Xbox Survey asks users if they want to sell back digital content
Question suggests potential trade-in price of 10%; analyst downplays potential threat to GameStop
A survey sent out by Microsoft to Xbox customers has asked gamers if they'd be interested in selling digital content back to the storefront where they bought it, floating a potential re-purchase price of ten per cent of the retail value.
"If the console digital games store for the console you owned offered customers the option to 'sell back' their digital games to the store for 10 per cent of the purchase price in store credit, would you be interested in such an offer," asks one question.
The survey appeared on Reddit, and asked a number of questions about preferred policies on various aspects of digital delivery including what players didn't like about the service, how often they shared games outside of the members of their immediate household and whether an option to sell games back to a digital service would make them more likely to buy.
Although it's unlikely to indicate an immediate change of policy, the questions do seem to indicate that Microsoft is at least looking at rethinking the way it serves digital customers, potentially as a part of a wider shift in policy. Perhaps the most pertinent question raised, however, is whether these digital titles would be 'deactivated' and then resold to other customers as 'used', in the same way pioneered by Green Man Gaming after the EU ruled that digital resales were legal. If so, would developers see any percentage of that resale value?
[UPDATE]: In a note to investors, Baird analyst Colin Sebastian this morning downplayed the threat Microsoft's program might pose to traditional re-sellers like GameStop, saying it seemed like an "inferior" option.
"Importantly, we note this theoretical offer would be inferior to GameStop's pre-owned buyback program, which not only provides a higher trade-in amount (closer to $20/30 percent range for newer releases vs. $6 implied Xbox offer), but also allows purchase of any platform products," Sebastian said. "While disclosure of the Xbox survey might create some noise near term, we believe that perceived threats to GameStop's business would likely be overstated."