Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter states in the latest Pach Attack that blocking the use of used games on the next-gen of consoles would be a huge mistake. So much so that he claims the gaming industry would collapse.
“I think the industry will disintegrate; I think there will be no more video games if next-gen consoles don’t support used games. You hear that, Sony and Microsoft? You have to support used games,” he said.
Pachter goes on to state that Sony has no real reason to want to block used games since it makes money from royalties.
“Why would the next-gen consoles not support used games? Sony doesn’t sell that much software; maybe 10% of sales are Sony products. Everything else, the other 90%, is third-party. Sony isn’t going to help its overall sales that much – let’s go with 1%, 2%,” he said.
He also states that is Sony were to block used games and Microsoft allowed used games, Sony’s console would fail. He goes on to state that publishers over-estimate the number of sales lost due to used games.
“What does it actually cost [publishers] if people trade in used games and some people buy used games instead of new games? My guess is 5% of software sales, probably,” he said.
“Because most people don’t finish new games in a week. Most people take three weeks to a month to finish games. Not everybody buys a game the first day. You probably don’t get that many games traded in; in reality about 40% of games get traded back in.”
How long do you usually keep a game before you trade it in? Do you tend to buy more new or used games? Let us know in the comments below.
(Via VG274)