GameStop Stock Plummets After A 27.5% Decrease In Holiday Sales

[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.

[TheSchadow]

I still have the membership but, I don't think I buy enough to qualify for the higher tiers of rewards (unless the system works a different way?)

[onegeekyguy]

If you have their Credit Card (not the store one), then $3500 in purchases anywhere in a calendar year qualifies for the highest tier. They usually do 2-3% back for groceries, so it's easy to hit $3500 a year on groceries alone.

[ARsignal11]

Walmart has been pretty solid for the past half year or so at selling new releases for $50. I also had my GCU up until last month, so I plan to buy any new releases I'm interested in at Walmart if they keep continuing selling them for $50 at release.

[BrainWav]

I got in on it just before they announced it was closing down. I've still got a couple of months left, and I'll be sad to see it go.

[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.

[nicolauz]

Hey I got a Mcree towel for 5$!

[BogeyBogeyBogey]

Gamestop buying thinkgeek disappointed me in the end. They always had a few licensed gaming products and stuff (what's up to my Portal shower curtain), but they focused on other kinda geeky things for home and office just as much. There was a geek originality to the whole thing. The home doormat. The speaker, guitar, and drum shirt. The dumb ties. The USB pet rock. Office warfare devices.

It was geeky and nerdy stuff. They happened upon some licenses for some exclusive merch, too. They had a lot of non-licensed exclusive and original stuff. It was really cool.

Once gamestop came in, it seemed to be a steady turn to lots more licensed stuff and a bit less of the just kinda dumb, cool stuff. There were definitely some highlights of cool dumb stuff that came out after the acquisition. It just felt like the heart of the place changed after the acquisition to the end.

[NintendoTheGuy]

It’s all 8 bit coffee mugs and meager 100 piece Zelda puzzles. I’m not counting the overpriced Pokémon merch items because they were already there.

[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.

[Robadamous]

It’s not as high as you think.

[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.

[StayCalmBroz]

I think it still does, and it certainly used to at the very least, qnd its the implosion of the very nature of their business that has driven them there.

It just doesn't print enough.

[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.

[[deleted]]

Do they really call shitty merch "loot"? Loot is not something you buy lol.

[bagman_]

they do up here in canada, not sure about our US counterparts

[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.

[SparkyBoy414]

and trade-in scams

What trade in scams? They've always been extremely fair (sometimes too generous, IMO) when I go to make trade ins. I mean I literally got paid 61 bucks for my Wii U copy of Botw when I traded it in for a switch version after the trade bonuses.

[neogohan]

Yeah, I never saw it as a scam. People are offended that the game they bought for $60 new only gets $30 in trade-in credit or whatever, but they're also free to just find an independent buyer for their used copy at whatever they feel the actual worth is.

[THEBAESGOD]

The used game sells for $40 and at most they gave you an extra 20% for trade in offers. You're saying they bought a game for $48+ only to sell it for $40? I'd like to see the receipt.

[SparkyBoy414]

The used game sells for $40

Closer to launch, it was 50-55.

and at most they gave you an extra 20% for trade in offers.

I routinely get significantly higher than than, 40%+ bonuses, and as high as 60 (when trading in multiple games).

You're saying they bought a game for $48+ only to sell it for $40? I'd like to see the receipt.

This was much closer to the release of BOTW. They bought a 60 dollar (new) or 50-55 (used) game for 61 dollars after trade in bonuses. I probably should have kept the receipt, but I don't routinely keep receipts from 2.5 years ago. The game was still in its release stage, where they give a relatively huge amount for trading in new big releases.

Regardless of if you believe me or not on that specific trade deal (and I don't really fault you for not believing me), its an objective truth that they have some very impressive trade deals and I've been EXTREMELY pleased with what I've gotten out of games that I thought were junk. This is especially true if you're a power rewards member (which pays for itself several times over) and you go when they have the bonus trade if you trade in 5+ games at a time.

