14 DAY TRIAL // Despite the fact that quite a few rumors have appeared recently claiming that next generation consoles, like the PlayStation 4 (Orbis) or Xbox 720 (Durango), won’t play used games, analyst Michael Pachter believes such a thing won’t happen.
While neither Sony nor Microsoft are admitting that they’re working on new consoles to replace their current ones, lots of rumors have appeared with details about these new devices.
Quite a few recent reports, however, claim that both the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox 720 will not only be more powerful, but also use special systems that will prevent used copies of a game from being played on them.
Such a thing would be a disastrous idea, at least according to Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter, who shared his thoughts with Game Informer magazine about these latest next generation reports.
According to the expert, putting an anti-used gaming system into one of the consoles would automatically decrease its value, especially if another device will support second-hand games.
"Unless you believe in collusion – unless you believe that all the console manufacturers are going to get together and scheme to [defeat] the consumer, and at least in the U.S. we have laws against that, so probably none of them would do that. Then if one of them did that unilaterally (any one of those things), the others would say, "Hey wait a minute, we have a disc drive. Ours will play used games. Buy ours instead of theirs.' [It's] not happening. Not even a prayer of that."
Pachter also believes that there are large amounts of gamers who mostly play used titles for their consoles, so neither Sony nor Microsoft would want to lose their allegiance by forcing them to purchase games at full price.
As of yet, however, nothing official is known about next generation consoles, so who knows if they’ll actually try to prevent used gaming.