Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

The company’s privacy statement says it might share information with law enforcement and third-party service providers that “may help us process information, extend credit, fulfill customer orders, deliver products to you, manage and enhance customer data, provide customer service, assess your interest in our products and services, or conduct customer research or satisfaction surveys.” The privacy policy notes that those companies “are also obligated to protect your personal information in accordance with e-Play’s privacy policies, except if we inform you otherwise at the time of collection,” and warns that disclosure of personal information might also be required due to litigation.

“There’ve been no discussions on selling customer information,” Rudy said. “I would be very hesitant to do that and we certainly wouldn’t do it without the permission of the consumer.” The CEO also said he’d fear angering host retailers by, for example, selling to competing retailers information cleaned from its kiosks. “I doubt our retail partners would be willing to work with us if we did that, so that’s why we won’t do it,” Rudy said.

Currently, accepting E-Play game-buying kiosks involves virtually no input from a retailer’s IT department if the units are set-up to pay money only by making deposits to credit or debit cards, as is the case in the initial Wal-Mart trial. Wal-Mart is remaining non-committal about its long-term interest in the machines and whether it would like them to offer Wal-Mart-specific forms of payment for the games that are purchased. “It’s too early to say or speculate at this time,” O’Brien said. “It’s a very small pilot. We are watching with great interest but we can’t speculate at this time how fast it will grow. For us, it’s a great service for customers and a convenience.”

Rudy said the company has game kiosks in some Wal-Mart Canada stores and in about 200 other locations, mainly Exxon and Speedway gas stations. He said E-Play has plans “with several partners” to implement a system where those who sell their games to the kiosks are issued a slip bearing a barcode they can take to the service desk. The barcode would be scanned to determine the amount of store credit available to the disk seller.

Greenleaf and O’Brien said public interest in the Wal-Mart kiosks has been high, particularly among gaming enthusiasts. O’Brien acknowledged many people are asking if there is, or ever will be, a way to get their game trade-in money in a gift card or other form that can be used immediately at the store. However, the retailer is taking a similar arms-length approach as that taken by Best Buy when it began testing kiosks last summer. “That’s a next generation we’re looking at, the in-store gift card credit,” Greenleaf said, noting “there certainly are other capabilities that e-Pay has in place with these machines” for paying game and movie sellers.

If any alternative payback method were instituted, it wouldn’t take place unless there is a future expansion of the kiosks to other Wal-Marts. “There isn’t currently an expansion plan (but) we’re optimistic about expansion and looking forward,” O’Brien said. She noted more E-Play kiosks will be installed, as part of the trial, before the end of May.