Asda: Publishers understand need for pre-owned

Andrew Thompson, the head of games at supermarket Asda, has told MCV that increasing competition in the games sector forced it to adopt a pre-owned games strategy.

Tesco, Argos and Best Buy all let customers trade in against anything in store. And he adds that publisher’s do understand the retailer’s position.

We have been open and honest with publishers from the start of our trials, and having world class supplier relationships has always been really important to me,” he said.

With Best Buy, Argos and Tesco all entering the pre-owned market before Asda this year, we have had to make a move to protect our long term games business, and I think that publishers understand that. I genuinely believe that we can use trade-in to grow our market share on new release titles, which will benefit our suppliers.”

To read MCV’s full feature on Asda’s pre-owned offer, click here.