In a recent interview with GameSpot, Sega's executive vice president of marketing Alan Pritchard talked about used games, the PlayStation Network security breach, and Aliens: Colonial Marines. The more interesting topics relate to Sony's security woes and what the Sega representative thinks about the effects of the used games market.
On the topic of how the PSN security breach affected Sega financially, Pritchard said:
"I don't think we can allow it to affect our relationship, regardless of what we think (laughs). We need to work with Sony. And we do have a good relationship with Sony. It has affected us because if it's down, we can't sell games. Sega's rapport with Sony remains unchanged following the PlayStation Network outage."
When asked about a specific monetary figure Pritchard declined to answer:
"I wouldn't like to quote a percentage or a monetary figure [of how much it's affected us]. However, digital and console download is very important for us. And we've had great success with Sonic 4 Episode 1. It was the number-one selling title in its launch month. We've got Renegade Ops coming out later this year, and by the time that releases, everything will have smoothed over on the PSN. Everyone who makes content for that service has been affected. Poor old Sony. It's been a horrible month for them, being beaten up by the press and what have you. As long as it's fixed and is future proofed in time for our big new releases, then it's no problem for us."
Finally on the topic of how used games affect Sega personally, Pritchard offered the following comments:
"It's often a hot topic and in other territories as well. It's a difficult one I think. It's clearly a model that's unlikely to go away, and it does work for certain retailers. I think that some retailers do have the ability of linking pre-owned to new release sales and helping pre-owned drive sales of new releases. So from that perspective, you could say there are advantages for publishers. I think there are some positive promotional aspects. It's very difficult to ascertain...very difficult."
In closing Pritchard said the his company has no plans to implement a "$10 online pass system" to combat used games but the idea has been and will be kicked around for quite some time.
You can read the whole interview here.
