Walmart introduces pre-owned games to 1,700 US stores

Pre-owned games are now available on the shelves of 1,700 of Walmart’s 4,800 US outlets.

Bloomberg reports that the move, seemingly designed to face off directly with market leader GameStop, will see typical stores offer between 40 and 100 pre-owned titles at any one time.

GameStop, however, claims not to be worried by the news, with president Tony Bartel stating: Target, Walmart, Best Buy, Amazon, they’ve all tried or are trying used games.

Frankly, when someone comes it helps us, because it raises awareness that you can turn in video games, and we have the lion’s share of the market.”

The site adds that GameStop’s existing loyalty card userbase will help maintain loyalty, too, as well as existing in-store credit if they are already in the practise of trading in.

There’s also the fact that while GameStop will buy used games for cash, Walmart will only be offering store credit.

Running a competitive pre-owned business is famously complicated, carries significant inventory risks and has previously caused several leading UK retailers to stumble.