Cool Hunting

For those who've ever tried to sell back a used game to Game Stop, you know the feeling when they give you your measly cash back or slightly-less-measly store credit and you have to swallow it. Unfortunately they've long been the only place to reliably buy and sell used games until now, with the creation of SwitchGames.

Turning all of this costly swapping on its ear, SwitchGames is a clever new website that serves as a free social marketplace for gamers looking for used titles. Every user gets a unique profile, allowing them to swap games online with other avid gamers and creating a strong sense of community at the same time. Much like Xbox Live captured the gaming world's strong bend towards social gaming, SwitchGames uses that to create a thriving, communal marketplace. And it does so with a keen eye towards safety and security—premium services, including verified accounts, guaranteed trades and more, are coming soon that will further secure the process.

To top it all off for the ultra-nerds out there, the design of the site is completely unique. Needing to optimize for browser performance and load times, Flash was not suitable. The SwitchGames team turned to Asynchronous Javascript and XML (AJAX) and built virtually the entire interface using it. Founder Jason Crawford explains, “most web development tasks are cleanly split between designers and developers but with high level AJAX development the line between art and code is very much blurred. Getting our developers to think like designers and coaxing our designers to think like developers allowed us to accomplish many things that even experienced web technologists said could not be done.“

Get your swap on now at the SwitchGames site.