US retailer shares used profits with publishers

A US retailer has elected to share revenue from its pre-owned sales to publishers.

In recent months publishers have spoken out against the used games market, claiming it leeches off of their profits.

To combat this, some publishers have begun including a one use only online pass for the game, which can be purchased seperately if the game is bought used.

EK Games thinks it has found a solution; offer the publishers a ten percent cut of the revenue from sales of their games.

By creating what it calls a ‘healthy circle of life’, EK Games believes publishers will back off practices that hurt gamers "who just want to do what they have done since the dawn of the gaming industry some 35 plus years ago; that is buying, selling, trading and collecting physical game media in the form of cartridges, floppy disks and more recently game disks."

The ten percent revenue share will not be available for games that include an online pass.

By avoiding brick and mortar costs, the retailer believes this is not only affordable, but part of a marketing strategy that allows them to offer a price 20-30 percent lower than its competitors.

Mike Kennedy, CEO of EK Games thinks this will also free up publishers to take more risks in funding new games.

"Publishers are spending record amounts of cash on new game development," he told Eurogamer.

"This increase in dev costs is steering them in directions that don’t necessarily jive with gamers, causing them to take less risks on new and potentially exciting IP’s or game mechanics and sticking with tried and true properties that are more of a guarantee."

"We want to share our used game revenue with them so they can continue investing in new gaming experiences without worrying about the negative effects used games could be having on their operation."