With recent news that the next PS3 and Xbox 360 may not be able to play used games, be it without being able to physically insert the disk or some system of checking serial numbers, just as the PC has had, I don't see what the fuss is all about.
To me it's simply the companies that produce the games want to maximize their investment in a game, by making everyone that wants to play it, pay for it. Being unable to give a game to someone else in what ever way, is obviously good business for them. If you want to lend someone a game, it would be the entire console, not just the disk. If they go download only, then instead of lending your buddy a copy of something they might like, you just lend them the whole unit.
The part that is irksome is the person that originally purchased the game payed for everything. The content, the game, any online component it had, and the game was priced at what ever that company thought was the most they could get out of people for it. How does someone who is totally nuts into a game and plays it for ever, differ from someone who doesn't bother with a game and gives it to a friend, or sells it to a used games store?
The game still gets played, only so many individuals have to be supported for patches, online etc. When someone buys a used game, they're not making another copy of the game, they are just taking over from someone else.
If Bob buys a game and loves it for ever, plays it every day for 5 years, but Jim doesn't and just sells it to a used games store for someone else to buy, maybe even multiple people. How is that any different to Bob and Jim playing two copies of the game for a long time?
I rarely buy used games, or use the online component of any I do purchase, but I know this would kick my Gamefly right in the balls, and probably end that service for me, which I like very much thanks. I hope they find room in this new world, for rental plans, I really do. The PlayStation Plus plan is really starting to pay off with a few good titles here and there, and is delivering much more value than I thought it ever would.
Once people see the benefit of not having to swap, or care for, disks, and keep track of cartridges, they'll simply enjoy not having to move when choosing which game to play. In a very short time, you wont be able to remember what owning disks was like. Like a lot of technology, it'll just get easier to use, and why would anyone do it differently?
