EA: Second-Hand Games a "Critical Situation" [Aug 28, 2008, 3:46 pm ET] – Share – Viewing Comments
Electronic Arts considers second-hand game sales a "critical situation" reports
GamesIndustry.biz in a bit of from an interview with EA's Jens Uwe Intat
that will published in its entirety tomorrow. According to Intat, senior VP and
general manager for European publishing at EA, the publisher is experimenting
with a number of different business models to combat the problem of the same
game being sold and resold to different users. He points out that games have a
unique problem compared to most other goods sold on secondary markets because
they do not degrade with use. To address this, he says: "What we're trying to do
is build business models that are more and more online-supported with additional
services and additional content that you get online. So people will see the
value in not just getting that physical disc to play at home alone, but actually
playing those games online and paying for them."
They can indeed change the rules...
This seems to be a common misconception on this thread - that a business or cartel of businesses can set or dictate legal policy, i.e., the "Je suis le roi, je suis le droit" theory.
Unfortunately for EA, and everyone else, to be able to change the rules implies they are in charge of the rulebooks. The rulebooks in this case are Federal and state law. They are not in charge of those. They are, however, accountable to them. They are, like us, the servant of the law, and not its master.
Games will start to be tied to online profiles or login accounts just like they are starting to do on the PC.
I think, to date, that all game manufacturers that have tied the use of game to a login account or a certain number of installs from the original media have been very careful to make sure that there was an "out" for the end user - usually in the form of contact information to someone who can reset/change the information. My gut feeling on this is that they're well aware (as per their lawyers) the legal dangers of artificial lock in.
...the gaming industry will find a way to fight this...
If by "fighting this" you mean removing the perfectly legal and protected right of first sale, then it starts looking a little suspect: "The gaming industry will find a way to lock consumers out their legal resale choices in order to maximize their own profit at the expense of the consumer".
Competition with the resale market is one thing, but tying and non competitive practices will most likely attract some legal attention, either from the Fed in the shape of an anti-trust suit, or from private lawyers in the shape of a class action suit.
This comment was edited on Aug 30, 16:06.
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