DRM News

In an exclusive interview with Gamesindustrybiz, THQ’s executive VP of Core Games Danny Bilson has revealed that the company is planning a consistent strategy of charging used game buyers for features available free to those who purchase the game new.

While UFC Unleashed 2010 charged $10 for the online training camp component to a used purchaser, that doesn’t mean that the next releases will follow that same path and charge for the multiplayer portion of a game. In fact, Bilson made it clear that what is withheld from used buyers will likely differ from game to game, with an emphasis on an aspect of the title that the used buyer wants. The whole point of the exercise is to make the consumer see the new copy as the premium copy.

We have to show the used gamer that new is premium, because you get everything for free in there. 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.

Later, Bilson hints at something in the works that may encompass THQ’s used games plan from this point forward, and also seems to indicate that it could be something that will interest other publishers as well. No real explanation of what this move forward might be is given.

We have this idea, and we’re working on it now, and if it pans out it maybe a solution that works for everybody, and I would really like that. Because I don’t like the constant strategising because there’s still a flock of gamers out there who are caught in the middle of this.

Yes, they don’t know that they’re causing this problem – to them they’re still simply spending money in a shop, on a videogame.

Danny Bilson: Yeah, they don’t see what I’m dealing with, and they don’t see that… I’m not even allowed to say some of the stuff about that. What I will say, and it’s really true, is that what I care about more than anything else are the people who play our videogames – and they buy them new and they buy them used. I have to worry about that and deal with it. There’s nothing wrong with that, and I think we may have a plan. This is a difficult one for the whole industry, because we don’t make money on used games, so that… you can imagine.

Regardless of what this new strategy ends up consisting of, it’s now safe to say that THQ is definitely making this a long term part of their business strategy. What sort of impact that might have on their bottom line is still up in the air.