The general manager of European publishing for EA Games, Jens Uwe Intat, has been talking to GamesIndustry.biz about the second hand gaming marketing and how it is a critical situation for them.
He goes on to say that you cannot compare the second hand games market to other second hand markets as games don’t suffer the wear and tear of other physical items.
While that is an interesting point and perfectly valid against comparisons to cars, electronics or clothing it doesn’t stand up to much scrutiny.
What are the other two big entertainment markets out there at the moment? Movies and Books.
Movies are often sold second hand and a large portion of the movie industries money comes from rentals… something the gaming industry fought for ages.
Books are an even better example with governments all over the world buying copies and then letting people read them for free in the form of libraries. The second market for books is also astronomically huge but that didn’t stop J.K Rowling from making R8,400,000,000 from the Harry Potter series. (scary isn’t it)
However EA have stopped trying to force the retailers to stop selling second hand games and are now focusing on trying to keep that copy in your machine. The free DLC for Battlefield BC is a good example of how to do that.
However the delayed release of the Burnout DLC meant that a lot of us traded the game a while back already.
Source: GamesIndustry
Last Updated: August 29, 2008
PillsburyDeeBoy
August 29, 2008 at 11:06
I can’t blame EA for this, at all. People may sell second hand stuff to their heart’s content – and EA acknowledges this – however that should not limit the distribution methods EA adopts to occur a business model that does, in fact, CUT THEM OUT OF THE CYCLE.
It’s just good business.
xyber
August 29, 2008 at 12:29
DLC is the way to go if they dont want the game sold off again. Give us some value for money.