Is Microsoft improving the video game industry or helping destroy it?

A recent hot topic in the video game industry is Xbox One's new approach to used games. I'd like to cover a few details on how Xbox One will be handling used video games. With the Xbox One, when you purchase a $60 game at retail, you will be required to install the game to your hard drive. In order to actually begin playing the game, you will be required to "activate" the game on your gamertag by inputting a license key. Once the key is activated on your gamertag, you may then play on your own console or go to a friends house and play on their console (with your own gamertag).

If your friend wishes to play the game on their own gamer tag, it will require another license to purchased. From what has been announced, each game will come with two keys so you can use it on two accounts per purchase. If you wish to play this game on another gamertag (lend it to a third friend), that person would then have to purchase another license key in order to play the game.

This has led to a huge debate about what exactly players are purchasing. No longer will you buying a video game that you own and is your physical property. You are purchasing access to the game. You no longer own rights to play this game freely as you could in the past. This is a major issue which gamers have expressed great resistance to.

Microsoft has taken a lot of heat during the E3 conferences presented over the past few days. People are bashing Microsoft saying they are stealing their rights and controlling how gamers may use items purchased with their hard earned cash. I would like to go over this process in detail and explain why I think it is actually a positive approach to the used game market.

The major change that Microsoft will be implementing is a virtual marketplace where gamers will be able to buy, sell, and trade their license keys. This will essentially mimic the marketplace gamestop has created, only virtually. If you purchase a physical copy of a game at the store, two months later you can trade in your license keys for credit to purchase new games. Many people take issue with this approach because technically, you never really own the game. It is a form of the industry taking control away from us as gamers. It's a frightening approach to the market, but we all know that digital media will soon be taking over gaming. It is only a matter of time. Once it does, systems like Microsoft is implementing will be commonplace.

I think this could possibly be an ingenious strategy by Microsoft. The first major benefit of this is that it completely cuts Gamestop out of the process. Gamestop syphons millions of dollars from the video game industry each year. The industry has been looking for a way to avert this problem and now they may have a solution.

This leads into another important topic which is that Microsoft has stated that they will NOT be taking a cut of these sales. This means that if a game is purchased in this marketplace, all of the money is going to the developers and publishers. Personally, I will feel a lot better purchasing a used game when I know all of the money is going back to the people who brought the game to me in the first place.

Another interesting detail about this marketplace is that publishers have the option to control exactly how their game will be distributed. If they wish to have no second hand sales for the first 2 months, they will have the ability to restrict reselling of their game for 2 months and then place a controlled, dropped price after that period. This will allow the industry to fluctuate it's prices based on what the publishers are happy with and I believe this approach has some true potential.

I think that by Microsoft giving power back to the game publishers and developers, it will create huge benefits for games being published to the Xbox One and begin bringing more interest to their console.

Hopefully this article will shed a new light on the dark, dark reaction the Xbox One is receiving this E3. Full details about this used marketplace have not been fully explained so I guess we will just have to wait and see:

Is Microsoft improving the video game industry or helping destroy it?