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GameStop president Paul Raines recently stated that 70 percent of trade credit is spent on new games. Speaking with Gamasutra, the executive reckons that's $1.8 billion going back to the games industry and not directly into GameStop's oft-criticized ecosystem of used trade-ins.
GameStop's total global sales reached $9.55 billion last year. New games sales represented $4 billion during that time, while used sales reached $2.6 billion, representing 42.4 and 27.4 percent of sales, respectively. However, if we look at profit based on those sales, used games represented $1.2 billion, while new games were $839 million. That means used games still made up nearly half of GameStop's $2.7 billion profit.
"We're really not cannibalizing new game sales. That's a common misconception," said Raines. "So my answer to developers is that we are driving growth in a category that needs to grow. We think there's a real lack of awareness as far as how [trade-ins are] good for the industry."
GameStop has been on the transparancy bender this year, revealing how it rakes in cash from digital products in store, and how it's making certain publishers happy.
