Quote Originally Posted by danawhitaker View Post
Pff. That's like a furniture store arguing they lose sales because Goodwill sells used sofas and tables. They have no proof that those people would ever have bought the item new in the first place. They might lose some, but they can't claim they'd lose all of it, and they have no real way to prove a specific amount. It's just speculation on their part. Someone not willing to buy it full price might not buy it at all. It's the same fallacy anti-piracy arguments use. You can't prove the people who pirated your product would have paid for it if they couldn't pirate it.
Except that there is excellent data about used sales from Gamestop itself and Gamestop's used, new release games are usually only $5 cheaper than new. It's not speculation at all. Every used game sold is revenue that could have been made by the original publisher but wasn't.

While I can't dispute that piracy numbers are more speculative, if a pirate is a console gamer and there is no longer a way to pirate console games, they will either be forced to give up console gaming or will buy the games. Sure, some pirates will give up gaming or move to PCs and other less protected formats, but many will also simply suck it up and actually start paying for games. It's not a complex issue, it's just a matter of how willing Microsoft and Sony are going to be this time around to shake up the status quo at the risk of short-term loss of sales in exchange for significantly better long-term profitability.