NKD wrote on Jul 4, 2012, 00:03:

Jerykk wrote on Jul 3, 2012, 22:47:
You're forgetting the convenience advantage of trading in digital products. With physical products, there are many variables to consider. The condition of the product, the quantity of the product, the size of the product, the weight of the product, etc. With digital products, you don't have to worry about any of those things. You click a couple of buttons and get credit instantly. Don't have to drive to GameStop, don't have to mail anything, don't have to advertise anything. Just a few clicks and you're done. People are much more likely to do something when it's convenient to do so and I have no doubt that used sales would be even more prevalent in the digital market than in the physical market. Publishers will recognize this and try to find other ways to maximize their profits, sacrificing many of the benefits that digital distribution once offered to consumers.

Precisely. As I said earlier, digital resale boils down to having two buttons, one of which gives you the game for a cheap price, the other that gives you the game for a full price. If there are no other differences, there will only ever be enough "new" sales to feed initial demand, and after a couple of days no one will buy new anymore unless other incentives are provided to do so.

In short, people who want digital resale are telling publishers "We don't want to buy your games anymore, please switch to free to play item shop multiplayer business model en masse. Thanks!" Maybe that's not how they really feel, but it's the only viable business model in a market where they can no longer make enough money off retail sales.