DRM News

Crystal Dynamics global brand director Karl Stewart is not a fan of second hand game sales. He also believes that the industry needs to encourage purchases of new copies of games.

From CVG :

“I think the model as we see it right now is a frail one. Having the used market is not beneficial to any of us.

“Some of the plays that have been made more recently about having DLC available when you buy the game and then adding a charge to the consumer who buys it second hand, I think that’s just naturally the way it’s going to have to go to deal with those kind of situations.”

So, it appears that we may have another party interested in following a philosophy along the lines of EA’s paid DLC programs.

He added: “At the end of the day we take huge risks and we invest ten of millions of dollars in making a game and marketing a game and to think, stock turn wise, we could sell one but four people could play it, I just think that it’s something that we have to manage very carefully.”

The interesting part of all of this is that, as more and more game companies start moving towards a model that charges buyers of used games for DLC free to buyers of a new copy, Gamestop hasn’t said a word. They make a substantial amount of their money from used games sales, and this is clearly a salvo aimed directly at them.