Why don't game companies sell activation codes?

[Prew]

For instance I own a copy of WoW- two people in the household play this game- and I would readily buy an activation code (say for $15- plus pay for another account) so that the two of us could play at the same time. However, I can't bring myself to spend $50 to buy another retail version of the game- why doesn't Blizzard allow people in this situation just buy a new activation code? Other software does this- for instance, I bought a three user version of PCcillin- one program- three activation codes- that was substantially less than buying three full versions of the software.

I can also think of several other games that I wish sold additional verification codes so that more than one person in the household can play at the same time without having to pay full retail price just to get an additional code.

Of course, I might be the only person in the world that has this issue, but I doubt it.

[BluesNFunk]

Because game companies like Blizzard are greedy.

[nocturnx]

Its a good idea and would probly cut down on piracy.

[Iniamyen]

I'm not sure exactly how much money you could save this way. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I would think no more than 5% of the game's cost goes into physical production and packaging. So, if you wanted to buy another activation code (i.e., another copy without the physical game), why would it be any cheaper than like $45? I guess this would be a way to reward customers who want more than one copy, but I don't see why it would make sense financially for the company. Although, I definitely would use the service if it were available.

[CaptTuna]

Don't you need the cd disk in the drive to play? Isn't the cd copy protected?
I know for WarCraft III this is so.

[Prew]

For WoW, you don't need the CD in the drive to play- you make good points- but for WoW specifically, it seems like any money lost on selling an activation key would be quickly made up for in the subscription fee- by not selling an activation key they lose that money plus the additional subscription fee.

But I see your point for the other games that require you to have the CD in the drive in order to play.

[Jaggannath]

I agree with Prew here... I think selling activation codes cheap would definitely be a very good option. That way, downloading them off the internet would have less meaning when you could pay a pittance to get it anyways, hence lessening the desire for piracy

[David M]

Software companies are in business to make money. Not to provide a public service to the gaming community. A companies loyalty is to its owners (shareholders) not its customers. Thats how it works in a capitalist society.

[Jaggannath]

I know David M... we're just trying to start a discussion here, to see if there's any important objections or reasons not to do it.

[David M]

Ok...sorry. I go off on little tirades sometimes.

...stepping down....

[Prew]

Originally Posted by David M Software companies are in business to make money. Not to provide a public service to the gaming community. A companies loyalty is to its owners (shareholders) not its customers. Thats how it works in a capitalist society.

My point was that game companies, such as Blizzard, might make more money by selling activation codes. By charging $50 for a new game, Blizzard makes 0 additional money from me. If they charged $15 for an additional activation code (Ialready own a retail version of the game) then they receive an additional $15 plus $12 per month from me.

and don't forget, many software companies already use this concept (i.e., site licenses; what trend micro does, etc.).

[imbest123]

having the cd in the drive isnt a problem. when i bought warcraft 3 my cd was trampled by my dog and i just burned another one from my cousin and used the same serial number. i couldnt use that cd for some reason so i just downloaded a no cd crack. plus the $15 activiation thing wouldnt work. why would a company sell something for $15 when they can get $50? plus you would need to buy 3 serial keys to even come near the normal retail price with the cd.

[Jaggannath]

But in that $50 you're paying for unnecessary duplication, such as the manuals, box, CD case, CD itself... it's essentially free money, they don't have to do anything for that extra $15

[Prew]

Originally Posted by Jaggannath But in that $50 you're paying for unnecessary duplication, such as the manuals, box, CD case, CD itself... it's essentially free money, they don't have to do anything for that extra $15

Extra $15 plus subscription fee- and the subscription fees, I'm guessing, is where really where Blizzard makes the money. Could be that there isn't a big enough market for it to make it worth Blizzard's while- how many buyers of the retail version would be interested in having 2 subscriptions? (I think I am probably the exception).

[nocturnx]

Yea but how hard would it be to set up a webpage where you could just enter your credit card number and it would give you an activation code. Its something they might as well do, they would likely make a bit more money, plus cut down on people using key gens and such.

[Siberian Bear]

I suppose another point (especially for MMORPGs) is that they (talking about Blizzard here) limit the number of boxes that have been produced. In doing this they limit the number of activation codes and so the number of characters. This allows them to determine the number of people who will be on servers etc.

I would much prefer to download the client of a game and then buy an activation code. I really don't see why I should pay the normal price for a game (about £25 which is about $45 (is that correct?)) for one that I have to pay a monthly subscription for after the first month.

Another point is the manual you get with WoW (as an example - probably the same for other MMORPGs) becomes out of date quite rapidly with the patches that are implemented.

