The Downfall of Game Resale

[Wolfkill-Shepard]

As time goes by it seems that developers are making it harder and harder for consumers to buy, sell, and trade used games. Capcom's zombie shooter for the 3DS, Resident Evil Revelations, will have its game data saved to the game's cartridge and that data will not be able to be erased. The concept of this idea is too persuade consumers to buy the game brand-new instead of used.

You also can catch a hint of this trend in DICE's military FPS Battlefield: Bad Company 2, where the game comes with a redeem card for a service called VIP. With the VIP service you get access to free map packs and such things that the multiplayer isn't really complete without. With this system if you buy the game used chances are someone has already used that VIP card and if you want access to VIP you need to pay Microsoft points for it.

Is this trend in game services going to affect the resale and trade value of games? We will find out.