Blame Microsoft? Blame Sony? No, blame the publishers!

With the recent rumors of Microsoft and Sony both having protection against used games, I've noticed a lot of people saying that it's the console maker's fault.

It's not. Think about it.

This is clearly a push from larger companies and their shareholders like EA, Ubisoft, Activision and Take Two. Microsoft and Sony's in house studios just play such a little piece of the pie they are almost irrelevant. The publishers have both companies held hostage at this point. If EA calls Microsoft and requests that they put some form of protection against a game, the only thing they have to say is "Well, Sony's doing it." and that converstaion is as good as over. The same would happen if Activision called Sony and said "Microsoft's doing it".

Really, what choices do both companies have? They can't lose their biggest publishers to their rival and I'm sure Microsoft remembers how badly it hurt that EA didn't want to support Live for the longest time. I'm sure Sony recalls how much it hurt to be a year late to market in the last generation as well. Let's face it. Both of the next gen consoles will probably be out within a month or two of one another. Both will probably have close to similiar specs. Both will probably maintain their loyal fanbases while other people will just buy both of them. Both will probably have a ton of similar features.

In the end, the only hope is that the retailers can somehow convince the publishers that they'll get a piece of the pie in used game sales. At this point though, I wouldn't hold your breath.

I really was OK with the online pass. I completely understand the concept of the publishers not wanting to lose money on used games. I'm completely OK with giving extra features to people who preorder or purchase the game new. I think honestly this lockdown (if it occurs) might be the last straw with me. I might as well just buy games on PC because they typically go on sale much earlier than their console counterparts and I don't have any tangible value with console games if I can't sell them. I really hope this will end up just being something thrown around an never materialize, but I'm curious of what your stands are on it. Are you going to buy your console of choice even if this restriction is there? Are you going to switch to a different platform? Are you going to start collecting stamps and coins instead?

Sony and MS are publishers too, well MS to a much lesser extent. And although EA introduced the online pass, Sony did hesitate to adopt a PSN pass for their games either. There is a just too much greed in the industry now