UK retailer GAME has shrugged off efforts by EA and THQ to combat used games, claiming that the “online pass” scheme hasn’t worked. According to company CEO Ian Shepherd, the secondhand market is as strong as it ever was.
“Certainly, publishers are using content to extend the life of games to extend the reasons to keep them –that’s a good thing, as it’s good for us and we’ll sell more of the games,” says Shepherd. “… No we’ve not seen the changes in the commercial nature of how some games have launched make any impact on the trade-in category. It’s still a strong part of our business.”
I imagine it’ll take more than a confident CEO to dissuade publishers from pursuing the “vinegar instead of honey” approach to combating used sales, especially as any chance to claw an extra bit of cash is going to make these companies dampen their pants. We’ll see what happens if more publishers decide to take this punitive approach to used sales.
