During an investor meeting, GameStop CEO Paul Raines said that there is no way the next-gen consoles will feature any anti-used games tech. They made $2.6 billion from used game sales, and out of that $1.2 billion was pure profit.
“We think it’s unlikely that there would be that next-gen console because the model simply hasn’t been proven to work,” he said.
“Remember, used video games have a residual value. Remember GameStop generates $1.2 billion of trade credits around the world with our used game model. So, consider taking used games out of that, you’d have to find new ways to sell the games.
“And, our partners are good partners. The console companies have great relationships with us,” he added.
He mentioned that such a thing about next-gen consoles not playing used games was never going to happen, and people were getting worked up for no reason.
This is the kind of news that gets out in the industry and gets people worked up and hyper-ventilating and excited,” Raines said.
“The pre-owned business is not a cannibalistic business. If you follow the popular conventional wisdom, you would think pre-owned is replacing new. The truth is, pre-owned is an opening price-point category.
“The average price is $18. A lot of it is old generation. What is is is a category for the customer who’s maybe not ready to invest in a new game, but wants to get into the console business and console entertainment.”
He does make a lot of valid points, and if any console maker goes ahead with anti-used games tech, it will just give a massive advantage to their competitor.
So logically when you think about it, such a thing was never going to happen. If all the three console makers are determined -Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo- maybe it will work, but a single company will never go ahead with it.
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Thanks, Eurogamer.