GameStop defends used game sales – Video Games Update
GameStop President Paul Raines claims that used game sales are important for the industry as well and do not affect new game sales like the developers and publishers lead the public to believe.
Game developers and publishers have taken a firm stance against used game sales and have tried many methods to combat them or at least get a share out of the pre-owned proceeds. Electronic Arts has been the most active publisher when trying to combat used
game sales. The publisher has started to add an ‘Online Pass’ in games which was a code that could only be used once to activate the multiplayer features of the game.
Gamers who bought second hand EA games would have to spend an additional $10 or $15 to gain access to multiplayer. There is also a rumour going around that the upcoming next generation consoles will lock new games to the gamers’ console thus ensuring that
there would be no trade-ins. This might upset many gamers and cause a lot of problems for them if true.
There is also the fact that publishers are slowly moving towards digital distribution and trying to cut out the middleman (GameStop) altogether. The newly passed EU law which states that gamers are entitled to re-sell their digital copies of games came as
a huge blow to publishers and a new hope for GameStop. The company has stated that it is also looking into resale of digital games.
“We're really not cannibalizing new game sales. That's a common misconception. So my answer to developers is that we are driving growth in a category that needs to grow. We think there's a real lack of awareness as far as how it's good for the industry.
The transparency you're seeing from us is because we want people to know about it, helping people understand what we're trying to do for the industry,” said Raines in an interview with Gamasutra.
Raines claim that the pre-order business will not die off that easily as sometimes gamers are just not willing to play the full price for a new game and would rather just go for the cheaper older game. Raines also stated that almost seventy percent of the
income that gamers make by trading in their older games goes towards purchase of newer games.
Used game sales won’t die as long as consoles continue to use physical media and don’t completely shift to digital distribution but that doesn't mean publishers won’t find other ways to get their cut from the proceeds.
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