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Best Buy vs. The Game Makers
An anonymous reader writes "CNN's excellent Game Over column brings word that Best Buy has begun selling used games in select locations as part of a test program. If successful, all of the store's 700 stores could begin doing so in the not-too-distant future. Not so happy about this are developers, including Epic's Mark Rein, who resurrects his 'no used game sales' argument, saying 'To have them resell the games, with developers having no participation, that's just wrong. That's just fleecing us.'"
Just so you know, the Best Buy near where I live is one of the ones selling (and buying) used games and they aren't just current generation used games. I've bought several NES, SNES, DC, and PS games as well as seen Genesis, Gameboy, GBA, Saturn, and Atari games on the shelves. The cartridge games almost always come without the box or manual. The disc games always have at least a case (sometimes even the original huge PS cases) and usually have the manual with it. The current generation used games they sell are usually in their original packaging with manual intact.
I've seen Gamestop re-shrinkwrap the old display games (the copies of a new release that they put up on the wall without cds, the cds are in sleeves at the counter) after they come off display, but I've yet to see them re-shrinkwrap an actual used game. The shrinkwrap they use is nothing like the real stuff, and pretty easy to spot though.