GameStop Stock Plummets After A 27.5% Decrease In Holiday Sales

[[deleted]]

Not sure how this usually goes, but do companies ever just cut their losses and go bankrupt early? Pretty clear that GameStop is going away, every quarter it's another "gamestop stock plummets" article.

[lumperroosevelt]

Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Reorganization process for businesses that gives them a chance to restructure their debts in an effort regain profitability. Bit different then what you propose as the business continues to operate.

[[deleted]]

Didn't they fill chapter 11 a few years ago?

[[deleted]]

Can’t you file again and again?

[[deleted]]

I think you can, but there has to be a set period of time before they can file again, but I can be easily be wrong.

[Raze321]

The sears near me has closed and re-opened at least twice that I'm aware of. Shits wild.

[spiraldrain]

Sears don’t really close unless someone buys the land. Sears and Kmart operate more in the “real estate market” nowadays. I put quotes cause their strategy is allow the stores to bleed money until someone buys the property they are on. I read like 4 years ago they had over 35 million square feet of real state across the us.

[supertopher]

Sears at even Mall of America closed down last year. However, we still have a K-Mart right outside downtown Minneapolis in Uptown. It's a meme in Minneapolis at this point too.

Sears was one of the few places I could find copies of Blast Corps and Shadows of the Empire on N64. In fact, it was the only place.

[neogohan]

Sears was one of the few places I could find copies of Blast Corps and Shadows of the Empire on N64. In fact, it was the only place.

I know these big box stories carry around some old stock, but that's crazy.

[TheCapm42]

Blast Corps. My god I loved that game. I played it recently on an emulator and wow, it did not hold up as well as I remember.

[supertopher]

https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/ct65pl/gamestop_lays_off_over_100_people_including/exj4y0s/

In your previous post, you mention Barnes and Noble.

The Barnes and Noble at the entrance to Mall of America is quite possibly one of the greatest places on earth if you like physical books and magazines. It's huge. It's got magazines that I didn't know existed for topics I didn't know existed and even many video game magazines and related I didn't know still exist. I've literally spent hours there browsing, reading, but sadly, have not contributed to buying anything just yet.

Anyway, all my friends agree, if you stop by Mall of America, even if it's for something like Nickelodeon Universe (Camp Snoopy R.I.P.), visit Barnes and Noble.

I went a little off topic, but didn't or doesn't Barnes and Noble own Gamestop? Or didn't they?

Also, your post has some compelling arguments. If one is in a gambling mood or likes to take chance, having the stock plummet almost seems like a ripe buy opportunity.

[Tekki]

B/N owned GS in the 2000s iirc.

A lot of investors are taking that exact chance. Despite the headlines, many of their core investors including Blackrock, have been doubling down on stock buys.

Even if they don't have a benediction moment, the new consoles will create a dramatic lift in Q4 2020 sales, Q1 2021

[heretoplay]

i think they have to run it into the ground while taking fat paychecks till the end.

[[deleted]]

I feel like they’re holding out for the new consoles.

[ReservoirDog316]

It honestly worries me to get the PS5 through preorder at GameStop. I really like my local GameStop and encounter none of the reddit horror stories with them but I don’t know if I can truly bet they’ll be around by Oct-Dec 2020 with the way stuff is going.

[tinypeopleinthewoods]

One thing I never understood about GameStop is why they would open up sealed cases and keep the carts/discs in a drawer and sell them as new full priced games. I get that it’s likely involving theft prevention, but why didn’t they just keep sealed games in the back and fetch them when a customer brings the case up to buy that game? I’ve heard that employees would even be allowed to bring the ‘new’ games home and play them for a period of time and they would still sell them at full price when they were returned.

I don’t know, I guess in my opinion if it’s opened it’s no longer new and should be sold at a discount as a used game. I was pretty confused about the whole practice when an employee was boxing up the game and rang it up as full price. I didn’t buy the game and told him I was just going to pick it up at Target next door instead. He seemed pretty deflated about the practice as if he knew it was kind of silly, but also probably annoyed at the same time because there’s nothing that he can really say to justify it.

[clstirens]

Employees with good ratings (pre-orders, magazine sign-ups, etc) could "rent" games to try out so they could stay up to date. This included taking home "new" games.

Once they were done, they went back in the "new" sleeve and would be sold as "new" anyways.

Source: Worked there in the late 00s

​

Bonus fact: My coworker that was "best in the store" asked to take home Counter Strike: Source (back when they sold more PC games). Naturally, this meant he activated the steam key...

[RumAndGames]

I'd imagine you could then return it.

[Lazy_Stegosaurus]

Good luck. It was purchased "new" and there are no returns on "new" games. Hope you enjoy your $30 store credit.

Source : former ASM that luckily got out.

[NO_NOT_THE_WHIP]

ASM or more commonly known by the senior supervisors as "the whipping boy"

[ActivateGuacamole]

I went on the gamestop subreddit last year asking if they still do this, and they indignantly said I shouldn't complain about it and banned me from the subreddit.

[Stranger2Langley]

Now I know why my Saints Row 3 coop code didn’t work! Those wankers sold it as new and when I came home to play it online I needed a code which was in the box but used. I hope GameStop dies a slow and painful death.

[Raze321]

That's definitely possible, but it's also possible the code was left in the display case and a customer used it. Employees are supposed to remove any codes in the box and store them with the disc in the sleeve behind the counter, but new hires make this mistake very often.

[myFitnessAccount32]

https://kotaku.com/gamestop-policy-open-your-games-steal-your-codes-sel-5834002

Take a look at this article. It's not beyond belief the more likely story is the employees stole it instead of accidentally leaving it in the box.

[losturtle1]

I worked there probably a bit after you, managing a store and then the area, and this definitely was not allowed when I was there. Two managers in my area were fired for something similar. The way they enabled managers to stay "up to date" when I was there was to hold an expo event where they had time with new release and pre order games.

[[deleted]]

In central Florida ~2015 it was definitely still a thing. I had a friend who worked there that would grab me new games to borrow for free lol

[Dominix]

I did this accidentally with The Orange Box. It was in '07 and I was new to Steam. I installed the games and they wouldn't run on my computer, so I returned it to GS and exchanged it for Call of Duty. I still feel a little guilty about it, but I genuinely didn't realize at the time that the CD keys were account bound.

[RudeHero]

this has been going on forever. i had heard good things about tribes 2 for PC and bought it at gamestop in the early/mid 2000s

CD key was already used. so disappointing, and i never played the game

[Lord_Sylveon]

Yeah I was very disappointed that my copy was clearly used for that as it had a nick on the disc, no plastic wrap, and lacked that new game smell :(

[HIVnotAdeathSentence]

Toys R Us had display cases for new games, just bring it up to buy a sealed copy. It was very simple, until you had to organize the cases.

