When it comes to touchy topics for gamers, the secondhand games market definitely springs to mind. For a long time used-games sales didn’t seem to warrant that much attention, but now with the rise of internet connection speed and DLC, we’ve seen some pretty extreme proposals for how to best ‘combat’ the resale of games. Epic Games is one of the more recent companies to come up with ways to regain profits from the secondhand market and now Atari has stepped up to throw in their two cents.
In an article over at GamesIndustry.biz, Atari has talked of the harm that the secondhand market has had on the gaming industry. David Gardner, CEO of Atari, believes that; “Obviously, it [the secondhand market] has economically been extremely painful for the industry... the publishers don't benefit.” However, Gardner’s solution to the “extremely painful” problem is not to focus on how to make money out of the resale of games, but to offer more online content and services for released games. “The games that have the embedded community, the embedded commerce, the extended, expandable experiences, are the ones that you would never want to trade, the ones you want to keep hold of. And that's perfectly in line with our future strategy so we're not that concerned about it.”
Atari’s approach is a unique angle in the rift that is forming between publishers that are fighting the secondhand market and gamers who make use of it. Surely no gamer out there has a problem with publishers and developers taking responsibility for their longevity of their titles. Let’s hope that Atari’s approach catches on.
Further reading:
Epic Games’ War on Trade-ins to Ruin Gaming
Double agent defends used game’s market
