Gamestop trade ins
To be clear, people are still buying second-hand games. Retro games, eBay, even your local car-boot sale; there's a community of active consumers picking up classic titles that have been previously owned. What we're talking about is the trade-in economy. It's the practice that one former publishing boss described to me as the, "great evil in video games. The head of Asda's games department hadn't meant to tell me, because he had yet to discuss it with the company's partners, including games publishers.
GameStop Helps Customers Fund the Purchase of the New Apple iPhones
To be clear, people are still buying second-hand games. Retro games, eBay, even your local car-boot sale; there's a community of active consumers picking up classic titles that have been previously owned. What we're talking about is the trade-in economy. It's the practice that one former publishing boss described to me as the, "great evil in video games. The head of Asda's games department hadn't meant to tell me, because he had yet to discuss it with the company's partners, including games publishers.
The reaction was so angry, I had a distraught Asda PR representative begging for me to clarify that the company wasn't going to sell second-hand games -- six months later, that's exactly what it did. The hatred publishers have shown toward the pre-owned market centred on the fact that retailers were no-longer purchasing older legacy stock from distributors, and were instead buying it from consumers and selling it on.
Developers and publishers weren't seeing a single penny from those sales. If you want a reason why publishers became wary of short, single-player experiences, this is one of the most important. But not everyone hated it. Indeed, some smaller publishers acknowledged it as a necessary evil. With consumers unwilling to pay full price for boxed games, retailers had to sell products for below recommended retail price to compete and still do.
Pre-owned was a means for specialists to still bring in a healthy profit. And then there was the argument from the retailers, which was that second-hand trading increased sales of new games.
Consumers would effectively buy a game, play it until completion, and then trade it in against the next one. It was effectively a glorified rental system, and there was certainly a community of gamers who did this frequently and still do. Now, however, pre-owned is in sharp decline. That dropped by 3.
The data firm told GamesIndustry. And it's not just in the UK. In the US, second-hand sales are also dropping, albeit at a slightly slower pace.
In , GameStop's pre-owned sales fell by 4. And for it's latest financial year, pre-owned sales are down That decline has been accelerating, with pre-owned falling The firm states that this is driven by pre-owned software falling, as pre-owned hardware actually increased year-on-year.
It's all structural. Fewer gamers are trading-in products, and therefore there are fewer second-hand games and consoles that are available to sell. This is partially linked to the decline in physical sales, and the shift towards digital -- a trend GameStop also cited in its latest financial report -- but also the rising popularity of games-as-a-service.
Consumers are simply playing games for longer, with fewer reasons to trade them in. Indeed, aggressive digital sales means that consumers are increasingly buying legacy titles as downloads, as opposed to second-hand games in stores.
This is forcing retailers to target other business areas for growth, reducing their activity in the used games space. Interestingly, the word from retail is no -- at least, not in the long-term, though the arrival of new consoles in might cause a temporary uplift.
There are things we can do, and we are doing, to soften that decline. But we are being really clear with the market and shareholders that this is a structural decline. If you have less people trading in games, you have less stock to sell, and those numbers will decrease. Plus, with the rise in subscription services like Xbox Game Pass and the launch of new streaming platforms like Google Stadia , pre-owned is likely to decline further in the months and years to come.
This is obviously difficult to judge, but it seems unlikely. Instead, pre-owned's decline is indicative of the fact that gamers are playing titles for longer, increasingly buying digitally, and purchasing fewer products generally. New game sales are being hurt by the same phenomenon, but that's not explicitly to do with pre-owned. Pre-owned is also still a high margin business, and there's certainly a market for it. In the UK, there are still 1.
Nevertheless, you can expect it to decline further and for the focus to switch onto hardware in the short-term. PlayStation trade-ins against the next PlayStation console will certainly still be a big part of retail's efforts to upgrade customers. But with pre-owned unlikely to improve outside of new hardware launches, stores are now switching their attention to more reliable growth areas.
GameStop expects growth to come from its collectables business, while GAME is focused on its Belong pay-to-play gaming areas and PC accessories and hardware. Ultimately, shelf space and promotions for pre-owned games will continue to drop. And the once "great evil in video games" will become little more than a nagging annoyance. The pre-owned games market has been rapidly declining over the past three years. GameStop says digital pricing is hurting pre-owned sales Now, however, pre-owned is in sharp decline.
