UK Retailers Mull Steam Ban, 2K Won't 'Punish' Used Buyers

Two of London's biggest retailers say they will ban games featuring Steam from their stores, MCV reports:

"If we have a digital service, then I don't want to start selling a rival in-store," said the digital boss at one of the biggest UK games retailers.

"Publishers are creating a monster -­– we are telling suppliers to stop using Steam in their games."

You know, the retailers' argument seems pretty sound to me – if a retailer has its own digital delivery service, why would it want to sell its customers a game that installs a competing one?

Now, sure, you might point out that the most likely endgame here is retailers not selling any PC games at all once the market shifts so heavily towards digital that it doesn't much matter.

In other news about traditional retailers and how they are going to really have trouble getting hold of your money in the future, we have Take-Two chairman Strauss Zelnick quoted by GameSpot on everyone's favorite subject, used games:

It's irrelevant to be critical of the used-game marketplace... You don't want to use a stick punishing users for buying used; you want to give them a reason to buy new. You want to create something that's of benefit to consumers... By letting consumers know there's more stuff to come, it stands to reason they'd hang on to their titles.

Gee, Zelnick sounds a lot like Satoru Iwata circa 2005. By saying this, he's breaking ranks – game publishers are supposed to call anyone who buys a used game a dirty lousy cheat, remember? – but he's zeroing in on the Nintendo solution of making new games more attractive than used ones by adding value and encouraging people to hold on to their copies.

All those Red Dead Redemption add-on packs have a dual purpose, then. On the one side, they motivate players to keep their games around after they've beaten them. On the other, they get revenue out of people who bought the disc used.

How sensible!

Image courtesy Valve