Activision Not Afraid of Used Games

 

Unlike rival megapublisher EA, who’ve implemented Project 10 dollar – a method of creating incentive for gamers to purchase their games brand new, Activision have no plans of muscling in on the used game market.

In fact, perpetually vilified Activision overlord Bobby Kotick has criticised the very notion of online passes. In a Call of duty centric interview with Joystiq, Kotick stressed his company’s use of innovation to keep people from selling their games 2nd hand.

“I think we’ve probably done more to try and create innovative ways for people to pay for their games,” said Activision’s diminutive head honcho. “We’re not doing anything to suppress used games today. What we’ve tried to do is to really support our audiences and, you know, when you talk to players, they like the idea of having a currency. They like the idea of being able to take a game they no longer want to play and use it to get a credit to buy new games.

“We can do some of these things that EA and others have done, [but] we actually don’t think its in the best interest of the gamer, and so we’ve chosen not to.”

“I think we’ve generally tried to do things like encourage our customers to used-game sales, probably more so than our competitors. But you know, we’re very mindful of what’s happening macroeconomically and I think that that plays a role when we’re thinking about the price of our content.”

Instead, their focus is on DLC as incentive for people to buy – and keep – their games.

“From a financial perspective you look at it and say, ‘Okay, well the retailer is not paying us anything for the privilege of doing it and you know we invest all this capital in making a game and we are not getting any credit, any return on their resale of the game,’ but, you know something, the best way to keep people engaged in your game experience is keep giving them more great content,” he explained.

“As business models evolve, as the way you distribute content evolves, as the ability to do things online changes in terms of pricing or trial or sample. I think we’ve definitely always been out in front of the rest of our competitors. But I think you always need to be sensitive to that relationship and not crossing the line to a place where the customer feels like they have been taken advantage of.”

“Our customers need to be satisfied that there is a price-value relationship that they feel great about.”

Of course you don’t need to charge for an online pass, when your customers will happily give you wads of money for map packs!

Source : Joystiq

Last Updated: November 16, 2010