Sony's totally gonna participate in the coming DRM schemes, look at how cagey they're being when questioned about it. There's no way in hell a publisher is gonna let one of these two systems go without some sort of anti-used scheme in this coming generation.
Here's how it will likely play out, minor differences between platforms aside: You buy your game, put it in your Xbox or Playstation, and either A) it reads a key off the disc and gets tagged/locked to the system, or B) you punch in the ridiculous code from the card in the box...which tags/locks it to your system. Now, when you're finished, you can technically (in the most corporate-weasel sense of the word) sell that disc, or loan it. So that "oh yeah, yeah, sure, you can sell your games when you're finished" bullet point is covered. The person who buys your used game puts the disc in their system, and is greeted with a popup along the lines of "We see this game isn't registered to this console. To unlock the full features of the game, please purchase a pass from PSN/XBL!" This pass will likely be around the $15 to $20 range. Otherwise, what they have bought is a glorified demo - an allotted amount of playtime, a certain number of levels, or some other arbitrary cutoff point. At which time another popup demanding payment shows, and your game either A) lets you replay for that time or amount of levels, or B) stops working completely. You'll almost certainly be able to buy these passes beforehand at the Gamestop register, and will be reminded of this by the friendly register jockey every single time you buy a used game at Gamestop.
Again, this was never about Gamestop. They put up a front where Gamestop wears the villain face, but if they had that much of a problem with Gamestop you wouldn't be seeing all those online pass cards everywhere inside the store, and you wouldn't be able to buy a code printed directly on a register receipt. No, whether they publicly admit it or not they like Gamestop fine, because Gamestop actually makes them money. This was, and is, totally about you. They hate your guts because you sell your games, you loan them to your friends, and they don't see any money from that. Things aren't going to change that much for Gamestop. They'll get along fine, and all it's really gonna cost them is a pegboard for the pass cards and a little more register tape for the codes. Things are gonna change for you, though. You and your little buddies are either gonna cough it up this next generation, or you're not gonna play.
