Study: gift card style disc activation could boost game, movie sales by $6 billion

Last December, the Entertainment Merchants Association (EMA) called for the development of technology to prevent stolen disc-based software from being used without being "activated" at retail, as detailed in a report by Video Business. Edge Online now reports the EMA has released results of a study it commissioned that show retail, game publisher and movie studio revenue could increase by as much as $6 billion if "benefit-denial" technology could be applied to games, DVDs and Blu-ray Discs.

The issue isn't piracy in this case; it's shoplifting and the current measures used to prevent such theft. EMA president and CEO believes that if technology can "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."

Much in the way that stores must activate a gift card before it can be used, the EMA's proposed system would require games and movies to be scanned at checkout before use. There really are more questions than answers at this point. Will discs sold online be pre-activated? Will every copy of a game have a unique serial number? The only immediate solution we can think of is a car wheel boot -- but, as comical as it would be, that wouldn't conform to the EMA's requirement that packaging size must be unaffected.