Preowned Games More Damaging Than Piracy

Co-founder of Blitz Games Studios Andrew Oliver has explained that the preowned games market is more detrimental to the industry than the pirate world.

Given the large degree of game trading the amount of royalties going back up to the publisher can be drastically lowered he said. Oliver told Develop magazine:

"I understand why players do this, games are expensive and after a few weeks of playing you've either beaten it, or got bored of it so trading it back in to help pay for the next seems sensible when people are short of cash."

"[But] the money going back up the chain is a fraction of what it was only a few years ago. This is a much bigger problem than piracy on the main consoles."

Erm, well then, there’s your answer. Make games cheaper and/or make them better. People aren’t going to be flush with cash any time soon my friend so you’d best think smart.

The pre-owned market is definitely growing as Argos, Asda and Tesco have all started game trading services this year.