Game trade-ins to stop in February as store phases out pre-owned stock

A pile of video games, including PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch titles.

(Image credit: Jake Tucker / Dashiell Wood / Future)

It’s been confirmed that UK store Game will stop offering trade-ins as it looks to phase out its pre-owned stock.

An internal source confirmed to TechRadar Gaming (TRG) that all stores will stop trade-ins from February 16. Our source also tells us that internally, following the reports of this news surfacing online yesterday (January 15), Game was “super angry” about the leak. Within internal communications, staff were instructed not to speak to the media, refrain from commenting on articles on social media, and not to engage in speculation with customers. They were also told not to provide comments to the media.

Standalone Game stores will continue to sell pre-owned stock until it runs out, while concession stores (for example, those which exist within Sports Direct stores) will stop entirely.

You may like

Concession stores will complete store-to-store transfers of their pre-owned software, while hardware will be sent back to the distribution center in order to be redistributed where necessary. This comes as part of an “integration” of Game, which is owned by Frasers Group, which also owns retailers including House of Fraser, Sports Direct, Firetrap and more.

While it’s not currently clear exactly what Game is integrating with, it’s worth noting that in recent times, more and more locations have turned into concession stores as part of Sports Direct. The trade-in policy itself was also recently changed so that customers could only receive store credit or Game gift cards, whereas it used to offer cash, too.

“As part of the integration of Game, we will be phasing out the Trade In, Pre-owned and Game Elite offerings in the UK over the coming months,” a spokesperson for Frasers Group said, also making reference to the retailer’s rewards scheme which allows customers to earn extra rewards points. “Pre-owned will still be available in our standalone stores across the UK while stock lasts, and Game Elite will still be available until the end of summer. We are grateful to our dedicated team and loyal customers for their continued support.”

Looking for more excellent games to play? Check out our recommendations for the best PC games, best PS5 games and best Xbox Series X games.

Catherine is a News Writer for TechRadar Gaming. Armed with a journalism degree from The University of Sheffield, she was sucked into the games media industry after spending far too much time on her university newspaper writing about Pokémon and cool indie games, and realising that was a very cool job, actually. She previously spent 19 months working at GAMINGbible as a full-time journalist. She loves all things Nintendo, and will never stop talking about Xenoblade Chronicles.