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If you enjoy reading this site, you might also want to check out these Think Services sites:
 Game Career Guide (for student game developers.)
 Indie Games (for independent game players/developers.)
 Finger Gaming (news, reviews, and analysis on iPhone and iPod Touch games.)
 GamerBytes (for the latest console digital download news.)
 Worlds In Motion (discussing the business of online worlds.)
 Game Set Watch (the Group's alt.game weblog.) |
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Wal-Mart Launches Web-Based Used Game Sales
by Chris Remo
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October 8, 2009
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Following in the footsteps of Amazon, Toys 'R' Us, and Best Buy, mega-retailer Wal-Mart is dipping its toe into the waters of used game sales, offering titles for sale through its online store -- but not at its brick-and-mortar locations.
The move was widely expected, as Wal-Mart earlier this year installed used game trade-in kiosks within several dozen stores across four states, allowing the company to build up an inventory and creating a seemingly disjointed approach to the used game market, by which the company buys used games through a completely different channel than the one through which it sells them.
Wal-Mart, as well as the other retailers with new used game programs, are likely taking after retailer GameStop, which draws a significant proportion of its revenue from used game sales, and dominates the overall specialty gaming retail market.
Despite the new competition, Wedbush Morgan analyst Michael Pachter, as quoted in a Dow Jones Newswires report, doesn't believe the newcomers will be able to significantly encroach into GameStop's established used game demographic of "[unemployed boys]" -- except possibly Amazon, which Pachter thinks could attract as much as 10 percent of that market.
And earlier this year, EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich said "GameStop provides a considerably higher value than Amazon" when it comes to used games.
Wal-Mart claims its used games are being sold for up to a 30 percent discount from new game prices, with a three-week quality guarantee.
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