i work at game and my manager told me, if they carry on charging for preowned multiplayer, the company will retaliate by either making the new more expensive, or the pre-owned cheaper so it wouldn't matter either way and it will happen because without pre-owned theese companies go bust and shut down. the only guy getting screwed by this is the consumer.

"What makes them so special?"

Probably because they view it not as people playing the "disc", but as people playing their "intellectual property".

I have no idea though, I'm not a publisher. :/

Well If I could find games from a couple years ago that were new then I would buy new but there so damn hard to find. I bought Soul Calibur 4 a month or two ago and it took me 5 gamestops to find a used one with no manuel and it was it's last copy.

I think they are more pissed off that gamestop undercuts them by selling used copies for 5 bucks less than a brand new copy and people go for that (personally I'd go for the new copy, 5 dollars off is pretty bullshit). They probably wouldn't complain if gamestop wasn't being so damn greedy.

i'm pretty sure anyone selling a product hates the 2nd hand market.

Used game sales are great for the consumer.... At the end of the day thats what matters to me, I'm sorry but I'm trying to save money. If I can get the game at a cheaper price why not? If you're a dev that is just breaking even, you need to find a way to make compelling games at a smaller cost to your company.

If brand new videogames were to cost at forty dollars brand new more gamers will be willing to buy said game.

To each their own obviously , but the way i see it , used games are basically the same as piracy .

You aint giving any kind of support usually to the dev , and that one originally bought new copy wasnt bought by you anyway so the excuse doesnt fly .

If you aint willing to reward or support the dev , might as well save money , since its the supposed goal and pirate it .

If a game doesnt warrant your support , just avoid it ...

Great article. I am surprised we didn't hear automaker complaining about having to be bailed out because of all the used car sales. I guess nobody should ever resell anything according to game developers.

Games are digital goods -- if you can purchase them used, they are just as good as the new version, except cheaper.

Hence, the draw of used games. If they were like any physical industry, the new purchases would have value thanks to wear-and-tear issues. If they were like movies, they would have significant alternate revenue, by means of exclusive theatrical release before discs and rentals are available, and royalties on rentals (yes the movie industry does get royalties from rentals, and the games industry does not!). If it was the music industry, there would be more revenue streams from live shows, and radio royalties -- revenue from advertising itself!

But... the games industry has no such extra revenue. It provides service for free (online play, feature updates, and free DLC) to consumers who never paid the service provider. It sells hardware at a loss (except Nintendo!), so that retail can sell new copies of games to recover the money of the hardware loss and software development expenses.... except that retail sells used, because used yields more profit per unit, without the cost of paying the publisher "getting in the way".

Arguing that games companies should suffer (look at their financial reports lately... they suck relative to used retailers), so that you can have better games is ironic. The more these companies struggle, the more cheaply-made & copycat games you're going to see, plain and simple.

The retailers are the problem in this situation -- not the publishers, not the developers, not the consumers. They are taking your money, and fleecing you for your used goods, so they can make money in the short-term, and forget about what you want as a gamer, with regards to new game concepts, and other risks the publishers can't afford to take.

Retail should pay publishers for extra online play codes and DLC codes, and then include them for FREE with used sales. The first retailer to do so will dominate all the others, and the industry will be better off, as a whole.

"what makes game developers so special? Cars, real estate, DVDs, CDs, books, clothing and really just about everything else has a resale market. The only three things I could think of that don’t fall under this basic economic model are food, condoms and diapers"

Pure awesome