Green Man Gaming announces plans to launch a trade-in service for digitally distributed games. It's not clear how this is supposed to work, but their announcement indicates they plan on having a mutually beneficial relationship with the gaming industry, saying: "We will pay significant royalties to the publisher each time the game is traded in perpetuity." The Green Man Gaming Website is still under construction (or perhaps we just caught it in flagrante delicto, as the graphic has a certain, well, graphic quality), so we'll have to wait for full details on how this will work, and whether there will be any territorial restrictions (the company is based in the U.K.). The entirety of the fairly short announcement follows.

Green Man Gaming Unlocks the Digital Pre-owned Market

Green Man Gaming today revealed a new digital games retail platform that monetises the digital pre-owned market.

Until now, digital retailing of games has been a simple: click buy, pay and download. Green Man Gaming, a new digital retailer is proposing a new concept where gamers can trade-in their digitally purchased and downloaded games.

Gian Luzio, COO for Green Man Gaming says, “Previously the minute you had paid and downloaded your game it had no resale value. This is extremely expensive for the gamer and does not encourage the consumer to try new genres or franchises. Our leading edge technology gives downloaded games a value that gamers can trade-in at any time.”

Green Man Gaming will ensure that the publishing community receives substantial remuneration from the digital pre-owned market. “We will pay significant royalties to the publisher each time the game is traded in perpetuity.” commented Luzio.
Green Man Gaming will launch with 400 titles at the end of Q1 2010 with over 2000 games available by the end of the year.