Ubisoft Planning Its Own "Project Ten Dollar"

Ubisoft says it is taking a close look at EA's Project Ten Dollar DLC program and will likely launch a similar initiative of its own in the near future.

In a call to investors following the announcement of its full-year financial results, Ubisoft CFO Alain Martinez said the company was going to start taking advantage of launch-day downloadable content in order to protect itself from losses incurred via used game sales, much as Electronic Arts has done with Project Ten Dollar and the new EA Sports equivalent Online Pass.

"Most of the games that we release next year will have from the start downloadable content available," Martinez said. "And we are looking very carefully at what is being done by EA regarding what we call the 'ten dollar solution' and we would probably follow that line at some time in the future."

Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot noted that the company had already laid the groundwork for such a system, pointing out that games like the hit Assassin's Creed 2 came with codes for bonus content. "Actually, we have been using keys starting last year on our products, so those keys were allowing some consumers to have the content if they were buying in specific stores," he said. "So we have the system in place to actually generate more revenue on the second hand market, so we are building now the content to make sure that it can be beneficial for both groups."

Project Ten Dollar has churned up some controversy among gamers, although most seem happy enough to be getting free stuff in exchange for buying new copies of games rather than used, but EA recently indicated that the program appeared to be a success. More than 70 percent of Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age: Origins and Battlefield: Bad Company 2 buyers went online to redeem their bonus DLC codes, the company said last week, while those who bought codes for used game purchases represented a "low single-digit percentage."

Source: GamesIndustry