We’ve already heard Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto express his view on used games – now Reggie Fils-Aime gives his stance the same, specifically on how Nintendo has been safe from the impact of used game sales since “the replayability of our content is super strong.”
Speaking to Polygon, Fils-Aime stated that, “The consumer wants to keep playing Mario Kart. The consumer want to keep playing New Super Mario Bros. They want to keep playing Pikmin. So we see that the trade-in frequency on Nintendo content is much less than the industry average – much, much less.”
Accordingly then, the best strategy to combat used game sales isn’t through DRM or periodic check-ins. “We have been able to step back and say that we are not taking any technological means to impact trade-in and we are confident that if we build great content, then the consumer will not want to trade in our games.”
As for other publishers’ responses to used games, it seems that things are more or less positive. “The fact of the matter is, we will see what happens with publishers, but it seems to me that every major publisher has come and said we don’t mind used games.”