Sony CEO 'totally opposed to blocking used games'

[Joelcool7]

Aceevil it isn't that simple. It costs millions to run those gaming servers and operate PSN. EA started using Online Passes largely because EA runs its own servers on 360 and PS3, after a year or two when gamers are no longer buying the game new it starts to bleed money to maintain servers. But if EA gets 10-15$ every time a new gamer purchases the game to use EA's servers it will pay to keep the online functionality going for the full life time of the hardware and beyond.

Think of it like this. I buy a refillable Big Gulp from 711 it can be refilled indefinitely for free and I pay 100$ for it. After two months of getting a slushy every day I decide to sell the cup for 70$. A new customer that did not pay 711 a cent is now going to use the cup and get free refills, a few months later when he's sick of slush y's he sells. This goes on for three or four years and I the retailer have now paid 300+$ on refilling the cup. But wait why I am I refilling a cup of someone who never paid me for the service?

The way it is supposed to work. Guy buys the refillable slushy cup. Uses it a few months till he is sick of slush y's then every once in a while he refills it. This way he won't likely cost me the retailer more then I charged for the product and I make a profit large enough to sustain the program and to bring out future promotions.

Sony is not charging for their PSN network. Yes you can get their premium service but the main service is free. They need to make some income to rationalize maintaining this service and customers who buy used should contribute to maintaining PSN.

GameStop selling used games above 20$ and not giving anything to the publisher or developer is highly damaging to the developer. Less so for companies that Microsoft runs their servers but it is pretty costly in the long run.

Online gaming is not a product it is a service. You wouldn't expect to pay a single 100$ fee for cable for two years and then sell the service to your friend expecting the cable company to offer him the service they offered you free of charge. Unlike old games that had local multiplayer and a good offline campaign those products did not need to be maintained and no service was provided.

Sony however cannot stop used games sales. They know it the exact same way Microsoft does. Retailer retaliation would be swift and damaging. Retailers would give Sony less shelf space or possibly stop carrying their products altogether. 48% of GameStop's profits come from used sales and any move that threatens that would lead to GameStop not wanting your console tl sell. GameStop remains one of the largest gaming software and hardware retailers in North America. Even online retailers like Amazon would be pissed as they too generate profits off of used sales.

Any move against used software would need solidarity between all three manufacturers. Something that will not happen. If Microsoft and Sony both went the route of blocking used game sales but Nintendo did not. Retailers would give Nintendo 60+% of the shelf space. Retailers would take it personally upon themselves to promote WiiU as much as possible because it is their revenue!