From an article on Kotaku.
Gamasutra's Paul Hyman has a gloom and doom look at the used games market and why publishers are very unhappy with the situation; the comments section is surprisingly lively, and it's worth a look.
While GameStop (the main player in the used game market) management declined to comment, but several industry types (like David Braben of Frontier) put in their two cents. On how the used game market is bad!!!!!! for the industry at large, Braben had this to say:
"... [We] don't see anything from the used-game sales, which is one reason why the price of new games throughout the industry remains artificially high," he says. "I mean, the industry has to make all its money from the first sale since we don't get a penny from the subsequent dozen or so sales of that same game."
The used-game market may also be negatively affecting the quality of games, he notes. "Five years ago, a great game would have sold for a longer period of time than for a bad game — which was essentially our incentive to make great games."
"But no longer. Now publishers and developers just see revenue the initial few weeks regardless of the game's quality and then gamers start buying used copies which generates money that goes into GameStop's pocket, nobody else's."
I don't think that used games are the cause. They were around last gen and they didn't raise the price on games then. Cause of the price increase is the reason why I buy more used games this generation so far. I wish developers and Gamestop could come to an agreement. If not developers are probably going to go to unnessecary measures to try and put a dent in used games sales. We've already heard some small talk about it. Frankly as I said already I'm in full support of used games. Especially if prices on games stay like they are.
