I just met up with SwitchGames founder Jason Crawford to get an update on his video-game trading service. Some of you might remember my interview with Crawford from back in March. Since then, SwitchGames has grown rapidly (there are currently more than 53,000 games available) and rolled out several new features, including verified membership and integrated USPS label printing. The service is an interesting melange of a marketplace and a community. Crawford's goal is to make "trading on SwitchGames as easy as renting on Netflix". While ease of use is an attractive feature for many gamers, what interests me about the service is that it offers gamers potentially greater value than offloading games to GameStop or Amazon.
Crawford wants your opinion on SwitchGames. If you have any questions for him, please leave them in the comments section. I'll round up the best questions and ask him to answer. Naturally, I'll give you credit for coming up with the witty and insightful questions I'm sure you'll provide.
Comments
Displaying 1–19 of 19
bubers
I have a suggestion for switchgames.. I have been a member for a while now and i think the only thing that gets on my nerves is that you can not look through a person inventory by system.. some people have hundreds of games and i just want to see what ps3 titles they have i still have to look through all of them.. If any one wants to trade my name is bubers on switchgames..
bennyboytx
How far away are we from price integration? It would be nice to list a price for an item and hook up with paypal to make it simple and easy. Plus the publisher bonus, if we choose to give, would be a cool option. And possibly in the future throw in like some money and games combined into trades so maybe the seller can get cash and a game out of a deal too And to add to Bubers comment, switchgames needs filters! in every listing, i want to be able to sort by gamer score, price (eventually), distance, condition, console, etc. Ouh and one more (not to be picky), once a trade is successful, I'd like to be given the option to put the game i received in "my stuff" instead of hunting it down and redoing the form.
But other than that, I'm pretty satisfied with the site now. I used to run into a lot of errors and bugs earlier. Now its smooth and zippy. Thanks for the great service
djrezzie
i was wondering if there was a way that when you look at somebodys games to see what he had
instead of having to look at all their games there was a way to skip and just look at the games they want to trade?
TehSkull
Suggestion: Make the tutorial a little more in depth. Make sure the newbies know how the shipping process works. And make information about what the site is can be very easily found on the homepage for non-registered users.
ac13bx
Bubers and djrezzie bring up good points. I saw a guy with 100% positive reviews and he traded like 30 games. I went to his page and he just waaaaay to many games to go through. Like bubers said if i can go through that persons PS3 collection it would be much easier.
BGenious
I agree with everyone on this. It would be much easier to add games, if you could bring up a list for a console and just click on it to add. I have been sitting at my desk trying to think of all of the games that I have and it is frustrating. Also, like TehSkull said, show how the shipping process works, make it all easy to find on the homepage, and make the tutorial more in depth. The Switchbot should find more Perfect Trades than it does, right now. One of my coworkers even suggested the ability to link your Xbox Live account to Switchgames, so it can pull your list and give you the option of what you want to add to Switchgames. I'm not sure if there is an option to share with Facebook, yet (I just joined, today), but if there isn't...add it! I am glad that I read this blog posting because I have been sharing this site with all my fellow gamers that I know.
UberSwiss
Personally, from SwitchGames I'd prefer some better customer service. Yes, a sorting system would be amazing so I don't have to click through hundreds of games, but I'd really appreciate more from your guys answering help questions. It's been over two months for me and I've still yet to get my game from the other trader. Instead of telling me what SwitchGames is doing all I get is we're working on the problem and we'll notify you when we have something. At this point I highly doubt they even remember that I was a part of some guy's mail fraud scheme. I sent them a message the other day and got the same line. I'm really skeptical about making trades anymore because mail fraud seems to be something SwitchGames doesn't take very seriously, although their site will contradict that statement. I actually made the trade before the verification feature was added so does that mean I'm SOL? If you shoot this off to the founder (doubtful) maybe he'll be willing to look into it personally. My screen name on SwitchGames is the same on G4.
cmatkins
It's too bad i have a huge lack of motivation. I came up with idea for this years ago (as I'm sure hundreds if not thousands have done before). So here's my suggestion: give me some money for letting you use my intellectual property. Other than that, it's a good idea (at least on paper). If it works it'll be good for everyone with the exception of Gamestop.
ahmedreoksmisox
some people dont send there games
nbabballer
ive been a member for a few months, and let me tell you F!!! gamestop! switchgames makes it easier for people like me(middle income) to be able to get my hands on a newer game. I understand that there is a lot of people out there that are skeptical or even nervous about trading games to the unknown, and this is where my first problem comes in, i would like to have an option or message informing me which member is 'under investigation.' Dont get me wrong i believe in the best people, but come on, let us know! I completely agree with bubers, there are certain members on switchgames that have over 300 games and it takes forever to look thru there games. I would like a menu of some sort that lets me see the games on a console that i have selected. Another thing is a new more in depth tutorial on how the site works and how to mail the games. I have traded a couple of times with new members and i am noticing a pattern. New members dont knw how the website works and/or how to send games. I dnt mind helping new members thru the process, but if it was me i would like to knw how before i even sign up.