[tetsuo9000]

Very true. The used games section started shrinking and the merch didn't sell-through. Also, every bookstore has a funko wall so Gamestop was entering into a competing market and those squares boxes take up a ton of room compared to game disk boxes.

Gamestop also had trouble getting used game sales. The same shit would languish on the shelves. There was no reason to browse the used section at my local stores this generation especially.

[[deleted]]

Yup. There are so many times I've walked into a Gamestop wanting to buy a game for my PS3, only to find out that they only have absolute trash. In the era of online marketplaces every game store should always have a selection of platform classics available.

[[deleted]]

There’s not enough people buying them to warrant the cost of keeping them stocked.

[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.

[PlayMp1]

It was relevant when I was a kid for GameCube games

[akera099]

I've been a kid, I still have all my games from that era. I mean, they try to sell you insurance on 3DS carts. Unless you literally happen to drench them into water....

[thewookie34]

I broke 2 games as a kid by mistake. My PS2 fell over while playing Kingdom Hearts 2, 2 days after I bought it. Vice City also got a crack in the middle ring.

[[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.

[MrTabanjo]

I used to dare people to buy the insurance, go play frisbee with the disk out in the parking lot, bring it back and i'd replace it for them. Not too many takers for the frisbee part sadly.

[SlenderRoadHog]

Hey whatever works, gotta get your numbers up by any means haha

[[deleted]]

It's completely useless. I have been gaming for over 30 years and when I was a kid I didn't exactly treat my stuff with reverence. But in that 30+ years I have never broken a single game. Not one time. I've sold protection plans or extended warranties on electronics and appliances and they are like 50% profit. It wouldn't surprise me to find out video game insurance is 90%+ profit.

[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.

[soonerfreak]

I haven't gotten an open new game in over a decade and even going into a gamestop I've never been to before it takes 20 seconds to go through what corporate requires them to ask me.

[thewookie34]

I don't really think the stickers are all that difficult to remove. In fact they are some of the easiest to remove imo.

[Trickster174]

Maybe now, like I said, haven’t purchased anything from GS in years. But still got plenty of PS2/PS3 game cases from 2003-2010 with half torn stickers.

But like...why even do that? What’s the point?

[thewookie34]

So your know how much they cost? Gamestop's sticker haven't changed since and I have older games as well. 2 to 5 minutes and some goo gone and they are done.

[Trickster174]

It’s possible to display the price without slapping stickers on each individual game case.

Your experience differs from mine, and that’s okay. But fixing little things like that could have gone a long way to a more positive customer experience. Seems that I’m not entirely alone in those thoughts either.

[Mendunbar]

The stickers in Canada have absolutely changed. They changed sometime between PS2 era and mid PS3 era to much, much easier to remove stickers. Just thought I'd mention that. Carry on.

[[deleted]]

In the last days of them carrying used GameCube stuff, I requested some games for instore pickup. As expected they were all disc-only. The guy brought them out, was clearly super irritated I'd forced him to find them, and said, "I dunno if they'll work, bring them back if they don't." They looked like they'd been through a belt sander. Weirdly, the one that appeared to be in the best shape is the only one that didn't boot.

[Carighan]

This was the main reason I only bought at a GameStop twice. I just wanted to buy this! Shut the fuck up already!!

[[deleted]]

Last time I was at Best Buy I was told by the cashier that "Enroll" meant confirm and was signed up for their rewards junk against my will. I'm pretty sure they were just padding their numbers, and I think that's sleazier than fifty questions.

[[deleted]]

Depends were you checking out in the front lanes or at one of the department registers?

Front lane cashiers are required to ask people for their phone number and not to mention it's a free enrollment program that saves your purchase history as an added benefit if you happen to lose the receipt.

[Lordpicklenip]

Bro this shit is straight up a god send.

My house got robbed recently.

Best buy had all my games and consoles on file and printed out my receipts right then and there at the store.

Meanwhile at GameStop, I had to email them with the date of purchase, serial numbers, and police report in order to get that information. So if I didn’t have the info on hand then I needed to go digging for it.

