US: Toys R Us backs pre-owned

Having embarked on a low-profile pre-owned video games trial in a couple” of its North American outlets earlier this year, Toys R Us is to press ahead with plans to introduce pre-owned games trading at all of its North American stores.

Variety reports that Toys R Us claims to accept titles from 25 separate games systems spanning from modern machines like the Xbox 360 to older systems such as the Atari 2600 – though all titles must have their original cases and artwork.

However, flying in the face of established methodology Toys R Us will not be offering second hand titles to customers. Instead, the retailer sells them off privately to third parties. Those who trade games receive in-store credit.

Other US retailers currently dabbling with pre-owned trials include Best Buy and Wal Mart. The North American arm of Amazon also now offers game trade-ins.

In the UK gamers have seen the likes of HMV successfully rollout pre-owned titles into store, whilst others such as Woolworths have tried and failed to do the same.

There’s still no indication that Toys R Us has any intention to bring the trial to our side of the Atlantic.