Developers typically blame used game sales when their bloated single-player titles end up in the bargain bin after a week on the shelf. Nintendo’s Reggie Fils-Aime, on the other hand, looks at used games and sees an opportunity to stroke the Wii, so to speak.
“We don’t believe used games are in the best interest of the consumer,” Fils-Aime said. “We have products that consumers want to hold onto. They want to play all of the levels of a Zelda game and unlock all of the levels. A game like Personal Trainer: Cooking has a long life. We believe used games aren’t in the consumer’s best interest.”
Joystiq, and its legion of commenters, whence I discovered this article, lambastes Reggie for finally letting all that money go to his head. But since I know how to Google and know there are still things to be learned from events that happened more than a month ago, I say look at how New Super Mario Bros and Mario Kart DS continue to sit in top 10 sales lists, more than two years after their release. Those are new copies, and barring an occasional Amazon Gold Box sale, they are new copies selling at their original price point.
Now, Reggie may be puffing his chest just a bit in this article, but he has a point. If your new game brings to goods, the consumers will reward you by buying it new. It also helps if your games cost $50.