MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
Publishers rejoice! HMV says it will give new games a chance to sell before introducing pre-owned copies. The retailer said in its latest financial report that its pre-owned range remains a high margin and vital area of its business. But outgoing CEO Simon Fox told MCV publishers should not have …
Read More »Pre-owned injects $1.8bn into US games market every year
Consumers’ ability to trade-in games at GameStop contributes $1.8bn to the US games industry every year, the retailer has claimed. Revealing that 70 per cent of all income derived from used games is immediately spent on new titles, GameStop president Paul Raines told Gamasutra that it’s proud of how it …
Read More »Confusion over European second-hand download ruling
Digital download retailers have called in the lawyers following a shock EU decision that could legitimise second-hand sales in the download space. The ruling followed a dispute between Oracle and UsedSoft. UsedSoft was selling second-hand licences for Oracle software, so Oracle took the firm to the European Court of Justice. …
Read More »Valve has "no plans to change" despite Euro ruling
Steam will not introduce any functionality to allow gamers to sell on products they buy digitally, it has said. We don’t have any plans to change,” was the stark response given (twice) to PCGamesN by Valve’s business development director Jason Holtman. The comments come following last week’s revelation that the …
Read More »European Court validates pre-owned, gives nod to digital resale
Publisher’s hopes of illegalising the sale of pre-owned software have been dashed after the European Court of Justice ruled that the practice is legitimate. It has also ruled that consumers have the right to re-sell their digital purchases, The ruling is not binding but is designed to be used for …
Read More »NPD: Europe’s Q1 used, digital and social market worth £798m
The combined sales of the used, rental, digital and social games markets was worth 798m across the UK, France and Germany, says a new NPD report. The combined sales of used and rental games content totalled 191.5m. Meanwhile, digital sales, which included full games, add-on content, subscriptions, mobile and social …
Read More »Wii U won’t block pre-owned games
Nintendo has seemingly confirmed that the Wii U will not block pre-owned software. I don’t know if we have a formal position on used game sales,” Nintendo of America marketing exec Scot Moffitt told GameSpot. It is a reality in the marketplace. We haven’t incorporated any features that will discourage …
Read More »GameStop: Next-gen consoles WON’T block pre-owned
Industry insight or wishful thinking? Global games retail giant GameStop believes that the PS4 and Xbox 720 won’t incorporate pre-owned blocking technology. Since the turn of the year separate rumours have suggested that both the Next Xbox and the PS4 would utilise methods to either prevent gamers from playing games …
Read More »HOT TOPICS: Should we kill off pre-owned?
In the sixth of a series of features answering the biggest questions about the industry’s future, Christopher Dring explains why publishers must work with – not against – the trade-in market. Should we kill off pre-owned?NO The debate over used game sales has raged for years. On one side, developers …
Read More »NPD: UK’s Q4 used games market was £90m
British gamers spent nearly 100m on pre-owned software during Q4 2011. According to NPD data shared with MCV, $141.9m (90m) went on used game purchases during Christmas. That’s just ten per cent of the 780m GfK Chart-Track reports was spent on new boxed video games in the same period. The …
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