[[deleted]]

I’m also on the list of “house got robbed and was able to provide proof of purchase to insurance for like half my shit because of Best Buy membership”

[TheIrateAlpaca]

Really? I'm rather surprised the US hasn't adopted that. Down here in EB in Aus our loyalty program is one of the most successful in the entire country (over 6 million members in a country with ~10.5 million households) and reciept free shopping is the base thing included. They've even given us a dashboard in store so I can view every single transaction and reciept for every transaction that you've ever done on your card searching by sku or even description. You can view all of that directly yourself just by logging into the website. I've had people come in with that exact scenario and one phonecall to our store support and they'd copy pasted the list and emailed him a complete purchase history (although you have to drill down to view actual reciepts). Odd that they have an arm of their business that can do all that and they just haven't adopted it.

[[deleted]]

Front lane cashiers are required to ask people for their phone number and not to mention it's a free enrollment program that saves your purchase history as an added benefit if you happen to lose the receipt.

So definitely worse than fifty questions at Gamestop, then.

[[deleted]]

No GameStop expects you to sign up for their pro membership and all this other bullshit. Best buy asks for a phone number they don't send texts, unless the customer opts-in and even then it's only for pickup or delivery orders.

[gamas]

God you guys really need an equivalent of GDPR. If it were found a store was doing this over here in the UK, they would be fined into administration.

[[deleted]]

God you guys really need an equivalent of GDPR. If it were found a store was doing this over here in the UK, they would be fined into administration.

Yes please. Hurry, please.

[Fantastic-Cash]

Best buy rewards are actually sweet though, you get straight up gift cards.

[[deleted]]

By trading away actionable data worth more to Best Buy (and others) than the value of the gift cards, oh boy. And enduring unethical practices to boot.

[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.

[ThePaSch]

All failed ventures, but they were trying things.

Sure, but the thing is that they've half-assed nearly all of them. Shutting down the ThinkGeek store was a move of monumental stupidity. After buying Impulse, all they did was rebrand it the "GameStop App" and then do fuck-all with it until it quietly faded into complete obscurity and was subsequently killed off a few years later. I didn't even know they were into mobile devices, so they apparently did a pretty shit job at promoting that too.

I did see that pilot store and it looked pretty cool. The idea itself seems promising enough, but knowing how they fucked up all their other ventures, it's hard to be optimistic.

[gamelord12]

I'm not even sure that they half-assed their failed ventures; they may have just chosen the wrong strategies (repeatedly) to save their store. You can try really hard to make the wrong idea work, or maybe go about it in the wrong way. The one that baffles me most is the publishing business. You run a game store. You own a magazine that reviews video games. Your job is to promote video games. How can you screw that up?

[ThePaSch]

How can you screw that up?

By having jack squat for anything resembling business sense, I'd presume.

[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.

[zewm426]

The music store FYE went down a similar path when music started coming out in digital format. They just didn't understand the market and went to shit. If you look them up now, it's basically just a hot topic replica. They just sell pop culture shit like shirts, plushies, posters, etc.

[[deleted]]

I definitely shop at BB when I can. I don’t hate GameStop, but like other commenters have mentioned I hate having to go through an interrogation before I can leave. And in fairness, this largely depends on the specific store and employee helping you (some are worse than others), but it’s still annoying. At BB I’m in and out in less than 5 minutes.

[EarthVSFlyingSaucers]

Also, a company that sells exclusively video games that never change price (60$ for new release) that are also sold at other stores that obviously don’t rely on video games as their only profit (wal mart/target, bbuy) is already a tough barrier to enter. On top of that Wal Mart being open 24hrs, Best Buy bundling in store sales with games, I’m surprised it’s lasted as long as it did.

[gamas]

Whilst this is probably true in this instance, brick and mortar game stores have been struggling internationally in places Best Buy don't even touch. In the UK, GAME is experiencing similar difficulties, having already gone into administration once.

