Used game sales are a lucrative market for some retailers, including Toys"R"Us, which recently announced its entry into the trade-in sector. It's a gray area for game-makers though, who often get wary about low-cost games competing with fresh, unopened copies on shelves without putting money directly in their pockets. An exec for the chain Game Crazy has a different take on the system, though, and believes that video game companies may be reaping benefits from used game sales.
"People tend to focus on how used games do or don't take away from sales on the new side of the house," Marc Mondhaschen, director of used games Game Crazy told IGN. And what they neglect to look at is the way that we get used games is by trading games."
Mondhaschen pointed to a recent study that his company performed for data to back up his claims.
"We did a study not too long ago for a very large vendor who we managed to figure out for them 20 percent of their sales inside the first 28 days were paid for with trade dollars," he explained. "So you got 20 points of their sales that wouldn't happen unless we had a trade business going."
He also cited used games as a potential driver for DLC sales, in cases like "Grand Theft Auto IV."
"[W]hen 'The Lost and Damned' ('L&D') came out we started selling a whole lot more 'Grand Theft Auto IV,' both on the new side and on the used side," he explained. "Which, then, sort of funds people's ability to go play 'L&D' again. And then the trade business funded all those 'L&D' cards that showed up in stores."
Mondhaschen makes compelling cases in both cases, though I'm sure there are a lot of game company folks who would still like to see estimates of lost revenue stacked up against the amount of business they've received as a result of his examples. That will be the holy grail indicators when someone crunches the numbers.
How do you think game publishers should view trade-ins and used game sales? Do you think Mondhaschen makes a good point? Share your reactions in the comment section below.
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