Developers offer 'incentives' to buy new rather than pre-owned

The debate on whether the pre-owned games market is a good or a bad thing is one almost as hot as the 'do games turn kids violent?' one.

Clearly, most developers probably think it's a bad thing, since they only profit once from the sale of a single copy of a game, while the retailer Game - for instance - might go on to sell it a further ten times and make a big fat profit for itself.

Having the companies that sell your product dedicating more shelf space to pre-owned copies than new ones is a bit of a kick in the face, and less profit for studios - especially smaller ones - means less money they have to spend on creating even better games.

From the point of view of the consumer, though, why shouldn't they be able to sell something on they've bought? And, when games are so expensive, buying pre-owned is the only way a lot of people can afford them.

There's not much developers can do though - except maybe visit their local Game and angrily mess up the shop shelves in protest.

Most video games don't require an install as PC games do, so console developers can't follow the PC example of limiting the number of machines you can use them on. Even if they could follow that example, you only have to look at how angry people were about Spore's three install limit (the game currently has a one and a half star rating on Amazon and over 3000 comments mostly complaining about its use of DRM) to see it's not a very popular option.

But they have come up with something. A reward, you could say, for buying new, rather than something that feels like a restriction on something you've paid good money for.

As reported over at Destructoid, Xbox 360 game Gears of War 2 will come with a one-time code that gives players access to a free downloadable map. The sole reason for this map being one-time and downloadable seems to be that only the original owner of that copy of the game will get it.

NBA Live 09 is also set to come with a one-time code of its own, which will allow players access to a daily roster and stat updates for free. Owners without the code - so with a pre-owned copy - are expected to have to pay a further $20 for the feature.

It's an interesting turn of events. One which is only affecting a couple of home console games at the moment, but - if it catches on - could be introduced to increasingly more games, including those on handhelds.

What do you think though? Would you be peeved to buy a pre-owned copy of a game only to find you don't have access to some of its bonus features or do you think it's fair enough for developers to offer incentives to people to buy a new copy? Our comments section would love to hear from you.