Electronic Arts chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen commented at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference about used games. While it’s rumored that Microsoft and Sony will find ways to prevent used games from being played on their next gen systems (and EA would rather not have a used game market) Jorgensen admits there are some positives coming from second-hand games.

“It’s one of these classic double-edged swords,” said Jorgensen. “In one way the used game business has been critical for the health of the retail channel, and having a healthy retail channel is an important thing for us. The business will probably never be 100 percent digital. Bandwidths are a constraint, and will continue to be a constraint for many years to come, which hold back the ability to do full digital downloads of some games.”

“Having a healthy retail channel out there like GameStop or Best Buy or others is important, and to the extent that used games is important to them, I think that’s a positive,” he added. “Would we like to sell everything at full price and not have a used game market Sure. But I think the used game market’s a little like any other kind of market where it creates liquidity. The fact is, that liquidity benefits us in some fashion. So if someone goes in and trades in a game, there’s a good chance they’re going to buy another one of our games. And so if there’s a liquid market, I think that that’s not a bad thing at all.”

Source: Gamasutra