14 DAY TRIAL // Reggie Fils Aime, the main voice of Nintendo of America, has said that used games, which he called “pre owned,” are bad for the consumer. Why? Well, mainly because Nintendo hopes that the videogames it releases, like Zelda and Personal Trainer Cooking Mama, are good enough for players to hold on to them. The problem is not disliking used games, but not having the arguments to back up your position.
The main argument presented by the president of Nintendo of America is the lack of a second hand market for other sources of entertainment. He has said that “Describe another form of entertainment that has a vibrant used goods market. Used books have never taken off. You don’t see businesses selling used music CDs or used DVDs. Why? The consumer likes having a brand-new experience and reliving it over and over again.”
Clearly, Reggie has never seen the amount of used books and DVDs that are available even in the most developed markets. After all, it's a matter of powering future consumption of a media form by getting rid of the older media one has laying around.
But as always when it comes to used games sales and publishers, the real problem is that those who have originally released the game seem to think they are entitled to getting a chunk of the money made from selling it a second or a third time, even if it actually doesn't contribute in any way to the sales beyond the first one. Still, Fils Aime believes that it would make the used games market “more palatable.”
The Nintendo DSi, the newest handheld from the Japanese company, is creating a way of getting videogames through its Wi-Fi connection without the need for a physical disk. The DSiWare concept might put an end to the used game market when it comes to the Nintendo DS. The PlayStation Portable could also be getting a new version that delivers all of its titles via the Internet.