There seems to be more and more developers and publishers giving their 2 cents on the used gaming market and how it affects their bottom line. From that stand point, yes I see that someone buying a used copy of Grand Theft Auto IV instead of a new copy would deny TakeTwo some chunk of change. What I don't get is why are these folks complaining when other companies in other markets rarely make a peep?
Let's take a few examples. I buy a shirt from Target at $20. I wear it for a while but I lose interest in the design and how it fit. I can't take it back of course but there are some stores that buy clothes for resale. I take it to one of those stores and probably get a few bucks if I am lucky and they in turn sell it for probably double what they paid me. Does the maker of the clothing complain these used clothing stores are eating into their profits?
A local home construction company builds a house and sells it for $175,000. The owners decide they don't want the house after a few years, puts it on the market, and manages to sell it. The original home construction company doesn't come back and lament over the loss of revenue with someone buying their past used house from the owner rather than a brand new one they built down the street.
I pick up a movie and a CD from Best Buy for $30 and decide after a few viewings and listenings I didn't want them anymore. No problem as I can go to my local trade in place and drop off the movie and CD in return for different ones or cash back. I haven't seen a big rash of complaints from the movie studios, music companies, or Best Buy saying they are losing money because I traded in something I purchased for something else in the same industry.
I can go on and on about other examples that include vehicles, applicances, and toys but the bottom line is the buying and selling of used goods is nothing new and software companies shouldn't think they are special enough to be above this practice. If games weren't priced so outrageously expensive these days maybe you'd have more folks buying a copy of your game instead of buying it off the local used games place. Maybe if you offered some online incentives like an extra 20 songs that Rock Band 2 is giving out, people would purchase your product as new more.
Well John, you may say, you just develop applications that aren't being sold to the general public and you'd be upset if you saw someone buying a used copy of your application over purchasing it straight from you. Personally, I would try to actually price the application at a reasonable price that I think would be accessible to more people. I'd also include incentives, support, and free additions so that people wouold be more inclined to keep the application and also feel they purchased something of sustained value. Even if someone picked up a used copy of my product, I'd count that as a potential future customer who might really like the product they picked up used and pick up my next one when it comes out rather than waiting for a used copy.
Games, like most other purchased goods through a B&M or online store, shouldn't be treated with any special provisions preventing people from reselling them for other games. If you want more people buying from you instead of used places, create high quality products, don't overprice them, and think of ways for the consumer to feel like they need to keep the game. Expect a portion of your revenue to be lost to the used gaming market, deal with it, move on, and concentrate on creating quality games.