I think this issue here is that A) There are many games that come out each year and B) A significant number of them are rather short. Once people read reviews and find out that the game is only say... 6 hours long, they may question spending 60+ on it. Fair enough, that seems like a lot of money to pay for a game that may only entertain your for two or so nights. In these cases renting a game or buying used seems like a better choice. If publishers want to combat this, then they should lower prices on their games faster, or offer incentives for buying new - such as free download content, or an extra $5-10 towards downloadable content. Punishing people for buying used only causes people to feel disgruntled towards these companies. Online digital sales can also offer these companies an exciting chance to lure in a solid customer base. Say EA offers games online and a customer wishes to purchase NHL 2012, you could offer them a credit for 20 dollars towards NHL 13 to ensure you have repeat customers. This way the company is soaking in 100% of the profits and using the extra money generated towards the customer to garner repeat sales. Coupons and sales are great way of causing customers to purchase things they may not have purchased before. See Steam sales.