Game have brought out pre-ordered used games

UK retailer GAME, have taken pre-owned gaming one step further, by bringing out a new offer which allows you to pre-order used copies of new games, before the title is actually available on the market.

This means that if a brand new title was to emerge, you could decide that instead of pre-ordering a new copy at full price, you could wait a while and collect on the first batch of used copies for cheaper.

These days people have been known to trade in new games within days of their release, due to either not liking the game, or rapid game play.

Eight games are being made available for used pre-order so far. These games include: Fight Night Champion, WWE All-Stars, Virtual Tennis 4, Homefront, Dragon Age II, Shift II: Unleashed, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 12, and Crysis 2.

For game consumers, this is a great deal. From their point of view this means they can get cheaper games quicker. Pre-owned games have been good for games in many ways, giving them extra cash towards the newest game, and getting hold of old, hard to find games.

However for developers and publishers, pre-owned games are a pain in the side. Although they put the money into creating the games, it is the retailers who receive every penny on pre-owned games, and this new scheme of GAME’s could be seen as a step too far.

In general, a promotion such as this is not good for the video games industry. It is enticing gamers to wait and pay less for a game that sees no revenue going to the publishers and developers.