A report from famed video game industry analyst from Michael Pachter of Wedbush Morgan finds that there were 100 million units sold on the second-hand game market for an approximate revenue of $2 billion.
The video game industry has been trying to make a case for the negative effects of second-hand game sales, even to the point of considering implementing game codes that could leave out crucial game elements if the owner did not have a code. The report finds that fewer than 5 percent of new game sales are affected by the growing trend of buying and selling used games.
"The vast majority of used games are not traded in until the original new game purchaser has finished playing - more than two months after a new game is released - typically well beyond the window for a full retail priced new game sale," said analyst Michael Pachter.
Pachter points out that the used game sales have actually influenced those who trade in games to buy newer games. This leads to a 20% mark-off of new game trade-ins that "fuel incremental sales of over six per cent of total new game sales." This means when the used-game market grows, the new-game market grows gargantuan.