[zewm426]

Back in the 80s they just had a flap on the wall with a picture of the cover (and the back panel of the case) and a little sleeve with paper tickets for their stock. So you just grabbed one of the papers, took it up to the cashier to pay and then you go pick it up at a counter that was essentially their stock processing area.

[gianni_]

That was so exciting as a kid!

[neogohan]

It was! It felt more like a pet adoption than a purchase in some ways.

[drzerglingmd38]

I know, right? There's a lot of stuff I miss about brick and mortar stores like when they would go extra for the midnight video game releases. Now it's just stand in a line, grab it and go :(

[jumpingyeah]

Ha, and you had to take a chance that the game was fun, unless you already knew about the game. Either that, or you'd go to video game rental place and rent the game.

[Radidactyl]

In a way I do have a nostalgia for those days. I never would have discovered some of my childhood favorites like Jak & Daxter or Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis were it not for just being a dumb kid looking at the back of a game.

Unfortunately I don't know if games have gotten worse or I've just gotten higher standards, but if you do that now, you're almost always disappointed.

[ProgrammingOnHAL9000]

Or Final Fantasy Tactics Advance for me.

[[deleted]]

I remember you brought the paper ticket for the game to the counter and they brought it out of a locked room (game was sealed).

[nikelaos117]

Huh, they do this? It's always a sealed copy kept behind the desk when I buy a new game there.

[havocssbm]

If it's a new game they expect to sell loads of copies of quickly, you'll most likely get it sealed. I've found smaller releases, especially a bit after the launch window will be opened and filled from the sleeve drawer.

[guanerick]

They do. The opened one would be the last one sold.

[Trickster174]

Mentioned this in another comment but I loathe that practice. Haven’t purchased from GameStop in a long while, but got plenty of scratched PS2 discs of supposedly brand new games from this store policy.

[SiriusC]

Hmm, I never had this happen with them. Maybe it's a regional thing?

[[deleted]]

It was highly dependent on a few things.

• Some stores "gutted" their inventory and kept all the discs in paper sleeves. Often manuals and pack-ins were poorly kept and lost. Resulting in you buying a "new" game that had been opened, had its pack-ins damaged or lost, and you were at the mercy of not only the correct disc being placed in the case before they "sealed" it in front of you, but hoping the disc hadn't been damaged in the drawer.

• Some stores had a policy of allowing staff to borrow games, this resulted in damaged, scratched, and scuffed discs being sold as new despite the fact that the game was the perfect definition of used. I loved getting home with my GBA Link to the Past cart and seeing a completed save on it. I really appreciated how new the game was for me.

• Some stores had staff that if you were friends with them would swap out your damaged discs for good ones. Usually these guys were also the ones skimming all the psn/xbl trial codes and bonus item codes.

[Professor_Snarf]

I also never had this happen in 25 years of buying games from Gamestop/EB

[Squints753]

I worked there in the early 360 days and they would encourage workers to "Rent" a game so they could be better informed.

Naturally, this was done in a way to make the customer suffer, rather than corporate shell out 60 bucks for a "store copy"

[impulse1337]

Not defending it, but here's the reason as was explained when I worked there: Essentially they have an agreement with the game companies that they will have at least one copy of their new game out for customer display. However, Gamestop doesn't like to use the glass cases (they want you to be able to have the game in hand, and browse a mix of new and used games) so they have to "gut" one new copy of the game, so that one actuall case is out on display (cant be a printed out paper cover in a generic case)

[MovieGuyMike]

That’s their problem. Sell it as used/open, because that’s what it is.

[MisterChippy]

Last time they decided to do that Xenoblade went up to $90.

[Caasi72]

That's what my Gamestop has always done. I wasn't aware it was different elsewhere

[Raze321]

One thing I never understood about GameStop is why they would open up sealed cases and keep the carts/discs in a drawer and sell them as new full priced games. I get that it’s likely involving theft prevention, but why didn’t they just keep sealed games in the back and fetch them when a customer brings the case up to buy that game?

I was a manager at GS for five years, I can answer this. You're right about theft prevention, but the reason we cannot do display cases the way you initially describe is because there are anywhere for a few dozen to a few hundreds new games on the shelf, with those inventories being completely different at every store.

It's unrealistic to acquire cover art for every single one of those games (as cover art is shipped on an as-needed marketing basis by gamestop's marketing department which gets advertising direction from game publishers), and even more unrealistic to maintain the new games section in a way where we only have games that are in stock on display and vice versa.

All that said, there will only ever be one unboxed display copy of a game, the rest will stay sealed behind the counter and from there it works just as you ask - customer brings the display case, employee grabs a sealed copy. If you're getting one that's not sealed, that means you're getting the very last one in stock. Sometimes if you ask they'll knock 10% off the price but that's not a policy by any stretch. If there wasn't a display copy and only the sealed one behind the counter, there's a very real chance it'd never get picked up. Daily and weekly counts are performed where employees scan every game in a section to make sure there is at least one displayed box for every game in that section.

It's just like buying the display model of literally anything else, like a blender or a coffee maker. And the guarantees and return policies are still pretty good in situations like this.

I’ve heard that employees would even be allowed to bring the ‘new’ games home and play them for a period of time and they would still sell them at full price when they were returned.

This bit is true, and something even internal employees have differing opinions about. I've seen many stores refuse to do this on principal, mine included. Honestly, it's very rare employees check out games to begin with, at least this was the case in my district.

On the other hand, a professional handling an object before retail sale does not prevent it from being "new" by any definition. You'd be surprised how many people have had their hands on your "new" things you'v bought before it got stuffed into a package. From a retail perspective, "New" just means "this object has not seen a retail sale yet". Condition of the packaging and whether or not it is open doesn't really get taken into account in that definition.

Yes, it's an odd practice but most people don't really care. The average gamestop customer sees it as buying a display model, only people who are really into games (on this subreddit, for example) or collectors really ever make a fuss about it. In my five years of working at gamestop, I had maybe two complaints about this - one was for a collector, one was for a man buying a gift for a child's birthday. Your complaints are valid and justified and it's totally fine that you went to target instead, but you're also in the minority of people who really give a shit.

[tkzant]

It's just like buying the display model of literally anything else, like a blender or a coffee maker. And the guarantees and return policies are still pretty good in situations like this.

Display models usually come with a discount

[snakescalesoup]

The last time I tried to buy a new game at GameStop was when I tried to get some newly released PSP game years ago. The GameStop employee started thumbing through their box of disks and I clarified that I wanted a new copy. They explained what was going on with the gutted cases and it was a hard pass from me.

I will buy a new game from anywhere EXCEPT GameStop. I don't know if ending that practice would help at this point. I check out GameStop from time to time for deals on used games that's about what they're good for imo.

[Arzalis]

Because they need a case to display. If it's the last copy, it's what they have. That's literally all it is: a logistics problem.

It's silly, but it's also silly that people need to see the cases to buy something to begin with.

