Andrea's comments comparing the game industry to the film industry (at 74:00) are really perceptive, but I think the point to take away from film is actually financing not distribution. Withholding used game sales for a period of time might help publishers' profits to some degree, but to Jeff's point, that won't help design innovation.

The way game developers are structured forces them to put out games to sustain themselves, rather than make a game because of a creative idea. This is basically the film industry's "studio system" from the "Golden Age" of Hollywood, ie---(a) producing movies primarily on their own film making lots with creative personnel under often long-term contract, and (b) dominating exhibition through vertical integration

This business model is A. inefficient, because it forces a film studio to constantly keep itself afloat with regular content output. And B. it undermines individual talents that really make content shine. Auteurs like Quentin Tarantino and even Stephen Spielberg could not exist in the studio system. That also goes to the idea of games not being able to have their own "Academy Awards" and so forth because every developer is part of a unit.

That said, look at someone like Hideo Kojima. He cultivated a fan base based on his individual vision. He's probably the only professional in the industry who can say that, and still has credibility with the audience. However, in recent years he's been hampered with basically the total fiscal survival of Konami, because they can't output shit as a developer anymore.

If he doesn't keep making Metal Gear games, arbitrarily adding to the lore, making it ever more convoluted and wearing out his favor with gamers, Konami will essentially stop making console titles and/or go bankrupt. Compare him to a Quentin Tarantino in the film industry. Harvey Weinstein is Tarantino's regular collaborator, but Weinstein doesn't depend on Tarantino to make money. Tarantino's vision is the horse of a film, and its making is the cart of the film.

So as is game developers pump out a game products solely to continue paying their employees' salaries. If they adopted the film industry's production methods, artistic vision and commercial viability could convene much more. You know, Paramount doesn't have an in house costume designer. The film industry does have unions, and lots of tightly wound networks, but because films are so expensive to make, they learned to divorce production from ownership as it were.