No clue how they’ll do it yet, but WOW am I interested! A new digital distribution portal called Green Man Gaming is claiming that they will add value to your digital purchases by allowing you to ‘trade them in’, at which time they will re-sell them as used games. They are supposedly working with publishers to make this happen in a way that benefits everyone involved.
From the article at Geek.com:
Gian Luzio, COO for Green Man Gaming said, “Previously the minute you had paid and downloaded your game it had no resale value. This is extremely expensive for the gamer and does not encourage the consumer to try new genres or franchises. Our leading edge technology gives downloaded games a value that gamers can trade-in at any time.”
They apparently mean to put their money where their mouth is: “We will pay significant royalties to the publisher each time the game is traded in perpetuity.” commented Luzio.
There are a host of potential issues, from exactly how the transactions happen or benefit consumers; whether or not you will be able to buy ‘used digital games’ or if the licenses are simply recycled to publishers; and of course the whole ‘digital security’ thing that looks quite problematic.
Still … as I said I find this quite compelling and hope they get it off the ground successfully. Currently the only place that has anything similar is Impulse, who offers an internal marketplace for users of their service to buy and sell among themselves. So perhaps if this takes off other sites will join the fray and we will have a more mature digital market!
Right now Green Man Gaming are planning to launch in March with 400 titles and plan to quickly expand that list throughout the year.
Source: GreenManGaming via Geek.com