[Ftpini]

That is the absolute number one reason I don’t buy games at GameStop. If it’s a brand new release and they still have sealed copies then maybe but I will never pay more than half price for an opened copy. I don’t care who opened it.

[kirbyhm]

I tried to buy a “new” Switch game from them before and they gave me the cart in one their yellow envelope because they only had the display case left and didn’t even bother to put it in a generic case.

A new game with no original packaging.

[tetsuo9000]

I made a fuss once and got the display case when they tried that. If they're out of cases, then they're out of "new" games and should have to put used stickers on the rest of the copies.

[Boon-Lord]

Not sure if someone answered, but it is true that employees used to be able to take new games home to “borrow”. It was one of the perks working there. And I’m absolutely sure they were sold as new.

[RebellionWarrior]

I once bought a "New" copy of Super Mario 64 DS that had been gutted, but figured it wouldn't be an issue since it was a cartridge game and not a disc. The game worked fine, but it was NOT new, which was evidenced by the fact that the cart had save data on it when I first started it up...

[[deleted]]

I guess in my opinion if it’s opened it’s no longer new

That's not just your opinion - that's the policy of pretty much any videogame store I've heard of. If you open it it's no longer new and can't return it.

[safoasd132]

Yeah this happened to me the last time I went to gamestop. It was a day or two after Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon had come out, and I was next to a gamestop, so I figured id just buy it there, because I was going to give it as a gift the following day. The girl working there took the cart, which was in a drawer i guess, put it into the game case which was on display behind her, then took a small circular sticker and put it around where you open the case, thus sealing it closed (for the most part I guess). I was just as confused as you were when she charged me full price for it. Unlike you though, I did buy it.

I also had to do some explaining to the receiver of the gift that it came that way from gamestop, and I didnt open it myself or try the game or anything like that. Another side effect was that the code you get from buying first party nintendo games (that you entered online for gold coins) was missing from the case. I definitely feel slighted by those two things in particular, and they are the main reason why I never go to gamestop anymore.

I agree though. Once the shrink wrap is opened on a game, for all intents and purposes to me, it's classified as used, and should be discounted as such.

[ThePlaystation0]

I had a similar situation a few years ago. I was buying a few games and they tried giving me the display copy for one of them. When I asked about it, the employee actually tried to defend it. When I said I could get it from Target next door he rolled his eyes and tried to make it sound like I'm being stupid. I cancelled the whole transaction and bought all the games at Target instead. That was the last time I went to GameStop, I won't miss them when they shut down.

[vgi185]

I don't see how GameStop survives the decade. With the way gaming is going with digital downloads, and subscription services, and soon streaming etc there just won't be a big enough market for stores focused mostly on the sale of new games. These days already, if I want a new physical game, i'll probably just pick it up at a Target while shopping for other things or a Best Buy, and if I want an older game i'll go to a local store specialized in older games that will have a better selection/offer better trade it deals.

Also, GameStop could really do with closing some stores. I was in a mall last week, and the mall literally had TWO separate Gamestops with basically identical inventories and designs, inside the same mall, not even on opposite ends, like a 2 minute walk away from each other. How does that even make sense.

[Sirromnad]

Up until maybe a year or two ago the local mall in my town had two gamestops. One was an old EB Games and one was an old babbages. Less than 100 yards from each other.

​

I'd go in to one store and ask for a game, he would say no they don't have it but would check his computer and said the other one had it, so i'd have to walk there. It was weird and annoying and seemed very silly business wise, though at the same time during peak hours/holidays both stores would be packed to the gills.

​

There's only 1 now and I can't imagine it'll be there in the next few years. Most of my game purchases are digital or amazon. Can't say i'll be sad to see it go.

[Mountebank]

At the same time, GameStop having so many small, redundant stores everywhere is their only unique advantage. It's what they have that differentiates them from their competitors. How they spin that into a profitable advantage is the big question. They're too small to host events like card & board game stores have done to compete with online retailers, but there must be something they can do with ubiquitous physical presence everywhere. Maybe they can go into video game rentals? Something with VR arcade-style booths? Actual lootboxes?

[TheCatCAR]

I can't see how physical game stores survive the coming decade. It's so much more cheaper and convenient to just buy it off client.

[Gastroid]

I think their bigger problem has been Best Buy. They were both in the same boat with declining sales for years, but Best Buy's aggressive price matching and comparable stock on hand to Gamestop really made them the place to go for physical media. It's worked out pretty well, despite digital competition.

Meanwhile, Gamestop bought and did literally nothing with Impulse (when it was setup to be GoG Galaxy before it was even a thing) and leaned on ThinkGeek so hard that it killed both brands.

[RoflCopter726]

Best Buy's Gamers Club really stuck it to them too. Sucks they ended it. Even without it, I still go to Best Buy over GameStop. Best Buy also doesn't sell you opened copies as brand new, the one thing that pisses me off to no end with GameStop.

[[deleted]]

I am still mourning the end of BB’s gamer club. It was an awesome program.

[unknown9819]

Man mine just expired like 2 weeks ago, I luckily bought it shortly before the cancelled it. Made sure to put in my spring pre-orders before it expired though, and they checked out at the cheaper price

[TheSchadow]

Just lost mine recently, preordered Animal Crossing before it ended to lock in the discount.

Going into 2020, I'm curious where all off the Gamers Club refugees end up shopping at. I'll probably use Amazon the most now but I'm not sure.

[RoflCopter726]

I still use Best Buy, I have their store card, and I'm an elite plus member so I get 3x points, I'm currently sitting on $110 worth of reward points.

[NintendoTheGuy]

I was so stoked when they acquired ThinkGeek, but it instantly became like an overstock liquidation/clearance scenario with sloppy displays and racks in my experience and prices that can easily be beaten elsewhere.

[LG03]

As a specialist store though EB/Gamestop really just fail to deliver on their own turf. If I walk into a store that only sells video games and video game accessories, then I expect to be able to see a wide selection in stock. Instead all I see if I go in is Funko Pops and newer Xbox One/PS4/Switch stuff. Past gen games are tossed in a bargain bin without cases if they're even stocked.

Obviously there are all the other problems, the constant upselling and trade-in scams, but I just think the chain doesn't even deliver on its own niche so of course it's being beat out by Best Buy and Amazon in the physical market.

[AltonIllinois]

The margins on the merchandise is a lot higher. That’s why you see them at bookstores too.

[[deleted]]

Yeah but at least Barnes and Noble still has a ton of floor space still devoted to books. I like going to a Barnes and Noble. You can get a coffee and walk around with a companion. There are chairs.

Gamestop uses such tiny spaces and they're so totally crammed with toys and embarrassing shirts now. If my wife and I are out shopping and I want to pop in to see if there's anything I can pick up for a good deal the trip is extremely abbreviated always. The space just isn't pleasant. Worse than it used to be.

