HMV promises to "do pre-owned responsibly," won't "undermine" first-hand sales

[Teajunkie]

We hear a lot from publishers about how the trade-in market is raining on their parades, but seldom do the culprit retailers get a word in.

HMV CEO Simon Fox has just extended a verbal olive branch, promising to give new games more limelight before funnelling customers towards the pre-owned sections.
"We have put a lot of thought into this and we want to do pre-owned responsibly," he said, via MCV.
"And in particular, we want to do it in a way that respects the lifecycle of publishers' products.

Pre-owned is an important part of what we do, but equally what we want to do it - and in fact have committed to doing it - in a responsible way that doesn't undermine that lifecycle."



Despite revenue wobbles, HMV is in a strong position right now, thanks not least to the collapse and rebirth of specialist retailer GAME Group.
The electronics giant reaped an outpouring of support from publishers after threatening to downsize its games business.

"Our video games market share has gone up, and you would expect it to go up because there are 300 fewer GAME High Street stores," Fox continued. "But you'd also expect it to go up because we are just doing a better job and we have a better relationship now with the suppliers.

"And I certainly think this time last year as we headed into Christmas, we really weren't in a good place with the games publishers and the format holders.
Today, we are in a much better place. So we're looking forward to continuing to grow market share."
In January, HMV indicated that it was open to the idea of sharing pre-owned revenues with publishers, providing they kill off the Online Pass scheme.

Source