Not to be outdone by Wal-Mart, Best Buy is rolling out a used-game kiosk program that sucks up your abandoned discs and spits out store credit in return.

At first glance the program seems a bit more appealing than Wal-Mart’s, which makes you wait a few days for a credit to show up on your credit card account, and gives it the instant gratification of trade-in market dominator GameStop — with the added bonus of being able to spend your credit on non-video game stuff.

Best Buy’s program is starting in Texas stores this week, and according to an analyst quoted in a GameSpot (not to be confused with GameStop) story says Best Buy’s move won’t hurt GameStop:

In a note to investors this morning, Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian downplayed the impact the kiosks would have on current used-game market leader GameStop.

“Expect Best Buy’s used game initiative to expand market,” Sebastian said. “While we believe that Best Buy’s entry into the used video game market will create a new overhang on shares of GameStop, we expect Best Buy’s initiative to expand the used video game market rather than take significant share from the specialty channel.”

So is he right, Consumerists? Are any of you hoarding a stack of used games you’d never take into GameStop and are saving for a Best Buy run to knock a few bucks off that 52-inch plasma you’ve been eyeing?

Best Buy testing used-game buyback kiosks [GameSpot]
(Photo: epicharmus)

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