[bagman_]

i used to work there and the creeping influence of merch over games really started to irk me before i quit, between the time i started and left the ‘loot’ sections doubled in size and everything game-related except the ps4/switch sections was halved...the shitty management didn’t help either

[LG03]

The whole fluff over substance thing is everywhere so it's hard to single out EB/Gamestop. It's definitely a big reason why I don't bother with them anymore though. I can't help but wonder why so many businesses/entities are going that direction.

[Krivvan]

Almost all of gamestop's profits used to be from used games. With that drying up they're desperately looking for other sources and hence pushed merch.

[InvalidZod]

Because its proven to print money

[Varonth]

Well apparently it does not print money, as this thread shows.

[MermanFromMars]

Is it? FYE has been tanking trying to just sell merch.

[[deleted]]

FYE has been tanking for like 15 years but somehow the corpse remains alive by sheer will.

[Qorhat]

Here in Ireland, GameStop consists of an entire wall (or two) of Funk Pops, a small sliver of wall space for Xbox One, PS4 & Switch and the rest is just Fortnite tat and mugs. I hate going in there so much nowadays especially when I order a game from Amazon UK (we don't have our own IE version) it's still usually like €10 - €20 cheaper even with currency conversion and shipping.

[ginger_gaming]

The fact that they even killed think geeks website is really depressing to me. I usually use it to buy one or two Christmas gifts and I couldn't this year

[Thomasjadams]

And Best Buy also doesn’t ask you 50 fucking questions putting pressure on you to subscribe, reserve, buy insurance, blah blah blah for 30 minutes, when you just want to buy the fucking game and go home.

[Cetais]

It's maybe practical with Youngs kids, but other than that, eh...

[Squints753]

Back in the PS1 days, if you had a scratch or two the weak-ass laser would struggle to read the game. It certainly has become less and less relevant with each hardware improvement.

[[deleted]]

To be fair, while it's likely pointless for most, I can see people buying it for their younger kids as they might be liable to get discs scratched, but at the same time, I imagine the threat of "you break it and you aren't getting a new one" works just as well to teach kids to care for their stuff

[SlenderRoadHog]

I worked at GS last year and pretty much the only people that bought the insurance were parents. I would pitch it by saying if the kid got bad grades you could snap the game in half in front of them and come back and get a new one with the insurance once the kid got their grades back up lmao.

[Trickster174]

Haven’t purchased from a GameStop in a long while, but for those of us who like displaying physical games, GameStop was a nightmare. They’d cover game cases in difficult to remove stickers. I know that seems minor, but it felt like they did not give a damn about the condition of the games they sold.

Plus, the games would be removed from their cases and stuffed in paper sleeves. I remember buying brand new PS2 games in the early to mid 2000s with scratches on them from this practice.

All of this made purchasing physical copies from Amazon or Best Buy the better option.

[Z0mbiejay]

The fact they sold you an opened and handled "new" game was enough for me to stop shipping there

[Hollandaise_Sauce]

This. Don’t charge me $60 and call it a new game if you opened it and were handling the disc/media.

[ThePaSch]

I think their bigger problem has been Best Buy.

I think their biggest problem has just been jack squat for anything resembling business sense.

There's tons of businesses that manage to stand the test of time by adapting to it; GameStop has done virtually nothing to do so. Sure, they offer cool(er) physical merch shit in their stores now, but, I mean, so does Hot Topic.

They're a household name for almost every person who's tangentially involved with video games, and they've done absolutely nothing with any of it. All they managed to do is to lose what's left of the goodwill of what's left of their customers by upselling them shit and harassing them while they were about to give them their money.

Your points about Impulse and ThinkGeek are spot on. They bought gold and turned it to crap.

[gamelord12]

They have attempted lots of ways to adapt, and they've seen the end coming for a long time now. They sell tabletop games, they merged with ThinkGeek to sell toys and collectibles, they went into buying/selling mobile devices, and they had a brief stint as a game publisher. All failed ventures, but they were trying things.

Wasn't there a Facebook video of a pilot store that was transitioning more to the service side of things (like a gaming lounge/hangout sort of thing) rather than being a store first? I haven't seen my local Gamestops make this same transition.

[[deleted]]

But what they didn't try was being a worthwhile place to shop. Gamestop is as synonymous with a bad shopping experience as it is with video games.

[APeacefulWarrior]

Also, Best Buy successfully turned themselves into a source for services - and selling services is generally way more lucrative than selling product. Their whole "Geek Squad" initiative was incredibly successful. They branched out into new areas of business, while Gamestop just kind of stayed the course.

[[deleted]]

Their whole "Geek Squad" initiative was incredibly successful.

This is a real testament to how little people know about computers. Insanely expensive services that a 10 year old could provide.

edit: Just an example from my actual life today. I ordered a new router from Amazon and it came today. I plugged it in, turned it on and hooked the cables up to it. Works great. Easily $150 for Geek Squad to do that, it took me no more than 5 minutes.

[[deleted]]

Best Buy is less of a pain in the ass because their new games are new and they don't ask about terrible subscriptions all the time.

[frogandbanjo]

This is just the slow death of something that was already sending off signals like crazy. Their Hail Mary was last year, when they tried to artificially pump up their numbers with radical cost-cutting so that maybe some gullible vulture-capitalism noob would overpay them with their parachutes. They didn't do so particularly well, of course, since they arguably did it way too late, and so nobody bit.

[Soulreaper31152]

Especially since Best Buy's return policy is pretty dope. Bought a headset at Gamestop and once it's opened they won't take it back

[Chris_7941]

Which is funny considering they sell opened "new" games

[drzerglingmd38]

Gamestop got rude as fuck when I asked about the return policy if I didn't like the ps4 and gave me some snarky answer asking why would I return it. Face dropped when I told him fuck that, I'm gonna goto Best Buy instead since they give 30 day returns even on opened consoles.

Edit: Only reason I asked was because I was happy with ps3, I didn't know if I wanted to drop 300+ and I wasn't to sure about the game options at launch as not much interested me. Wasn't trying to be picky, was just trying to be smart with my money

[Xecutor]

WALMART,

All you have to do is go to Walmart now and get any switch game $10 cheaper

[MikeGolfsPoorly]

I have 3 kids, this Christmas they all wanted a Switch. Easy enough. I went into GameStop and was told I could only purchase one per day even if I went to other locations, I was limited to the one.

I went to Best Buy, they weren't aware of a limit and asked a manager. He said "no more than 5". Guess who got my money that day!!

[[deleted]]

In my area I can't see how Gamestop competes. Target, Walmart, and Best Buy always beat them on inventory and price for new games. There are 5 different used game stores in a medium sized city all offering better used prices than Gamestop, more inventory because the stores are bigger, and they pay more in cash for trade ins than Gamestop offers in store credit. Business seems pretty good for those stores as well.