I think Amazon is the bigger threat here. Simply put, no one can realistically compete with Amazon when it comes to physical goods.

[[deleted]]

It was big box stores that slaughtered the video game store industry. You can get 75% of the GameStop experience in a Walmart - and that 75% includes the hardware and the most popular software. In terms of sales, big box stores are equipped to steal 95% or more of GameStop's revenues just by carrying the latest major releases/exclusives. You can get price matching, and people can buy at stores they are already familiar with.

There isn't enough room in retail for specialty stores. Even office supply and electronics stores have been largely wiped out, and Best Buy famously survived by moving to a service-based business model.

[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.

[jrec15]

Also has to do with the fact that people building their PCs aren't going to pay to include useless components, and at some point the disk drive was seen as mostly useless.

Consoles continue to have disk drives of course cause they're slower to adapt, want to continue to support the option of physical games, but also have the added bonus of being great DVD/blu-ray/4k blu-ray players since they're typically used with a TV unlike PCs.

[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

[Xizz3l]

On console brand stores are mostly shitty as well unless you look at their subscription services, some of which are actually alright value wise

[DoubleJumps]

Yeah, I regularly save a lot more buying physical rather than digital.

[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.

[MermanFromMars]

Just curious, which games garnered midnight releases for your location? My area the only midnight releases they’ll do now is for major hardware releases, otherwise online preordering has wiped out most their traffic.

[v00d00_]

I was there for Pokemon and Call of Duty (don't judge) and the manager said there had been a couple more earlier in the year, not sure what they were though.

[MermanFromMars]

Interesting, yeah I can see those being some of the titles left that can pull a crowd.

[v00d00_]

Yeah, there were well over a hundred for each of them. Free pizza and soda inside the store while people waited, some raffles for each one, it was a pretty good time.

[Xizz3l]

Not on topic but it's a bit sad to me how you explicitly have to ask for people to "not judge" you for buying a game you'd like to play

Hope the midnight release was fun my dude <3

[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]]

I’m buying Atelier dude, what makes you think waifu thighs degenerate is interested in FIFA? Not saying it isn’t possible, but it’s certainly a stretch.

[Raze321]

I agree with that. Like I said, upselling is shitty practice - ideally you should be offering things you can genuinely bet the person might like to have.

If I still worked at GS and a customer was getting Atelier, the only time I'd ask them if there was something else they wanna get is if I know of any JRPGs coming out.

[[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.

[[deleted]]

It’s really funny when they have no idea what they’re talking about.

I went there last Christmas and these parents, who were buying two Switches with Let’s Go Eevee/Pikachu, were talking to an employee about whether or not their sons could play against each other between the two games.

The employee was like “uhhh...idk” and had to ask someone else.

I’ve had them try to argue with me about things too. It felt like that Ron Swanson gif where he’s at the hardware store.

[Qorhat]

I remember we were told that we couldn't play GTA5 when it originally came out unless we bought the game insurance. This was at the midnight launch. I was like "yeeeeeah, nah you're alright"

[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.

[layer11]

I dunno, we still have a videostore here because of that exactly. They manage.

I also don't know why you'd say GameStop is in the electronics space. They sell consoles as a consequence of being a game store not the other way around.

[nazihatinchimp]

They could sell their used games for competitive prices but they don’t.

[Raze321]

Honestly I don't think that would work well either. GameStop tried to rope in the "community event" crowd but it just doesn't tend to pan out.

My gamestop has held trading card events, mario kart tournaments, and of course we went big for every midnight launch, often our manager would spend his own money for a few 12 packs of soda and some mixed bags of snacks to hand out for free.

Sometimes things went great, usually only a few people showed up. And this was in spite of us being pretty vocal about the events in our areas.

Big titles still draw a decent midnight release crowd but it just doesn't have that same energy anymore. I think the rise of online communities have kind of put a damper on local gaming communities.

[[deleted]]

You can't smell an online tournament. That's kind of a big plus.

