Looks like Nintendo is the newest jumper on the "we hate used games" market. In a recent interview with Venture Beat, Reggie Fils-Aime, the President of Nintendo of America, claims that gamers do not like used games.
"More and more retailers are experimenting with the used game model. We don"t believe used games are in the best interest of the consumer. We have products that consumers want to hold onto. They want to play all of the levels of a Zelda game and unlock all of the levels. A game like Personal Trainer Cooking has a long life. We believe used games aren"t in the consumer"s best interest."
I guess saving money isn"t in the best interest of consumers either. The used game market is huge, Game Stop has made a pretty penny successfully crafting into this market, who"s profits rose 22 percent in the last quarter. The used game model is working so well that other company"s such as Best Buy Canada (or Future Shop in canada) has started doing the same thing. Now that makes Best Buy, Gamestop, EB games, Blockbuster just to name a few to travel into the used game market. But what is Reggie"s reasoning behind this?
"Describe another form of entertainment that has a vibrant used goods market. Used books have never taken off. You don"t see businesses selling used music CDs or used DVDs. Why? The consumer likes having a brand-new experience and reliving it over and over again. If you create the right type of experience, that also happens in video games."
It"s nice to see that all video game companies thinks gamers are rich and don"t like saving money at the sacrifice of some torn packaging. What about you guys? Have you purchased a used game and if you did was your experience any different because of it? And what do you guys think the real reasoning behind their stance of the used game market?