UK Retailer GAME to Open Two Pre-Owned Only Stores

They're not preowned only stores.

They'll continue selling new goods.

"will be selling and purchasing used tablets, TVs, smart phones, MP3 players and various other tech in addition to games; there will also be a limited range of 'mint' condition items on sale."

Then it's like GameStop, here in America, plus the tvs, & smart phones, since, at least the GSs in my area, don't sell those,... yet.

Edit: This will be good for UK gamers, I guess.

Edit 2: I just wish used game stores still sold games, & consoles, from prior to 5th, & 6th gen.

Cex aren't going to get sleepless nights over this.

Sounds fun, but my CEX in Glasgow will do me for the three years it'll take them to care about Scotland

Nintendo should kill their exclusivity on eshop codes. (If HMV did the same thing for films and music the preferred status they have would be revoked).

Maybe they don't realise how bad it is but if they think the average is 2 or 3 games a year the reason is Game's parasitical relationship to Nintendo.

I see a second chain of shops similar to CEX on the high street and eventually no Game shops.
My local game store already sells second hand stuff and traded in games, but they are not stocking many new games, other than the download version.
Bravely Default, Zelda A Link to the Past, In my local Game these title are available to order only.
I'm not sure if this is the same with Xbox and PlayStation games but they don't seem to like Nintendo that much. Or is it that Nintendo allow them to sell the downloaded version they no longer need to keep expensive stock.

@zool They only stock cheap junk gameware stuff as well. (Which basically amounts to defrauding people who believe them.) The genuine official accessories are the one thing its convenient to be able to just go and buy. (Circlepad Pro / Wii Component Cable every time I have asked they didn't even know what I meant).

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Good move for them, I suppose.

While I'm a proponent of buying games new when you have the means to do so, I don't have a problem with the used market, as it allows kids (who usually don't have much money) to get into gaming. In fact, if it weren't for the used market, I'd never have gotten into Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, or Ace Combat, for example.

I really, REALLY hope they revive the retro sections from Gamestation. I heard horrifying stories from ex-Gamestation staff about retro stuff being destroyed when Game bought them out and only wanted stuff that was from the previous gen in the retro section. Given how quickly it all disappeared from the stores, there's no reason to believe they're not telling the truth. Sad times.

@Banker-Style
does anyone buy anything in cex as always seems its only people selling stuff.

Just heard CEX is opening a store next door to the Cambridge branch of gametronics. Now that's gonna be interesting?

@Peach64: Destroying retro games/consoles does not sound cool. What makes it worse is that not all retro games are legally available in virtual form.

@Everyone else: Unfortunately, it seems most "used/pre-owned" video game stores are not only stocking only from the current, & last-gen, but also getting away from being a game-centric store, & dealing in other electronics. Although, I can remember almost 10-some years ago, talking over w/ my dad, the inevitable blending/crossing/combining of cell phones, & pdas. So, I really shouldn't be surprised at this, since "mainstream" gaming is now possible, & more so profitable on phones, & tablets.

Well I guess we could all use another cex. Cex came to Ireland about 2 years ago just after GAME closed down here, cex are making a killing here, maybe GAME should have thought about this before moving out.

I miss GAME, stupid Gamestop

Sounds like a smart move. I always trade in my games and always buy new, but often have to buy through the online store now days.
Hope it works out for them then they might re-open a store near me.

@Capt_N When Gamestation first started they were really good because using imports was pretty easy and getting stuff imported was very expensive. It cost £10 to swap a decent import for another or they sold them for £30. (Importing one was more like £80 for something like Final Fantasy III or Chrono Trigger which I only did for those two).

Huh, funny because half the GAME stores I've been in feel like pre-owned stores already.

@LunaticPandora They take 50% of the value of any item on each trade every time and sell it for basically the Amazon new price. (But Nintendo gives them the eshop monopoly doesn't make any sense at all).

It sounds a bit pointless to me. I can trade in games at GAME perfectly fine - that is, unless, they are going to branch in to Gamecube era games and beyond.

I always welcome a chance to buy some pre-owned gems, but if this is the case, I fear their shelves are going to be stocked not with classics like Tales of Symphonia or Skies of Arcadia, but with the millions of 'Wii Sports', 'Madworld', '2002 FIFA World Cup' and 'Deal or no Deal' games that no one seems to want to buy.

There are at least 4 game shops in my local city that deal in second hand games (including Game), and it's quite difficult to find anything interesting to buy.

