EA CFO Blake Jorgensen believes the used market debate is a double-edged sword.
“It’s one of these classic double-edged swords,” he said, reports Gamasutra. “In one way the used game business has been critical for the health of the retail channel, and having a healthy retail channel is an important thing for us.”
Jorgensen also believes the industry will never be 100% digital. He believes that the gaming market can never be fully digital due to ”bandwidths constraints”, limitation of in-home storage, etc.
“Would we like to sell everything at full price and not have a used game market? Sure,” he added, “But I think the used game market’s a little like any other kind of market where it creates liquidity. The fact is, that liquidity benefits us in some fashion. So if someone goes in and trades in a game, there’s a good chance they’re going to buy another one of our games. And so if there’s a liquid market, I think that that’s not a bad thing at all.”
The used game market has picked up speed in the last few weeks due to rumors regarding next-gen consoles blocking used games. GameStop also states that consumers will turn away from consoles that block used games.
I can hardly believe I’m saying this, but I think for once, EA is right. That hurt to write.
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