Guillaume de Fondaumiere, CEO of Quantic Dream, has said that the studio lost between 5 and 10 million in royalties due to pre-owned sales of Heavy Rain.
Chatting with GI.biz, the executive attributed the rise in the number of second hand game sold to the recession, which he feels has had a significant impact on the performance of triple-A software.
"I would say that the impact that the recession had, especially on AAA games on console, was the rise of second hand gaming. And I think this is one of the number one problems right now in the industry.”
"I can take just one example of Heavy Rain – we basically sold to date approximately two million units, we know from the trophy system that probably more than three million people bought this game and played it."
"On my small level it’s a million people playing my game without giving me one cent. And my calculation is, as Quantic Dream, I lost between €5 and €10 million worth of royalties because of second hand gaming."
Released in February 2010, Heavy Rain achieved impressive scores from game critics, and went on to sell two million copies worldwide.