Game developers and publishers have complained about the sales of used games for a long time. It's a contentious topic: gamers want to be able to buy and sell their games as they see fit—they bought them, after all—and developers realize the same game is often sold multiple times without any of the additional revenue generated going to those who made the game. GameStop's entire business model rests on buying and selling used games.

Cory Ledesma is THQ's creative director for wrestling games, and his ambivalence about the feelings of those who buy used games has caused this topic to flare up yet again. He has a point, though: why should anyone care about how used-game customers feel?

"We hope people understand that when the game's bought used we get cheated," Ledesma told CVG in a recent interview, defending the one-time use code included in new copies of THQ's upcoming wrestling title allowing online play. "I don't think anyone wants that, so in order for us to make strong, high-quality WWE games we need loyal fans that are interested in purchasing the game. We want to award those fans with additional content."

Online play costs very real money to implement and support. Resales of a game only provides revenue to the retailer, with the publisher stuck paying the bills for the online features everyone uses.

"In a literal way, when you purchase a game used, you are not a customer of theirs," Penny Arcade's Jerry Holkins wrote today. "If I am purchasing games in order to reward their creators, and to ensure that more of these ingenious contraptions are produced, I honestly can't figure out how buying a used game was any better than piracy. From the the perspective of a developer, they are almost certainly synonymous."

That's a bold statement, as gamers hate to be called pirates—and they will pirate your game in retaliation for being called pirates—but in both cases, the people behind the game aren't making any money from the sale. If you take the game online you're using their time and money. So where's the argument that developers need to keep these people happy?

Games don't degrade with age

"What other customers expect a used product be be identical to a new product?" a Penny Arcade reader wrote. "Buying a used car comes with increased wear (and thus decreased function). Buying a used book means you are risking page damage or a broken binding. Buying anything used means that you get a cheaper price for decreased function or increased risk.... if you know the game wont have multiplayer used, you can adjust what you are willing to spend on it, the same way you might offer a few hundred dollar[s] less for a used motorcycle due to rust."

Video games are different than most other used products, as the quality of the product doesn't decrease with age; the disc either works or it doesn't. Unlike the movie (which has home video) and music (touring and merchandise) industries, there are no secondary markets for games that publishers can tap into. Publishers and developers have one chance to make their money back with a game, and as long as online support is offered they have many chances to spend money on those playing that game. "Unlike the movies, we do not have a theater release. That boxed copy on the shelf (or digital download) is our only means of revenue generation. This is why we love digital delivery. There are no used games on Steam," another developer wrote to Penny Arcade. I know you guys catch a ton of s**t for talking about topics like this, but if even a small percentage of your readers walk away a little more educated on the subject then it is a big win for everyone (except gamestop)." Even Sony is looking into adding one-time use codes for its games.

Complain all you want: if you buy used games regularly, you're simply not the market anyone but GameStop cares about.

Photo by Rob DiCaterino