THQ working on new anti-pre-owned tech
"We may have come up with something that makes everybody happy," says Bilson
THQ has exclusively revealed to GamesIndustry.biz that it is working a new system intended to squeeze publisher revenue from traded-in games.
The contentious second-hand games market has come under attack from several publishers of late, concerned that the profits go only to retailers. Most notorious is EA's Project $10 – which requires purchasers of resold games to pay an additional fee if they wish to access the titles' multi-player modes or premium content.
"We have to show the used gamer that new is premium, because you get everything for free in there," THQ's executive vice president of Core Games, Danny Bilson, told GamesIndustry.biz in an interview earlier this month. "We actually have some other programmes in the works that aren't as punitive as locking out the used guy, that are more positive. I think we're going to be able to announce that on a Fall product. If it works, it's the kind of idea that GameStop likes, we like, new gamers like, used gamers like it..."
"We may have come up with something, and I haven't announced it yet, that makes everybody happy. And that always makes me happy, because I don't want to be fighting retailers, I don't want to be fighting any of them. I'd rather come up with a system where everybody's making money and everyone's happy, and the guy who needs to buy used can buy and not feel like he's a criminal - like sometimes we want him to feel. Or that the guy who buys new gets the benefit."
Bilson also revealed that he was deliberating over what anti-trade-in system to use in February's anticipated shooter Homefront, one of the first of what he calls "clusterbombs" from the rejuvenated publisher.
"With this one we're not going to lock out the multi-player to the used gamer, we're not," he confirmed. "We're going to let them experience some of it but not all of it. And then he'll have to pay a nominal fee to get all the maps and all the stuff. That's not official, I'm saying that today, that's just what I'm thinking. We won't lock that down until January."
The full interview with Danny Bilson, in which he also discusses the rejuvenated THQ's approach to improving its internal studios, its current marketing strategy and its new focus on blockbuster-only titles, is available here.