Rod Cousens, CEO of Codemasters, has an idea on how to solve the growing dispute between publishers and retailers over pre-owned sales: sell you part of a game now then have you download the rest later.
The battle, which has gotten rather public over the past twelve months, is over the revenues retailers like GameStop see from the sale of pre-owned games. GameStop reckon it's an essential part of business. Publishers, meanwhile, feel that because they don't see any profits from a used game sale, it's practically stealing customers who could otherwise be buying a game new.
"It's not inconceivable to say that we send out a Formula One game that's not complete - maybe it's got six tracks", Cousens told GI.biz. "Then they have to buy their next track, and you follow it around the world. When you turn up in Abu Dhabi you have to pay for the circuit, and whatever the changes are to the cars that are put through. That, I think, would deal with a lot of it, and also address the pre-owned."
It would also piss off a lot of consumers who couldn't be bothered shelling out for content over the course of an F1 season. He seems to have left that bit out.
Current pre-owned model is "destructive," says Cousens [GI.biz]