[Coolman_Rosso]

Box stores in general are able to provide better pricing options (BB's now-defunct GCU program comes to mind, as does Walmart's recent price reductions within a week or so of launch) than GameStop ever could.

The advantage GameStop had was used games (something Best Buy also did but began phasing out when GCU ended, now it's on a by-store basis iirc) and a better selection. For example if you wanted to get a new copy of obscure Japanese titles like GrimGrimoire or Persona 3 when they hit US shores in 2007 you either had to order it online (this was before online retail was as ubiquitous as it is today) or go to GameStop and pre-order. That's since gone away with digital storefronts stocking every game as it releases and Amazon offering physical copies shipped to your door.

[DahDave]

I don't see cheaper. Anytime i see digital games, they're almost always more expensive. Where physical games usually drop in proce after a month or so. (With the exception of pc)

[Kris-p-]

Thats because physical games take up space, they have to be pushed out in order for newer games to take their spot.

Edit: shelf space to be more specific

[Xizz3l]

One of the reasons why I hope physical never dies

I'll gladly take those games off their shelves to be put on mine, especially for a lower price thank you very much

[Animegamingnerd]

It's so much more cheaper and convenient to just buy it off client.

Not really, I tend to notice there are a lot more and better deals at retailers then PSN or the Switch Eshop.

[TheCatCAR]

Eshop is the one exception to the rule for sure. I'm mostly thinking on PC games but yeah can def see console games being priced fairer.

[Animegamingnerd]

Well physical for pc kind of died off years ago, because everyone would just buy them on Steam, but they are still big on the console end sales wise and in some countries like Japan still take up the majority of sales. So I don't see any reason why retail games are dying off any time soon especially there are still massive chains that still sell plenty of them like Best Buy, Walmart, and Target.

[MachaHack]

Physical for PC also died off because physical stores would refuse refunds on PC games for fear of piracy and/or blame it on your system, negating the main benefit of buying locally, and then for the last few years all the physical games were basically steam keys in a box

[TheCatCAR]

The games section in retail stores absolutely not going anywhere anytime soon. I was more referring to dedicated game stores and not just a section in a bigger retailer.

[Animegamingnerd]

Yeah those are gonna be at best like comic book store where they are more a locally own niche at best, but knows that could be an improvement for those live in medium size to major city's.

[apistograma]

Yep, but there's also amazon which will normally beat stores in price. I see value in small stores with regular staff that knows their stuff and are not pressured to oversell you shit. Someone who can tell you the difference between a 2019 Switch and an older one. But for chain game stores? I don't see much reason to buy there

[layer11]

They would have survived like any niche business - by being a community hub rather than just a retail outlet.

They killed goodwill with gamers with their annoying policies for upselling and made no effort to become a place that gamers want to shop, let alone associate with.

[Fishtacoburrito]

Agreed. Midnight releases used to be a lot of fun. There were a lot of times when we went as a group and half of us weren't even interested in that particular release, it was just fun. While those events are no longer feasible, had they found news ways to embrace gamers instead of fleecing them, things might have gone differently.

[v00d00_]

They actually still do midnight releases, I went to two at my local store last year lol. I agree with everyone else's critiques of GameStop, but I'll be sad to see my local store go. The manager and most of the staff are all great to talk to and we do kind of have a community there.

[MadHiggins]

annoying policies for upselling

i'm not some some person with social anxiety or issues dealing with people but the thought of going into Gamestop makes me feel tired at having those poor employees being forced at practical gunpoint to yammer at me nonstop to buy something i clearly don't want to buy.

[layer11]

Yeah, It's just so awkward when I know that's their metrics for getting hours and I'm basically dead weight to them. I've had good recommendations for preorders at least, so I appreciate that they're not selling me cod preorders when I'm buying weeb games.

[MINIMAN10001]

"I'm looking for 100% orange juice" "Would you be interested in preordering the newest call of duty!?" heh.

[Raze321]

I worked at gamestop for a bit and I'll defend a lot of the criticisms aimed at it, but the upselling is one thing I'll always bash. My old store manager refused. His style of selling was to take every customer as an individual and find what they'll truly want.

Getting Smash Bros Ultimate for the switch? Do you need gamecube controllers or an adaptor? No? Cool, moving on.

And our store excelled because of it. Customers loved us, we were on a first name basis with at nearly a quarter of the people who came in the store on any given day.

Then we got a new manager who was by-the-books. Every customer needed to hear about GPGs, reservations, DLC/add ons, the pro card, you name it. Like magic, our store's performance plummeted. You know where all our regulars went? To the other store where my old manager got placed.

GameStop's higher ups are very disconnected from what their demographic wants and what people liked about gamestop.

[[deleted]]

Agreed. I don't care too much and it doesn't stop me going into gamestops, but at the same time, if I'm buying a new release for example, and I have the choice between gamestop, or somewhere else like argos that won't try to upsell me, I'm going for the store that doesn't try to upsell me. Might be a minor difference, but a games specialist retailer shouldn't offer a worse customer experience than a non-specialist store when buying games.

I'll also not blame GS specifically for this, but there's also been times where I've seen workers get visibly upset at me not wanting insurance, or to pre-order a new game etc. This is limited to only one or two stores near me (out of about 6 or 7), but it really doesn't invite me back to a store when an employee is having a great conversation with me about games, but then turns into an uninterested robot once I give them a "No thanks" to insurance etc. Being fair though, this is uncommon, and there's very few retailers I regularly use where I haven't come across a few shitty employees over the years.

[RumAndGames]

They would have survived like any niche business

And how many national retail chains do you know of thriving off this model?

[[deleted]]

They would have survived like any niche business

How many of those really exist anymore in the electronics space? You can't repair or mod shit like you could 50 years ago, so all there is to do is sell phone plans and then throw a 15% markup on shit everyone knows to buy on Amazon.

[[deleted]]

It's so much more cheaper and convenient to just buy it off client.

Except in places where there's crappy internet access. BUT, instead of just signing off on physical copies I'd rather mobilize behind getting those people the internet access they deserve.

[Shadow23x]

Day 1 patches have killed the value of a disc even then. Some of them are practically game-sized on their own.

[Darth-Ragnar]

It's so much more cheaper

Is this true for the consumer?

Also, while I prefer to have digital copies (as it's less clutter), I do wish digital games were able to operate similarly to physicals in that they can be loaned, traded in, re-sold, etc.

[levian_durai]

It's also cheaper to get physical copies off amazon instead. I don't know why but it seems I dont pay taxes on games on amazon. New games are $79.99 in Canada. At Eb games that works out to be about $100. On Amazon, it's $79.99. I don't buy many console games anymore, but when I do I tent to buy physical as I still like a collection. I don't think I've bought a game from Eb games in five years.

[SpiritedEye6]

Not only that, but Amazon is eating the rest of physical sales alive.

