Does buying used hurt developers?

[Khuutra]

Raze said:

Khuutra said:

Here's the thing, though

A DD-only model is necessarily going to lose money because it appeals to a more narrow userbase. There is goign to be at least one company who provides physical media solutions, and all the customers will go to them. You'd have a point if there wasn't going to be any alternatives, but there will be because not every company is blindingly stupid.

Again, if nothing else, Nintendo will be the guys to break that model.

But you're agruging a point that one company will provide physical media. What if *none* do, in an effort to keep up with their competitors?

That's just not going to happen.

The scenario you're describing relies on the idea that all hardware manufacturers launch DD-only all at the same time for all systems, period. That means they'd have to release damn near day-and-date with each other, otherwise there's going to be an ability to gauge the way the market is reacting in comparison to the ability to buy hard copies - that is, the DD-only system may flounder and die while people continue to buy physical media systems.

The companies will not launch simultaneously, and they will not all go the same route because that would mean abandoning way, way, waaaay too many potential customers. What you're talking about is hardware manufacturers relegating themselves to addressing a much smaller market, which will not happen until that "smaller market" is no longer smaller.

More, you talk about "keeping up with competitors" as if this were a race toward some ideal value. It isn't. Have you noticed how one hardware manufacturer in particular never complains about used sales? How, in fact, they actually recently encouraged people to seek out the used market for certain discontinued games?