IndustryGamers - Informing the Games Industry

Best Buy Getting Used Game Kiosks

Posted June 23, 2009 by David Radd

Wal-Mart recently announced a campaign to allow used game kiosks owned by an independent company to be placed in certain stores as part of a pilot program. Best Buy will start doing something similar, according to their Chief Marketing Officer -- a fact uncovered by Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian.

According to Sebastian, these kiosks will allow customers to turn in used games for both cash and store credit and he expects this to be the start of a new push by Best Buy. "While we believe that Best Buy’s entry into the used video game market will create a new overhang on shares of GameStop, we expect Best Buy’s initiative to expand the used video game market rather than take significant share from the specialty channel," wrote Sebastian.

The used gaming market is worth billions worldwide, and while GameStop has a majority of the marketshare, there are still major contenders in Game Group, Game Crazy, eBay and Amazon. Sebastian also notes that while many in the gaming industry lament the sale of used games, "consumers use a large portion of trade-in credit to purchase new products."

David Radd has worked as a gaming journalist since 2004 at sites such as GamerFeed, Gigex and GameDaily Biz.