8. Second-Hand Market Drastically Changes
Despite Sony attesting to the contrary, rumours have persisted that the original designs for the PlayStation 4 planned to make it lock-out any second-hand games that had previously been played on any other console. The thinking, of course, is that players will then only buy new games, and in an ideal world, would probably download it from Sony's servers so that there is no way for the player to sell it on. While we doubt second-hand gaming will be going away this second - because to lock-out anything played on another console prevents you from ever taking a game round your buddy's house, which really, really sucks - we expect the market to change considerably in the coming years, with a new model presenting itself entirely. It's a sticky situation for retailers, because with the focus on digital downloads, shops like GAME might focus more on their second-hand market, while developers will be pushing for legislation that sees them get a slice of the pie the second time round. How this would pan out, we have no idea, but given how fervent this discussion is on both sides, something's going to give pretty damn soon.