Asda rolling out pre-owned nationwide

A total of 234 Asda supermarkets in the UK will accept video games trade-ins from next week, MCV can reveal.

That number represents two-thirds of the supermarket giant’s total store count, and is a significant factor in the massive growth pre-owned games are now enjoying on the High Street. MCV this morning revealed that nearly 3,000 UK shops now offer pre-owned games – that’s up 1,000 on this time last year.

Asda’s new service is called ‘Buy Play Trade’, and covers Xbox 360, PS3, Wii and DS.

It was first revealed when Asda hit the headlines with its ‘FIFA 11 for 97p’ offer, which invited customers to trade in key titles against EA’s hit football release.

In September MCV reported GfK Chart-Track data showing that mass market grocers sold 29 per cent of all video games purchased during the first 34 weeks of the year. That’s an eight per cent rise compared to 2009.