Rumours about Sony and Microsoft to kill used games receives mixed reaction

If rumours are to be believed, both Sony and Microsoft will be taking steps to secure the market of single-player games by controlling and eventually curbing the resale of games.

By blocking used games, the companies will be encouraging people to go and buy the titles on full price instead of acquiring them at cheaper rates through other channels, ones that do not deliver the profits that the company desired.

The former THQ president of core games Richard Browne expressed his support of such measures as mentioned in an editorial published on GamesIndustry International. Contending that the resale of games had a negative impact on the gaming industry as a whole, he was totally in favour of blocking the owners from played used titles.

Browne went on to add that he would play an active role in encouraging Sony and Microsoft to take up what he referred to as the “Nuclear Option” for the sake of the industry’s future.

“Take a look at the most recent Ninja Gaiden game,” Browne said. “Why does that multiplayer mode exist? What effect did having to build it have on the single player experience? There is no reason for the multiplayer game to exist; it makes no sense in Ninja Gaiden’s universe. No doubt, the budget and resources for the team weren’t massively extended when the request for multiplayer was added, so it absolutely must have materially impacted the people building the core game.”

Further elaborating on the detrimental effects of used game market, Browne pointed out that it discouraged the developers from releasing more titles and even compelling them to pull the plug on projects in some cases.

The gamer community has not received this rumour well and responded by pointing out that the used market has been there for over two decades. However, that had hardly affected the industry, which went to show that it was not actually the second-hand games but something else that was causing problems for the industry.

Some gamers contended that the there were a number of titles in the shelves that hardly justified the price that a person had to pay for them. It was this factor that pushed gamers from purchasing new titles and instead turn towards the used game market.

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Posted by Muhammad Qasim Hassan on Apr 14 2012. Filed under Entertainment, Gaming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.