Introduction

With a market worth over £25 million a year, the game trade-in industry isn't something to be scoffed at. As valuable as it is, one complaint with the typical trade in locations, is that the money given to the person trading in the games is often incredibly low, giving the shop that takes the old game off their hands, quite a healthy profit when they sell it on. One emerging market for these second hand games that skips the trade in shops though, is the game swapping idea. Naturally the big shops are against this market, but that doesn't stop these game sharing companies popping up all over the place. Today I've managed to grab hold of the owner of one of the UK's premier swap sites, Kevin from GameShare.co.uk.

Interview

Whoopty: Hi Kevin, thanks for doing this interview with me.

Kevin: No problem.

Whoopty: So for those that don't know, what is Game Share?

Kevin: Game Share is a web based video game swapping service which allows members to swap their games with each other in a safe, reliable and secure environment.

Whoopty: And what was it that made you start Game Share?

Kevin: I started Game Share because I was fed up with seeing gamers being ripped off with trade in games. Being given less than 1 third the original purchase value for trade in is a joke. I wanted to give gamers an alternative and Game Share was what I came up with.

Whoopty: So what platforms do you support?

Kevin: All modern platforms are supported:

• Xbox
• Xbox 360
• PS2
• PS3
• PSP
• Wii
• DS
• PC

Whoopty: And what kind of games get swapped on GS? Any odd ones?

Kevin: We see all kinds of bizarre looking swaps on the 360 format. King Kong for Halo 3 and Gears of War for Table Tennis to name two. The main reason for these strange swaps is because of gamer points.

Whoopty: What makes you say that?

Kevin: People swap games just to get the easy points. King Kong is the easiest 1000 points ever and it's made a poor game very popular for swapping.

Whoopty: So how does the swap process work?

Kevin: Members create 2 lists on the site.  The first list is the games they own and the second is the games they would like to own, a wish list if you like. Once these lists are created, the members can offer and/or accept swaps from other members.  Once a swap is accepted, both parties send their games to our processing centre where they’re inspected and tested before being dispatched to their new owners.

Whoopty: How long does it take?

Kevin: We process all swaps within 48 hours of receiving all the games involved.  We never send out a game until all have been received and tested.

Whoopty: One of the common complaints had with games rental and game swap services is that you tend to get damaged or scratched CDs/DVDs, sometimes causing crippling game freezes. What quality control checks do you have in place?

Kevin: We visually inspect all game discs.  If a game is cracked we immediately reject it and the swap is cancelled.  The undamaged games are returned or held until a new swap is organized.  If a disc has light scratches we play test the game to ensure that it works in the console.  If a game has heavy scratches we use specialist software to verify the data on the disc as well as play testing.

Whoopty: How much is your service?

Kevin: Registration and the first swap is free.  We currently charge £5 for lifetime gold membership, which also gives 5 credits.  Credits entitle members to a single game swap and work out at 89p each.  Large special edition boxes cost more credits depending on the size and weight.  We also offer the option to have the games sent via recorded delivery at the cost of 1 extra credit.

Whoopty: Do you have any plans for GS in the future?

Kevin:We have recently overhauled the web site and made many improvements.  There is a list as long as my arm of features that we have in the works, so watch this space.

Whoopty: So to finish up, what sets gameshare apart from other swap services?

Kevin: The main thing that sets Game Share apart from the competition is the fact that we allow the members to decide what their games are worth.  We don’t set a value for each game, so as has been done, if someone wants to swap King Kong for Halo 3 or Metal Gear Solid for Spiderman it’s up to them.  We also have the Game Share Promise, which protects our members from losing out to bad swappers or faulty games.  In the unlikely event of anything going wrong with a swap, our members can have complete peace of mind that they will not be left out of pocket.

Whoopty: That's great. Thanks for your time Kevin.

Kevin: My pleasure.

More

Thanks go to Kevin from GameShare.co.uk for this interview.