Amazon Enters Used Game Business

I was very interested to hear about Amazon.com's entry into the used game business.  GameStop pioneered this business, and makes a ton of money off of it.  Amazon's move comes at a time when game developers and publishers are increasingly interested in getting people to buy games at retail and keep them.  All sorts of games have bonuses and special items for pre-orders, from LittleBigPlanet's free costumes to Tom Clancy's HAWX free jet.  And devs are trying to string their customers on for as long as possible, by continuing game support with free and pay-for updates, like Criterion's excellent updates to Burnout Paradise that continue to release now even a year after the retail release.

It will be interesting to see how Amazon does with their new foray.  To be sure, they are making new customers who may not shop used with Gamestop or others.  But they are also surely aiming for Gamestop's used game business, hoping to win over some of those customers.  A little competition may mean higher trade prices for game intakes, which is good for the consumer.

The loser, of course, continues to be the game developers and publishers, who don't see a dime of the sales on a used copy of their game.  So good luck to them to try to figure out a way to reward those of us who buy their games new.  That's a win for me.