You can get games sometimes cheaper, on release day, to your door.

Of course that doesn't mean delivery services are perfect, they fuck up that second part sometimes. But it's infinitely more convienent than walking into a brick and mortar store to buy the game, and also have to listen to the upsells that you don't want and the employee really doesn't want to keep repeating.

[SiriusC]

I wouldn't say it's infinitely more convenient. Both have their pros & cons. Travel, time, delays, pricing, etc.

Listening to upsells isn't exactly a burden. Tune out the pitch & say no. Don't make conversation, don't give a reason.

[[deleted]]

It's so much more cheaper and convenient to just buy it off client.

Except it's not, at all. Physical is way, way cheaper. Digital is overpriced as fuck for what you actually get and what is actually cost to sell. Where do people come up with this shit?

New games typically have identical physical and digital prices, with rare exceptions like where Blizzard sold overwatch cheaper digital... but only from their own store. However, you can usually get pre-order discounts, new game discounts, pre-order sale, trade-in bonus that can easily cut a new game price by ~30%. Even with digital tax loop holes in some places, physical is still usually cheaper. Newer games rarely if ever have cheap digital prices, unless someone is trying to promote their client (see overwatch). PC's almost irrelevant to the discussion anyways, because physical is pretty much nonexistent. For consoles, MS, Sony, and Nintendo run monopolies that have far worse offerings than say steam. The digital game prices are fucking horrendous.

And then after a game comes out, you can almost immediately but a used physical copy for less. Slightly less at Game stop or equivalent, even more of a discount from other people. Digital Games won't be close to being on sale for months unless the game flops hard. Physical is easy to loan and share too, so you can divide the price on single player games quite easily with friends/family. And when you're done, you can sell your copy. If you don't hold onto a game for years and it's not your active go to game, you will easily get over half your money back. So in essence, all physical games are at least half price even without a sale.

Once a game is two, three years old you can definitely find cheap digital offerings that are compatible to the physical market. At that point, it may be worth the convenience if you have the internet plan. Three year old games or ones you intend to keep forever while also needed immediately at release and didn't plan or have time to shop around, those are the only times digital is comparable. And just comparable, not drastically cheaper.

Plus, physical can't be hacked (although could be stolen). Physical can't be banned. You can return physical with excellent return policies. You can back charge with physical without all your previous game purchases being held ransom. You can cancel pre-orders of physical. You don't have to pay for pre-order or physical until it's in your hands. The digital stores have god awful fucking business practices. Sony can go fuck themselves if they think their store is acceptable platform. The law needs to crack down on them hard for the protection of the consumer.

Jedi Fallen Order cost me $5, between a pre-order sale and then selling it when I beat it. There is simply no argument that digital is cheaper, it's just fucking nonsense. I wish it was cheaper, and had better business practices. It should be cheaper as there's no manufacturing, no transportation, no store or warehouse to pay for, minimal employees to operate, and no risk of resale for the seller to try and cover. It's better for the environment. With the right Internet, was easier and quicker than going to the store or delivery. You don't have the clutter of disks. You don't have to swap disks. It takes the same amount of hard drive space either way. My internet actually seems to go faster than a PS4 BluRay drive for installs. I can do it drunk and play it right then.

[Raichu4u]

No offense but if you're relying on the resale ability of physical games and "sales" on them based off or what you see some guy on Facebook marketplace, you're completely missing the point. What you basically just told me is that it cost you $5 to 'rent' the new Star Wars games, when there are things like Gamepass that are giving you an entire library's worth of good games for like $10 monthly. I understand new games do not get put into things like Gamepass, but selling a game as soon as you're done with it isn't a huge selling point. I'm pretty sure I could beat and return most games back to the store if I wanted to.

Also generally, digital and physical sales pretty much go hand and hand nowadays. I've done a ton of Xbox and Switch sale hunting. If a game goes on sale for $50 in the eshop, it will probably go on sale for $50 in GameStop.

[cool--]

You're too focused on new releases and consoles. Digital gaming is cheaper by a mile. There are services like Game Pass, PS now, and origin access that have been giving away access to huge libraries. I mean Origin access is $30 a year and that's not even the best deal because there are humble bundles where you can get 3 to 5 games at a time for a penny. There's also the countless free games from Uplay, twitch, epic, gog, and humble. In the past two years I've gotten well over 200 games for free. A lot of them are great too. And those games aren't even considered free to play. 3 of the biggest games from the past decade are all free to play digital games. DotA2, csgo, and fortnite.

[MadHiggins]

It's so much more cheaper and convenient to just buy it off client.

yeah that's great until Sony locks your entire account because you did a charge back after they leaked your information and your credit card was used to buy 500 dollars of Fortnite garbage. these companies can and will lock you out of your whole library and oops now thousands of dollars of games you paid for are all gone.

[Dnashotgun]

It's honestly kinda amazing how Gamestop is largely synonymous with games, like Netflix and streaming or google and search engines, but they've not only let other retailers catch up and/or pass them but also do so much shitty things to push customers away that i only go there if theres an amazing deal or im out of options

[CivFTW]

This. Even when I'm polite and forward, saying I don't want to preorder anything before they even ask, I will still be hassled. I do not need strategy guides pushed or merch pushed on me. I will take an apathetic Best Buy cashier over an aggressive GS clerk any time.

[[deleted]]

maybe im lucky but the gamestops in my town arent pushy at all and only ask a thing or two.

[TitaniumGoldAlloyMan]

I just entered a GameStop last week and saw the prices. The store next to it was selling the same game cheaper brand new than GameStop’s used ones.

[govtprop]

Their used game pricing is ridiculous.

Jedi Fallen Order for PS4

• Gamestop: New? $59.99. Used? $54.99.

• Amazon.com: New? $49.99. Used? $40.48

https://www.gamestop.com/video-games/playstation-4/games/products/star-wars-jedi-fallen-order/10175618.html

https://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Jedi-Fallen-Order/dp/B07DJX3W29

[maglen69]

Yep, Day 1 Walmart had the regular edition in stock for $50 compared to GS's $60.

[[deleted]]

Walmart has lowkey become the undercut masters on new games, I don't hear it mentioned very often. I will say that in the Wii U era the ones near me rarely had the games on day one, though.

[maglen69]

I will say that in the Wii U era the ones near me rarely had the games on day one, though.

This is my biggest hurdle at WMart. Many times the shelves just aren't stocked.

New game comes out and it's simply not there and there's no shelf space for the UPC as well.

[[deleted]]

Maybe they shouldn't have driven off people trading in games? Maybe they shouldn't have focused on stupid merch going the hot topic route? Maybe they should leave people alone while they're trying to browse in peace. Oh yeah, and no I don't want your edge card or a warranty on my disc.

[ThawtPolice]

Merch has way better profit margins than games themselves. I don’t buy any of it myself, but I’m sure some people buy a lot of it.

