GameStop President, Tony Bartel, has told Forbes that his company will sell pre-owned Xbox One and PlayStation 4 games.
“Both Sony and Microsoft have said games can be resold and that’s exactly what we anticipated,” said Bartel, “It’s a recognized way to make these games more affordable. All three new platforms understand that.”
“That’s why the ‘buy, sell, trade’ model works well. It enables people to purchase new games by trading in their old ones. We expect to see the same thing with this transition for PS4 and Xbox One. Trade-ins allow for a seamless transition.”
From what we have pieced together, once installed an Xbox One game is locked to your Xbox Live account and this is verified every twenty four hours. If the game is installed somewhere else, on another Live account, then the second player has to pay for the game.
That would mean if you bought the game from GameStop you would pay for it at the till and then again on Xbox Live, which can’t be right.
It looks like Microsoft really needs to clarify the situation quickly, before it gets any worse.
cam the man
They might sell pre-owned X1 games but will anybody be buying them?
philzy85
Noone will buy them, because if you pay £60 for a new game (come on, you know they will cost that much) and play it for 6 to 12 months, get bored of it and offer if to a friend or trade it in.
Do they really think that some chump is going to pay £60 for a 12 month old game?! What happens when the game is 3, 4 or even 5 years old…. will it still cost £60 for my mate to play a game thats 5 years old that I have lent him?!!!
yiddo
This whole thing has been handled awfully. I reckon all the PR people at MS have actually got lost in their own ‘PR vocab’ and don’t know what the fuck they are even saying anymore.
3shirts
Either GameStop or everyone else has this wrong. The silence is deafening at this point
Bilbo_bobbins
Gamestop need to say this because if they didn’t, their stock value would dive and would find a major backlash from sharholders.
All I can think of is that its like what Sony do now with online passes. By the game second hand and pay £10 for a key to access online?
parryman
How will the disc know it’s pre owned?
AdmiringWorm
I’m guessing it will know through a hard-coded “serial” on the blu-ray disc, or through a serial that the user must type in the first time the game is started (like a PC serial code).
double-o-dave
I’m confused but fortunately I’ll be going for the PS4.
There’s only 2 reason’s why I would consider buying the X1 (whatever people are nicknaming it).
1. I could search through my attic for my old porn collection on VHS tapes as judging by the pics it must be compatible.
2. Seeming I no longer have a driving licence the X1 bus is quite handy for me getting from Yarmouth to Norwich and once again judging by the pics the console is the size of a bus so I can’t see why my plan shouldn’t work.
bunimomike
Sod gaming. I want you to drive us all to Yarmouth!
double-o-dave
Why, so you can raid my attic?! lol
Good job I didn’t say basement or that would be wrong.
Eldave0
Haha, ok that was good.
gazzagb
No one in their right minds would buy a pre-owned game knowing they’d need to pay for it again. And if no-one’s buying pre-owned games, no retailer is going to offer store credit.
AdmiringWorm
Never say never, this depends on what the price of pre-owned games would be, and the fey Microsoft would be requiring on the X1.
gazzagb
MS have clearly included the feature so profits from second hand sales can be split between them and the publisher. I can’t possibly see a way that a retailer, MS and the publisher can make a profit together without ripping off the customer.
mrfodder
My guess is it only works if you can deregister a game from your account.
xdarkmagician
Huh, so now used games will cost more than new games. I guess all the die hard ” I only buy new” gamers will now take a backseat to the people who buy used and support BOTH the publishers and the retail stores. ;)
Somehow I don’t think used game stores were notified of MS Xbox1 used game policy until MS gave them the finger yesterday, and this statement is just gamestop reassuring their customers that if its possible (as we’re told it is) we’ll do it. If these speculations aren’t just misinterpretations of the poorly presented information then I don’t think we’ll see used game stores supporting the Xbox1 as they did the 360. I envision a small corner shelf devoted to the Xbox1 with salespersons replying “no… but we can order it” whenever asked about a game that isnt CoD/Halo/Gears related.
But we also don’t know how PS4 used games will work either, maybe it’ll be the same way as I don’t think publishes would push to only do this to one system. There could be alot of disappointed playstation fans come E3.
Awayze
Yeah but no one will buy those preowned games so GameStop have clearly got it all wrong.
bunimomike
I have a feeling this article was close to completion yesterday evening and was published before all the hoo-haa with Phil Harrison and the flair-up in the remainder of the evening.
I wonder if GameStop are now thinking “oh, shite!”.
RudeAwakening
This is how i imagined all the top guys and gals at Gamestop were like after reading your comment:
Now before ye click on the link, just imagine the train is the boardroom and the guy that walks in explains to all the members what just happened with Xbox1!
http://youtu.be/LINXRMdbW1E