Xbox posed an interesting question to gamers in a survey: would you sell back your digital-only titles for 10 percent of store credit?
It is certainly a fascinating question, suggesting that this is a new service Xbox has discussed about offering to its members in the future: they already have the option of selling physical copies of used games to retailers like GameStop for cash and store credit.
Here's the specific question on the Xbox customer survey:
"If the console digital games store for the console you owned offered customers the option to 'sell back' their digital games to the store for 10 percent of the purchase price in store credit, would you be interested in such an offer?"
For answers, the survey offered the following:
"Yes, for many of my digital titles."
"Yes, but only for a few digital titles I only play."
"No."
"Don't know/Not sure."
Although many players might consider selling back digital titles they no longer play, most argue on NeoGAF that 10 percent is an extremely low amount to get back on those. Most games retail for $60, so that means a player would only receive $6 back. Also, that $6 is tied to in-store credit, which forces players to buy their games from one retailer. In addition, obviously, $6 wouldn't buy much of anything.
So, how would something like that work? Basically, to sell a game back, a player would agree to revoke the game's digital license, and then receive the store credit. The survey doesn't mention anything about trading digital copies of games or even selling them to others, though.
It's an odd question for digital goods, but it does show that Microsoft plans on thinking of options to give gamers who download most of their games a way to have their cake and eat it, too. Those who buy physical copies of games have that option, so why not those who pay the same price for digital titles?
For those intrigued by the concept, though, it's not likely Microsoft will mention it again unless there's enough interest and the company feels it is something it would like to pursue.
