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The used game market is a “double-edged sword” EA chief financial officer Blake Jorgensen revealed during a question and answer session at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco.
“It’s one of these classic double-edged swords,” said Jorgensen. “In one way the used game business has been critical for the health of the retail channel, and having a healthy retail channel is an important thing for us.”
He added: “Would we like to sell everything at full price and not have a used game market? Sure. But I think the used game market’s a little like any other kind of market where it creates liquidity. The fact is, that liquidity benefits us in some fashion. So if someone goes in and trades in a game, there’s a good chance they’re going to buy another one of our games. And so if there’s a liquid market, I think that that’s not a bad thing at all.”
However, Jorgensen wasn’t able to offer any firm information on what Sony and Microsoft have planned for the next generation regarding the used game market.
“I can’t really comment on where the next generation boxes are going to be relative to used games,” he said. “I will say that the trend in the business is to have that always-on connectivity and connect with a customer, and to the extent that the software identifies a certain customer is going to create some issues going down the road in the used game market. But I do believe that the consumer likes it, and it’s been good for the retail channel.”
Source: Gamasutra
