GameStop Corporation has hinted at a survey that says 60 percent of their customers won't buy a new console that doesn't allow users to play pre-owned games, in a new development in the increasingly visible tussle between Microsoft and GameStop.
"I think it was 60 percent of customers who said they wouldn't buy a new console [if it blocks used games]," CFO Rob Lloyd, of GameStop, told the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference. According to Ars Technica, he declined to go into details about the survey, which also hasn't been released yet. He continued, "consumers want the ability to play preowned games, they want portability in their games; they want to play physical games. And to not have those things would be a substantial reason for them not to purchase a new console."
Last week, the company's stock took a hit after gaming site Edge.com reported an anonymously-sourced leak saying that the new Xbox console, commonly called the Xbox 720, would not allow users to play used video games on the device.
GameStop has built its business on buying and selling used video games and consoles, as well as being a retail store for newly released gaming products. The company makes almost half of its profit from trade in used games.
At their worst last week, shares in GameStop fell as much as 11.4, their biggest drop since May of last year, according to Bloomberg News.
The rumors, reported by the reputable gaming site Edge, included some possible specs on Microsoft's Xbox 720, as well as a rumor that the new Xbox will require an always-on internet connection to function and that all games will require first-use registered activation codes to work. "It is believed that games purchased on disc will ship with activation codes, and will have no value beyond the initial user," said the Edge posting.
Michael Olson, Wall Street analyst, doesn't believe the anonymously sourced report though, writing, "We are confident that both the new PlayStation and the new Xbox will support used games." GameStop shares were down only 1 percent at the end of trading Thursday, having rebounded since the Xbox rumor broke last week.
The rumored specs reported by Edge include a 50GB Blu-ray discs for Xbox games, running on an AMD eight-core x64 1.6GHz CPU with 8GB RAM. Edge also says the new Xbox consoles will ship with Kinect included.