GameStop: limiting second hand game sales hurts consumers

One of the more heated issues in the video game industry right now is the thrust of some studios to fight video game rentals and second hand game sales. GameStop tosses in its two cents saying that this will only end up hurting gamers, and even sales of new games.

One of the more heated issues in the video game industry right now is the thrust of some studios to fight video game rentals and second hand game sales.

For this end, some games offer once-only DLC for games fresh off shelves. Perhaps the most ludicrous move put forward was from Michael Capps of Epic Games:

I’ve talked to some developers who are saying “If you want to fight the final boss you go online and pay USD 20, but if you bought the retail version you got it for free”.

GameStop tosses in its two cents saying that fighting video game rentals and second hand games sales will only end up hurting gamers, and even sales of new games. Their point is that gamers need the “residual value” of their old games to be able to buy new games:

Anything that limits the transferability of a game from consumer to a friend of theirs, to selling it on eBay, to exchanging it and trading it with one of their friends, or selling it back to GameStop – I think is a bone of contention with the consumer.

[…] We will give out approximately $800 million in credits this year – trade-in credits that will go toward the purchase of new video games. The consumer, oftentimes and especially now, needs that residual value from those games as a trade-in to be able to afford a new video game.

• David Braben thinks buying pre-owned games hurt the industry
• Renting and borrowing’s out: three upcoming games offer exclusive content, but only once

Via Gamasutra