Publishers and developers have been complaining for years that the sale of used games digs deep into their profits. Yesterday’s Xbox One reveal brought the topic of used games to the forefront of the conversation about the new hardware. Could Microsoft possibly eliminate pre-owned by implementing a system that ties games to a profile? Depending on which source you’ve read over the past couple of days, yes, they very well may be doing exactly that.
Bartel says that used game credits make up nearly 20% of all new game purchases
But the mixed messages continue, and these signals aren’t coming from games bloggers, they’re coming from the higher ups at the massive publicly traded corporations. GameStop president Tony Bartel recently told Polygon that the news from yesterday came as a surprise, and he’s not convinced that the Xbox One will have any features that deny access to used games.
“All that Microsoft has said so far is that they’ve designed the Xbox One to enable customers to trade in and resell games,” Bartell told the publication. “That’s what I’m going with at this point. I think there’s additional details they’re going to reveal later on.”
The CEO thinks that used games aren’t something that Microsoft or Sony can simply take out of the equation. They currently make up a large part of the economy of games, Bartel says that nearly 20% of all new games and DLC is purchased through trade-in credits.
Published: May 22, 2013 09:00 am