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Future of used game sales- The Great Debate [roundtable]
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02/10/13, 08:03 Edited: 02/10/13, 08:04
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I don't see Nintendo playing follow the leader any time soon, especially not on this particular issue. If anything, the fact they're allowing people to trade-in games will cause retailers to further push the WiiU and 3DS. The UK chain GAME, in particular, makes the majority of their bottom line off of pre-owned games sales; and I presume GameStop is the same. So, if Sony and Microsoft disrupted this business model in a major way, that'd be the death of either games at retail as a concept, or the death of Sony/Microsoft games at retail at the very least.
Of course, in the case of the latter, buying games online is slowly becoming more and more commonplace (approx. 30% of all UK games sales are by mail/web order, apparently); and both Microsoft and Sony will both be pushing their own digital marketplaces, so I doubt they'll care much about losing the retail sector, especially as more and more of it gets eaten up by ordering online and digital distribution. |
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@PogueSquadronDon't they have a store like that in New York City? I'd like to see the concept expanded across a whole chain of stores, but I don't know whether it'd be popular. I mean, it's not like they can go for the "apple store" aesthetic; and something more like a traditional game store would only really attract kids, their parents and die-hard Nintendo fans. Jargon said: Now, without having to worry about people buying used, I could see publishers starting off games at lower prices or perhaps being more likely to do a second run at a lower price point. I guess if this goes forward we'll see what happens, but I don't see the current retail model working too much longer, especially when digital downloads can make everyone but the middle man happier.
I agree that the current retail model is unsustainable - there's only a finite number of games out there, and as more and more publishers find ways to incentivise purchasing brand-new; there's less and less of an incentive in buying games pre-owned, since you're still gonna spend £8 extra to get the content the publisher has decided to withhold from you... if you can purchase it at all. You're no longer getting "the same thing, but cheaper"; no matter how much the reps at your local game store stress you are. So, if that happens to all games, then retailers will either start to push trade-ins on systems where this is not a problem (IE - Nintendo systems), or will have to find new ways of subsidising the costs of new games (the wholesale price is set in such a way that the stores have a pretty low profit margin, about 5-10% if they're lucky). This'll either result in game stores selling more semi-related whatnot (walkthrough guides, merchandise and accessories); or just giving up on the whole "selling games" thing and shutting up shop. However, if the UK chain GAME's previous ventures in selling merchandise are any indication, games stores couldn't sell related merchandise (except maybe t-shirts) to save their lives. |
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