I was walking around GameStop this holiday weekend looking at some of the great used game bargains, and something rather odd occurred to me looking at the boxes on the shelf. With the proliferation of buying content online through DLC (Downloadable Content), or on your device via an App store this maybe a thing of the past and if the game publishers have their way, it will be.

Lately I have been really questioning how long physical media is going to hang around for. This is because of the need for instant gratification in our consumer culture, I mean why go to the store and buy a game when you can simply get on the PlayStation store buy it, and download it to your device in minutes. I began to think how this is all playing to the Game Publisher’s advantage; who no longer wish for us to own something, but will gladly license it to us for the same price as buying the physical goods. Simply put when you don’t buy a physical game you can not resell it on eBay, loan it to your friends or trade it in for another game, which is money out of the game publisher’s pocket.

This is because 9 times out of 10 if you buy something online your technically not buying it, your simply licensing it for your device which your using it on. Your also agreeing to an insane EULA that is almost unreadable to someone is not studying law part time. The copy you end up buying is then usually somehow locked to your device in some way shape or form using DRM. If you’re not familiar with DRM it stands for digital rights management, and it’s what companies use to keep you from doing completely legal things with the media you purchase like lending it out or making a copy in case you lose the original. This is because DRM operates under the assumption that everyone is out to pirate their goods and treats everyone as suspect. Wonder why you can’t simply lend someone that game you bought on the virtual console, that’s DRM hard at work. It basically locks content to the buyer, ensuring that if someone else other than the original buyer wants to play it, they will have to buy another copy. So if you’re going over a friend’s house you can’t simply bring that game with you he has to buy a copy for himself, or if the game really sucks you can’t trade it in for another one. Last year GameStop ALONE made 2 billion dollars off used games alone that is a huge market, and that is money the game publishers feel should be going into their pockets instead of GameStop’s. How do you do this? Get rid of used games completely.

2 glaring examples of publishers who are trying to eradicate the used market are Apple with the iPod touch and Sony with the PSP GO. I mean when the PSP GO came out all I could think about is, why would you do this? After listening to Cory Doctorow talk about his issues with the Amazon Kindle it all clicked into place. Because if you buy something virtually, and download it to your device you can’t do the things with it that you could normally do with a more physical media, like trade it in. The iTunes App store is probably a better example if you buy a game on an iPhone or iPod touch you’re agreeing to certain terms and conditions and it is locked to that iTunes account. So if I buy a game on my account I technically can’t give a copy to my wife and let her play it on her iPod or iPhone, even if I bought the game and she bought the device. There are ways to get around that, but it’s a huge NO-NO in Apple’s eyes and when they figure out a way to make that impossible to do, it will be. Basically if you buy a game on either device you don’t really own it therefore can’t resell it, thus no used games for either platform.

So what to do? I suggest buying physical media whenever possible at least with this option you have a physical object that you can in turn do what you like with. Because quite honestly what happens if Sony goes under? Will your copy of Final Fantasy 7 you bought off the Playstation store still work? Keep  in mind that with some EULAs you’re not covered if your device crashes and you loose your copy and you have to pay to re-download it. So keep this in mind this holiday season when asking for gift cards or buying stuff online because you can’t return a downloaded game or movie no matter now much it sucks, but FYE and Gamestop will gladly take your shovelware.