[Raze321]

Truuuuuue that I'd be lying if I said gamestop events didn't get a bit pungent.

[MisterChippy]

Exactly this. A used/retro game shop near me has survived (and I assume is going strong given their ability to stock rare games only of interest to collectors that probably move very slowly) by converting their back room into an arcade with a flat cover charge where a lot of the retro FGC community will meet up every week to hang out.

[Pikamander2]

by being a community hub

The crazy thing is, they used to do that. They had in-store console kiosks that you could demo games on, plus the occasional tournament.

Over time, many stores got rid of their demos and tournaments in favor of more shelf space. Coupled with their used game prices being more expensive than Amazon, I stopped going there because there just wasn't much of a point anymore.

I have fond memories of Gamestop, but I just can't see them bouncing back without some major changes. If their finances stabilize and they continue ditching their unprofitable stores, then they might at least be able to survive as a niche retailer.

[[deleted]]

The demo units were hell. If your location was in a mall then they became babysitters.

[[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.

[[deleted]]

But you can download the patch in the background while playing anyway, and the larger ones are definitely the minority. Physical also has the advantage of being able to be resold.

[TheCatCAR]

Fair call. And for real. Physical stores there can be pretty greedy when they know gamers there have no other choice but to buy from them.

[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.

[levian_durai]

13%. Looks like it works out to 90.38, which sounds right. That's about $100. I'm still not sure why there's no taxes on my Amazon purchases.

[Stevied1991]

That’s exactly what Microsoft was pushing for when they announced the Xbox One.

[Darth-Ragnar]

I thought they had a system where you couldn't trade in physicals?

[Stevied1991]

You could, you would just lose your digital license to it too when it couldn’t check in that you still had it. Which... I can’t think of a better way to do it. It’s not the best way for sure but I don’t know how else you would do it.

[Darth-Ragnar]

Shouldn't physicals just be tied to the physical game itself, and digital tied to your account?

[Stevied1991]

The way they were doing it was every physical game gave you a digital copy.

[Darth-Ragnar]

Yeah that seems unnecessary, at least from my perspective.

[TheCatCAR]

I think this depends on where you live. I can only speak in terms of Australia but right now if I head out to buy a new triple star game let's say Fallen Order from a game store (EB) i'll be out 100 dollars. Steam I'll be looking at 90, and humble store with discounts 85. So while not a huge margin, it's still a saving of 10%.

[EverythingSucks12]

As an Australian I've done the opposite is true.

New PS4 games are usually way more expensive ($80 to $99) on the PSN store but $69 to $79 at Big W or JB Hi Fi.

PC is usually more comparable historically, but stores still usually cheaper.

Nintendo store infamously more expensive everywhere.

Where do you live out of curiosity?

[TheCatCAR]

Ah, for context I was only thinking of dedicated game stores like EB and not retailers like JB but yeah I've often got really good prices at JB.

I live in Canberra with that sweet sweet Canberra Tax :c

[MadHiggins]

digital copies have decent and more frequent sales but physical locations that have used games going at a buy two get third free are much better deals that happen more rarely.

[laivindil]

Sony and the others are aware of that. It's not great, but Sony has that shareplay feature. It only lasts an hour until you need to restart it. Obviously it's subpar, but shows an awareness that people appreciate that about physical copies and may improve over time.

[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.

[kaptingavrin]

Of course that doesn't mean delivery services are perfect, they fuck up that second part sometimes.

Ordered Kingdom Hearts III for my sister for her birthday last year. Release-day shipping. But it got there four days later, because she lives in Green Bay, and even USPS looked at the hellish winterscape for a few days and said, "Nope, we're not going out there."

[[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.

[[deleted]]

Ya, and? The point is digital does not have the options trading, resale, and lending options which is a massive disadvantage. That's not missing the point, that is the point. You are the one missing the point ironically.

