The Impact Of A Secondary Market On Video Game Purchase Intentions

Abstract

The secondary market for video game purchases is a multi-billion dollar industry that some believe is unfair to video game developers. Using the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), we investigated user attitudes and subjective norms and their affect on a consumer’s intention to buy new video games. While TRA has been used to study purchase intentions of material goods and digital goods, our study extends this work to investigate video games, which have both a physical and digital component. Based on a survey of 118 undergraduate students, two of the hypothesized relationships are significant predictors of intention to purchase: previous experience in the primary market and access to the secondary market. The results of this study highlight the applicability of TRA to the video game market, suggest marketing strategies for video game developers, and caution against criminalizing the resale of video games.