Why Used Video Games Are Such a Big Business

Last June, Microsoft, which so often features land mines in its games, learned how it feels to step on one. The company’s gaming division announced that a game’s license could be transferred from one owner to another only once: each copy of a game would be associated with its owner’s individual username and console, unplayable by others. The news so angered gamers, who had never encountered such a restriction and consider the freedom to sell used games to be an inalienable right, that Micr...