Gaming is going digital. No one can deny that, but that has meant that gamers can no longer trade in their games like they once did. Green Man Gaming is hoping to change that. They announced today a new digital retail platform that monetises the digital pre-owned market.

Unlike the usual method of "click buy, pay and download," they are proposing a new concept where gamers can trade-in their digitally purchased and downloaded games.

"Previously the minute you had paid and downloaded your game it had no resale value," explained Gian Luzio, COO for Green Man Gaming. "This is extremely expensive for the gamer and does not encourage the consumer to try new genres or franchises. Our leading edge technology gives downloaded games a value that gamers can trade-in at any time."

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This article is in response to Tyler's editorial, "Does Anyone Care About Backwards Compatibility?"

I myself feel betrayed.  I feel many of us have been betrayed over the years, by many of those in whom we trust, or feel we do.  I own Steel Battalion, a game many would not have paid $200 for at launch.  Though I still own an original Xbox, the game will never be backwards compatible because of the controller connection, will only match an original Xbox, and I wouldn't expect a company to release an adapter for an extinct product line.

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Following yesterday's news that digital distribution is to grow significantly in the coming years, Namco Bandai Games, as if right on cue, announced today its plans to increase its digital distribution presence. They hope to provide customers with hard-to-find games from the company's library as well as the latest content. Namco will be offering its hit on the Xbox Live Marketplace and PSOne and PSP titles will be available on PSN. Titles that will be available initially include Ridge Racer 6, Beautiful Katamari, Tekken 6, and Soulcalibur: Broken Destiny.

"Expanding our digital distribution presence across all major platforms is an essential part of our worldwide corporate strategy," said Robert Stevenson, vice president of online development Namco Bandi Games. "Through this initiative, our consumers will have access to our latest releases, bestsellers and hard to find classics with the press of a button."

Let's face it, 2009 was a crap year for the gaming industry. Despite all of the analysts' predictions, the industry took a significant loss according to recent NPD figures. A new DFC Intelligence report only confirms this information.

"As for overall forecasts, we are sad to report that we expect the global videogame and interactive entertainment industry to be down 12% in 2009 from its peak in 2008," the report states. "The industry is expected to be flat in the 2010 to 2012 timeframe. Almost all of this slowdown is because of a downturn in sales for the traditional dedicated console and portable game market. While we caution that currency fluctuations can make global comparisons difficult, DFC Intelligence believes that retail software sales for dedicated console and portable systems peaked in 2008 at about $30 billion worldwide and will not reach that level in the foreseeable future. In 2015 retail software sales for dedicated video game console and portable game systems are expected to be about $23 billion worldwide."

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Sony recently confirmed that its planned content distribution service for its network-connected devices will be launching sometime next year. Reuters reports that the service is expected to offer films, music, books and other content to its range of network-capable TVs, Blu-ray players, ebooks and other devices.

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