This Can’t Be True: Next Xbox Games Will Only Work for First Owner

The rumor that Microsoft will eliminate the second-hand market for games on its next Xbox console has popped up before, but we dismissed it as sheer lunacy. New details point to that rumor possibly being true, as well as a few other details about the new system. Could this be the end of second-hand games?

There’s a debate over whether or not selling previously owned games is good for the industry. Which side of the argument you’re on probably comes down to how you make your money. The companies that make games say it’s destructive, but retail stores that sell them say used games are wonderful for the industry. Gamers probably fall in the middle, wanting to see publishers release new titles, but also wanting to save a few bucks by getting a second-hand game.

Edge reported yesterday that they have sources with first-hand experience with the next Xbox that say it will have a constant Internet connection used to verify activation codes assigned to game discs. That would not only eliminate previously-owned game sales, but also mail order services like GameFly would be out of luck. It would even rule out bringing your new game over to a friend’s house to play.

The sources also say the system will use 50GB Blu-ray discs, have an eight core AMD x64 1.5GHz processor, D3D11.x 800MHz graphics solution, and 8GB of RAM. There are no specifics on the size of the hard drive, but it’s expected to be the biggest yet used by Microsoft in a console. We can also expect an updated Kinect to ship at launch.

What do you think of the move to stop second-hand games? Is it helping the industry, or is it hurting the players? Discuss it in the comments while I go watch “Journey to the Center of Hawkthorne.” I love Community so much.

(via Edge, image via Wikipedia)

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