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Recently Bitmob editor Rob Savillo posted an editorial in response to Penny Arcade's comic about used games sales and their equivalent to outright piracy.
While I don't go as far as to call used games piracy, there is a distinction between a used video game and almost any other used product. If I buy a used car, used lawn mower, or used tshirt, I can almost certainly expect something to be wrong with it. Maybe it's not a big deal. Perhaps there's a scratch, the starter is finicky, or the color is faded. But because I'm buying with an understanding of it being used, I'm ok with all that, especially since I got it cheaper. The other thing I accept when buying used is that I get no support at all from the original manufacturer. I can't buy a broken down Focus for $500 and expect Ford to fix it for free or anything like that.
While a used video game may have a missing instruction manual (not as likely for a practically new game at $55), generally a used video game works just as well as a new one. I'm not going to have missing textures or issues where the jump button doesn't work just because the game is used. It will work just as well as a new product, making the two almost indistinguishable.
That is part of the point of the whole Project $10 thing. It is the developers attempting to create functionality that is a solely for their direct customers and not the second hand market. A new GM may come with a year of free XM Radio and OnStar. Buy that car used, and you must pay subscription fees to both of those services. As things look right now, video games may be moving that way.
Is that unexcusable? Maybe. The industry is facing new challenges in the market place every year that could have never been expected. Let's not forget that it is still a relatively young industry that needs to constantly adjust and occasionally reinvent itself. As someone who buys games new unless it is an old, out of print, hard to find game, Project $10 really has no effect on me. I got my free DLC with Dragon Age Origins and Mass Effect 2 and I'm fine with that.
The simple truth is game development has become incredibly expensive for an industry that still straddles the line between mainstream and niche (depending on the product). Yes, used gamers still buy DLC and contribute to the growth of the player base, but they generally don't add money to the developer's and publisher's pocket. Just as it is your right to buy a game used, it is the wrong of the manufacturer to do whatever they can to incentivise new game sales.