Tag Archives: used games

GameStop president Tony Bartel had some words for Forbes about why the rumored always-online-never-play-used-games next Xbox might be a bad idea. “Console manufacturers understand that recent surveys indicate 60+ percent of video game consumers would be less likely to purchase a new console that did not play pre-owned games.”
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A recent NPD survey polled gamers on their spending habits, and it turns out that 78 percent of core players will regularly buy used games, while 70 percent regularly buy full digital versions of retail titles.
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Sony has previously stated PS4 will play used games, yet it is still “mindful” of the “issues” raised on the subject by the publishing and development communities.

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GameStop posted a 4.6% drop in sales for the nine weeks ending December 29, with global sales reaching $2.88 billion. Year-over-year sales declined 4.4 %, with US sales down 3.5% over the year prior, with international sales falling 6.4%. Hardware sales were down by 2.7% despite Wii U being around for the holidays and moving 320,000 units. New software sales fell 5.1%, while pre-owned software fell by 15.6%, a figure GameStop blamed on limited inventory “due to fewer new titles released throughout 2012 and less promotional activity negatively impacted sales compared to last year”. Digital sales, however, were up 40% year-over-year, and the firm’s global e-commerce sales were up 20.5%. Thanks, MCV.

Retailers in the UK have seen a significant increase in used game sales and trade-ins since GAME closed up 277 of its shops.

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Eat Sleep Play boss David Jaffe has warned the games industry not to take pricing complaints too lightly.

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THQ CEO Brian Farrell has said the firm doesn’t want the pre-owned market to die, because it is something consumers demand.

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GAME has started taking pre-orders for used games. No joke.

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Live in the US? Have a game? Wanna sell it? Don’t feel like making the trek to one of the five million GameStops on your street?

Well then, just head across the street to one of your five million local Targets.

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Look, used game market, it’s not you; it’s the entire videogame industry.

It’s EA, THQ, and now Sony. So yeah, you might want to go ahead and start packing your things. Door’s that-a-way.

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NPD has revealed that US consumers spent around $4.5 to $4.75 billion on “used games, rentals, subscriptions, digital download games, DLC, and mobile apps” in 2009.

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A new study conducted by research firm Nielsen found that gamers have recently started spending more time gaming, more money purchasing used games, and less purchasing new games. The study attributes much of this behavior to the current Rough Economic Climate.

In January 2009, gamers spent an average of 19 hours per week basking in the glow of their favorite games, compared to only 16.5 hours in January of 2008. May 2009, the study’s most recent month, saw gamers log 16.5 hours into their favorite hobby, while the corresponding month in 2008 saw less than 16.

Interestingly, Nielsen doesn’t believe hardcore gamers have had any significant impact on the study, attributing most of the upswing to “mainstream gamers.”

“Primarily, we believe mainstream gamers are playing more of the broadly appealing games (i.e Wii Fit, Guitar Hero and Rock Band) pushing their hours of gameplay up,” director of client consulting Michael Flamberg said.

Used game purchasing is also climbing more quickly than expected, reaching an all time high ratio of 0.36 in May 2009. This, of course, means that new game purchases are down, though Nielsen says that could be a result of a lack of “huge hits” at this point in the year. 2008 was already quite bountiful at this point, bringing forth both Mario Kart Wii and GTA IV.

Thanks, Gamasutra.

More from last night’s Wedbush Morgan super-report. The paper claims Americans sell around 100 million games back to retail each year.

“The number of games traded annually is striking; we estimate the overall used game market to be $2 billion in the U.S., with an average ticket of around $20 per used game,” said the paper.

“This means that an estimated 100 million units of used games are traded in each year, representing around 1/3 of all games sold annually.”

The report went on to say that full-price game sales aren’t impacted anywhere near as much as some would like us to believe.

