May 18 2009
Wal-Mart looks at the Video Game Trade-In Business
When I caught the headline on Kotaku , I had a “wait, wut?” moment, but there it was: Wal-Mart is testing a video game trade-in kiosk.
According to Kotaku, there are machines being tested in the northeastern United States, noteably New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. After scanning in a game box and getting a quote, you can turn in the game and get money onto a credit card (no cash, and currently, no Wal-Mart credit - not that you’d really want that, unless you’re selling games for much needed groceries.) This is only a one-way street, too: you can’t buy used games at the kiosk.
Which begs the question: where do the used games go? I’m guessing, since the kiosks are hosted by e-Play, that they go to the company’s other kiosks to rent or sell out to other gamers who use the kiosks. But not at Wal-Mart. Crafty move by e-Play, if you ask me - and by Wal-Mart, who would rather convince people to go buy new games in Electronics than lose business.
If you want to trade games for cash, and don’t want to get yanked by GameStop, and you’re out of local game stores, screw the kiosk companies. Try SwitchGames, or better yet, FlakWolf, and trade your games for free, without the middleman. I mean, look at SwitchGames’ mission statement:
- Empower The Gamer
SwitchGames is putting the power of trading back into the hands of the game community. As gamers, you will always decide what fair value for your game is. - Respect The Gamer
SwitchGames will only offer products and services that are of value to the game community. Furthermore, we will never require our community to pay us to participate in trading. - Protect The Gamer
The SwitchGames Marketplace is a peer to peer marketplace, where members never trade anything with SwitchGames directly, but with each other. We are dedicated to actively monitoring the site and working with our community to provide tools and services to help reduce fraud, and ensure safe trading.
Don’t keep feeding companies that don’t deserve your cash in the first place, and don’t pay you back fairly. Promote the free gamer-to-gamer business!
Well, I’m all for sales going to the actual developers, so keeping it as a trade-IN only is pretty cool for now. The other arguement is that pre-owned sales haven’t corrupted the DVD market, so maybe it’s nothing to worry about.
Because GameStop makes so much on its trade-in plan, it was only a matter of time before other chains caught on. Best Buy is doing it, too. Good news for gamers is, maybe they’ll compete with one another and drive up the selling price on some games.