It’s no secret that publishers utterly loathe the used market, and UK retailer GAME has given them something to really get pissed about. The store chain is planning to trial pre-orders for pre-owned games, allowing customers the chance to reserve something that somebody’s already bought.
Unlike a regular pre-order, where you’ve reserved the first print of a game as soon as it hits the store, you’ll be calling dibs on the first game to be returned. The new scheme is only in a trial stage right now, but you can already reserved used copies of Crysis 2, Homefront, Dragon Age II, Shift 2: Unleashed and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12.
Anybody who reads Destructoid regularly will know I’m an outspoken defender of used games, but this is just … peculiar. I’m trying to imagine the kind of person who is desperate to play a brand new game as soon as possible but doesn’t want to part with an extra five quid to do it, and all I can envisage is a grade-A douchebag.
