Since GameStop records used software and used hardware together under the heading Used Products, we need an estimate for the total sales of used software. Here I assume that used product sales are similar to new product sales. Since new software sales are essentially twice the dollar figure of new hardware sales, I applied the same 2-to-1 ratio to the Used Products figure.

With that estimate, I calculated that GameStop had $877 million in used software sales during its last fiscal year. If each used game cost $14 on average, then GameStop recorded more than 62 million used game sales that year.

At the same time, GameStop tells us they sold $2.012 billion in new software. Using an average sale price of $36 per new game, GameStop recorded almost 56 million new game sales during the same period.

 

Put it this way: For every 100 games that GameStop sells, 47 of them will be new games and 53 of them will be used games. Again, this is just an estimate based on some guesswork. To my knowledge, GameStop hasn't said how many of each type of software it sells.

Look, I'll admit that I'm a skeptic of several points that Colin made in his editorial. On some issues, he and I disagree almost entirely. That said, the numbers above make it painfully clear how important used game sales are to GameStop. There is a huge river of money flowing through those stores that isn't going toward new games, and publishers should be asking themselves how to get a cut. We know that several are toying with online distribution services. What else can they do? Or perhaps we should ask what else they are already doing?