Restricting sales of second-hand games ‘would be awesome from business perspective’

A lead developer at Crytek has publicly supported the concept of console manufacturers blocking access to second-hand games.

Rasmus Højengaard, the Swedish director of creative development at Crytek, said “from a business perspective that would be absolutely awesome” if a next-generation Nintendo, Microsoft or Sony console restricted access to games bought pre-owned.

“It’s weird that [second-hand sales] are still allowed because it doesn’t work like that in any other software industries, so it would be great if they could somehow fix that issue as well,” Højengaard (pictured) told CVG.

Amid a craze of speculation regarding PlayStation 4 (codenamed Orbis) and Xbox 720 (codenamed Durango), it has been rumoured that Sony and Microsoft are both considering technologies that will reject pre-owed discs.

Neither Microsoft nor Sony has confirmed any details regarding their next generation systems.

Retail giant GameStop recently claimed it is unlikely that anti-pre-owned technology would exist wthin the next generation Xbox.

Many developers and publishers routinely lament the effect that second-hand game purchasing has on revenues. Money generated from pre-owned game sales go exclusively to the retailer.

Blitz Games Studios co-founder Andrew Oliver previously claimed that the pre-owned business is “worse than piracy”.

 

I have a strong feeling all this talk about restricting pre-owned sales will come true next generation. For those of you who have not heard yet. There has been talk that companies will block the re-use of already purchased games, or charge a fee (like $10) to “Re-activate” an already used game. How do you feel about companies going to this model?

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