UK Popular Game Store Chain To Stop Selling Pre-Owned Games
Image Source: T3
Popular high-street store GAME has announced that it is phasing out the practice of trading in used games for store credit. They have already stopped swapping old video games for cash, and soon second-hand games will disappear from their shelves altogether. This will also cover consoles and accessories such as controllers. The 2% GAME Reward point bonus on trade-ins for GAME Elite members will also stop. The move will provide a boost to CEX and Cash Converters who are now the only games trade-in businesses left on the UK high street.
It’s common practice for many gamers to wait for a title to enter the preowned market before they purchase. But physical copies of games represented just 4% of sales for PlayStation in the last quarter of 2023, so this cannot have come as a massive surprise to the industry. Subscription services and other downloads are slowly replacing the need for discs.
GAME has tried to plug the gap with video game-based LEGO, games and Funko Pops, but this has not been bringing in enough revenue to keep on the lights. GAME has closed two-thirds of its brick-and-mortar stores since 2012 and is rumored to be focusing on its online business, after being bought by the Fraser Group back in 2019.
READ NEXT:
Source(s): Eurogamer, BBC, Pushsquare, Birmingham Mail, Wikipedia
Latest News
Featured
