Many game developers grind their teeth whenever the subject of used games gets dragged out in conversation. As much as publishers rely on brick-and-mortar operations like GameStop, Best Buy and the like, they don’t exactly sit well with second hand sales since the money completely subverts the companies that make the games and go straight into the pocket of the retailers. Those opposed to the sale of the used games often tout the fact that the value is lost on the average gamer, who will drop off a disc for $25 only to have it sold to the next person in line for $55. As a result, used games make up a huge profit margin for retailers, and considering the amount of money that video game stores have managed to rake in during troubled times it makes sense to look at the used market as the big win for many companies. Any positive repercussions of used games on the new game market, or even on bringing repeat customers or any kind of benefit for the developers, is hard to measure beyond abstractions and correlative data provided by the retailers themselves. With digital distribution on the doorstep and publishers flocking to that subversion of the shelves, it’s a tense relationship. GameStop’s Chief Operating Officer J. Paul Raines doesn’t understand the hate, and just wants to be friends.

At the Design Innovate Communicate Entertain (DICE) Summit this year, the COO of the largest gaming retail chain in North America extended an olive branch, as they are wont to do, and sat in front of a crowd of developers to explain how their company brings business to the gaming industry. It was a tough crowd; the same one that took in a lot of laughs when Dave Perry photoshopped the company’s logo into Used GameStop on the same day. Clearly that schism was there, but they soldiered on with a speech aimed at bridging the growing divide between the developers and the retail outlets. That, alongside a clear statement that the gaming retail market was growing, demand is high and that many groups have nothing to worry about when it comes to a deepening financial crisis that seems to be plaguing the world markets.

Raines stressed that the demographics were much different than most people would expect, with 40 percent of “new gamers” being females, and almost half over the age of 35 years. Their idea of the more “hardcore” users were also more loyal to GameStop than any other retailer, and those who are more prone to buying a lot of items filled in at similar percentages to the “new gamers”, and 63% of their heavy buyers were married. What this showed was an expanding market, and one that was flooded with higher earners who were very willing to spend money in their stores. And combined with an increase in new game purchases and Special Edition sales, there was a lot of new content being moved in the retail space.

Justifying the used game pricing structure and market in general seemed to be a hard point to push, with justification being that a lower price often moves people into genres or series that they wouldn’t normally seek out. If someone buys a cheap version of Call of Duty 3 for the Xbox 360 they are more likely to come in next time and buy Call of Duty: World at War where the higher price tag would have made them unsure. It all makes sense, although a bit too theoretical to provide concrete evidence and sway the thoughts of many developers. Also combined with the fact that many of these cheaper games are only 5 dollars or so cheaper than their newly minted cohorts, it seems that argument holds less weight. However, Raines was quick to point out that they are pushing new games in a big way. Promotions for the biggest titles of last year were at the forefront of most of their advertising, with contests and pre-orders abound for whatever the latest and greatest in gaming was.

Even with arms reached out on either side, this tension between publishers/developers and the retailers seems to be getting more intense as time moves on. While it doesn’t seem that many shops are worried about being closed down due to digital services any time soon, the market is still expanding into that medium at a fairly reasonable pace. Although publishers still cater to retailers for even some of the most prolific digital offerings, such as the new The Lost & Damned expansion for GTA IV, which has its own retail shelf space for a digital code. As it should be, for now, considering that there is a large chunk of the market that is without broadband internet services, but as that becomes a smaller percentage, so shall the catering to that audience. The real issue is the divide between the consumer mindset for purchasing and the ideals that developers have, where a five dollar saving on a game makes sense when the content is the same. Developers see a danger because it is a potential lost sale due to a few dollars in discrepancy, but the consumers just see the savings. Adding value to new sales, with download codes and collectors editions, does seem to have paid off in a sense, which explains the increase in both, but as long as the business exists (the same as it does for DVDs, CDs and other media) there will be a market for it. Cheaper is, after all, always better.