Xbox One: Will You Trade In Your Digital Game Download For 10 Percent?

Looking to sell or trade in a digital game download? If you’re looking at selling back an Xbox One digital game download, as per Microsoft, you may be looking at 10 percent cash back.

Last week, Microsoft was throwing around an Xbox One survey for customer feedback and possible suggestions. Included in the survey is a question on digital download trade-ins, which read as follows.

“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% of the purchase price in store credit, would you be interested in such an offer?”

This question met the ire and disappointment of many Xbox One fans, who saw 10 percent as a huge rip-off. That meant for every $60-Xbox One digital game you purchase, you may re-sell it back conveniently to the store for a measly $6 store credit. That’s crazy low!

Those over at the NeoGAF forums were discussing the survey by Microsoft and were extremely put off by the idea of selling Xbox One digital game downloads for as low as 10 percent. While some of the forum members would consider 25 to 30 percent, some mulled over the fact that 10 percent could be better than nothing, given the fact that unwanted digital downloads of Xbox One games only end up in the digital trash anyway once the Xbox One user decides to get rid of the game to free up hard drive space.

Other people, despite the 10 percent price, are considering the possibility. In another NeoGAF thread, an Xbox One user brings up the fact that he already has over 20 titles he’d be willing to trade for 10 percent to free up disk space at his Xbox One. The question still, however, is whether you’d be able to trade your Xbox One game for 10 percent of the original price, or the current price. Ten percent of an old Xbox One game’s current price will be rock bottom, as opposed to 10 percent of the price the game upon release.

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition for Xbox One, for example, released in August, 2015, at $39.99. But nowadays, the current price for a copy of the Gears of War game is at $9.99. Will the sell-back value be 10 percent of the $39.99, or the $9.99?

However, the news of Microsoft mulling over a standard rate for Xbox One digital game trade-ins and sell-backs itself was a touchy subject for companies like GameStop, who profits generously from the sell-buyback-sell system. Research analysts Michael Pachter and Colin Sebastian brought up the subject with Head of Xbox Games Marketing at Microsoft Aaron Greenberg, and Greenberg was quick to respond via Twitter that contrary to what people might believe, Microsoft’s Xbox One is not looking at developing a standard trade-in or sell-back system in the near future.

@michaelpachter Yeah we are not actively planning such a thing, surprised it was even asked in a survey. Not fire being played with 🙂

— Aaron Greenberg (@aarongreenberg) March 21, 2016

@Colin_Sebastian We are not actively planning such a thing. Always asking questions to understand the needs of our fans. No need to worry

— Aaron Greenberg (@aarongreenberg) March 21, 2016

GameStop’s trading prices have already been under ridicule by gamers for the price they offer for trade-ins, and Microsoft’s supposed 10 percent is even worse than the the already bad prices at GameStop. Anyway, Microsoft has already responded that they Xbox One isn’t actively working on such a trade-in system. It may be a good venture in the future, if the results of the survey turn out well, although it could really hurt industry giants like GameStop.

If you’re planning to sell a digital code of an Xbox One game you downloaded, Xbox One gamers would recommend to post your goods on eBay or Craigslist. There is always a possibility you can sell your Xbox One game at 30 to 50 percent of the current price instead of a measly 10 to 15 percent.

[Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images]