After working in lab settings, I know that companies patent literally everything that they think they can. Whether or not they think it will ever be used. Most employees are told and expected to patent. So, I do not always put stock into this type of stuff.
That being said, I do expect to see more of this in the future. Although I do not know exactly how long it will last. There have been attempts at this stuff to small degrees. I think a lot of new game purchases come from people selling their recently purchased games. People play games, beat them, and sell them to fund more games. This creates a fake and larger money source for people who buy new games. I honestly don't see more people buying new games. The most likely thing that would happen is that game companies will forcibly create a steam or app store "race to the bottom" in price structure to compete for people's monthly game budgets.
If you can't trade you are pickier and more frugal with money. Personally, I think the companies will only be hurting themselves. I would expect a few companies to try this (EA) and others will sit back and learn from their mistakes. But I could be overly optimistic.
I expect things to change a lot after this next generation of consoles. By that time, I will be old enough and set in my ways enough to not care for this new-fangled technology and just sit on my couch listening to Grunge music while playing my Genesis. I did it in 1991 and I'm doing it in 2013. So, I'm fine with any changes made. But seriously, there is enough stuff already released to keep me busy. It would just make my collecting easier.
