Freaking.Space.Lasers

Recently, on the topic of second-hand video game sales and the apparently epic danger they pose to the future of the industry, talking to Venture Beat, Nintendo America boss-man Reggie Fils-Aime noted that the company does not believe used games are “in the best interest of the consumer”. I’m sure what he meant to say was the best interests of Nintendo.

He went on, for some reason:

“We have products that consumers want to hold onto. They want to play all of the levels of a Zelda game and unlock all of the levels. A game like Personal Trainer Cooking has a long life.”

You could slice the arrogance with a knife, but we can forgive a little market spin. Meanwhile… Personal Trainer: Cooking? This is the most compelling reason to keep games until the end of time? Some day I hope to hand down my electric Japanese cookbook to my grandchildren. And the assumption that all games are great, or even good, would be crazy enough without the following screaming fail:

“Describe another form of entertainment that has a vibrant used goods market. Used books have never taken off. You don’t see businesses selling used music CDs or used DVDs. Why? The consumer likes having a brand-new experience and reliving it over and over again. If you create the right type of experience, that also happens in videogames.”

Is he that good at spin or just incredibly stupid? Only his doctor knows for sure. The next time you pass a used bookstore or video rental place selling old DVDs, stop and laugh at the fact that they don’t even really exist. I think at the very least he overestimates the appeal of opening shrink-wrap, and it’s very unlikely that the solution to the problem of lost revenue from second-hand game sales is to act like an ignorant boob.