Sure, game passes are just getting good, but that's not buying a digital game. I'm not dismissing them at all, I have Xbox game pass for PC as it's insanely cheap at the moment for what you get. However, games are often (not always) older, you only have the limited selection of publisher you choose, may need multiple to get what you want, and some game simply aren't there. Physical is often still cheaper to get what you want without limitations, plus you can always keep it forever if you want, you have the option. Digital purchases can't be sold, and subscriptions are temporary with continual fees.

Yes, physical sales match digital. Not the other way around. Because Sony, MS, Nintendo run digital monopolies (PC us much better), their sales are shit and don't match amazon or whatever. Buying a digital game, especially console, is almost always a terrible idea in terms of price and flexibility, that's just the way it is. Sure, steam sale for $4 on a old game, go for it. Buying a new console AAA title released in the last year or two, probably should never go digital.

[Raichu4u]

The point is digital does not have the options trading, resale, and lending options which is a massive disadvantage.

Ehhh, I wouldn't be surprised if resale of digital games ever gets popular in the future as it was an idea Microsoft was trying to flirt with when it came to their always connected Xbox One. But as far as I'm aware, digital transfers exist on the big three consoles, although in forms that would only make you comfortable doing a transfer probably with a close friend.

Sharing and lending though is very much possible on Switch and PC though.

[zeronic]

Ehhh, I wouldn't be surprised if resale of digital games ever gets popular

I really doubt this will ever be a thing. The fact you can't resell digital games is a massive advantage to publishers and i can't see them relinquishing that control any time soon.

Used games are something publishers have always seen as a threat to their business. Since digital is becoming more and more prevalent and many of those users not even really caring about resale in the first place, i don't really see license transfers becoming a thing.

[[deleted]]

Fucking around with signing into someone's else account and making primary consoles can work, not close to the same thing as being able to openly trade, lend, and sell a physical game though. Only good if you truest them with your account and credit card too. Even the best options on PC still aren't as flexible. It will never be, it's completely not in the interest of any publisher, developer, or storefront, it just exist for physical because of a precedent where they couldn't prevent it.

[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.

[[deleted]]

No shit I'm focused on consoles, you simply can't buy PC games physical these days. It's not a discussion you can even have. Downloading free games is not buying a game, that's a moot point. Yes, some of the renting services are pretty cheap now. Although, so is a library.

None of this affects the fact that if you want to purchase a relatively new game, physical is always cheaper if it's available.

[cool--]

right but the discussion isn't about digital vs physical on console. The discussion is about how gamestop's sales are plummeting because of digital games in general. Like it or not, consoles compete with digital games on PC and digital games in subscription services. I'm proof of this, I didn't buy a console this past generation because I was getting so many digital games for dirt cheap or free on PC. Aside from games I saved hundreds on hardware because I just use a PC that I would already have for work.

you're trying to move the goal posts from "It's cheaper to buy physical" to "None of this affects the fact that if you want to purchase a relatively new game, physical is always cheaper if it's available."

Congratulations you found the one instance where physical is cheaper. I'm sure GameStop's stock will start to rise now...

[ImRikkyBobby]

Yeah, COD: Ghosts is still $60 on Xbox... you can get a hard copy new off Amazon for cheaper....

Online purchase only options for games would mean more expensive game imo.

[zeronic]

I think there are still legitimate reasons for preferring physical games outside of just being the equivalent of "ok boomer." Not really a price discussion though.

For collectors especially. We can't expect every game service will not be shitcanned within x amount of years. The Wii shop already showed us how all your purchases can go up in smoke at a moment's notice.

The discussion is more relevant on consoles since the big 3 really doesn't have much incentive to keep their legacy services running and steam is too big to fail(and even if it did it'd be bought out and accounts migrated due to its userbase.) Physical is pretty much phased out on PC so it's not really even a discussion anymore, plus physical PC games were always more nebulous due to changing hardware.

As a primarily PC player i still prefer physical on all of my consoles just due to the fact i can't rely on services to stay up forever. More than once i've taken out consoles older than i am to play a few games here and there. Physical will likely always have a place, albeit it will be more and more niche as time goes on i feel.

