Used videogame/video game revenues dilema.

[Blix]

So I was reading an article on IGN about the PSN Pass that is being planned for the PSN(http://ps3.ign.com/articles/118/1181500p1.html). This is like an EA VIP pass thing where if you buy the game pre-owed you have to pay in order to get a code to get support for the online aspect of games and some other features. It seems EA and THQ are not the only companies worried over used games eating up their income. Now this article does have some valid points but I am still of the mind that used game sales aren't really a bad thing.

Now I was speaking to a friend yesterday who got me thinking with the following statement. He said that while plants vs. zombies cost a few bucks on the iPhone it costs $15 bucks on Xbox. I compared Xbox's price to steam and steam has it for $9.99 while both games are digitally distributed. And he blamed piracy on high prices. He is not the first person I hear blaming piracy on high prices but I've always thrown this argument out the window for various reasons: Jim Sterling presents my point of view fairly well so as not to get sidetracked in that I'll just post his video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQZSHpNcsRk
But the point he made about price differences I found to be quite valid. I know that console companies make money by charging royalty fees but could it be that they're charging too much? I don't have an answer to this I don't know how much the game development costs and how much companies charge to let them publish the games on their consoles because I don't read about video games as much as I used to. So I wanted to know your opinion on this subject. Are companies doing things wrong when charging for vip passes or is it unfair to treat them different from used car sales and other things were paying less means getting a slightly subpar product? Are companies (developers, publishers and console makers alike) charging more than they should and raising the price too much?

I look forward to your feedback.