Why do most games have more longevity in sales (legs) in Europe than in the US?

[The_Liquid_Laser]

S.Peelman said:

The_Liquid_Laser said:

From what I can tell, Europe doesn't have the robust market for used games that the US has. Does Europe really have the equivalent of Gamestop? If so, then it's not in every country.

Not one that operates throughout Europe as far as I’m aware. Gamestop itself also isn’t active in The Netherlands. We have our own gamestore chain, which does also sell used copies though.

 

RenCutypoison said:

The_Liquid_Laser said:
Gamestop is what causes the front loading in the US. (Well it's the whole resale market, but Gamestop is the biggest piece.) After the first couple of weeks, most people just buy used games instead of new ones. That makes sales front loaded. Then publishers drop the price to compensate. This happens more with single player games, which is why lots of companies are pushing more for multiplayer games and digital games and so on. All of that is supposed to circumvent the resale market.

From what I can tell, Europe doesn't have the robust market for used games that the US has. Does Europe really have the equivalent of Gamestop? If so, then it's not in every country.

Europe isn't a big, unified market. EU is supposed to be, but really it's almost as impactful as UN, by which I mean not by a longshot.

There are used game stores in almost every city counting more than a few thousands inhabitants here in Belgium, but it doesn't need to be managed by a single multinational corporation.

(Answering both of you.)

I do wonder what the concentration of used game stores in Europe is, because where I am they are everywhere.  I like in a city with a greater metropolitan area of about 530k.  We have 7 Gamestops and a similar number of small businesses that sell used games.  That is about one used game store for every 38k people.  (I am excluding pawn shops and thrift stores which usually only have a handful of games each.)  This seems like a lot to me, but perhaps it is that way everywhere?

(We also used to have even more Gamestops than this but a couple of them closed down recently.)