What is causing the decline? Can it be turned around? GAME says that pre-owned's decline is going to continue "Obviously, if new consoles come to market, we will see trade-in and pre-owned become a materially important part of the market again. Is it hurting new game sales? Enter your email address.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons returns to No. I strongly believe pre-owned games selling for near or more than new versions of the same game is a big problem. This happens at lot at CEX for example and most people refuse to buy them as a result. Edited 1 times. Last edit by Adam Campbell on 3rd April pm. I'd add a few more factors. So much so trading in games could be a part-time job.
Those ended towards the end of All these guys mostly lost their shirts in the trade-in business with aggressive promos. Your subscription includes an old game or two every month and some pretty well received well selling older titles pop up on the service for free download on a semi-regular basis.
Next, Ebay and Amazon. I'd like to hear how much of the used game business has shifted to these online marketplaces. I imagine that data would be somewhat hard to come by if you aren't Amazon or Ebay. But what I see is used games are cheaper to purchase on these services than at your Gamestop etc and sellers get compensation back comparable to what a Gamestop or other store gives you except you get cash instead of trade-in credit.
The friction to selling your game online is at an all time low. An app like the EBay app makes it super easy to list your item, take a pic, and print out a shipping label. KEep a small stack of padded 6"x9" envelopes and some shipping tape in your closet and you can quickly sell your used games. And then just drop off the package in your mailbox when you go out the door.
Compare that to the hassle of going to a store and often waiting in line and having a clerk process your trade. Online buying offers similar convenience. Type in the game you want, up comes lots of people selling it, quickly look for best price and condition and seller reputation and press a button and it is at your house in a few days. Next factor is the rise of Fortnite.
I couldn't write a comment without including this scapegoat. But it's a fair pt that many many people are involved with this game and that a person only has 2 eyeballs and so much time. Also fair pt is the price sensitive customer likes free even better than spending a bit less money by purchasing used games over new.
Edited 3 times. Last edit by Bob Johnson on 3rd April pm. Christopher Dring Publisher, GamesIndustry. Richard Browne: Turns out there was no need to block it. Users will simply abandon it out of choice! Klaus Preisinger Freelance Writing A year ago. I cannot think of another industry complaining this hard about their product being sold used; not books, not movies, not records, not clothes, not cars, not even smartphones.
Neither of which industry has been found guilty of not complaining a lot, by the way. Naturally, the games industry is the one not promoting any of their products beyond release day, or the week of release at best. All this while deep discounting everything regularly on Steam, while having agreed with console publisher's licence agreements for decades to only do discounts as part of special 'platinum' et al.
So maybe, just maybe, the problem is not with used sales, but in how games are sold and how much revenue is expected to happen down the road. Don't quote me on it though, that would be a used comment. Christopher Dring: And fortunately digital releases have largely brought back a lot of the style of games that Gamestop et al killed.
It hurt a lot of great developers coming around that circle though. I agree with Klaus Preisinger. Second hand or used items don't really hurt an industry. I've never really heard of an industry toppling because of used sales. The problem is the culture of the games industry itself. The publishers and to a certain extent, some devs have an unsustainable, unrealistic view of the fan-bases and growth of their respective companies.
The thing about a used game is that it has to be purchased brand new first.
View More View Less. Clothing · Deals · Weekly Ad · Gift Cards · Sign in · PowerUp Rewards · Trade-Ins · Check an Order · Help · Home · Trade. GameStop has suspended its lucrative trade-in business. The company said in a statement it's “suspending temporarily our video game and.
GameStop is an American video game , consumer electronics and gaming merchandise retailer. In addition to retail stores, GameStop also owns Game Informer , a video game magazine. GameStop has been the subject of criticism over the years in response to several of its policies. During the current coronavirus pandemic , the company was criticized for their stores remaining open to customers, a decision that was later reversed the following month in response to the negative feedback. Babbage's merged with Software Etc.
GameStop may be able to help out.
While we're sure you appreciate that iPod Nano your Nana got you for your birthday, it's not such a great gift compared to your current gen iPod Touch. Sure, you could possibly return it to Apple, but since Nana opened it first to "make sure it came with batteries," that might be a tough sell. If you're a frequenter of GameStop , however, you may be able to use that Nano to get yourself some sweet games.
Retro Rebel Podcast – Episode 10: The Gamestop Circle of Life
Put it towards a phone, iPad, or MacBook - anything you like. What they take: Games and iStuff. What's Your Game Collection Worth? Calculate your collection value. Recycle your device for free. Twinfinite writes: 'Today, GameStop released version 3.