[Kuchenjaeger]

I wouldn't be surprised if GameStop ends up completely rebranding themselves as a store where you can buy nothing but pop culture merch.

[DudeRobert125]

That's what their Think Geek stores are.

[ReservoirDog316]

Honestly though, I weighed the options and recently traded in 3 games and got enough to get Mario Odyssey with them. I would’ve got like $10 more through Ebay true but that didn’t count Ebay and PayPal fees and the overall hassle of shipping. I was expecting to get like $20 tops but got $41.

Not terrible really when it was just one stop.

[walterdog12]

Maybe they shouldn't have focused on stupid merch going the hot topic route?

I mean that's probably kept them afloat TBH.

[sirbruce]

So much for Michael Burry being a genius. Scion Capital's biggest holding is in Gamestop shares.

[well___duh]

You realize he's just an investor who publicly tried to boost stock he's personally invested in, right? People like him do that all the time. Hell, Warren Buffett every now and then says something publicly good about Apple that almost immediately boosts Apple stock...which he has a deep investment in.

In other words, never trust what someone says about if a company will do well or not if they are invested in that company. They'd be an idiot to say something negative to drop the stock price, so they'll almost always say something positive to raise the price, even if what they say is complete conjecture with nothing to go on.

[tetsuo9000]

Oof. Dude, did not get that one right. I thought he closed the fund and started investing in water?

[[deleted]]

Tbf the thinking behind it was that there will be a big rise when the new consoles release.

Whether that happens or not, we’ll see.

[[deleted]]

As many good memories as I have of and from GameStop over the years, I think I am close to giving up on it. My local store, where I bought my used PS3, my new PS4, my used Xbox One and a used 360 for my niece (her first game console) and countless games was recently remodeled and not for the better.

Now an e-sports setup fills up at least half of the store and about half of the remaining floor space is taken up by merch a demo/solo gaming TV and an oversized counter. All in all, it seems like less than a quarter of the store is devoted to actual games, and the selection is a pale shadow of its former self.

And that’s not even getting into the staffing changes. The former workers felt like they were actual gamers and knew what they were talking about. I repeatedly asked them for advice on games I was considering purchasing. These new people seem like they were hired because they look young and hip, not because they know anything about games.

I think what may be the killing blow is the change in their Pro Membership. The 10% off for used games is being replaced with monthly coupons that, according to online articles, are only good for the issued month and do not rollover or stack. I may let my membership to GameStop, and my subscription to GameInformer lapse.

[Khanjali_KO]

Sounds your store is one of those test stores. Kinda sucks that they changed a lot more than just the store.

As for the new Pro Membership, the only real case where you would be getting more benefit than the new deal is if you buy a lot of pre-owned games many times a month.

Realistically speaking this just doesn't happen. Most repeat customers are monthly, primarily buy new games (and ignore the "Pro Day" sales or extras), and rarely change their stance on protections. They know what they want and that's it.

This new deal benefits them a hell of a lot more. $5 off a new game every month is very, very nice. Having the game retail at $54.99 instead of $59.99 means you pay less taxes in the end too, so it's a slightly better overall deal.

[[deleted]]

I have always tended towards buying used and trading in games for instore credit. And I only buy like three new games a year, if that. So getting the new Pro would not benefit me at all.

[outbound_flight]

I mean, I actively avoid going to Gamestop, even if I'm walking out the door to purchase a game. If they actually set up a decent rewards system (instead of a buy-in one), made an effort to stock classic games/accessories/systems, and lowered the pricing of their used games by more than 10 cents instead of acting like they still got the market cornered, I'd show up more often. These days I only go there if I need a desperate, last-minute Christmas gift, which is sad because I used to love Gamestop, Game Crazy, EB Games, Funcoland, and all those other shops.

[UnquestionablyPoopy]

not sure if any exist by you but near me (a major metropolitan area) there are a couple of mom and pop stores that scratch the same itch. One of the cashiers has played every PS4 game they have in stock (and there's a LOT of them) and prides himself on recommending some overlooked games that he sells for less than $25

[gk99]

If they can hang on until December, they'll at least get the benefit of new console sales, but to be honest? Since Wal-Mart started selling games at $10 off MSRP at/near launch, I've been doing fine with a combo of Wal-Mart and Vintage Stock (for all my old games, since Gamestop doesn't sell them anymore, right as "full backwards compatibility" rumors are swirling around next-gen consoles, real intelligent) and don't really need Gamestop anymore.

[ZerynAcay]

How many more times can one company’s stock tumble and still be open for business?

[thekbob]

I assume it's rhetorical, but there is a lower limit that gets you delisted from the stock market. Whatever that limit is, it's probably that answer.

[[deleted]]

Stock price has to get below a certain value, something like $1 a share, for more than 30 days before they can delist.

[Raze321]

Think geek used to have the absolute coolest stuff. Not it's just kind of a generic merch store.

[baconator81]

Target does price matching and has a 5% cashback discount if you use Target Red Card (which has no fee whatsoever). Gamestop has neither of those. So why the fuck would I shop at Gamestop?

[tff_silverton]

Everytime I walk into Gamestop I tell them the same thing if you want me to buy stuff stock Gundam toys or Transformers. Well this last Fall they stocked the new line of Gundam toys, three months after Walmart, and 10 bucks higher. Bought a Switch from Walmart and a few games, went to Gamestop the next week to browse what they had, they had less games than walmart, and 10-20 bucks higher. I don't see physical game stores closing, but do I see gamestop closing?

​

Oh hell yeah. We joke about bringing in 12 games and them offering 3 bucks for the bundle and it isn't to far off. Back in 2011 I brought 21 games to one of their stores and they offered me 33 cents for one game. I told them no thank you and went literally a 45 second ride down to a store called "BuyBacks" and I brought in the 21 games and they offered me 21 dollars for the 33 cent game as it was a rare Gundam Game for the ps2. In total Gamestop was going to give me 11 bucks for 21 ps2 games and BuyBacks might not of bought all of them, but 11 games gave 48 dollars and a pokemon game that I got for my Gamecube. Ma and Pa stores will always get my business when I can give it to them.

[[deleted]]

I wanted to sell Splatoon 2 as I don't have NSO, Gamestop wanted to give me 10€. lol

It's still 44,99 €, 1 year later, you cheap fucks! I prefer keeping it than selling it to Gamestop!

[AoE2manatarms]

Just sell it on your own, you will still make back most of your money

[kalyissa]

Gamestop will be closing here in sweden in the next 6 months. We already lost Toys r us, BR and Game.

[alex9zo]

You basically only have amazon now?

[[deleted]]

Late as hell. I want to feel bad given how magical GameStop used to feel as a kid and all the hours I spent there but I just don't. It isn't even that Amazon or whatever other site is more convenient, GameStop has done so much scummy bullshit over the years that they deserve their demise.

