The End of Used Games

I’m surprised it’s taken this long for used games to be eliminated, but I guess it required a new console generation.  Regardless, eliminating used game sales is an obvious move.  And I for one am actually enthusiastic about the idea of eliminating used games as I think it will reduce the cost of games overall (game publishers have profit metrics they need to hit regardless of delivery method, and if there are no more used sales, a larger share of the profits are going to the publishers lowering the burden on new games to pay for all of their profit).

I don’t however think it will behave as Paul Tassi says.  Instead, I think you are looking at a prisoner’s dilemma problem in the “older” game market.  For the game developers as a whole, it would be better to agree to a consistent slightly reduced price and not deviate from it.  That way, gamers will want games and be forced to pay the higher prices for them.  However, it is in the best interest of each individual publisher to have everyone else keep the price of their games high while that developer offers discounts and all the sales flock to their now lower-priced games.  That competition will be awfully difficult to avoid.  Now Microsoft and Sony will have the desire certainly to try to corral the developers and keep prices high, but the competition will also exist between the platforms.  Many gamers will have multiple consoles (and a PC!) and will quickly switch their gaming habits (all else being equal) to whatever platform offers the best deals.

It would be unfortunate if console gamers had to wait an entire additional generation to see one-year-old games for less than $10 which is commonplace on Steam.  Fortunately, I don’t see that happening, but of course, my opinion plus a cup of coffee can get you a cup of coffee.