EA: Second-Hand Games a "Critical Situation"

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."