Atari Think Second Hand Videogame Sales Are Bad For The Industry

Speaking at Atari's Live Event in London this week, Atari CEO David Gardner shared his views on why the second hand videogame market is really bad for the industry:

“Second-hand game sales represent consumer choice and desire. Obviously, it has economically been extremely painful for the industry… the publishers don’t benefit."

“But as games change and they become more and more network centric, the disc in the box becomes only one part of the experience. As that experience grows then it becomes not such a problem."

Atari President Phil Harrison agrees and believes online digital distribution is a method to counter-act the second-hand sales market:

“There’s no doubt that second hand games sales has a macro-economic impact on the industry and a lot of people get miserable about it. But it’s no coincidence that the most valuable games, the one’s that have the most lifetime as a game experience, are the one’s that don’t get resold, that don’t get traded."

“The games that have the embedded community, the embedded commerce, the extended, expandable experiences, are the one’s that you would never want to trade, the one’s you want to keep hold of. And that’s perfectly in line with our future strategy so we’re not that concerned about it."

We agree but at the same time we feel a lot of gamers out there have the opportunity to play specific games only because they became available cheaper, second-hand.

Source: GI