Asda defends trade-in offer

Retail behemoth Asda says it had to start selling used games in order to ‘protect its long-term games business.’

The grocer rolled-out pre-owned into 234 UK stores following the launch of FIFA 11 last month, and head of games Andrew Thompson says he and the team have been keeping publishers in the loop on its plans.

We have been really open and honest with publishers from the start of our trials. Having world class supplier relationships has always been really important to me,” he told MCV.

With Best Buy, Argos and Tesco all entering the pre-owned market before Asda this year, we had to protect our long-term games business, and I think that publishers understand that.

Furthermore, I genuinely believe trade-in can grow our market share on new release titles, which will benefit our suppliers.

We obviously launched with a bang with the 97p FIFA 11 trade-in deal and we plan to offer more great trade-in deals on the big titles this Christmas.”

Thompson added that Asda has seen huge demand for used games.

We held customer listening groups last year, and our customers told us unprompted that they wanted to trade in with us,” he added.

In particular, parents warned us that they could not afford to purchase every new game for their kids, so they wanted an option that would allow them to buy more new games.”