Crytek believes blocking used on next-gen "would be absolutely awesome"
Crytek's director of creative development says it's "weird" that second-hand is allowed
The next PlayStation and Xbox consoles have been rumored to introduce anti-used games technology for some time, and while some doubt it'll actually happen, others, like industry veteran Richard Browne, would love the console makers to employ the "Nuclear Option" and completely block used titles. Crytek would seem to fall into that camp as well, judging by recent comments from Rasmus Hojengaard, Crytek's director of creative development.
When Hojengaard was asked by CVG what he thought about the rumored initiative to block pre-owned, he said, "From a business perspective that would be absolutely awesome. It's weird that [second-hand] is still allowed because it doesn't work like that in any other software industries, so it would be great if they could somehow fix that issue as well."
In addition to used sales, Crytek says it's been hurt quite a bit by piracy. Crysis 2 was one of the most pirated games in recent memory, with the PC version alone having been illegally downloaded about four million times. That's a scenario Crytek would like to avoid with the recently revealed Crysis 3.
"We obviously want to avoid that this time, but even if we can convert 25 percent of those gamers into paying customers [you have an extra million sales]," Hojengaard said.