GameStop may finally pay for all the dismay it has caused developers who have seen their profit margins cut short because of the Texas based retailer's thriving second hand market business. If rumors are to be true, Microsoft is planning to implement technologies in their next gaming machine to affectively kill the purchase of pre-owned games. This bodes very well for developers who will see a substantial increase in expenses when developing for the next generation of consoles. But what about for GameStop? The retailer’s bread and butter has been proven to be its pre-owned game business, which accounts for 48% of its total profits.
Consumers will also be affected in major way if this is indeed the future of the video game industry. The majority of GameStop customers purchase used video games because of their current economic situation, enabling them to play the big titles without having to pay a premium for it. Many of these frustrated consumers have taken heed on the internet with various blogs and discussion threads tackling on the issue. The CEO of GameStop Paul Raines, has recently come to its customers’ defense by releasing a statement. “As far as what features they may or may not have, we will have to wait until the details are officially released from the manufacturers. We do know through our survey of the PowerUp rewards program gamer community that a substantial majority of our customers are unlikely to purchase a next-generation console that prohibits the play of pre-owned games, limits portability or does not play new physical discs."
GameStop took a hit this week, as their stocks dwindled on the news of Microsoft's future tech. Industry rival, Sony will hold the much anticipated PlayStation meeting come February 20, 2013. Where the electronics Japanese based firm will in all certainty reveal the next iteration of its game console. Giving the fact that this current gen hardware between Microsoft and Sony were similar, it would be interesting to see if Sony will address preemptive measures to deal with the pre-owned game market ahead of Microsoft.
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