We think that used game sales benefit new game sales by providing currency to gamers with less disposable income, thereby enabling the purchase of additional games. The vast majority of used games are not traded in until the original new game purchaser has finished playing, typically well beyond the window for a fullretail priced new game sale. Thus, while there may be some limited substitution of used game purchases when GameStop employees “push” used merchandise upon consumers lined up to buy new games, the vast majority of used game purchases occur more than two months after a new game is released. Other than the potential impact at holiday (when new game lives are extended beyond the typical two month sell-through pattern), used game sales just don’t impact new game purchases very much…. To the extent that there is a substitution effect, we estimate that fewer than 5% of new game sales are impacted.

Thanks, Kotaku.

GameStop has reported record earnings during Q1 of 2009, ending May 2.

Sales increased 9.2 percent to $1.98 billion, while net earnings rose 13.4 percent to $70.4 million.

The company claims the robust sales of DSi, Resident Evil 5, and Street Fighter IV along with used games sales being up 31.9 percent contributed to the overall figures.

Despite the nice numbers, the sale of new games dropped 2.8 percent and the company expects to see a decline for store sales ranging from 8 to 11 percent due to sluggish hardware sales.

More over on Edge.

Wal-Mart now has machines to take your old games. The US retail monster has has included 77 “Video Game Buyback” stations at various stores, Gama reports.

The machines also carry movie DVDs and video game discs for Wii, Xbox and PlayStation platforms for $1 per day rentals, on top of accepting game discs that customers want to sell.

There’s a bevy of information through there. It’s only a tiny trial, remember: Wal-Mart has 3,656 total US stores.

Used games supplied almost 50 percent gross profit margin (gross profit divided by total revenue) to Gamestop’s in the last fiscal year, according to this Gamasutra piece.

The figure compares to 21 percent for new software, and a shocking 6 cents in the dollar for new hardware.

Gross profit margins on used software have, however, increased only 1.44 percent in the past three years.

Every other segment has seen a decrease in gross profit margins during the same period: new hardware down 1.4 percent and new software down 2.6 percent.

Thanks, Kotaku.

During GDC, David Jaffe, Jeff Gerstmann, and Michael Pachter sat down with GameTrailers TV to talk about gaming in the recession. Watch the discussion after the break.

In it, Jaffe’s weighs in on the used game market, Gerstmann’s talks about OnLive, and Pachter’s looks into his crystal ball for the coming year.

It is definitely worth the watch. Follow the jump.

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A British man found some “ecstasy tablets” in one of the used GTA games he purchased at a GameStation in Gloucestershire.

“When I opened the box up, the cling film wrap fell out. I could not believe it. I have two children and my son plays Xbox all the time. He could easily have opened the box and found them,” Richard Thornhill told the Telegraph.

“I dread to think what the consequences would have been if he had. He is only 12. He could have died. It was a pre-used game, but that should not make a difference. My wife is beside herself over this because she keeps thinking about what could have happened and so do I.”

Richard never mentioned why his son would have been messing about with mature rated game in the first place.

Via GamePolitics.

Lazard analyst Colin Sebastian expects more retailers to start selling used games now Amazon has entered into the market, says a Gamsutra report.

“According to our industry checks, one large consumer electronics retail chain is rekindling efforts to sell used video games, while another general merchandise ‘big box’ store is in trials to buy back games in exchange for store credit,” he said.

Sebastian said that the market sector is worth $2 billion annually in North America, and will further increase competition for the likes of eBay, GameCrazy and GameStop. Add in a 50 percent gross margin and it becomes even more attractive to retailers.

However, as lucrative as that sounds, Sebastian isn’t expecting any newcomers to challenge GameStop’s reign at the top any time soon.

More through the link.

GameStop doesn’t think Amazon’s foray into the used videogame market will succeed.

CEO Dan DeMatteo told Edge today that the gift card scheme was something his firm unsuccessfully tried in the past.

“I give the probability of this working at zero,” he said. “Electronics Boutique also tried it and failed. There’s no consumer acceptance. With consumers, there is an immediacy for currency when they want to buy a new game.

“It didn’t work for us, and I can’t see it working for them”

Trade-in requirements from Amazon state that customers have to wait for the gift card to be processed and shipped, instead of getting an immediate recoup from the trade.

More through the link.