14 DAY TRIAL // Activision Blizzard posted pretty good results for the second financial quarter of the year, with titles like Call of Duty and the World of Warcraft MMO pushing its profits up. The company is also preparing to launch high profile titles in the coming years, like the Cataclysm expansion for its main MMO and the Black Ops first person shooter designed by Treyarch. But despite the good results Activision is still thinking about how it can make them even better by reducing the impact of used games sales and guiding more customers towards new packaged boxes.
Thomas Tippl, who is the Chief Operations Officer of Activision Blizzard, has told investors that his company is focusing on downloadable content as a way to limit used game sales. He said, “We are still evaluating various possibilities for greater participation in the used-games business. What's been working the best so far is providing additional content and therefore limiting the supply to used games”, before adding, “So that's a proven strategy that we will continue. And any other initiatives, we will be talking about when we get closer to it.”
It seems that the main target for DLC launches is Call of Duty: Black Ops. The publisher has revealed that more than 20 million units of content for the titles in the series have been sold so far and it will offer more than map packs for Black Ops in an effort to keep players interested in it for longer.
Electronic Arts is already fighting used games sales with the Online Pass system, which withholds multiplayer modes for those who do not get the game new. THQ has used a similar system for UFC Undisputed 2010 and Ubisoft has praised these efforts and is probably thinking about a proprietary system. We'll learn more about how Activision Blizzard approached the issue as the launch of Black Ops draws near.