Treyarch Boss: Multiplayer, Not One-Time Codes Can Curb Pre-Owned Sales

The question of pre-owned game sales is certainly a contentious one. Companies like EA and THQ are adamant that people buying second-hand are ruining their profits and have begun using one-time codes and other such means to get people to buy for the plastic wrapped version.

In repsonse to this, Treyarch’s studio head Mark Lamia has said that multiplayer, not single-use codes is the way to keep people playing games. Speaking with MCV, Lamia said that instead of using more brute force methods like EA has pioneered, he wants to give “consumers really great reasons to keep their games, rather than trade them in.” He said that supporting multiplayer is the key to this and that “the effort that goes into the multiplayer is a living thing.” ”The multiplayer comes with the game you buy – you don’t have to do anything else for that,” said Lamia of the studio’s latest Call of Duty title.

Obviously this is a bit of an ad for Black Ops, but it’s encouraging to see a more positive reponse to the so-called threat of pre-owned games. COD games have a rather robust and volumous DLC system and often Activision charge a little too much for what they offer (that’s another issue) but saying “play our game” rather than “play our game, except you better not buy it used because you’re poor” is much more positive.

But what about charging for multiplayer? Industry analyst Michael Pachter has been harping on for a while about companies like Activision charging for multiplayer separately to the already expensive Xbox Live subscriptions. He said recently that “the biggest driver of [hardware sale] declines over the last 18 months is online multiplayer functionality.” He’s suggested multiple times that “adding premium services for a fee, or limiting the quantity of multiplayer content that is provided for free” will reduce this drop and make a considerable sum for the game companies.

Activision has certainly said they wouldn’t charge for online Call of Duty, but my inherant scepticism tells me that if they see a chance to increase revenue, they’ll take it. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick has said in the past he’d like to subscription charges for his games (although that was probably more in line with MMOs) so I think the risk still remains and if any company can get players to give them $5 a month it’s certainly Activision. Much like Xbox Live going up $10, the reality is that despite initial objections, people will most probably shell out for services or games that they actively use, especially such popular ones.

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