Yesterday, rumors regarding the PlayStation 4 — codenamed Orbis — took the gaming world by storm, reporting that Sony’s next console will be launching holiday 2013 and will not support used games. Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter has commented on the rumors, stating that an anti-used game console would be a bad move for Sony.
Speaking to GamesIndustry, Pachter made it clear that he doesn’t believe that Sony will go this route with the PS4, mainly because it simply isn’t a wise business decision. He pointed out that this goes for Microsoft as well, seeing as how similar rumors have been reported for the next Xbox. According to Pachter, both companies would be shooting themselves in the foot as, “It isn’t really in Sony’s or Microsoft’s best interests to block used games.”
While yes, this move would be beneficial to publishers, Pachter also brings up the dangers that this could pose to retailers and the subsequent backlash that would come back to bite Sony.
It would benefit Activision and EA slightly, and would hurt GameStop a great deal. If Sony unilaterally did this, I could see GameStop refusing to carry their console, and sales of the PS4 would therefore suffer.
As such, if something like this were to succeed, all three console companies (Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony) would need to be on board because “if one does it and the others don’t, the one who does it will see a loss of market share.”
What do you think of the recent rumors surrounding Sony’s next console? Can the company really afford to block used games? Let us know in the comments below.
