Game devs are at war with game re-sellers. Some of their tactics you may be familiar with. LINK

Here's how it boils down. Used game re-selling is a $2B industry. Mostly because many regard the launch prices for many titles to be too much of an investment, sometimes reaching $50+. Buying used sometimes well past the launch date makes a lot of dollars and cents to a lot of gamers. However developers have made it harder on gamers who buy used from re-sellers because lots of titles have exclusive content that can only be accessed if bought retail or if the original passcodes are obtained. The former can be out of the question for many gamers and the latter can be nearly impossible.

Funnily enough, i bought a game called "Crackdown" used.

I'm kinda split on this issue.

On one hand, new games are expensive. Get a pack of games, and that's already worth as much as a console. These buyers have rights to premium access.
On the other hand, they are consciously paying more for the privilege of playing earlier. You could in theory wait until price drops to play the games, right? So getting a used game is a bit like that. Except that the publisher gets no money there.

Concluding thoughts: well... that's another reason for the industry to edge towards digital distribution, isn't it.

Interesting read there.

Would it be possible for one of you to briefly summarise that article in a paragraph or two. Then we can post it in the news forum!

Done.

I think it's a better option than preventing 2nd hand games completely (like steam).

What I don't like, is that if I buy the game on release day, I can not be guaranteed completely that I will be able to use that code 4 years later, when I got a new comp and the publisher gone bankrupt.

A side not is that this is one of the better strategies against pirates as well...


I think that the future of gaming, will be more like renting, games that have monthly subscription (mmorpgs) has a much more stable flow of income, and will lead to more quality rather than quantity...

Care to explain? I don't see how firsthand-exclusive DLC would have an effect on piracy, if that's what you're talking about.

Well, when I think again of it, so don't I think it will stop them completely... But it will add a extra step to get the full game which may cause troubles for one or two.

If they're not willing to pay for the base game, then i doubt they will suddenly start buying the games new just for that extra bit of content.