The Pros and Cons of Blocking the Second Hand Market

From GamesReviews:

"More than once, the second hand video games market has been called worse than piracy. Like piracy, the actual creator of the game gets absolutely nothing from your playing their title, but unlike if you'd just downloaded the game for free, you're actively giving your money to somebody else, and the difference in cost that that makes is often either very small (a matter of £2-3, especially at launch) or available specifically because the developer isn't getting a single penny from the sale.

"With the next Xbox again rumoured to block used sales, we take a look to see just how abolishing the used games industry might benefit both the industry and the consumer."

[GalacticEmpire]

Pros - MO MONEH!! $£$£$£$

Cons - Drown in the tears of your customers

[sengoku]

blocking used games is stupid.

[Retroman]

lol,are they SERIOUS??? that would be BIGGEST mistake ever.

[CommonSenseGamer]

Majority of the gaming, albeit including casuals, already give away the possibility of on-selling their games as they digitally download. If all DD games were priced to reflect that you can no longer on sell then the idea of no second hand games might be more palatable. However, chances of that happening is slim as both Sony and MS overcharge for DD games.

[brish]

Informal poll.

Agree to this message if you think blocking used sales is fine and you will buy a console that blocks used sales.

Disagree if you won't buy a console that blocks used sales.

[nukeitall]

Blocking used games is possibly fine, depending on what we get in return and how the market stabilizes.

Let say digital games are cheaper, or fall faster in price due to more competitive pressure for instance.

At some point, if not with this coming generation (PS4 and etc), then it will be next, but used games will decline drastically and before you know it, it will be like the music industry and CDs.

It's just a matter of time.

Now the hope is that games will drop in price due to competition, just like how we got cheap mp3s. If publishers will survive, I don't know. Maybe f2p.

[FamilyGuy]

I never resell my games, period, but this blocking used games thing is a huge issue for me if I want to loan my games to a friend or give them to a relative when im done.

I hate the idea of not being able to take a few game to a friends house and play them there, having to chug the system along when they already have one would be ridiculous.

It's also wrong for publishers/developers to think they deserve secondary sales money. Any item we purchase should be re-sale able, books, movies, CDs, video games, cars, everything.

[zerocrossing]

Not sure how you got a disagree...

Anyway, you are absolutely right, it also means that once you put a game in your console to play it you are devaluing it.

Games are art IMO and art isn't a consumable, its supposed to appreciated by more than just the original owner, and they should be able to sell it on for others to enjoy as they please.

[MASTER_RAIDEN]

im not even going to touch this probably very well written and carefully thought out article because there is absolutely no decent justification to blocking the use of used games.
pardon my language friends, but i honestly couldnt give a flying f*** about how it will benefit hardware manufacturers. as if these trillion dollar companies need any more of my hard earned money? the very idea can leave an individual seething in anger.
any company that even seriously contemplates the idea of blocking the use of used games should crash and burn miserably. Greedy pigs, nothing more.

any manufacturer that does this, be it MS, sony, nintendo, or an unnamed manufacturer, will not be getting a cent of my money come next gen. so go ahead and implement this type of thing. see what happens.

[matgrowcott]

If you don't want to read the article, fair enough, but see NukeItAll's comment above. There's lots of potential for reduced prices and fairer practises if the used market is gone.

Potential being the key work. Until it happens, nobody can say for certain.

[MASTER_RAIDEN]

i definitely read the comment before posting, and i too see the potential for a shift to happen. its just that digital distribution is nothing new at this point, and yet console makers have made little to no attempt to make their games cheaper than the full blown retail version. I could definitely see myself purchasing a digital copy of a game if in fact that digital copy was cheaper than a store bought version.
the problem lies in the fact that 5+ year old games are still at a stiff 20$ and up on xbl and psn. so why resort to digital when you could pick up a second hand copy of those games for 5$ or less? im not necessarily saying that "its only okay to support something if and when it benefits you" but come on..console makers have done almost nothing to make digital distribution more worthwhile than retail.

you want digital distribution to make sense? you want used games to become less of a problem? then take notes from steam...

[matgrowcott]

@XXDubStepXX

(sorry, apparently "reply" didn't register)

The reason that digital distribution is more expensive than brick and mortar stores is BECAUSE of the used market. They're not allowed to out-price themselves at retail, and retailers can enforce that because they know not selling a specific title is going to hurt the publisher more than it will hurt them (because they'll have used copies to sell days after release anyway).

You only have to look at the comments made by companies like Paradox during the GAME liquidation last year, and by members of the PS Blog whenever this matter is brought up. Retailers hold a ton of power, and until we go full digital or until publishers can afford to go without selling at GAME and Gamestop, cheap digital games on consoles is going to be impossible.

[The_KELRaTH]

Well if 2nd hand games are being effectively banned then better carry on to keep things all equal... No more 2nd hand cars, houses, books ..... NO MORE EBAY!

After all, the original building company doesn't make a profit when you sell your house.

What this shows is why the locked down digital market is so flawed as it completely breaks the free market economy we live in.
Looking at prices of even new digital distributed titles demonstrates that fair prices when there's no competition just doesn't exist and the more control the publishers have the more prices will go up.
While it can be suggested that retail is having an effect on digital distribution pricing you only have to look at software thats only available now on dd like map packs etc to see that retail is just being used as an excuse.

[Supermax]

Goggle is doing it now with there glasses you buy them and you can never sell them to anyone else.as for backward capability I think Any company that makes a profit off of used games should pay Sony Nintendo and Microsoft to put the hardware in there machines to allow backwards capability sinse it only benefits them not Sony ms and Nintendo.

[strigoi814]

My problem is i cant lend it to somebody else

[PooEgg]

There are a lot of gamers who buy some games new and some games used. Myself I buy most of my games new, but occasionally I will pick up something used, and I like having this option and feel it is my right as a consumer to chose if I buy something new or used.

Since I don't like having my rights trampled on, I would never buy a gaming system that did not support used games.

I honestly think the idea of blocking used games is foolish and I feel it would doom the system to failure, since not only would they lose gamers who only buy used games, they would additionally lose gamers like me who generally buy new games, but want to keep the option of buying used available.

On the other hand, they would keep those who only buy new and don't care about consumer rights, they would keep the hardcore fanboys, as well as gamers who have been brainwashed into thinking that buying used is unfair to those poor little game companies, and they might even keep the casuals who do not know any better. Perhaps that alone would save them, but I have serious doubts.

If nothing else I think this is a risky move.