Ok, firstly; none of this was officially confirmed, but with news spreading like wildfire on the web, plainly a block on second hand games at the next-gen Xbox is a truly real possibility.

I bloody hope not. If I spend £40 on a physical piece of media, i would like to give you the chance of marketing it on, or trading it in, or shit, give it away to a stranger if I so wish. If the rumours are to be believed though, my shiny new 720 disc won’t be worth a damn once I’ve used up my one time code. Wish to take it around my friend’s house? Nope, that is not happening. Guess I’ll just buy another copy.

I appreciate that second hand sales do cut into publisher and developer sales and from a publisher relationship standpoint would definitely put Microsoft in a totally strong position, but what concerning the brick and mortar game stores, those stores which might be becoming increasingly dependent upon second hand sales to remain afloat? GameStop’s shares have plummeted off the back of the scoop, and on the time of writing, it’s still only a rumour. Imagine what’s going to happen if it’s confirmed? With 46% in their gross profit coming from used game sales in 2012, the wear this decision might cause, might prove irreparable.

Strangely though, despite the negative impact at the consumer and the doubtless devastating financial effect on gaming retailers, the largest loss ultimately might well be to Microsoft’s deep pockets. Xbox 360, despite the entire Kinect thing, remains largely seen because the core gamer’s console of choice (aren’t getting angry, i do know it is not every gamer’s console of choice). In the event that they put this restriction at the machine, they’ll lose loads of support going into a better-gen…..various support. Sure, your average Joe who buys FIFA and make contact with of Duty every year probably won’t give a monkeys, but your committed, market savvy gamer, oh, you better believe he’ll care. I care. Shit, I’m angry. Microsoft, the Xbox 360 have been one among my favourite consoles of all time – don’t ruin the connection with a poorly conceived decision based purely at the base line. It would backfire.

It all stinks of the PS3 launch – a corporation off the back of a prime success doing whatever they need at the assumption that the general public will flock to their product regardless. It didn’t exercise session for Sony and Microsoft, if here is your plan, it won’t exercise session for you either. Sure, given time, the gaming public might forgive because it becomes the industry norm, but to aim something like this at launch could hit the initial tackle figures in a massive, big way.

Of course, it doesn’t help matters that the scoop of blocked second hand games comes hand in hand with the alternative baffling rumour that the subsequent-gen Xbox might want to be online invariably to work. Surely not? Surely, in a worldwide of poor coverage, broken signals and now and again, an all but complete loss of signal, Microsoft wouldn’t do this. Would they? Again, i am hoping not, because if it’s true and Sony release a PS4 with basically the identical specs but with second hand games and the flexibility to play when offline, Microsoft will be giving their major competition a major head start and a completely huge PR boost.

Again though, let’s put all of this into perspective – this can be a rumour. Nobody official has confirmed any of this yet. I just hope it remains that way.

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