GameStop will be improving the trade-in value of their games by 20% beginning August 18th. The new initiative is designed to help give customers more value for their trade-ins and more incentive to buy games while in the store.
Kotaku reported that GameStop's new efforts is to help bring in more customers and make the process of trading in and purchasing games even easier than before. This initiative includes reducing the “complexity” of trading in a game and encouraging gamers to put money toward pre-orders or equivalent promotions to get maximum value for a trade-in.
Additionally, all trade-in values will be raised by 20%, so instead of getting $0.05 for trading in a game you might get $0.06. No, scratch that; you will get $0.06.
In-store employees and managers are expected to convey the messaging of this new initiative to customers on a face-to-face basis in order to help make it known that the company is taking some new steps to be more consumer friendly and to increase the value of their services for customers.
According to GameSpot, GameStop pre-owned business executive Jason Cochran said in a statement that...
"GameStop made the decision to simplify the trade-in pricing structure that is part of our buy-sell-trade program based on positive feedback we have received from customers and store managers," … "We anticipate this change to be well-received by our customers as they experience the added value we are now offering them for their pre-owned video game and consumer electronic products."
GameStop has long endured a lot of criticism for the way they've handled pre-owned sales and trade-ins. Many gamers believe that it feels like a rip-off to trade games in at GameStop and that the value isn't worth the effort. On the opposite side of the argument there are publishers and developers constantly decrying the used game trade and gamers having the ability to trade, lend, rent or give their games away. Many of the larger corporations see GameStop as being an evil entity for maintaining their pre-owned section (although they're completely fine with brick and mortar retailers selling new copies of games).
Whether or not giving gamers more trade-in value for games will help change the publisher and developer's perception of the business remains to be seen; however GameStop noted that many of the trade-ins from gamers are put toward new game purchases, resulting in an additional $840,000,000 put back into the new-game sales sector. I'm not entirely sure why publishers would want those potential sales to go away for newer games, but companies like EA have already put a lot of effort into focusing on digital subscription services in order to cut out the pre-owned sector altogether.
Right now there's really no telling how well gamers will adopt GameStop's new policies and whether or not it will turnout to be a profitable measure for the company until it gets put into practice starting August 18th.
I'm sure you can learn more about the new buy-sell-trade model and how it's being simplified for customers by paying a kind visit to the official GameStop website.
