J. Paul Raines bravely faced a roomful of video game developers at this year's DICE Summit, letting them know that the used game sales that butter the retailers bread do not hurt new game sales.
Raines, GameStop's Chief Operating Officer, told DICE attendees that the company's used game sales account for only 4% of sales of current titles, according to a report from G4. How it defines "current," we couldn't tell you right now, but he further spun the good news for devs by adding that the presence of new copies of titles has shot up 7% over the past six years.
The GameStop company man also said that trade ins on video games help contribute to purchases of new games, with 14% of new game sales "funded by trade in credit during the first 60 days of a game's release date" and the majority of trade-in credit going toward the purchase of new titles. So, good news all around.
Just kidding. There actually is a bit of good news.
Raines told DICE attendees that "collector's editions" of titles account for a healthy portion of overall new game sales, with 36% of Metal Gear Solid 4 sales being of the "limited edition" variety, with more than half of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe sold at GameStop sold to "collectors."
That's an extra tenner in your publisher's pocket, at least! Congratulations to all involved.