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Mike Stout – Video Game Designer

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An interesting side note to my Used Games post

Posted on December 16, 2008December 16, 2008 by Dodger

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3171878

A few interesting points in this article:

“those who do buy used games have a good deal of their purchasing power soaked up by GameStop and other specialty retailers — to the detriment of both conventional electronics outlets and new game sales in general.”

Interesting. Not very surprising, but interesting that there’s data that points to this.

“Gameasure data also show a clear association between GameStop’s sales and used game purchase rates, suggesting that the retailer is indeed pushing its used merchandise over its newer titles,” 

Anyone who’s ever been in a GameStop knows this, but again it’s good to see that there is data to support this.

“DeMatteo’s assertion that used games and new games appeal to fundamentally different markets — and thus need not directly interfere with each others’ sales?has some weight to it.” This, Interpret explains, comes from the pretty reasonable trend they found that lower the household income the more likely it was that a consumer bought used games.

This goes along with the argument that those who buy used games wouldn’t buy them new anyway, though I imagine this applies to games that are more than 6 months old. I have a hard time believing that the $2-$5 price drop on used new-releases would matter THAT much on a $50-$60 purchase. But I may be wrong.

In the end, it all indicates what we knew all along about the games business: It’s a complicated situation that definitely has an impact on the videogame industry, but that impact is hard to nail down and highly dependant on who you ask. 

Indeed. Indeed.

 

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