Serial codes are a bit too sketchy for consoles as it's a given that installations, if implemented, must be unlimited. You must be able to install your media based game on as many consoles as you have. Not everyone upgrades drives meaning installations must be considered temporary, to be reinstalled at a later date.
But even this has been blurred with PSN titles that have a physical limit of 5 consoles. Good and bad here.
Good being that games aren't tied to individual accounts and as such can be abused by installing purchases on other people's consoles (abused when 5 players "go in together" to buy PSN games).
Bad being that any limitation is still a limitation. Install your PSN games on 4 friends' consoles, lose your console before deactivating it and you just lost your single download tied to the missing console. Of course, that's on you for trying to take advantage of the system.
So the other options for physical retail games is tie games to individual accounts (not so good since PSN uses a flexible system that makes it easy to make new accounts without cost), or have limited activations (say 5 consoles) that must be then reactivated if that number is exceeded (like Crysis Warhead, which was extremely annoying for anyone who doesn't install once and then leave the game on a drive forever).
I don't see either option going over well with most gamers who use or maybe even switched over to consoles to avoid such complications.
About the only thing consoles can use activation codes for is bonus content not on disc. Naturally, those who exclusively shop used will cry "foul" even though it's already been done often by high profile releases without uproar by the used market consumers.
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