How Much Damage Will Microsoft’s New Gaming Console Do to the Industry?

Lots of fan-boys around the world are probably teetering in their chairs as many expect 2013 to be the year Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Sony (NYSE:SNE) launch the new generation of gaming consoles. However, Microsoft may be making a move that turns off some gamers and could even hurt another industry.

As more and more media goes digital, the fight to manage copyrights and file sharing has been fiercely waged worldwide, especially in the film and music industries. The issue hasn’t gone unnoticed by the gaming industry either, and now Microsoft is rumored to be severely limiting how customers use the games they purchase.

A source with some first-hand knowledge of the next Microsoft gaming console suggested that the new system will only allow new copies of games to be played on the console, meaning second-hand and borrowed games would be unplayable.

The logic behind such a decision is quite simple — it would prevent people from selling games they had finished for cheaper prices that undercut new copies, and then could effectively boost new game sales by forcing gamers to buy new copies of games already popular among friends. But, the actual effects of this practice could be much more widespread and damaging…