David Braben, the man behind the idea of Raspberry Pi and co-creator of Elite, has criticised the second hand game market, saying that it is hurting the videogames industry.
Speaking to Gamasutra, Braben explains that single-player games come under the biggest threat from shops that re-sell titles, believing that this part of the market is now being avoided by publishers because shops won't re-stock once a game has been released.
"The real problem when you think about it brutally, if you look at just core gamer games, pre-owned has really killed core games," said Braben to Gamasutra.
"In some cases, it's killed them dead. I know publishers who have stopped games in development because most shops won't reorder stock after initial release, because they rely on the churn from the re-sales."
Killing single players
He continued: "It's killing single player games in particular, because they will get pre-owned, and it means your day one sales are it, making them super high risk.
"I mean, the idea of a game selling out used to be a good thing, but nowadays, those people who buy it on day one may well finish it and return it.
"Developers and publishers need that revenue to be able to keep doing high production value games, and so we keep seeing fewer and fewer of them."
His words come just a week after it was revealed that videogames retailer Game – a store that actively pushes pre-owned titles – was reported to be on the brink of administration.
