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EA, the current front-runner in the new drive to reward those who buy their games brand new with in-the-box codes for free DLC, is looking to expand its plans by bringing its Sports division into the mix.
Much like the model used for Mass Effect 2, those who buy new copies of Friday’s Battlefield: Bad Company 2 will find inside a code to get free additional digital content for the title. Those who buy the game second hand will need to buy a new code from EA to access the same content.
Now it looks like consumers can expect similar measure to accompany the release of this year’s Madden title – and possibly FIFA 11.
I think we need to move much quicker, in particular with Madden, through a digital world,” EA Sports boss Peter Moore told IGN.
It keeps the disc in the drive longer, it stalls trading the game in, it allows me to be able to take further advantage of that consumer over a longer period of time. Even if we do get second sales, we see that as an opportunity to drive digital margins.
Sports games, because their seasonality runs out, are always something tempting to trade in. We’ve got to be able to build business models around allowing that consumer to trade it in and then monetize them.
"We’re certainly going to do a lot of that this year.”
