Best Buy today confirmed that four stores in Illinois and California have begun selling used video games, a market that major retail chains have kept away from and left to stores such as Gamestop and Electronics Boutique. While the number of stores testing the system is limited, the stock on hand clearly is not. Research firm Piper Jaffray reports that one particular store has over 5,000 used games in stock. Customers can trade in old games for credits towards game purchases or other merchandise.
While the test is small in comparison to the number of stores Best Buy operates, the move is already drawing fire from the gaming world, including Mark Rein, vice president of Epic Games, creators of the "Unreal" franchise.
"We pay to be in Best Buy"s flyers," he said. "We pay market development funds. Publishers drive gaming traffic to these stores. To have them resell the games, with developers having no participation, that"s just wrong. That"s just fleecing us."
It is unclear how far Best Buy"s plans for used game distribution extend at this time. The company also declined to comment of Rein and other"s comments.