Capcom Threatens Used Game Sales With One-Save-Forever Resident Evil Title

Posted by | June 28, 2011

Capcom’s Resident Evil: Mercenaries for the 3DS comes with an interesting feature; a save file that can’t be erased or reset. The game supports only one save file, forever.

This feature seems to be a bullet aimed straight between the eyes of the used game industry, from which Capcom receives zero monies. Already, used stores are offering especially depressing trade-in prices for the game.

Digital Trends has the story.

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Used Games Boost New Games Market

Posted by | September 14, 2009

The upfront on a 60$ game with two hours of play inside has to come from somewhere, right? About 20% of the time, that cash comes directly from older games, turned over at the counter. Used games feeding the next generation of games.

Of course, half of them are last year’s Madden…

Game Politics has more information.

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Toys R Us To Launch Game Trade-In Program

Posted by | September 10, 2009

Dying relic of a former age Toys R Us recently announced their own game trade-in program, offering gamers gift cards for their trade. This marks the retailer as just one more to hop on the used game bandwagon. What makes this program interesting is its reach. Apparently, Toys R Us is willing to accept the goods from just about any console, including as stated in their press release, the Intellivision. In all, the deal covers more than 25 systems.

The catch is that the gamers need to pony up the original packaging as well as the game itself, which might be a problem with those Atari 2600 games from your single-digit years.

The program is set to begin sometime around September 13th. Check out the press release over here.

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Best Buy Enters Used Game Market

Posted by | June 23, 2009

Another shark enters the fray, seeking easy prey among the swimming schools of Madden and EA sports titles. Best Buy, the second greatest evil after the now-defunct CompUSA, has expanded its Canadian testbed efforts to the US, offering game trades through a kiosk system. Slip in your old game, let the kiosk scan it, then punch the go button and get back a Best Buy gift card. Guess they don’t trust us gamer types with real money.

This move must also come as something of an attack on publishers and the various content cartels, who have been tirelessly working to make the secondary market go away. With another high-dollar vendor on the used game tip, it’ll be harder to legalize used games out of existence. They’ll have to try something else, likely vile technology scarred into the disks by a red hand dipped in …

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Used Game Market Growing, Amazon Enters the Fray

Posted by | March 18, 2009

Just as the retail video game market shows no signs of slowing down, the used game market is coming up from behind to devour all obstacles in its path. The latest entry into this whirling pit of resale is Amazon.com, who has recently opened up a trade store offering online credit. That news hit the established players in the used industry like a back-alley mugger with chainsaw arms, slicing off a good and bloody 20% chunk of GameStop’s stock value. Other used merchants reacted in a similar way, setting off a small spike in gun, rat poison, and noose-worthy rope sales.

However, a report by Electronic Entertainment Design and Research, a company that monitors the video game market, has discovered that the used game segment of the industry is more likely to grow to match Amazon’s hunger, rather than cannibalize itself as many stores fear. …

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