((This is really off topic: I pay £10 a month for a subscription to WoW, and I really don't think the service I get justifies that price. Since I'm paying per month I don't think I should get extreme lag in certain places. Sorry for the rant...))

[Propain]

and whats weird about it , is that when you buy WoW you get a guest passkey so a friend can play with you for 10 days and try the game out , and they say lend them your cds for the install . So if you can lend them the cds for the install, why not just sell them a key online in order to keep playing.

[Jaggannath]

I didn't know they did that Propain, but it proves my point. How hard would it be to just sell an activation key for $15?? I reckon revenue would increase, as someone like me might be tempted to play it (which I'm definitely not atm)

[Propain]

my idea would be to put the cds on a private torrent , you pay for the code thats it that all. You have to pay to play online anyways so there wouldnt be no worries about piracy. the companies would save tonnes on cds, boxes , shipping etc etc. all youd need is a poster shipped out to each gaming store for advertising and thats alot cheaper than shipping out millions of games.

cheers

[bigandy]

That is similar to what Steam does (ie. Half-Life 2). If you already had a Steam account setup, you could pay and download HL2 (and the other goodies) through your Steam account. Or, if you were like me and didn't have this option available to you, you could go out and buy the game at the ol' brick and mortar.

I see what you guys are saying, and I agree it could be a good idea, and if run properly, quite profitable. But it' ain't happening for $15. The stuff you guys mentioned, CDs, boxes, manuals, shipping, etc. are very little of the cost of the actual game. Just like when you go to the record store and buy an album, it costs you (let's say) $15. But very little of that is the packaging and product itself. It's all the fees that have to be paid for the retailer, the artists, the producers, the record company, etc.. I understand that the price is not necessarily the issue here, but we do have to be reasonable and understand that it won't be insanely cheap.

[Siberian Bear]

my idea would be to put the cds on a private torrent , you pay for the code thats it that all.

I can't say I like the idea of downloading 3 GB of game. Would they come as CD images (like some linux distributions) which you would then burn to CD and run? Perhaps to satisfy the game company the inital "start up cost" of the account could be say $25 while all the monthly payments afterwards would be $15.

[Jaggannath]

When I said $15 earlier, it was more intended as an example rather than the actual price, the principle is still the same... why should we have to buy two packages to play the same game on different computers in the house?

[Propain]

Originally Posted by Siberian Bear I can't say I like the idea of downloading 3 GB of game.

that would only take 1-2 hours max and you dont need to burn them to cd to use the images , all you do is load them up with Daemon Tools (all 4 at once) and sit back . since you dont need the cds to play , you can delete the images after if ya like.

[Prew]

It would be interesting to know just what the costs are to package and market a game. As far as savings for just purchasing an activation code- you should immediately save the amount of money that goes as profit for the retail store- does any know how much profit Best Buy makes on each sale of a $50 game? (This hasn't been mentioned in previous posts and it seems to me that the profit is probably substantial. For instance, a new game comes out and Best Buy charges $50 for it, after a month or 2 or 3, Best Buy reduces the price to $30- and I'm sure they are still making a profit. So if the retailer is cut out of the equation, the activation code could be sold for much less than the retail box and Blizzard would still make the same profit it does on the retail box). You should also save on the cost of shipping the game. Finally- you would save a dollar or two on the gas money needed to drive to the retail store to buy a second copy of the game.

[bigandy]

I mentioned the middle man costs in my record store example. But you are correct, that by cutting out the middle man, you can reduce the costs. But like you said, we'd have to see just how much of a cut the retailers are getting out of that $50 price tag.

I do think that the downloading the games as an alternative to purchasing an actual CD/DVD could be viable, but the fact that so many people like having the physical media, or don't have high-speed internet connections will prevent that from becoming the way to distribute games for some time.

Originally Posted by Jaggannath When I said $15 earlier, it was more intended as an example rather than the actual price, the principle is still the same... why should we have to buy two packages to play the same game on different computers in the house?

I understand what you're saying. And I do feel that option to purchase an additonal license should be there. But until the gaming companies feel that it is viable and profitable, and then actually implement it, there isn't much than can be done. There is always the option of writing and/or calling them up to pitch the idea. I also understand your point about the $15 mark, I was just saying that for some who might think it's gonna be dirt cheap, you will be disappointed.

[Jaggannath]

Well, you don't even need to be able to download the game... the instance we're talking about here is that you already own one copy of the game, and you just want to buy an activation code. That means no downloading of stuff at all, just downloading the licence

[bigandy]

I know. I was responding to Bob's point about being able to pay and download the game rather than buying it in a store.

[Propain]

Bob being me

[bigandy]

Hehe, yeah. Sorry for those who didn't know .