Used Games going to become more difficult to buy...??

[Impulsivity]

MonstaMack said:
Don't forget Downloadable Content.

Joe buys Rad Racer 6 used for $5. He finds the game to be awesome! Joe notices for $5 more he can get all the new cars to play with off of XBL. Joe just gave the developer some of cash, despite buying the game used.

  I agree with the DLC point.  I like the Battleforge model actually (its a really fun RTS game that uses the trading card game model).

  The game is free with limited cards and then you can buy more content (in this case more cards for more elaborate decks) for points which are only available from the publisher.  The devs have said that a lot of people who start free end up spending more then the retail price of a lot of titles.

 

  Another good example is dungeons and dragons online, since going free to play (with microtransactions) it has actually made more money then it ever did with a normal box price and sub model.

 

   If more games went free to play initially with microtransactions I think it would be beneficial to all involved.  I'd be happy to pay a token amount (say 10-20 bucks) to get the initial disk with some content and then add on to it if I like the game.  It also removes A) the draw of the secondary market (since most of the content is purchased outside retail channels) and B) the risk of paying 60 bucks for something that might suck since you pay a lot of the DLC money after you're already sure you like the main game.

 

  I think Burnout and Borderlands have done a nice job with making useful DLC and working paying for extra content into the mix as far as consoles go, but theres a long way to progress on the console side I think.  Most of the free or cheap initial game plus microtransaction DLC momentum is on the PC side of things.