The debate over second-hand games rages on, and if you are a regular reader of Destructoid, you’ll quickly learn that most of us don’t quite see eye-to-eye with EA, David Braben and Epic on this one. Second-hand games are awesome, and the games industry should stop trying to be the exception to one of the most basic rules of trade. Simple as.
Unsurprisingly, Gamestop is also a big supporter of second-hand games, probably because it makes a lot of bloody money from them. Of course, the retail chain is dressing it up under the guise of looking out for the consumer, stating that a lot of customers will be upset should used games cease to exist.
“I think it creates contention not only for us, yes, but also for the consumer,” claims CEO Dan DeMatteo. “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.”
DeMatteo states that the consumer is “trained” to see residual value in videogames, and that nowadays more than ever, such value needs to exist. Now, one of the first things I’ve learned from my American adventures is that Gamestop’s trade-in rates are abysmal (they have nothing on Gamestation) but I do fully agree. Again, this goes back to the argument that beyond videogames, everything has residual value, unless it’s food or diapers … but hell, even someone will take used diapers off your hands if you use the Internet. The games industry loves Capitalism, but starts pissing and moaning when it comes back on them. You can’t just pick and choose that stuff.
