Yes and no In my humble opinion; this is how I see it. For a brand spanking new game like Modern Warfare 2, still in production, I think its is hurting them since the game is still selling, in production, and making a huge profit. On the other hand, for game thats out of print, either stoped or is going to stop selling, and people losing interest to a point where its forgotten and they moved on.

This is why I bought the two Rogue Squadron games and the two Uzumaki Chronicles games. Plus i dont buy recent games that are used; GS always jacks up the prices. When I was buying Final Fantasy X(still have it), the guy offered me a used for 45 dollars. I prefered the fresh copy for 5 dollars more.

Used gaming should be taken into account in their business model. Those studios that fail because of piracy and used games are doing something wrong. If their games are worth the purchase their are plenty of 'honest' people who are willing to pay full price for their games (or at least wait until a price drop to buy new).

In the old days of gaming when you could by PC games from 20-40. They all came with little knick knacks. cloth/paper maps, story books, mouse pads..... as these were dropped I noticed people were less inclined to buy new. Theres something to be said for bonus items that people may actually want or have use for.

Obviously console games never had this. Except in the rare case.

Meh, I usually threw those away because they were generally the bare minimum quality.

But you're agruging a point that one company will provide physical media. What if *none* do, in an effort to keep up with their competitors?

That's just not going to happen.

The scenario you're describing relies on the idea that all hardware manufacturers launch DD-only all at the same time for all systems, period. That means they'd have to release damn near day-and-date with each other, otherwise there's going to be an ability to gauge the way the market is reacting in comparison to the ability to buy hard copies - that is, the DD-only system may flounder and die while people continue to buy physical media systems.

The companies will not launch simultaneously, and they will not all go the same route because that would mean abandoning way, way, waaaay too many potential customers. What you're talking about is hardware manufacturers relegating themselves to addressing a much smaller market, which will not happen until that "smaller market" is no longer smaller.

More, you talk about "keeping up with competitors" as if this were a race toward some ideal value. It isn't. Have you noticed how one hardware manufacturer in particular never complains about used sales? How, in fact, they actually recently encouraged people to seek out the used market for certain discontinued games?

OP: Of course it does, it only makes sense. If five people buy the same copy of the game within a period of two years, that's four potential sales they won't be getting.
I never trade in my games though, I get a few bucks (as in 1-3) and then the store cashes in and sells it for ten-twenty times as much at the very least. No thanks.

Khuutra - Never say never, that's all Im saying

It hurts them sure.

As it also hurts every other business. The big difference between buying a used game and buying a used car (or clothes, etc.) is that games (and movies and books arguably) are pretty much 'one time' playthroughs. Sure, there is some replay value, but very few games without multiplayer give the owner too much incentive to hold on to the game after it's been beaten.

Yeah, maybe later I'll want to replay some of my old games, but maybe not. With cars and clothes, you use that stuff everyday and while you could have bought used clothes or a used car, the person you bought it from more than likely (since those are borderline necessities) went out and bought a new car or new clothes. So the manufacturer still has 2 sales for 2 items belonging to 2 people.

It means they don't make a sale. But that's just economics.

And if they think digital distribution is the answer -- developers better talk to the music industry, which likes to throw around figures like 95% piracy.

Mike from Morgantown