A growing number of publishers are doing it as well as Ubisoft including the likes of EA and Sony. They are trying to stop the lost revenue from second hand games sales. They didn't do it in the past so why now? well in the past it wasn't an issue for the few games traded between friends or a few copies sold online here and there but now huge high street chains are heavily promoting second hand sales and its losing the publishers/developers money.
Gamestop in the US and GAME and Gamestation here in the UK heavily promote used sales over new. Nine out of ten times when I take a new game to the counter to pay the person behind the counter will ask if I'd like to save a few pounds and buy it second hand. I'd estimate 10-15% of shelf space is given to PC games in my local Gamestation and that shelf is shared between new and used copies. I'd say more than half the shop is dedicated to used games and they will even take the nice glossy store displays for new releases and fill those with second hand copies too.
Used car sales are different, new cars will always be needed,cars degrade, can easily be damaged in crashes etc and many businesses buy new and people aspire to buying a new car as it can be seen as something of a status symbol when its parked outside your home or place of work. Buying a game new or second hand makes no difference so it hurts those trying to sell the games new - the publishers over the high street shops that make more profit from second hand copies.
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