“It isn’t really in Sony’s or Microsoft’s best interests to block used games” – Pachter
Jeremy Peel April 1, 2012 - 4:00 pmNews: Despite calls from across the industry to block the use of used games in the next generation of consoles, industry analyst Michael Pachter doubts that Sony or Microsoft are “stupid enough to do this unilaterally” or “evil enough to do it together”.
Frontier Developments boss David Braben says that the pre-owned market has “killed core games”. Volition‘s Jameson Durall has proclaimed any move by Microsoft to limit the use of pre-owned games on the next Xbox as “a fantastic change for our business”.
But despite industry support, analyst Michael Pachter doesn’t expect to see Microsoft or Sony implement restrictions for the next generation of consoles.
“It isn’t really in Sony’s or Microsoft’s best interests to block used games. It would benefit Activision and EA slightly, and would hurt GameStop a great deal,” Pachter told GamesIndustry International.
“If Sony unilaterally did this, I could see GameStop refusing to carry their console, and sales of the PS4 would therefore suffer.”
None of the major console manufacturers are “stupid enough to do this unilaterally”, he added, and none of them “are evil enough to do it together”.
I think he might be right. Then again, our own Mark Ankucic wrote a blog recently entitled ‘Should we listen to analysts?‘, and plonked Pachter’s mug right at the top of the page, there.
You can keep up with industry opinion on the pre-owned market here at BeefJack.
