GameStop: Pre-owned games are vital to new game sales

The CEO of leading North American and global games retailer GameStop has insisted that the pre-owned sector is a vital element in the market for new games, and that moves from publishers to limit the ‘transferability’ of titles are a ‘bone of contention’ for consumers.

Speaking to Gamasutra, CEO Dan Matteo stated: The consumer has been trained that there is a residual value to their video games.

We will give out approximately $800 million in credits this year – trade-in credits that will go toward the purchase of new video games. The consumer, oftentimes and especially now, needs that residual value from those games as a trade-in to be able to afford a new video game.

Anything that limits the transferability of a game from consumer to a friend of theirs, to selling it on eBay, to exchanging it and trading it with one of their friends, or selling it back to GameStop – I think is a bone of contention with the consumer.”