The Entertainment Merchants Association, a trade group representing retailers from North America, has announced that it plans to implement a project, called Lazarus, which would see videogames being activated at the point of sale, until 2010, limiting the losses generated by theft by employees and casual shoplifting. There are still significant obstacles in the implementation process but it seems that such a move will really cut costs.

The EMA has commissioned Capgemini, a consultancy firm, to analyze the effects. Apparently, theft reduction will generate saves of about 3.3 billion dollars, while an additional 6 billion dollars will be saved in the operation of the supply chain, as the need for videogames to be secured is eliminated. More importantly, stores will no longer need to be secured and employees will be able to control who buys videogames more easily.

Bo Anderson, who is the Chief Executive Officer of EMA, declared that “If we can utilize emerging technology to reduce the shrink in the DVD, Blu-ray discs, and video game categories and eliminate barriers erected to deter shoplifting, consumers will have easier access to the products, additional retail channels will carry these products, and costs will be eliminated from the supply chain.”

Of course, such a new activation solution would mean that all three big console manufacturers should agree to the new method, which is not even being prototyped at the moment, because they hold the final say over the certification of all the content published for their systems.

Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo are not much affected by the problems of the retailers so they might not be too interested in the new activation system, which might put off some videogame buyers, because it involves some extra steps when purchasing a title. Still, the system is a definite possibility and the EMA is working hard to make it a reality.