarly, only gamestop would have to have a system in place to identify and deactivate games prior to taking them. I imagine an in store device that looks up the game by scanning it. It asks the clerk if they want to deactivate the game. They say yes and wa la, it's ready for resale.

This might sound a little convoluted but should work, and they could do it for free. The problem is Microsoft is greedy. So instead of doing this transfer of ownership for free (which they should do if they gave a shit about the customer), they will instead charge for their part in the switching of ownership and justify it in the name of protecting publishers from piracy.

[JasonBloodbourne]

Lets hack this mofo xbox

[josephayal]

good news

[porter470]

So the shops have to pay a fee to MS, what if they don't sell that many used games? and start to loses money or not able to justify the fee. Wouldn't they turn around and say no sorry we cant take that trade in?

[Loki86]

All this journalism is might, may, possibly, we believe. They have no proof of anything yet everyone jumps on them based on rumors, sigh.

[baodeus]

well what is the difference between buying used game at retail vs. this supposedly re-activation (used disc) at 90% of retail price?

example at gamestop for a game:
1. New = $60 + tax
2. Used = $55 + tax