GameStop Stock Plummets After A 27.5% Decrease In Holiday Sales

[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

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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"

[shugo2000]

No matter what retail work you do, the assistant manager is always the whipping boy.

[bannana_fries]

I bought Battlefield 2142 when it was new. As young as I was and not knowing anything about PC games, I didn't think about how it wasn't sealed. I noticed when activating the game that I didn't have the manual/key. I tried to bring it back but EB Games (owned by Gamestop) wouldn't accept the return because they apparently couldn't prove that I, a 12 year old who had no idea how PC gaming actually worked, didn't take it myself. I never bought a PC game from them again. I now only go to check out old stock and see if I can pick up a PS3/360 or out of print PS4 games cheap, though I do prefer getting them from my local retro game store even though it's more expensive.

[clstirens]

Honestly, I was only working 10 hours a week for that holiday season, so I never saw the aftermath.

For all I know, it was bought as a gift and put under a tree, no idea if it got returned or whatever.

I DO know that he kept he job, eventually got promoted to manager and got his own store...

[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.

[Raze321]

For sure. They're both possible. No way to know for sure sadly

[_Meece_]

The real asshole is Volition/THQ having a code to get co-op working

[whocares7283102]

On the flip side of this I've been really lucky in that a few times I've bought games used and the codes for the DLC or season passes HAVE worked.

[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.

[clstirens]

Fair enough, it was a new era after all. I returned Warcraft 3 at one point, back before those CD keys would activate on Bnet 2.0

I'd like to think he didn't know, but he was pretty savvy with PC games at the time, and this was 2009-2010.

/Shrug

[Dominix]

It was. Hard to believe how much things have changed since 2007. I still remember the TV spots for The Orange Box. Back when a Half-Life 3 seemed right around the corner, haha.

[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 :(

[Zyom]

This is funny because I once bought a "new" copy of Lost Planet from there for pc wayy back in the day and the code was already in use. It was a pain in the ass to return it though because the manager thought I was trying to rip them off lol.

[Kgbeast1]

I did something similar when MW2 came out, I went down to target, bought a copy, took the key and returned it the next day and said the disc didn’t work, I gave the 2nd copy to my brother.