When Microsoft announced the Xbox One, it unveiled a vision of the future in which all games would essentially be digital and could be shared between multiple people via a friends and family account. This vision failed to catch fire with the public for a number of reasons, including Microsoft's insistence that the console must remain always-on, and the inability to resell games. It's interesting, therefore, to see a rumor that Microsoft might revisit the concept of a digital marketplace from an entirely different angle -- one based on explicitly allowing gamers to resell their used games, albeit at a pittance of the purchase price.
The rumor comes from a NeoGAF user(Opens in a new window) who claims to have seen it on Reddit. Obviously it's rather far from official, and it doesn't offer much in the way of detail. Heck, it could even be fake.
We've seen companies attempt to launch used markets for digital products before, albeit not with much success. At the same time, however, there's no intrinsic reason why a 'used' market for a digital product couldn't be created.
First, let's look at things from the retailer's perspective. In the physical world, when GameStop or your local bookstore sells a used product, the retailer earns all of the profits on the sale. Sales of new products, in contrast, are split between the publisher and the retail outlet. In theory, GameStop (or any provider) could buy a "used" digital product, then resell it again at a discounted price, making money in the process.
The counter-argument against this, of course, would be that there's no difference between a new and a used digital game. Then again, if GameStop does its job properly, there's not supposed to be a difference between a used and new copy of a game, either. True, the box art and manual (if any existed in the first place) may not be provided to the buyer, but the actual data on the physical CD is the same in all cases.
From the seller's perspective, a digital game sale would be identical to selling a used physical copy. You'd agree to sell a title back to the store in question, you'd earn store credit, and access to that title would be removed from your library. Store credit earned from reselling used titles could be applied to the purchase of new games, and the net effect would be similar to what it is now -- people resell titles and buy new ones.
There are two potentially sticky points for any vendor that wants to take this approach. First, publishers would want a cut of any titles that were "resold," since the last difference between a new copy and a used one would have just gone out the window. Second, there would be a question of whether or not a "used" copy of a game might lack rights that a "new" copy offered. We've never really seen games push this kind of tiered access model, but a "new" version of a game might be available to share through a Friends and Family function while a "used" copy wasn't. DVR functionality, in-game currency awards, and Day 1 DLC bonuses could also be tied to purchases of "new" digital games while used games might lack this feature.
Finally, of course, there's price. Ten percent trade-in value seems awfully low to me, absent the discussion of everything else. Then again, if you had a library of several hundred games you never intended to play again, 10% back on the $60 base price would still add up to a thousand dollars or more in store credit.
