When it comes to gaming politics, it's always a struggle between consumer and developer. The NES was a win for the consumer, despite Nintendo's heavy regulation on developers to ensure it didn't suffer a fate similar to the Atari 2600. Consumers created the demand thanks to Nintendo's quality 1st party titles pushing the way, and developers were forced to play by Nintendo's rules or suffer no chance (at it's height, Nintendo had 86% or so of the market, which I don;t believe has been beaten ever since). This is consumer-influenced base.

Then Sony came forward, with an appeal to developers to loosen regulations on them. The result was the polar opposite. People were drawn to the Playstation due to the vast amount of developers working on the system. This is developer-influenced base.

Usually, a lot of one side will encourage the other side, the real only exception being the Wii, which developers were probably unwilling to work with Nintendo's regulations in order to satisfy the broader market. It's now a time where developers dictate to the consumers what the developers want.

Come today....we have developers complaining about second hand sales eating into their market (like it's suddenly something new and never happened before this gen). Could the industry make another consumer-influenced approach and just throw all development support behind the Xbox720, if the rumours are true that the 720 will not allow used games to be played? They know that they hold the cards, and if ll 3rd parties suddenly rallied behind the Xbox720, it would cause 2 things:

1. Consumers would be forced to buy a Xbox720 due to the overwhelming vast library of games, much like what the original Playstation did over the N64.

2. Nintendo and Sony would have to follow suit to lure developers over, by instituting the same restrictions.

We are in a cycle of more and more developer incentives, ever since the Playstation appeared on the market. The Xbox720 may just be the next major selling console due to what developers want, and not exactly the consumer.

What are your thoughts on this?

I think blocking used games might scare a lot of 3rd parties. The PSQuattro is a very dev friendly console and I hear a lot of positive news from devs. I expect a lot of indie games and pc games. Creative Assembly, makers of Total War is supporting the PSQuattro for chrisssake! Also Diablo 3 and The Witness!

I don't think blocking used games is going to make developers exclusive to one system over another. Heck Steam doesn't have used games and yet the consoles did just fine. Also lots of developers will refuse to work on a system that blocks used games.

It depends entirely on how you look at it. Yes, devs are going to love the fact that used games are going to be blocked, but they're also going to love the fact that Sony may give them a much bigger audience through Gaikai than they've ever had.

A gamer that buys a used game and spends his money on dlc is still a potential customer.

One of the main things that helped propel the Playstation was its ability to be modded. This was new in the industry as far as I remember and being able to play 2nd hand games is very similar to that.

No, this is a case where the gamers decide what they prefer, and it won't be the restriction of 2nd hand gaming.

blocking used games will hurt the Xbox so much

vus Turing 3rd parties towards sony

Let's assume the Nextbox does restrict used games. And let's assume a Nextbox game would make more profit than a game on another console that played used games. Even if those were true, I don't see anything that suggests that the Nextbox would get noticeably more support than the other consoles. Even if the other consoles play used games, new games would still make money on the console in spite of the used game market, much like today. Because other consoles will still have opportunity for profit, developers aren't going to ignore it. They'll probably continue to make multiplats ike they do today. Why would they ignore profit?

I'd say,

Multiplats will still be on.

The occasional exclusive for those who really think used games block will help them.
The rest will be afraid.

i know a lot of rumours have been true recently but is this second hand milarky even realistic? i mean where will we even buy our games from?.. if game stores rely on the sale of games to stay afloat then what happens when we have a few months of crap release games and no one buys games new, because they cant sell second hand games where will the income come from