Epic Games president Michael Capps has went on record to say that secondhand sales, or the used game market, is a “huge issue” stunting industry growth. Furthermore, Capps says publishers are conjuring up possible ways to dampen the effect of secondhand sales and encourage individuals to buy new copies of games. One idea being entertained is offering paid DLC free to consumers who purchased the retail version of a certain title.

I’ve talked to some developers who are saying ‘If you want to fight the final boss you go online and pay USD 20, but if you bought the retail version you got it for free’. We don’t make any money when someone rents it, and we don’t make any money when someone buys it used – way more than twice as many people played Gears than bought it.

Understandably so, secondhand sales are a growing issue, but cutting consumers out of core game content simply because they purchased a title used sounds a bit extreme to us. Offering non-essential perks to those who purchase a title brand-new is a far better solution.

Second-hand game sales are “a huge issue” – Epic [GI.biz]

Follow this author on Twitter.