Used Video Games

Used video-game sales have recently been causing quite a controversy throghout the industry.

http://kotaku.com/5109646/recession-used-games-prices-and-choices

Personally, I think it's stupid to put restrictions on the used market. The right to resell something you own is a very important part, not just of the video game market, but of all intellectual property and physical property markets. The ability to sell something you purchase adds a large amount of value to the product in the first place. If you had to buy everything you own and couldn't sell it, not only would you have less money to spend, and consequently buy fewer products, you would also have less incentive to spend money on that product in the first place. You might decide that it's better value to go to the cinema instead. Note that this rant/argument is coming from someone who doesn't sell their used video-games. I naturally horde them for some reason. Nor do I ever buy used games.

One thing that bugs me is that everyone has to deal with used sales, not just game manufacturers. In a lot of ways, the used car market is almost as important as the new car market. Of 15 drivers in my family, 12 have never purchased a new car. Even the three who have purchased a new car have also purchased used cars. Books, consumer electronics, movies, furniture,... all of these have a large second hand market, and to the best of my knowledge, they're not actively fighting it. Cars and many consumer electronics devices, like games, have a huge initial R&D investment compared to individual production cost, yet anyone suggesting to ban used car sales would be laughed away.

Perhaps, rather than fighting used sales from a legal standpoint, they should actually make people not want to sell their games. Putting decent multiplayer in, or producing interesting games with very high replayability value will be enough for most people to hang onto them if they liked them. If they keep patching, adding new content, I wouldn't want to get rid of the game because I know I'll come back to it in the future.

Alternatively, maybe the video game producers should fight Gamestop and other used-game sellers with fire. If they offer to buy video games back from players for more money than Gamestop, or offer new games at a reduced price in exchange for a used game, they would probably begin to successfully fight used video game sales without actually killing alternative methods of offloading your old games (eBay, etc.). Our local Ford dealership will cut like £1000 off the price of a new car if you trade in any functioning car.
Video game produers can moan and whine about Gamestop for eating their profits but I don't see them doing anything to try to combat it other than trying to make it illegal.

I actually support making it a right to be able to re-sell digital licenses. If I buy £20 worth of downloadable content for a game, and sell it, I should be able to sell the downloadable content licenses too. Hell, if I buy a digital movie/game, I should be able to sell it on eBay.