GameStop Employee: We Don't Like Being in the Used Game Business

GameStop is notorious for its second-hand game sales, and the company has explained how the additional money helps keep it afloat. That was reinforced at the Develop conference today, where an employee stressed that GameStop doesn't actually like doing trade-ins.

The anonymous audience member stood up, identified himself as a GameStop employee and declared: "We don't like being in the used games business. We have to be there. We would have to exit the business otherwise."

His ire was directed at Louis Castle, CEO of Instant Action (and famous for co-founding Command & Conquer studio Westwood), who has been scathing to the traditional retail sector in the past. During the Develop conference's opening keynote, Castle stressed that games should be "free to experience," touting the importance of the 'freemium' model made popular by social gaming networks.

While praising the digital distribution model, he has previously called bricks-and-mortar stores a "parasite" that has "abused the industry horribly" with the used game sales model. Seems that GameStop doesn't quite like the look of his much either, as the audience member debated with Castle for quite some time.

More from Develop as it happens.