Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you blatant flamebait by Fable 3's lead combat designer, Mike West.
So, here we go: the debate. Is buying used worse than pirating? Debate 1, let's rock...
[Edit for typo. Ahem. >.>]
Source [http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-05-17-lionhead-pre-owned-worse-than-pc-piracy]."Piracy these days on PC is probably less problematic than second-hand sales on the Xbox," declared lead Fable III combat designer Mike West. "I've been working on PC games for many years and piracy is always a problem. There are a lot of honest people out there as well, and if they like your game they'll buy it.
"The pirates, whatever you do on whatever system, they will crack it. It might take no time... I think the longest it's taken to happen is two days. Someone will crack it somewhere and there's not much you can do about it.
"It's just a depressing situation we're in that people don't think it's worth spending money on computer games," said West. "What they're doing is making sure there are fewer games coming out in the future and more people out of work, which is a terrible thing.
"Unless you sit down and meet a pirate face to face and have a conversation about what it does, I don't think anything will stop them."
West said that any sales Lionhead make of Fable III on PC this Friday and beyond will be "a bonus".
"For us it's probably a no-lose even with piracy as it is," shrugged West. "But, as I say, second-hand sales cost us more in the long-run than piracy these days."
Most of today's key video game outlets - Game, HMV, Amazon - and even some supermarkets (Tesco) buy and then resell used games from customers. Game publishers have developed a number of initiatives to counter-attack this, the most popular being EA's Online Pass, which bundles a free code with new games that can be redeemed to enable multiplayer or receive downloadable content. Whoever buys the game second hand won't get a free code, which means they'll have to buy a replica online for around $10.
Why do game publishers and developers not like second-hand game sales? Because they don't get any money for the transaction - the shop reaps all the rewards.
So, here we go: the debate. Is buying used worse than pirating? Debate 1, let's rock...
[Edit for typo. Ahem. >.>]