Why do so many gamers think used games are bad?

As you may or may not know, there's rumors out there that the next generation of consoles will actually lockout used games.

Yes, that's right, you would not be able to purchase a used game and use it on your console without paying a fee to unlock the content.

Lame.

I have never understood this whole rant by developer/publishers that they are getting cheated out of their hard earned money, because of used game sales.

I bought a book once. When I was done with it, I sold it. I transferred those rights of ownership to someone else. I owned it, so I had the right to transfer that ownership to whomever I wanted (in this case someone who offered me the right amount of money). This isn't a new concept. It's called First-sale doctrine, and was established about 100 years ago by the lovely supreme court.

Basically the idea is that as the owner of a legally obtained copy of copyrighted material, I can transfer that ownership to anyone I want. So, if I by a book at Barnes & Noble (the book representing the legally obtained copyrighted material); once I am done with it, I can sell it, give it away, throw it away or whatever as long as I transfer the legally obtained object itself, in this case the book. Meaning that I could not buy the book, and sell a photocopy as the photocopy was not an authorized copy. Like used books, when I buy a video game, I just obtained a legal copy of copyrighted material. When I am done with the material should I so desire, I can go to GameStop or eBay or wherever and sell the legally obtained object.

As I stated before, this isn't new. First-sale doctrine has been around for over 100 years (Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus in 1908) and as a result we have used bookstores all over the country.

But the greedy game publisher has decided that they aren't making enough and the looked at those used game sales and started complaining.   And the sad thing is, some of you gamers are buying into this crap.   Does it ever occur to you that if the publisher lowered the new game price, they would sell more copies?   I've actually heard pubs and devs say that the high prices are because of the used game market.

What?!?

Last time I checked, basic economics teaches us that used prices help keep the new prices down.
Any time a lower cost alternatives (in this case, used games) is available it presents a challenge to the higher priced item (new games).  Simple, so as a publisher, if I wanted to make more people buy my product new I have one very obvious solution.   I simply lower the price of the new item.   This makes the cost of entry for all involved cheaper and will force the alternative market (used games) to react by lowering their prices as well (and in turn lowering the return value price if I sell it back) making the new product more attractive.   In the end, by lowering prices, I would sell more new copies.

But instead, the game publishers have decided that they want to whine and cry and stamp their feet and tell us how unfair it is that the evil GameStop has taken their money and their poor starving children with no shoes and the out of work developer and the time standing still while the world crashes in upon us...phew!

And the gamers bought it.   It worked.  I see gamers arguing for the publisher and against GameStop.   It's insane.

If I was a home builder, and all of the sudden I starting putting out marketing materials and press releases and sound bytes saying that's horrible that these people are selling their home to someone else.  I built that and now I don't see a penny of that resale.   Oh whoa is me!   Or an auto manufacturer, or a furniture manufacturer or whatever.   If they did that, we'd all laugh and think they were nuts.

But it's okay for the game publisher.


I just don't get it.