Jameson Durall is a video games designer over at Volition, the creators of Saints Row: The Third. In his recent blog on AltDevBlog he has spoken out about the problems involved with having a used video games market, and how it can severely impact the industry it thrives upon.
In the blog Durall talks about different methods to combat the recent trend towards reselling games, highlighting the current publishers trick of tying up access to content in a single use code as a possible solution: "Buyers who do not purchase new, will have the opportunity to pay around $10 to get access to that part of the game just like everyone else. Some consumers complain about this method because the precedent has always been that it's included in the price and should come with it. It did for the person who actually bought it first...so was saving that $5 at Gamestop worth it for you?"
He also talked about the recent rumours that Sony will be reducing the price of download sales to encourage people to go digital, another idea he is in favour of. He was also very excited at the possibility of a hardware feature on next-gen consoles that would block the use second hand games.
"I think this would be a fantastic change for our business and even though the consumers would be up in arms about it at first they will grow to understand why and that it won't kill them"
At the end of the blog, Durall had a warning for consumers, retailers and developers alike: "In the end, I fully believe that we have to do something about these issues or our industry is going to fall apart. People often don't understand the cost that goes into creating these huge experiences that we put on the shelves for only $60."
He then added: "They also don't seem to realize how much they are hurting us when they buy a used game and how pirating a copy is just plain stealing."
Durall is acutely aware of the potential implications of strangling the used game market, but he remains unrepentant: "I know that some will say I'm not considering the retail games stores and the impact something like this would have on them...but remember they were doing fine well before the Used Games market became such a staple of their business. The truth is, they aren't concerned with how this business is affecting us so why should I care how these changes will affect them?"