Army Of Two: The 40th Day Producer, Matte Turner reckons Sony won't be winning fans among retailers...

Army Of Two: The 40th Day Producer, Matte Turner, in a recent interview with PLAY magazine, reckons that retailers must “hate them”, after the recent release of its download-only PSPgo.

It shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that developers and publishers are far more positive about Sony’s brave excursion into digital distribution when you consider that it bypasses the entire second-hand market – an estimated multi-billion pound worldwide industry in itself – for which publishers will never see a single penny of profit.

Turner also reckons the whole “download only thing is very cool”, pointing to the fact that the end of discs is potentially far closer than we think, he goes on “It’s all going that way and Sony is going that way early. I’m sure [retailers aren’t] very impressed, but I think it’s cool and we’ll see how it does”.

People love their second-hand games, but the benefits of digital distribution are very convincing when laid end to end. As well as being better for the environment, potentially cheaper games with greater profits for the industry will translate to bigger budgets and ultimately better games – at least that is what one would hope.

The debate over whether second hand games are ethical or not will no doubt rage on, but ultimately, it will be console manufacturers who decide on our behalf. The writing, as they say, is already on the wall. NowGamer will stick its neck out here and now, positing that if the an optical disc drive feature’s in the design of any of the next generation of consoles, we shall scoff our collective millinery items.

The full interview with Matt Can be read in next month’s issue of PLAY magazine, on shelves 26th November.