There's plenty of copies of 'Red Steel', 'Desi Adda Games of India' and 'Ellen Whitakers Horse Life' though. Plus, 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire', 'The Sims: Busting Out', Out of date championship/Football Manager/FIFA games, not to mention hundreds of niche 'Sold Out' label PC games.

I often wonder what sort of life these games have lead. Some of them can sit on shelves for years! Then when the little game shop goes out of business, the stock is confiscated and the games are bought by another shop where they sit on a shelf for another 5 years...

@unrandomsam: That sounds expensive, actually importing them I mean. I've read many accounts online of importing (both games, & systems) having been common during the 16-bit days, due to Pal 50Hrz vs. NTSC 60Hrz.

@edhe: "I often wonder what sort of life these games have lead. Some of them can sit on shelves for years! Then when the little game shop goes out of business, the stock is confiscated and the games are bought by another shop where they sit on a shelf for another 5 years..." All apart of acquiring a store's inventory, I suppose. Dumping/destroying the stock would be bad, since that method disregards any possible profit to be made off those games, & even worse, it creates a possible (game existence) timeline precedent, that other (video) game retailers may decide to follow, in addition to games that may not be deemed profitable enough, get the prejudice of destruction. That, in turn, can lead to "ripples" going back to the game devs, & they would never again do a product of that kind, or risk future experiment.

@Capt_N I used to just run the PAL games at 60hz with a switch most of the time it was totally fine as there was no optimisation. (The mods were not too bad to do for Megadrive or SNES). Imported systems were still pretty expensive. Because of that service though Gamestation (Who had small shops and a great variety of stuff at reasonable prices had some good will). Game took over and opened massive shops and didn't stock anything decent. If that situation was now game would sell them for £77 if they cost £80 to import. Most of what they had was quite hard to get hold of new even for the PAL games. The current situation cannot last forever. (Used places getting more overall from a game than the creator which I think is fairly common). Hence NIntendo thinking most people only buy two or three games a year. (I don't know anyone with less than about 10).

I'm never buying a pre-owned game in a store again. Stores shouldn't make money at the expense of game developers and publishers. I don't mind buying a pre-owned game directly from a person who purchased the game though. GameStop are just blood suckers.

@Capt_N Gamestop sells smartphones now as well.

The used game industry isn't dead, though people like Sony and Microsoft keep trying to kill it ... and now even Nintendo is hurting it. It sucks to see it fade now, there are a lot of games I would only buy used, because they are just not worth the new price.

Soooooo, they're opening up pawn shops.

@KittenKoder
The second hand situation is completely overblown. Most of the 'evidence' that its killing the industry is baseless conjecture, all assumptions and what-ifs.

These companies aren't going off of actual losses, they look at what they didn't sell and just assume that it must be because people are buying used instead. Even if half of your average consumers' game purchases are used you can't assume that those purchases would directly translate into new sales.

Sadly, instead of trying to compete and offer better deals most companies would rather beat their problem to death with a stick.

Game are crap. The store in telford rarely has new games. Also I dont understand why people trade games when you get so little back. Game and like stores are parasites and damage game industry. I like be be able to go in a store and see lots of diff new games not old ones with a few quid off the price of a new one.

Have you seen how much GAME charge for pre-owned games?!! They're often not much cheaper than new games. It's a racket I tell you. Just keep going to the CEX shop.

When were used games ever going to go away? They've always been around.

I'm born and bred in Cambridge, and walked past one of the two GAME's that we have here on Tuesday with my wife, only to find that it was closed for refurb. Didn't think much of it obviously, just thought it was a usual change around; but the moment I saw the title of this article, before I even read the damn thing, I knew that Cambridge would be on their list as one of their first stores to change, as we have two stores within 3 minutes walking of each other, and it clearly just clicked in my head as to why one of them was closed on Tuesday. Blooming shame though, as I don't buy pre-owned games at all, and out of the two stores to pick from, they converted my favourite one lol End of an era for me as I will never have reason to go in now To think, we used to have a GAME and a GameStation next door to each other, and then the other GAME store a few mins away. That was gaming overload though to be fair lol.

@GuruOfGreatness
What one are they converting?
Lion Yard or Fitzroy St?

the store that gave bugger all for games and sold them used close to full price and then went bust are coming back....WOOHOO (feel the sarcasm)

@Hyperion The Fitzroy Street one is the one that was closed earlier this week, my favourite one

@FullbringIchigo Haha that's it in a nutshell!

If these shops are like Gamestation used to be I will love this. The Gamestation near me (Chichester), used to have a huge selection of retro games and consoles but after they were bought by GAME the retro sections shrank and shrank until they were gone.... And then it was just made into a GAME a couple of years ago. I really miss how it was.