Killing the industry? Since when is the industry dying.

I think used games hurt potential sales but not by that much. If anything high prices of video games is the one that hurts it. Buying used consoles and games just looks sweeter from that perspective.

Used games are good at keeping developers from getting too cocky. It forces them to put more content that may only come new or keep prices at a competitive price. I welcome used games.

In certain ways it actual helps, when people know a game can be traded back in for $20 if they don't like it or sold for more it gives the game a certain inherent value in the consumers mind. If videogames were more like magazines where used copies are worthless people probably wouldn't be as willing to spend $60 on each title.

Also if used games are bad for the market I would suspect rentals are even worse since far more people play a rental game than most used and resold games. Yet most game companies allow rentals.

So you are essentially arguing that the video game industry is super special and cannot be compared to any other industry. Even though virtually every other industry in the world can live harmoniously with a second hand market, video games are unique and cannot. That's possible, but I hope you'd agree that's very unlikely. Again, I posit that it's much more likely that the business model in gaming is just bad.

Here are some solutions:

1) Stop making games that cost so much to produce. Make only handheld and casual titles, then sell them for 20 dollars. Then just like Music/DVDs, the used sales wouldn't hurt so much because the price of new games is already so cheap.

2) Begin to unify around a single platform. Split platform sales increase costs even further.

3) Make games with more replay value. Stop making single player games, which can be returned very quickly. Games like Chess, Mario Kart, Halo or Super Smash Brothers are more often kept because people continue to replay them. This problem is compounded by the fact that many single player games are getting shorter, which further increases their chance of resale.

I'm sure I could come up with more solutions, but those are the first few off the top of my head.

I think we need a full out revolt if the consoles try to move to disc-less systems. Then there would be no used game market and this would reduce the number of games most of us could afford.

Actually this would make it cheaper due to piracy. You hack and copy it to a memory stick and take it anywhere. Just look at the PSP and how its software library is being played now.

I'm all for used game sales. I used to buy a ton of games when i was younger and strapped for cash. Ironically now that i have more money i tend to rent most games and if i buy them i usually trade them in once i'm done playing them. 60 is a lot for a game considering most games released suck or are very short.

A product is worth exactly what you're willing to pay for it. If you aren't willing to pay full price for it, then you're going to almost certainly either buy it used (or otherwise at a lower price), or not buy it at all. It's a well-understood principle of economics, yet game developers want to pretend that it doesn't exist and that they can jack up the price on games and still get blockbuster sales without really changing the core content of the game they release.

Used games are not and never have been a "threat" to the industry. The only real "threat" the industry faces is developer arrogance and the resulting attrition. You see, as with every entertainment sub-industry, the video game industry relies on its customers to survive. And also like any entertainment sub-industry, efforts made to favor the developer/publisher over the customer will always backfire in some fashion. People send the strongest message to developers with their wallets, and if people are buying their games used instead of new, that sends the message to developers that their product isn't worth the entry price being asked to those consumers.

Instead of reacting to this by considering what the customers want and making more affordable products, many game developers are trying to make a call against used games and to get people to only buy new. This sort of tactic does not and has never worked. They tried to get people in the US to "buy American" in the 80s during the trade imbalance, but people still kept buying Japanese and European products. Why? Because the Japanese and European products actually suited their needs better or were better priced. It's the same thing here. People will always go where the highest value to them personally can be found. If developers want to stop used sales, they need to make products which people won't want to sell, products which they'll be willing to pay full price for.

DLC was originally created to stop gamers from selling their used copies and now...

Developers don't want us to sell our copies, so they create some new multiplayer maps and charge us $10???

Good point gebx. I mean, take Gears of War 2 for example.

Great game but man its a piece to play online. Most games can't field a full party, takes forever to find a game and some games have terrible lag. Let about 1 month after release they release a map pack for $10? Apparently these maps didnt make the final cut but you want me to fork over $10 when the regular online play is still heavily broken? Good call epic!

Used books hurt no one. Neither do used games.