Honestly, in the near future it's going to mean squat. Online passes won't exist because you won't even have the option to purchase used games from a brick and mortar store like Gamestop. The trend is going to be moving towards digital downloads and purchases and rather then have 20 game cases sitting around with physical media, you will have a very large hard drive to store all your games in.
With the increase in broadband speed as well as the lower cost of storage, it's inevitable that gaming companies will want to lean this direction. It's the same as Netflix and DVDs. With the advent of a more solid infrastructure capable of handling media streaming, any and all sorts of entertainment will be through the internet rather then physical media. Video games are not exempt from this either, in fact soon you may just as well be streaming the game (think OnLive) and paying a flat subscription per month, or you purchase the game outright and the game is downloaded directly to your console. My question in regards to that is, will we see a decrease in prices for said games if this route is taken?
In regards to online passes, it was bound to happen. Video game publishes absolutely hate the used game market because they get nothing out of it compared to if a customer purchased a brand new game. It cuts into their profits and the customer typically only gets minimal savings in the long run. So let's take Madden 13 for instance. Brand new it is $60 in the box, used at Gamestop will run at $54.99. If the publisher decides that in order to play Madden online you have to pay $5 to get an online pass from the used game, then there is no savings in purchasing a used game, thus the customer would be better off paying $59.99 for the brand new copy. I know this is on the high end equation of things but that's the thinking. The publisher then gets its usual cut of the profits. Does this hurt Gamestop/enter in used game store's name? Yes it does, because Gamestop would normally get the full profit from the used game rather then the brand new copy. It's why Gamestop buys low and sells high. That's their bread and butter because I'm fairly certain after the cut to the publisher is factored in, Gamestop does not make a whole lot of money off of new game sales.
This is only going to increase until the publishers themselves have absolute control over game sales, and at that point you will see Gamestop go under and go under hard. Unless Gamestop can improvise such as they are doing now by selling used electronics, they will falter. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when, thus why they are starting to sell used iPad's and what not.
Is it fair? Sure, at any rate the publisher at least makes something off of a used game sale, even if it is $5-$10. It's a one time fee to allow online gaming, it's not a big difference compared to paying Blizzard $10 a month for access to WoW. Especially considering the publisher often times has to host the servers for online gaming, when they have people that buy used games jump on their server, there is no money there to cover the overhead cost for the servers and data. With a $5 or $10 online pass, at least they can recoup some money to put towards server maintenance and cost.
is the point of paying for XBox Live Gold?
