Game stores in this country give a discount to people trading in games – there is a catch – only on 2nd hand goods. So it keeps the cycle going. But there is a chance both scenarios would happen.

There is nothing overly wrong with 2nd hand gaming IF companies (take for example Bioware and Dragon Age’s one off DLC offer for new purchases) prepare themselves for this scenario. DLC, in game adverts* and price drops can all help soften the blow of a 2nd hand sale.

*if a game managed to score a deal discretely advertising a drink or something similar there would no doubt be some compensation – hopefully increasing revenue

I would say it would be wise for companies to pair piracy and 2nd hand in the same group of barriers to sales. Though bearing in mind that it should not intrude on legitimate consumers (i.e secuROM)

We gamers truly are a highly demanding, fierce, easily insulted and aggressive consumer. Temperamental to the core.

But you are a serious whackjob if you think that people should be refused the right to resell their property. I bought a game, I bought the right to play and use it, therefore I should have the right to sell that right to anyone else, for any compensation I deem worthy. It’s that simple.

Therefore, there are two groups of people to blame for the sorry state of things. People that are willing to buy second-hand games at rip-off prices. And two, the video game publishers that have ruined the second-hand industry without invasive DRM that essentially makes all games “rented” and not “bought”.

I have a Sierra ‘InAction’ magazine from the early 90s. It claimed games will drop to the $5-10 range, as the result of CD-ROM’s eliminating piracy; however, with this chance at hand, it still didn’t happen & shortly thereafter, CD-burners & media became affordable. A missed opportunity.

Further, games are terrible these days. The demos are often more like videos than the shareware of old, they often restrict user-generated content in ways the old never did (i.e., test drive unlimited vs. test drive 3), and then try to charge piles of cash for minimal amounts of additional content or even patches. Regardless of who is driving this trend, the motive is greed. The result is dwindling profits, no surprise.

Good point. Online sales do not need publishers either, though – they only need a distributor. Steam fills that role, Amazon could come up with something similar – or simply partner up with Valve – and even Google might not be above stepping in. Traditional publishers like Electronic Arts will ultimately go the way of the dodo.

And there IS a second-hand market online. Selling Steam accounts may be a violation of usage terms in some countries, but I have yet to see Valve drag their own customers before a court. Although I’d really love to see a judge slam the first sale doctrine into their face so they implement a reliable and safe procedure to transfer licenses to other accounts.

Thanks to student debt I barely make enough to afford 1 new game every month.

The only games that will get that sort of money from me are games that are ART.

This hypothetically applies to an open ended RPG with lots of story, providing options for every path I would realistically want to take and with NO CUT CONTENT.

Bleating about having to make tough choices because of not enough time will only mean i’m picking up your £40 game gold edition for £10 with expansion packs a few years later.

Compare buying a video game to the purchase of a movie ticket. The theatre is selling you an entertainment experience. For your $10 you get to sit for 2 hours in front of their big screen, big sound, and watch a movie which may not be (legally) available to you yet through other channels.

Well, the developers who make games are trying to sell you an entertainment experience also. It usually costs around $60, but you can play it in your own living room and as often as you like for as long as you like (or until you get bored of it). But don’t think they are just greedy — you have to realize that it took several years for them to make that game that you got bored of in a single week. Dozens or (more likely) hundreds of people worked really hard to make that thing and get it shipped and into a box and on the shelf so that you could buy it.

My opinion is that as a customer, the (morally) right thing to do is to pay the $60 for a new copy so that the creators get some recompense for their efforts. Paying $55 to some reselling middlemen at GameStop, and then selling it back to them for $28 so they can resell it to another guy at $55 (and again five more times), is the morally wrong thing to do, because the people who worked hard to bring that game into existence and make it possible for you to play it, get nothing in this scenario.

Yes, you can probably tell I’m a game developer. I always buy my games new at retail, unless its an old game that I can’t get anywhere except used. I would even rather spend $60 on a game from one of our fiercest competitors, and give them some money for their efforts, than buy their game used and give that money to GameStop.

Nowadays we are faced with the choice of an illegal version that just works, or one that will potentially break down and cause us to have to ring some sort of customer support number and spend hours convincing the representative that we’re not software pirates (If I was a pirate I’d be playing this game already!!!)

I don’t want to buy download versions, I love videogames and I like buying a boxed product, but if the DRM trend continues that is what I’ll be forced to do (kudos to Valve for taking a stand against destructive DRM on STEAM)

So, instead of moaning about second hand, try treating your most loyal customers, who WANT to buy new games with a little more respect.

They were greeted by a host of online retailers that offer Diablo 2 CD keys for just $4.99. That includes the expansion too!