EA's "Project Ten Dollar" explained

Systems like Mass Effect 2's Cerberus Network, Dragon Age's DLC network and upcoming launch add-ons for Bad Company 2 are all part of something EA calls "Project Ten Dollar".

That's according to a report in BusinessWeek talking about CEO John Riccitiello's plan to reduce second-hand sales, which the company makes no money from.

The idea, apparently green-lit last autumn, is to include a coupon or redeemable code with every new game which gives the buyer another chunk of content. Without that code, second-hand buyers will have to spend $10 to obtain the missing extras.

Riccitiello told BusinessWeek that despite 11 straight quarters of losses EA is on the up again thanks to its 2010 line-up and strategies like Project Ten Dollar. "You see a six-foot hole that we're in. I'm telling you that we were in a 20-foot hole and we've climbed 14 feet out of it," he said.

As well as providing consumers more reasons to buy games new rather than second-hand, EA also plans to try and stop people trading their games in by tacking multiplayer onto everything - something that rival Ubisoft this week said it was also planning to do.