If there is one thing I can’t stand, it is when a video game gets old. Of course, this happens all the time, which is why most people trade up in order to buy new ones. It would appear that Wal-Mart is trying to meet the consumers’ needs with video game kiosks.

These automated “Video Game Buy Back” kiosks are designed by e-Play, and they will accept a customer’s game by scanning the bar code on the game box. From there, the customer will receive a quote for buying back their game.

If the customer accepts the quote, he or she will insert the game discs into the machine. Now I am not certain if there is some sort of scanning process involved to make certain that the game isn’t damaged, but I believe the money for the games will be put back on a credit card in 2-3 days.

These kiosks are being tested in 77 Wal-Mart locations in several locations including Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New York. Is it possible that this could put Gamestop and Amazon out of business? Probably not, but it could mix in a little healthy competition.

On a somewhat related note, today marks the release of Punch-out for the Wii. I’m looking forward to using the Wiimote, Nunchuk, and even the Wii Balance board to get into the hand-to-hand fighting action. Let us hope that it won’t be returned to one of these Wal-Mart e-Play kiosk any time soon.

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