Does buying pre-owned games hurt the industry?

[Momma Bear]

David Braben thinks buying pre-owned games hurt the industry



[Only registered users can see links. ]I never thought selling old games can be a hazard to the gaming industry. Well for Frontier founder and creator of Elite, [Only registered users can see links. ], [Only registered users can see links. ]’s act of selling pre-owned games is detrimental to the gaming industry.
The decision of HMV to do this is ’shocking’ for him and he also thinks the company take action as soon as possible before further damages happen.




He explains, “The shops are not giving us a way of distinguishing between pre-owned and new. So the shops are essentially defrauding the industry. “
His firsthand experience of receiving an old copy for the same price of a new unit must have left a sour taste in his mouth, as we’re sure a lot of you guys out there can empathize with. He thinks this is very disgraceful because it really destroys the shelf-life of their games.


We’ve got a lot of retailers eating our lunch and refusing to sell full-priced games. I’ve been in a shop where I’ve tried to buy a copy of a relatively recent game, and I’ve taken an empty box off the shelf and they’ve given me a pre-owned copy. That, I think, is disgraceful…Not holding stock of new games, substituting them with pre-owned games at the same or much the same price… That is really destroying the shelf-life of our games.
So what’s the solution to this problem? The game industry should look into having a similar model as that used for DVDs and video sales, which are rental copies.



They brought out rental copies, and copies not for resale or rental. That distinction is really important in the video market, and all of the chains honour it because they know it’s more than life’s worth not to.

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I just don't get the game being $3 cheaper than if I bought it new....