Green Man: We're not cannibalising new games market

New digital pre-owned games retailer Green Man Gaming has said that its model will not damage sales of new goods, and confirmed that it has distribution agreements with "the majority" of publishers who see the benefits of allowing the resale of their titles.

The company announced last week that it plans to sell pre-owned digital PC games, with a remuneration package for publishers who sign up for the service.

"We're not aiming at cannibalising the new game market," the company's CEO Paul Sulyok told GamesIndustry.biz in an interview published today.

Instead, the company's business model will encourage users to buy more PC games - overcoming the major hurdle digital retail has with games being worthless after purchase - and enable publishers to earn even more revenue over a longer period on their titles.

Sulyok estimates the average game could generate almost 200 per cent more revenue when sold through Green Man than it would as a normal digital sale.

And he says that this revenue won't be made at the expense of new games.

"If I am a price sensitive customer, if I've got £20 to buy a £34.99 game, I will get that game for £20 be it on eBay or be it on a BitTorrent website. What we're doing is targeting the second hand grey market."

"When a new game title comes out you'll see a massive spike in the number of games that are being returned to people like GAME and HMV, and publishers still make money on the new game sales," added the company's COO Gian Luzio.

The service is set to roll out in the UK at the end of March, closely followed by Europe and then, later, North America.

Over 400 games will be available from the outset with more to be announced later on, said Sulyok.

"It's going to massively grow the current PC market. It's not coming from a technical standpoint – it's coming from a how do we grow this in order to get more people playing PC games. We know there are all those PCs out there – so how can we engage with those customers? We know they've got broadband, so we want to get it out there and get it to people and encourage them to try new games."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...w-games-market