Where will the gaming industry be in a few generations time?
Yesterday we found out that Microsoft might be enforcing an activation code along side each game, to stop the use of the disk after the initial user has played. Along with this Sony also intend to boycott the idea of second hand games.
How will this affect the gaming industry in the UK?
This will eliminate any sort of Trade Ins, Game Rentals and of course purchasing second hand games. Chaos is erupting on the world wide web, gaming fanatics across the world are in outrage, everyone are looking into their wallets and thinking how will I ever afford this?
I can see each and every Company in the UK taking the hard hitting punch evenly, apart from CEX. CEX specialises in buying from the public and selling on, to the public. Every time I go into CEX to try and find a good bargain, I am waiting in a que of individuals selling their games for the £1.50 each they have been offered.
Okay okay back on topic… Basically I always see these people trading in computer games, which must be a big percentage of their annual turnover. There is a lot of Movies in the all of the stores but let’s be honest, if someone can’t afford to pay full price for a DVD they are most likely going to download it illegally or watch it online (illegally).
GAME and other retailers specialising in the gaming industry might not be loosing a great deal because they can still sell full price games, to the impatient gamers who can’t physically wait for the exact same product that is £5 cheaper to come through the post.
Predictions:
- CEX will start selling new sealed games for Next-Gen Consoles, still making money due to people trading in older generation consoles and games for the new ones.
- Microsoft will sell activation keys for second hand games, just like EA are currently doing for around £8 per code.
- A lot of gaming retailers will close down after a few of years.
These are just my thoughts of what it might be like in a year or so for the gaming industry, I hope I am wrong and that the stores will not close down or struggle to make profits. If the people in charge are intelligent enough, as I’m sure they are, they would be looking into ways to cope with the changes over the next coming generation. This is the future of gaming, thinking caps on!