gkrykewy said:
Why do used copies not appear to have the same depressing effect on North American sales?
North America:
- Legal rentals
- Relatively low "trade in credit"
- GameStop gives same trade-in credit whether game is barely played, complete, near-mint or no case, marker on disc, played for years, in a house full of smokers.
- Used means $new - $5
- "Rewards" programs generally consist of 10-15% discount if that
- Standard game price $59/$49/$29 depending on console, budget games priced lower.
Japan:
- No rentals
- Relatively high trade in credit
- Trade-in credit is very highly sensitive to game condition. Resale price is also highly sensitive to game condition.
- Used games can go a good deal below new price.
- Many stores have excellent rewards programs.
- Prices vary wildly from ~3000 yen for a budget handheld title to 9000+ yen for high end console titles.
Buying used is a better deal in Japan than it is here. Trading in is a better deal in Japan than it is here. And there's fewer options to play games for cheap than in Japan. Plus we have more data on Japan so the depth of our look into a given game's performance is deeper and we're more likely to look into this sort of stuff.