Xbox One second hand game fee may be as high as £45, 90% of retail price

The days of grabbing a bargain second hand Xbox game may be a thing of the past with the launch of the Xbox One. Tech Digest has learnt that the second hand game activation fee for Xbox One games could be as high as 90% of their original retail price, or roughly £45, on top of whatever was paid for the disc in the first place.

That’s according to a a senior “employee at one of the UK’s largest video game retailers” speaking to Phil Jones, owner of ConsoleDeals.co.uk.

According to Zavvi, Xbox One titles will sell new for £49.99. An activation fee for second hand gamers of 90% would mean second hand titles could cost as much as £44.99 to play. Considering even recently released second hand games currently can be as much £10 cheaper than their brand new counterparts (and older titles sell sometimes for less than £5 in total), it’s a move that could cripple the used games market and its associated retailers.

“The second hand games market has been struggling to survive for the past decade; this leak, which we believe to be true, is the final nail in the coffin.” said Jones.

“We were all expecting the worst and we got the worst – I’m shocked that Microsoft is taking this decision”

Microsoft have so far only released the following in regards to the activation fee:

“We know there is some confusion around used games on Xbox One and wanted to provide a bit of clarification on exactly what we’ve confirmed. While there have been many potential scenarios discussed, we have only confirmed that we designed Xbox One to enable our customers to trade in and resell games at retail.”

Clearing up precisely nothing.

If the report proves true, Microsoft may have some very skeptical gamers to win over at E3. The Xbox One PR machine will need to go into overdrive, or Microsoft may have to consider changing what is sure to be an incredibly unpopular policy.

RELATED:
Xbox One – Everything you need to know: All the official specs, features, release date