Lately, a good deal of game industry spokesmen have shown just how unreasonable and out-of-touch they are by whining about second-hand games, pleading that somehow their industry should be exempt from a basic rule of trade. Sega Europe, however, has admitted that secondhand games aren’t high on the publisher’s list of worries, claiming it has a more “realistic” view of the situation.
“Right now it’s probably not on our top ten list of things that we need to take action and be concerned about,” explains boss man Mike Hayes. “The whole second-hand games market is one of those very, very sensitive areas that I’ve got to say Sega keeps a pretty low profile on – and I’ll tell you why. I know that there are publishers that are vehemently, aggressively against it.
“My reluctant view is that while I can understand that, if publishers were to try and enforce a non-second-hand market to the consumer, I think there would be relationship damage with the consumer. Of course, commercially, do I support it? Of course not, and I have to think here of the 650 people we employ at Sega Europe.
“However, do we have a successful business working with the retailers that offer that service? Yes, we do. So would I ever join a campaign to get it stopped? The answer is no. Do I like it? The answer is no. I may be sitting on the fence here, but there needs to be a bit of reality on the market.”
Hayes offers the most reasonable assessment of the situation I have seen from an industry rep. Compare that to the publishers who sit in the corner crying about it, trying to garner sympathy because they can’t make an extra million dollars from products they’ve already sold, and I think we can easily see who the bigger, more mature spokesman is.
