According to a recent post at Joystiq, used game retailer Game Crazy is looking to close 200 stores this month. The company only has 680 stores, so 200 is a massive chunk to shut down. I was especially surprised to read that the video rental locations attached to the game stores will remain open after the game locations shut down.

The company issued this formal statement:

Movie Gallery, Inc. is currently operating in an unprecedented consumer/retail environment. In order for us to continue to best serve our millions of customers across North America we’re addressing underperforming stores and ensuring that there is sufficient [return on investment] associated with each of these stores going forward. The vast majority of our stores will be unaffected by these efforts.

Maybe Movie Gallery should take a look at recent stats for movie rentals. While that industry dies a slow and irritating death, the used game business continues to frustrate publishers with big sales numbers. Perhaps you should refocus your business model?

It looks like Toys R Us is entering the used game business, but not in the way you might expect. Originally it looked as if they would be accepting used games and reselling them, just like your average GameStop, Blockbuster, or Hollywood Video does. As it turns out, though, they’re just buying the game, but they’re even buying the old stuff. As far back as Intellivision old stuff. Yeah, that’s old.

The company is taking the games it purchases back and giving them to a third-party company who refurbs the games for resale. I’m not sure just what that entails, and Toys R Us has yet to be forthcoming with details. As several commenters on Joystiq pointed out, it seems and odd program to establish, particularly because those old games can fetch hundreds of dollars on eBay. For newer games it seems to make some sense. Gamers get store credit for every game they turn in, which in turn means more business for the toy store. But aren’t other companies already doing this? And aren’t they doing it really well?