I have to say I have a problem of mistaking "RPG" for something else, regardless if the topic is about game or not...

Speaking about that battery save on the cartridge, I can see why it evolve to memory cards and then to have it build in the system with options of HardDrives and USB sticks to now that Cloud is the future... :/

And now what makes you think used games are responsible for this and that getting rid of them would make the situation any better? Cause I can't find a single reason for that to happen.

I hate it when a company wants to change things for its benefit by forcing customers into a worse situation. Give me incentives, don't hit me with a stick! I believe mandatory PS+ will be a big enough hit to the used games market for this gen. MS was trying to sucker punch us to improve its profits, while yet again Sony is giving us the carrot and will end up with the same if not better result. Ever since I got PS+ I started buying many more DLCs and digital games cause they are cheaper!! Or cause I got the game for free, liked it and wanted to get some more action or just bought it as a "thank you" for the devs. It really works and this comes from a guy who hates the idea of DLCs. That's a much better way of dealing with the problem of used games - just give people the digital versions for free or dirt cheap. Don't fight us MS, just give us a better solution - the way Sony is doing it right now.

I understand your frustration but used isn't the culprit. It's bad management. Look at EA; they're the perfect example.

Like many have said, it's not the used market's fault that a corporation like Game Stop are abusing a system that's really supposed to benefit people and not a bunch of greedy bastards (investors). That goes the same for dev/publishers in this industry.

If you look back at the previous generations before the 7 gen (mainly the 5th, and 6th,) most games weren't AAA, or even AA. There was a balance in the quality and most importantly, budget in games. You had games like Odin Sphere, Naruto Uzumaki Chronicles, Various COD spinoffs, Veiwtifull Joe etc. Games that had a lower budget compared to others but were quite decent or even great. On the other side you also had huge games like God of War II, and RE4. Now you see more of the latter and less than the other.

You got games like MGS4, most of Bethesda's (glitchy) games, new IPs like Watch dogs, Dishonored, etc. I can keep going but the list will get too big for me to get to the point. There needs to be a balance and an improvement in the quality of these games. If these companies expect to have better sales and less used copies floating around, they need to make their games better, and abolish this silly philosophy that most of the games they make can be huge blockbusters like in Hollywood. If developers keep this up then they're not going to survive any longer. They need to think more of long term.

I don't think games like Shenmue, and GTAIV weren't meant to cost 70-100 million anyway.

Steam is making me believe no used games and digital is the better way. Things work so well on steam... Publishers fighting for your dollar with deals, sales on everything non stop. And none of those sales are pushed by Valve appart from a game or two they made. Its all publisher and competition...

There is only one method I can think of that would be even better than Steam and that is subscription. I can see consoles offering a subscription model to compliment retail and digital game sales. Pay a monthly fee, play anything you want as much as you want.

And I have no idea what better solution Sony is giving us. Care to explain...

And if you want to sell that TV, you can. It doesn't hurt the TV industry if you sell your TV to someone else.

Of course you can trade games at Best Buy and buy a TV. Or you could trade in your TV and buy new games.

Fact: If you make games that people don't want to sell when they're "finished" playing it, it fixes everything. This is Nintendo's approach, and if you have a look at the used game market for first-party Nintendo titles, the vast majority of them have prices only very slightly below the price of a new game... in which case, new copies get sold. Notice how most "evergreen" titles are Nintendo titles?

If developers and publishers want their games to retain their value and not appear in the used game market, they should focus on making them in a way that encourages keeping the game. This isn't achieved by DRM, online passes, too much focus on online modes, etc, but by making a quality game that the player will want to return to in 6 months time, through deep, fun gameplay.

Also, as has already been pointed out by others, it's not just the "money gained from trading in a used game goes towards a new game" side, but also the "if I can trade in the game if I don't like it, then I'll be more willing to buy the game new". If you aren't sure of a game, why would you risk US$60 on it? On the other hand, if you can get US$40 back if you don't like it, then you're only risking US$20.

It's also worth noting that the gaming industry's biggest problem isn't used game sales, it's an obsessive focus on major existing IP, sucking each one of them dry of value and then discarding them. It's the videogame market equivalent of the oil companies. Compare with what Nintendo is doing - yes, they're making big-budget titles like Zelda and X, but they're also making games like Yarn Yoshi and Dillon's Rolling Western. They make the major titles, and they also make lesser titles that are cheaper to produce and provide more variety. And they provide appropriate levels of marketing (usually - Wii U marketing so far notwithstanding). And they have reasonable expectations of sales numbers - they don't release Metroid games expecting 10+ million sales just because it had a bigger budget than the previous one.

The gaming industry complaining about used games is like America complaining about illegal immigration as the cause for the massive and growing debt crisis - not only are they unrelated "problems", but proper understanding of the one would help to resolve the other.

So now please explain to me what is stopping anyone from giving us digital console games at Steam level prices? And why would the elimination of used games help this process? Cause they way I see it, the existence of used market adds extra pressure to cut the price of digital games, if it wasn't there they wouldn't feel such a need to cut the price. The success of Steam happened with used PC games and huge PC piracy on top of that. I doubt we would ever get current Steam without these two factors. Steam gave people the incentives, people WANTED to buy games there. These were not just punishments and constraints, the way MS was trying to do it.

The better solution is PS+. Subscribers get nice discounts on games and DLCs (10-20%) and get 5 games per month for free. Next month we're getting Battlefield 3 and most probably the DLCs will all get a pricecut for the subscribers (regular practice). Now think - whose gonna buy a used BF3 if they just got it for free? People can play it and if they like it what do they think? "Damn, I gotta get the DLCs now while they are discounted." Or: "This game is awesome, I'm gonna buy a DLC to support the devs." This really works. What's the end result? Used games become obsolete, devs get money they wouldn't get other way. The result is the same, but everyone is happy. You just have to give people incentives, not hit them with a stick and take their rights away from them!

Here are some reasosny why used games are important for the industry.

1. People sold there games, get Money and buy new games
2. People buyUncharted cheap realised how good it really is and buyed the Sequel day one when it Comes out
3. many games get abigger fanbase just because of used games and piracy.

I have absolutely no problem with publishers getting a cut of used games traded through profit-making retailers. But that is only acceptable if at the same time I can sell to you directly without publisher interference or taking a cut of that profitless transaction.

You have absolutly no proof that used games sells subsidize new game purchase. That is just as much an opinion as the OP. If you just sold your used game and right there was a used game and a new game why would that person purchase the new when he can save some coin and purchase the used. Gamestop gives you nothing for purchasing new but they have all kinds of incentives for you to purchase used.  I should know because there have been many times I would go into gamestop to get a new game but be offered the used.  They would say, "with the used game you get 14 day return", You get powerup rewards and in store credit etc.

Maybe in the past, used game sells used to subsidize new game purchase but the market and the retailers have changed.  The retailers have built a business on used over new compared to how it use to be in the past and it has hurt the industry.

Bunch of bullshit, still not true, deal with it.