I've talked about this topic many times. This is absolutely ridiculous (and I hated last week's Critical Miss. I felt it was a cheap and unreasonable shot and said as much in the comments there).
Many warranties are non-transferable, or you have to pay to transfer it (most used cars).
If you buy a used car, do you expect it to be in mint condition? Or do you expect there to be a little wear on the upholstery, and in need of more maintenance?
Why do you think that you should get the exact same experience for a lower price? The developers (more-so than the publishers who while they get a cut of the profits, also get a big payday from the developer before the game even hits the shelves) are the ones that are hurt when you buy used games. These people bust their asses to make you a game. They deserve the benefits (pay raises, good benefits, bonuses, etc etc etc) as well as the ability to better upgrade their equipment.
Times are tough. Even I buy used games (I would prefer not to). But I'm not so arrogant, so self-entitled, to think that these companies owe me something, or that I deserve the same benefits as those who buy new.
EA does a lot with DLC. But sports games are, in my view, harder to do that with.
You can play just fine without multiplayer. Here's the question you have to ask yourself: Is it worth the extra $5-$10 to get the multiplayer. If that increase is too much for you, then just don't buy the game.
These companies don't owe you anything. Yes, good customer service and all that jazz. But when you get down to it, they are a business, and they are out to *gasp* make a profit. That's how businesses work.
In many ways, getting more people to buy new can actually help push companies to make a better product. Right now, if you get self-righteous and decide to boycott their product, they don't care. They weren't getting your money anyways.
The more people that buy new, the more encouragement they have to provide improved customer service because losing you as a customer of their games actually makes a difference.
You should not get the exact same benefits, bonuses, etc as someone who buys new. Plain and simple. They paid for it.
Look at it this way. Say your game was good enough to sell 1 million copies, but 40% of those were Used. Say that of that 400,000 a whopping 3/4 of them would not have bought the game if there wasn't a used option (I think there would be more people willing to buy it new than that, but just for argument's sake).
That's 100,000 copies of the game that they didn't sell (i.e actually make money off of). Multiply that by an average of $65/game: $6,500,000 in lost money. That's a big chunk of change that isn't getting put back into the company to support the development of their games.
You all act like all the money from game sales goes into a Scrooge McDuck-type money bin where the executives go swimming in it. No. Most of it goes into the investment and improvement of their game development.
Grow up. If you buy Used, you do so knowing full well what you're missing out on (unless of course you don't do any research on the games you buy used, in which case that's your own damn fault). You don't pay full price (or even the company that made the game), so you don't get full functionality. It's as simple as that.
I got called a man AND a winner in the one sentence...
