"I hope digital distribution stabs the used game market in the heart."

-- Chris Avellone, Chief Creative Officer, Obsidian Entertainment

If you've read any of my older content over at my Consoleation blog, you'll know that I'm a defender of the used game marketplace. Used games have existed for decades, but it's only recently that the industry has declared them Public Enemy #1 and expressed desire to see the market killed. It's a short-sighted stance, driven by a change in direction towards greed and blockbuster revenues. Ridding the marketplace of used games-- especially in this era of $60 offerings-- discourages impulse buying from consumers and furthermore eliminates any potential protection from buying a bad game. 

Those against the practice of used games like to use the argument that it doesn't make sense to pay "$5 less" for a used game versus a new one, or that consumers are stuck in a used cycle where they trade used to buy used. These are not all-encompassing scenarios. Not all used game sellers are GameStop, so some used games can be sold for different prices. I wouldn't take a chance on forking out $55 or $60 for a game that I'm not familiar with, but if the price is less, I might. Dead Space is a perfect example of this; I'd heard about it but the demo really didn't hook me at first. I found a good deal on a used PS3 version for $35 and gave it a try. I went on to buy the Xbox 360 version new and then bought the Collector's Edition of Dead Space 2. It was a used game that convinced me to buy new, and yes, I did trade in some of my games to help afford the $80 asking price. 

The idea of being able to recoup some losses for buying a game and not being satisfied with it isn't new. I'm willing to bet that most of you have bought a game (or three) that didn't quite work out for you. Being able to sell or trade in these unwanted games gives consumers a bit of an out. No, you won't recoup the $60 you wasted, but even getting $20 back is still $20 more than you had. Perfect example of this for me was Brutal Legend. The demo represented exactly what I was looking for with hard rock and lots of action, so I preordered and dropped $60 on launch day. Upon getting past where the demo ended, RTS sequences absolutely killed any interest I had in the game. Thankfully, having the option to sell it put a little bit of money back in my pocket. Taking that option away from me, as someone who buys games regularly, automatically curtails my spending. Demos and reading a couple of reviews won't be enough to sell me on a game. It needs to be worth every penny of the $60+ that I spend on it. Impulse buying, which accounts for more purchases than any publisher is willing to admit, would be essentially nullified. 

I get why publishers have this disdain for used games. They feel entitled to a share of the resale revenue, and, in a perfect world, they'd get it. Publishers have also had years to open a dialogue and try to get their fair share without using consumers as pawns to get their way. It's not excusable for publishers to embark on such a mission now that the technology favors them. Publishers are also failing to recognize that entertainment spending is trending down as discretionary income shrinks. The industry spent years on getting consumers interested in video games, and that's great when the economy is running smoothly. Now that times are tougher and consumers are looking to spend less, forcibly trying to remove used games makes the industry look bad. 

Digital distribution isn't the cure-all that publishers want it to be, either... unless the industry wants to actively limit the numbers of games that consumers buy. Limited hard drive sizes, bandwidth caps, and limited availability of high-speed internet connections all stand in the way of this digital future that the industry seems to want so badly. Games become more expensive this way as consumers need to watch their bandwidth and may need to upgrade speeds (if they can) so that downloads don't take overnight periods to complete. For consumers who don't have these options, they're all but taken out of the market, leading to lost revenue. All of this is worth the lowered overhead of eliminating physical media-- and, in the process, stabbing at the heart of the used game market? 

No, it really isn't. 

I invite Obsidan Entertainment to stab away. When the mission is complete and the industry takes a turn for the worse over something that's PERCEIVED-- and not proven-- to be a problem, remind me to not grieve over the loss of revenue and jobs.