A 'buy' feature to me sounds like the best update that swithgames can make I believe. I've come across a few members that would rather sell there games than trade then. Personally i dnt think anyone should buy a used game over $30 just a suggestion on maximum price.
I would like to knw about the game before i engage in a trade. Such as switchgames user ratings and owner ratings. I dnt about everyone else but i trust the members of switchgames more on the rating of a game than gaming review websites.
All in all switchgames is amazing. There are great and many members that can be trusted and a large amount of games that can be traded. Check it out!
onipar
Not to beat a dead horse, but the search filters would definitely be nice.
I've made 3 trades on Switchgames so far, and it has been a great experience. There's no question that it's 10 times better to trade on Switchgames than trade to Gamestop.
I haven't had any problems with users stealing my games, but I do wonder, will there be any more preventative measures to ensure you don't get scammed?
Will the site become more involved in the trades in the future? For example, will there be an option to send the game to Switchgames first, as a mediator. Or, going further, will Switchgames start selling/trading games direct from the site to the consumer. Other merchandise or services?
Thanks for taking the time to read our comments and questions.
onipar
Sorry for the double post, but I did want to say, i think the "option to buy" thing would be a detriment to the site. If there's an option to sell the game rather than trade, most people won't bother trading, and it'll just turn into another marketplace where people try to profit. If I want to sell the game, I'll go to Ebay.
Just my 2 cents.
Megaviking
i dont know if everyone has this problem but when i click on a game that is on someone's profile, it just tells me the game info, i want to see the condition of the game, its not if ever consistent so i always have to ask the person what condition is said game or console, also live chat with the person who is interested in what you have would be convenient, oh one more if someone has more than two negative feedbacks and it is determined that those feedbacks were left because item was never shipped, they should be removed from site, without question, make people more comfortable trading.
onipar
Oh, and will there be a forum added to the site? I think it'd be a great way to further help point out the scam artists as well as promote the truthful traders. Not to mention it'd be a more effective way of polling the users about site additions/bugs/etc.
ahmedreoksmisox
people don't send there games sometimes. This happened to me
kiva_
theres always going to be someone who wont send a game but what i hate the most is those who sit on a trade keeping you waiting till it cancels out cause they are too lazy to click a button and let you look elsewhere. but i do agree there should be a tab or so on a profile for certian consoles so you arent scrolling through 100+ games from users who have alot listed. as for negative feeback there should be a termination after so many cause who wants users who refuse to send games or send bad product when they claim its good.
as for switchgames defense they do show conditions of games from users just add the game to your wishlist and look for that user im sure not everyone is that lazy. also they state do not trade with users who have negative feeback or no trades it keeps users from being frustrated. the only negative thoughts i have are above about users themselves and the bad customer service since i gave full details on a bad trade and i got a response that i didnt give enough info and they closed the ticket.
also there should be a screening process that one has to verify their age and it checks out cause im sure everyone will agree you can tell theres alot of under-aged kids joining the site making trades when they cant fulfill the contract they themselves made. if anyone would like to add me or check out my stuff im known as kiva on there
jonn7919
Ive been a member for awhile now and i belive that the only thing that needs to be added is a better search system.I hate having to dig through 3000 ds titles to find 1 ps3 game to trade with a trusted member.Also please stay away from a buying system.I belive this site is to let gamers decide the value of there game/system and once you put money into the system you become the Beast known as gamestop.Anyone looking to make money off there game deserves to be robbbed by gamestop.Also i would like to see a app for the iphone so that members could trade on the go.Iphone is huge right now so you better get on the wagon.BTW my name on here is the same on switchgames.
grand_inquisitor
I have to say that switch games is better for the publishers than gamestop is. gamers are no longer wasting money on used games that the publishers would never see and instead pouring that money back into the system by buying new games. plus gamestop pisses me off, they wanted to give me $20 for 5 ps3 games, on switch games 5 ps3 games = 5 ps3 games
dgsinclair
1. Confirmation boxes are hard to see against dark background.
2. Would be nice to be able to see condition of game you are getting during a trade offer.
3. Would like to be able to know when trades are rejected.
4. Would like to be able to rate members who are non-responsive to trades, maybe
5. Would like to see who has matching games in switchbot without having to open another layer to see members.
6. Looking through a member's large list of games is slow and frustrating. At the very least, let me filter by platform, if not game type (FPS, RTS, MMORPG, etc).
Displaying 1–19 of 19
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