Say what you want about the controversy surrounding the secondary gaming market, whether you agree that it takes money away from developers or feel it’s just a great way to save money on games, one can see it’s not going away any time soon. Now, according to Gamasutra, two major retailers, Target and Best Buy, are both entering the used game market. This is freaking huge, as it opens up the opportunity for retailers to make more money on games, and opens up opportunities for customers to save money on games.

First off, Target yesterday announced it’ll take trade-ins of used console and hand-held games in stores in Northern California as a test run. They’re planning over 800 stores to have the program by the end of the year, and eventually used DVD’s and electronics will also be accepted. Target will give store credit for all trades, which is basically a win-win for them as they get more product to sell and give people credit they can only spend in their stores. If you shop a lot at Target, I can see a certain appeal to this.

Today, Best Buy announced that this Sunday, August 29th, they will be accepting trade-ins at 600 stores nationwide, also for store credit. Best Buy had been testing this program for a long time, eying similar programs at Gamestop and other vendors, to see how viable it was. Used games will be available for purchase “soon” thereafter.

According to one of these articles, nearly fifty percent of Gamestop’s $570.8 million most recent quarterly profit came from used game sales. As a former employer of Electronics Boutique (which is now wholly owned and has been absorbed by Gamestop), I can tell you personally that they take used game sales very, very seriously. The markup for a used game is enormous. For example, they might trade in a game from you at $1 and sell it back for $20…and people will buy that game at that price (I know I have in the past, and likely will in the future).

More competitors in this space will mean more and better choices for consumers, but what about the developers and publishers of these games? For a long time, they have griped that they’re missing out on making more money from their games since they aren’t included in the secondary market. I personally don’t see a solution for them, however, since purchased games are once again sold at the whim of the individual owner of the copy of the game, rather than the company who made it. Maybe game companies will also get into the used game business? I could see Activision or Blizzard, for example, taking trade-ins of their older titles for credit toward newer titles.

Whatever your take on the used game market, one can see that it’s only gaining steam as these major retailers jump on board the bandwagon. What do you think of all this? Will you buy used games from Target or Best Buy if the price is right, and would you trade in your games for store credit only? I’d love to hear what you think in the comments. Thanks for reading.