ZenErik wrote:Here's a fun question. What if you de-solder the battery and re-solder it? Will it lose the save data and function like a new copy then?

There's no battery; it's flash memory.
Hobie's point about people selling games to buy new ones.
Yes, this is a valid point. So let's run some numbers (all pulled out of my ass).
Let's say that customer A buys all his games new, at $60 a pop. In order to fund this habit when he finishes a game he sells it to Gamestop for $20. Gamestop then sells their used games to customer B for $40. And let's say that if customer B stopped buying used he'd have to buy fewer games in a year.
So now, let's do some math. Let's say that customer B buys 6 games in a year, at $40 a piece. So his game budget was $240. Customer A also bought those same 6 games in a year, at $60 a piece. When you figure that he sold each one for $20 then each game cost him $40. But if his finishing cash amount is $20 (selling the last game) then his game budget for the year has to be $260. So now let's say that someone went through and burned down every Gamestop in the country, so both customers had to buy their games at retail. Now customer A can only get 4 games in a year. Similarly, customer B can only get 4 games in a year. But now you have 8 games being bought at retail instead of 6. So that's more money in to the industry.
Yes, both customers now have purchased less games. But their total dollar investment into the purchase of video games is the same whether or not you can sell your game back to the store or can buy it cheaper used. At the end of the day your budget is $X. The difference is today you can get more games for your $X, but the consequence is that all the people purchasing your used copies (after all, if no one bought them Gamestop wouldn't buy them from you) aren't giving money to the developers.
And I welcome anyone who's dealt with Gamestop's trade-in and used game values to plug in the actual numbers and see how things work out in terms of how many new games are purchased today vs. in a world with no used game sales.
Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.