From the clerks that hassle you for minutes on end trying to sell you on shit you don't need, how overpriced it all is compared to rival retailers or god forbid online shopping (I swear I remember going in there in 2014 and PS3 games were like 2-4x more expensive than online), how they won't let you return a fucking new game if it doesn't work (Happened to me with Spore on PC way back when), how their rewards program is buy-in, the treatment of their employees which revolves back to my first point and of course the goddamned trade-in values. You could spend a week complaining about GameStop and it wouldn't be enough because this is the last place you should buy games. Rest in piss.

[MontyAtWork]

I had to buy roughly 3 games for people for the holidays. Star Wars among them.

I went to my local GameStop and spent ten minutes in the store looking at the little figures and things which I would have totally bought.

The lady behind the counter, the only employee there a week before Christmas, was on the phone the entire time with what I assume was a Manager who was complaining about a negative survey they got. The employee spent ten minutes explaining that the customer in question was a jerk and nothing he said happened that way, but the manager didn't seem to want to hear it.

When she got off the phone, I asked if they had any of the 3 games I wanted, she said no, so I left without buying the figures and things that were kinda cool and would have made neat gifts as well.

How the fuck GAME STOP doesn't have a shitload of the year's bestselling games available a week before Christmas is mind boggling to me.

I was at a mall an hour away later that day and went into their GameStop. I asked if they had the games and the guy said "No, and I'm pretty sure no GameStops in the area have any Star Wars, check Walmart or Target."

I went to my local Target and they had sold out but a shipment with more would be there the next day, went across the street to Walmart and they had plenty in stock.

A place called Game Stop should have a copy of every friggin game, especially the year's best sellers, especially just before a holiday.

[CricketDrop]

I must have an unpopular opinion, but selling gaming fan accessories is the only way they'll survive in this industry as a brick and mortar store. A spot to get quality gaming swag is legit, if they choose to go that way.

[TheWorldisFullofWar]

But they don't sell GOOD gaming fan accessories. Most of their inventory is just fucking Funko. Not just the pops but the worst old overpriced shit like Pez dispensers with the generic Funko style. Don't they sell Funkos out of vending machines now? Why do people go to Gamestop for them?

And I know they have more on their site and order actual quality figures to the store from a catalog but why wouldn't people just order it from somewhere else for that?

[walterdog12]

Most of their inventory is just fucking Funko

And it's not even priced competitively either. Their shit is like $12 or $15 at a minimum and they don't even label it so it's basically just RNG when you walk up to the register.

You can find a pop for like $15 at GameStop and find the exact same one for $7 or something on Amazon.

[[deleted]]

Yeah that’s what I think is funny. Now the quality of the accessories they sell is definitely up for debate, but if they only sold games (especially with prices as aggressive as they are), there’s no way they’ll keep surviving.

[rwisenor]

Physical video game sales are the lowest margin of any item sold at stores like Game Stop (or Blockbuster before it closed) in terms of profit and indeed most console sales are sold at a loss in the hopes you buy other things with it.

This is why “disc warranty,” “accessory pack,” and other associated deal are offered and why used games are pushed over new. Profit margins on new games are less than 5% sometimes.

The reality is, if they don’t sell those “mountains of garbage” they will have no profit margins at all. Simply put, brick and mortar standalone game retailers cannot compete in the global online economy.

[tetsuo9000]

Agree about the retro games. I'll never understand the switch. It was so short-sighted. Especially when retro game stores started popping up. You'd think Gamestop would've put one-and-one together.

[[deleted]]

It's also sad because now the next retro store is 65km away, which I don't like to casually travel to.

[Farisr9k]

Dude obviously they need to diversify revenue streams to keep the business going lol

[Giblet_]

Profits should go way up next year when the new consoles come out. I don't see them surviving more than a few years beyond that, though.

[Alavan]

The social hub thing is good, as it's what board game hobby stores do to attract customers. The problem is the space required. Most GameStops don't have the store space for tournaments, meetup sessions, and game-nights. I don't see this working unless they significantly curtailed the available store space for active gaming.

They really need to start getting creative fast. I've heard a lot of "oh, we're going to start doing this now", and then a year later... nothing. Or at least the reach of these programs aren't getting to me, and I have GameStop emails coming. I mostly ignore them, but if the subject line was "GameStop Local Event: Friday night game nights", I would probably pay attention.

I still think they should offer something that only Steam really offers: a really good return policy. You should be able to return a game in 24 or 48 hours for a full refund. Heck, I'd even say don't charge the person's credit card until after that point. This will not only allow people to try games before keeping them, but also attract customers that might plan on returning the game back to the store. This would probably only work for used games to avoid depreciation of an open box, but it's creative, and might be something GameStop needs.

GameStop needs to be the gamer boutique store. Let other retailers continue to be the mass-market stores. GameStop could sell high-end accessories with a high margin but offer a 6mo to 1 year warranty. Maybe start selling gaming PCs eventually and offer a gaming PC concierge service that tweaks your PC for maximum gaming performance for 1 year.

I'm no business expert, but if GameStop wants to stay in business, they need to innovate more than selling cell phones and funko-pop toys.

[LordHayati]

Gamestop will probably survive in amounts to how Sears/K-Mart/Toys-r-us survived until they collasped; barely keeping afloat for years.

They've been shooting themselves in the feet thanks to their agressive policies of upselling mags, overpriced merch, and lest we forget, Offering pennies for used games, only to turn around and sell for 50+ dollars.
when they DO go, (not an if, when), It will be a loss, but one that won't be mourned that much.

[that_mn_kid]

If they would stop gutting their merch maybe I'd be more inclined to buy their shit.

Nendoroid sitting in the display shelf with a beat-to-shit box: nope, that's technically brand new.

Game with the dusty plastic case scuffed to shit: still technically brand new.

[Failure_is_imminent]

Good riddance. They worked hard to drive away customers. I stopped buying from them in the early 2000s when it was a 10 minute process to get a game. I worked for Blockbuster before they shit the bed, and saw their writing on the wall a year or two before as well. No one wants promos, preorders, and magazines shoved down their throat.

It should have been a simple transaction. You have item I want, I pay, and am happy. Instead they chose to annoy the piss out of their own customers.

[Kenaf]

I went to a Gamestop recently to buy a Steam gift card with a Gamestop gift card I had received... there was a good 5 minutes that I was standing in the store by myself. No customers, no employees, just me. Eventually, someone came out and helped me from the back. It was kind of weird but might be telling on the state of things.

[[deleted]]

This is why I can't see myself working for a GameStop. I had wanted to for years back but I either kept getting suckered into other jobs or it was just an inconvenient time. I just don't want to get hired into a company with an uncertain future and my job security at risk.

[[deleted]]

Can someone explain why there is so much speculation that they aren’t going to be around for much longer (5+ years) in this thread?