As a society we need to sort out this simple scenario:

* 16 years old Joe buys a $70 cartridge/disc game, already assuming and counting on the $35 that he'll get back on second-hand sell.

That's it. A simple idea that should never cease to be possible, regardless of the medium.

This particular example made games affordable, and it also inadvertently put a concrete price on several other factors like how much it costs to be a first owner vs. wait for a second-hand purchase, and how much it costs to keep it for your collection vs. allowing the product to flow back into the community.

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gdulli 8 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Steam trained a whole generation of gamers not to expect real ownership with resale rights. It's sad. The population old enough to even know this is how it used to be is shrinking.

	▲	tancop 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		PC gamers know piracy is always an option. There's even a reliable Denuvo bypass now if you're willing to play on Linux. The real power Steam has over its customers is a lot less than console makers, even if it's legally the same.

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stronglikedan 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> how much it costs to be a first owner vs. wait for a second-hand purchase

Nitpick, but in your example, they would cost exactly the same eventually (other than the effort it takes to sell it secondhand), so no reason to wait.

	▲	j1elo 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		You're right! that's a bug in my comment then (or more like a spec redundancy I guess) :)