GameStop Approves of Microsoft’s Backpedaling

Microsoft announced Wednesday that it was ending its war against used game lovers and settling for a softer approach.

In the background, GameStop, the biggest retailer for used games, was giving a big thumbs up.

“GameStop welcomes today’s announcement from Microsoft about changes in functionality for its next-generation console, the Xbox One,” the company said in a release. “This is great news for gamers and we applaud Microsoft for understanding consumers and the importance of the pre-owned market.”

Oddly enough, GameStop stock actually skyrocketed after the Xbox One announcement. Stock climbed 7 percent in the wake of the announcements, up to $37.10. It will be interesting to see if it settles after Xbox One’s declaration that it wouldn’t require a daily online checkup and would allow used games.

DailyFinance, a stock market watchdog website, wondered a week ago if Sony had saved the day for GameStop, by announcing that it would continue to use physical game copies.

Now it seems like things will return to normal for the game retail giant, whose stock had already shot up by 83 percent from last year.  As the next-generation arrives, gamers will be happy to know that they can still get discounts in a physical location, rather than relying on downloadable games.