This is totally in the hands of gamers to fix. Take one year, just one year, and collectively agree to not pirate or buy a single used copy of a game. Let publishers see, emperically, exactly how much these things really affects the bottom line in terms of sales.
End the damn arguement about whether piracy is a cancer or an unsung hero once and for all.
Hell, just do it with one major game. Battlefield 3, Mass Effect 3, something like that. Don't even have to go a whole 12 months without feeding our overblown sense of entitlement to digital crack. Just one damn game that should sell well based on its pedigree alone. Don't crack it, don't pirate it, don't buy a used copy.