Pre-owned is not necessarily the evil force some believe, Sony admits

Sony has admitted that there is a strong argument for claiming that pre-owned games do not detract from the health of games development.

I’ve seen data that the vast majority of used sales go immediately into additional purchases, that they are not somehow being extracted from the overall game economy,” Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House told GameInformer.

Those folks have a very strong influence. Their opinions really count, and they translate into a broader audience purchasing more games.

I take what I hope is a balanced view on that, and it’s the balanced view that any platform holder needs to take. What I mean by that is the balance between understanding very strong concerns of folks whose lifeblood is creating great content (and making sure there is recompense for that) and the other school of thought that it’s a way for the most committed consumers to enjoy a broader range of content than they would if used games did not exist.

As with many of the debates, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. Our approach is, therefore, to balance those two constituencies.”