"It's hard to gauge the effect of used game sales on Halo, but I'm sure it's big," O'Donnell told GamesIndustry. "Complaining about sales when you have a multi-million seller is somewhat difficult to justify, but it seems to me that the folks who create and publish a game shouldn't stop receiving income from further sales."

Gaming mega-retailer GameStop reported that a staggering 49 percent of its Q1 2008 profits came from used game sales. None of that profit is re-distributed to developers or publishers, who only receive royalties from first-time sales of games. Electronic Arts, the world's second-largest publisher, recently called the used game trade "a very critical situation."

"It will be harder for smaller titles to be successful in the future if they can't fully realise a return on investment," O'Donnell warned.

O'Donnell expressed his support for digital distribution, saying, "Hopefully developers, publishers, and retailers will figure out a system that is good and fair for both the consumer and the creators of that content."

"I don't worry that much about the middle man; he always makes out just fine," he concluded.