[Update: Sony confirms the PS4 won't support mandatory used game DRM, fees or internet activation]
Oh boy, we seem to have all walks of the who's who from YouTube chiming in on the used game fee debate. It all started when Angry Joe raged about the Xbox One's used game fee like he was giving birth to a hairy, purple little leprechaun, and from there everyone else – from Penny Arcade and ReviewTechUsa to Totalbiscuit – all seem to have offered up their services to either bat on behalf of gamers or against them regarding used games.
The latest big gaming star of YouTube to offer a concise but well constructed argument of the used games market is Boogie2988, also known as Francis the Nerd Rager. As you can see in the video above, he's well spoken and completely out of his “Nerd Rage” character Francis, and he highlights an issue many others have avoided.
One of the very interesting takes on the argument is an argument a lot of other big personalities and websites never bothered covering: poor people.
Funnily enough it's like a taboo to talk about the honest hard-working folk barely making ends meet. As if somehow the people who break their backs to keep a roof over their head and a scrapping of food on the table are undeserving of entertainment. “You're not upper middle-class, gaming is too expensive for you if you can't buy games new!” is practically what a lot of people on the opposite end of the argument have been saying – those same individuals in full fledged support of Microsoft fragmenting the market with a used game pay wall.
Without spending a lot of time on this topic, it's worth noting that Boogie is right in mentioning that if you're strapped for cash and all you can afford is a used game then that's what you're going to get. What's more, though, is that it's already been reported that 70% of gamers who buy used put back into the industry to buy a new game.
I'd also like to add that it's also true when he says if you can't afford to buy a new game and the (pricing) availability of used games is no longer feasible for lower and low income gamers, the industry is completely extricating that demographic from the equation altogether. In this way, not only are people now limited from buying used games cheaply, borrowing games or lending them out, but they're also pushed out of the race for becoming a future fan of a series or pre-ordering the sequel when they do get money, etc., etc.
Restricting low-income gamers from participating in the industry does not grow the industry.
In simple terms, you can make a case for all the possibilities of someone becoming more engaged with gaming if they buy a used game as opposed to if that option isn't there at all. As we all know, the only alternative to getting a game without paying for it is piracy, and is that really what Microsoft wants to promote for the eighth generation of console gaming with their Xbox One policies?
