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 has facilitated pre-owned software on the US High Street.

"We are not ashamed of the pre-owned business and in fact we believe that it’s good for the industry,” he argued.

"We’re really not cannibalizing new game sales. That’s a common misconception. The knowledge of how this model helps drive sales really resides at the publisher level.

"A lot of our consumers tell us that the pre-owned business has allowed them to learn more about video gaming. There’s a disconnect between a lot of the blogosphere and what consumers tell us.”

So why does this debate persist? Because developers remain uncomfortable with the notion of pre-owned, Raines argued.

"We have not been successful in communicating to developers how this business really helps,” he admitted. So my answer to developers is that we are driving growth in a category that needs to grow.

We think there’s a real lack of awareness as far as how it’s good for the industry. The transparency you’re seeing from us is because we want people to know about it, helping people understand what we’re trying to do for the industry."