‘Selling Pre-Owned Games Is Worse Than Piracy,’ Says Blitz Games

According to Andrew Oliver of Blitz Games, trading in games loses so much revenue, it’s comparable to piracy. Oliver states that it’s actually worse than computer piracy, as the act of re-selling a game is legal, and is encouraged by most stores. The guys over at Blitz Games have developed many amazing titles, meaning whatever they say has to be completely and undoubtedly true. Joking aside, Oliver presents a meaningful point, and it’s interesting to think about its effect on the industry.

Oliver claims that second hand selling results in an actual loss of money, as the money developers receive is next to nothing. However, this is just through official stores like GameStop, as places like eBay offer no resale profit for developers, because they can’t keep tabs on every game sold.

Speaking to Develop, Oliver claimed:

“Arguably the bigger problem on consoles now is the trading in of games. 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.”

He also added:

“While retail may be announcing a reasonable season, 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.”

Oliver threatens that this could push publishers to offer games through digital download, like steam or Direct2Drive.