E-Play Best BuyThe same E-Play kiosks that we mentioned a little while back as being tested at 77 Wal-Mart stores are also now being tested at select Best Buy stores in Dallas and Austin. And since there were never any rental kiosks at Best Buy stores before, the full functionality of the kiosks is being enabled. Rentals of Video Games, DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs.

This really brings home the model of allowing for video game trades. The margins on traded games are significantly higher than those of new games. Currently GameStop controls nearly 90% of the entire used game market. But further rollouts of these kiosks could really affect that market share.

GameStop has said that it believes that its market is not in jeopardy because the trade in used games is a highly-assisted activity. But the E-Play kiosks do a very good job of judging the games that are being traded. It is able to mount each game and scan for scratches and chips.

Since NCR owns a stake in E-Play I can see this technology making it into the Blockbuster Express kiosks at some point.

Anyone seen one of the Kiosks yet?

JCFletcher over at Joystiq has posted a pretty nice little gallery of working with the new Kiosk at Best Buy. Check out the article at http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/26/a-look-at-best-buys-new-trade-in-kiosk/