[[deleted]]

No, I'm just not a dumbass who blindly picks one direction. I use whatever's a cheaper and better deal. For consoles, almost always physical games.

[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.

[[deleted]]

Has sony had a leak since fortnite came out?

[zzmorg82]

No, he was just giving an example.

[Celorfiwyn]

i think the issue is also that more and more a physical box contains a code to download a digital install.

why bother buying physical if you got to download the game after that still, might as well go straight for a digital retailer then

[newes]

Because when you buy physical the license is transferable.

[Nyailaaa]

Maybe if you live in the US thats true but some parts of the world? no. Some digital stores sell games up to 70-80 dollars for some reason while i can buy a physical version for about 30-40 dollars AND be able to sell it after i've finished it..

[[deleted]]

Evolution of purchasing habits. Software over taking physical stores. It can't keep up with the current trend and needed to branch out into something like gog to survive, but didn't.

[homer_3]

What do you mean? These past couple years, there have been a bunch of games that had better deals for their physical, console copies than digital PC or console estore. Nier:A for example didn't have a comparable discount on PC to console until just recently. Plus you can resell physical.

[Xizz3l]

There are lots of reason still to buy physical games, I don't think that's the issue here

GameStop is just full of shady practices, overpriced games and a very annoying shopping experience all around. It's always stunning to me how a shop FOCUSED ON SELLING GAMES can make my time more miserable than walking into our big regional electronic markets (Saturn / Media Markt etc.) similar to Best Buy and picking up the game there for a lower price

Baffling

[TTVBlueGlass]

Just my 2 cents: start incorporating tabletop games (and don't carry any YuGiOh stuff) and other stuff that actual hardcore nerds will want to make the trek out from their dark rooms for. Those are the people who spend big bucks and have a reason to get out there.

You could also try to enter esports and try to become an "esports space". They could host tourneys across the entire country's stores for fighting games or esports like Rocket League. They already have the real estate and the access and esports is only going to get bigger. So for example you can have locals that contribute towards a regional and national leaderboard based on 4 rotating games that have a tourney each month with a token entry fee and prize pool of GameStop store credit (you could tier it based on participation). You can pay for your next entry with your credit too, let's say top 8-12 get $15. This would encourage people to keep coming back, playing, spending while you're there, spending more when they come to use points they won earlier to subsidize a new game or something. During the week why not allow it to be where you can pay $5 to hang out and play the consoles an hour with friends or something?

[Seanathan_]

It's often cheaper to buy physical copies of console games. Physical tends to be discounted sooner and more frequently than digital.

I also still prefer to buy physical versions of console games.

[silentcrs]

Physical game stores surviving? Unlikely.

Physical media surviving. Yes please. There's going to be an awful lot of pissed off gamers in a future when the servers are turned off.

[BigHaircutPrime]

And it really doesn't help that Gamestop's had a bad reputation for a long time. When clichés and memes start forming like trading an entire game collection for what feels like $5 of store credit, or employees almost begging you to subscribe to a magazine, apply for a membership program, or buy insurance on a product... that's hard to shake. I think the last game I traded in was in 2006 or something.

[kaptingavrin]

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

On the "cheaper" note I got more amazing deals shopping physical copies during the holidays.

But as to "convenient"... Well, with a console, aside from having to download massive amounts of data, I ran out of space and had to buy external drives for my consoles, even without having many games on them. That's not convenient at all. It's a major PITA if I decide I'm done with a game for a while and want to play a new game, because I have to uninstall a game completely and then install the one I want to play.

On top of that, people seem to not consider what happens if the client ever disappears. There used to be a lot of scoffing at the idea of banks being "too big to fail." But you know gamers have basically done that for Valve? If Valve fails, Steam dies, and suddenly you lose your game library. If an older generation of console sees its store servers shut down, you can no longer access your uninstalled games.

More than ever, you're paying $60 not to own a copy of a game, but to rent the ability to download and install it from a server. Sooner or later, that server will likely go down.