Araxen
Golden Baronet of the Realm
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Even if they did have one, it would have been opened, and they would have tried to charge the new price for it.
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GameStop Stock Worth $5.13...But Only Worth 7cents In Store Credit
- Thread starter Tarrant
- Start date
Even if they did have one, it would have been opened, and they would have tried to charge the new price for it.
Utnayan
I Love Utnayan he’s awesome
- 16,290
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“Sorry we do not have any more copies. It’s so rare and in such demand you should have preordered. Would you like to preorder these other 17 games? They will all be just as hard to find!”
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TBT-TheBigToe
Gemcutter
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Penance
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
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Gamestop is so badly run its insane. They based their entire sales model on exorbitant trade in values and it shows that they don't have a lick of creativity to transform the 1000s of storefronts they have into something meaningful and more importantly profitable, to the game culture. Think about how much wasted space is to put 20 copies of the same game. Well I guess like most other retail stores they sold their rack space. But little good that did. They could've been central hub for everything game related, from Atari's to PC gaming. Instead they focused their model on next gen consoles and whatever the new game was and tried to dip into much dwindling physical sales figures. They could've teamed up with Steam, GOG, or literally any other digital platform and integrated digital and physical. Hosted local game tournaments that would spread to a national level for things like speed running, old games, new games, whatever the fuck. Even turned half the store front into gaming cafes, psuedo arcades if you will.
I'm so glad they're going under.
I'm so glad they're going under.
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These are all good ideas for what they could have done. Trying to push out those initiatives now though, in their darkest hour with no cash? Has there ever been any retailer that's been able to pivot the entire business model for so many stores across the country and come back swinging? Blockbuster sure couldn't do it, Sam Goody, Toys-R-Us, etc. Even if they had capable management I don't think they could retrofit all their stores before they went under.
Penance
Ahn'Qiraj Raider
- 4,994
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Blockbuster is a bit harder because a movie is a movie is a movie. I mean there are things you could tap into with movie culture I guess, but its not the same as gaming and toys. Watching a movie at home is probably 100% more enjoyable then watching in even the nicest of theaters, but playing a game in person with people is 100% more enjoyable then online (opninion of course). Toy-R-Us would've probably had to go more like FAO Schwartz and maybe become more educational and hands on, maybe a psueo MOSI and tech/sci fan fare. They could've hosted tech conferences across their stores and had companies pay them to advertise their shit. There's a lot of stuff you can do with toys and kids playing with shit, but they were going for the low hanging fruit like cheap plastic dolls and the like and had no creativity. More similarities can be drawn between Toys-R-Us and Gamestop then Gamestop and Blockbuster. Like I said they could've dipped a bit into different things when they had the capital. Now? Not a chance. It's over and I don't know when the next time we'll see physical store fronts specialized on gaming. Pretty much just hobby shops (which Gamestop could've dipped into) and the like.
Cukernaut
Sharpie Markers Aren't Pens
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Well.... Gamestop has, to a certain degree, been trying to diversify into other things valuable to geek culture. Most of the ones near my house seem to be more toys and crap than games. Plus they own ThinkGeek (which has it's own brick and mortar store, but only one I believe). I feel bad for them because I know more than a few people who have or currently work at their corporate HQ.
The reality is that within the net generation or two consoles won't have physical media capabilities anyways, so the the idea of buying or trading in a game will be like "remember back when phones had cords?" level of old. Sad to see them go, but it's the way of the world.
The reality is that within the net generation or two consoles won't have physical media capabilities anyways, so the the idea of buying or trading in a game will be like "remember back when phones had cords?" level of old. Sad to see them go, but it's the way of the world.
Cybsled
Avatar of War Slayer
- 16,431
- 12,059
Their stores aren't big enough for that vision of the game cafe/etc. The average Gamestop is tiny as fuck.
Radio Shack is the last one that springs to mind. They spent a ton of money completely revamping stores/changing inventory/etc. They had a vision of people coming in to try stuff/etc. It was a risk that didn't pay off...the customers didn't come, and the customers they did have previously turned away because it wasn't the same store anymore. They shuttered about a year after the change (although that 80s Super Bowl commercial was awesome).
I worked at EB, which eventually was gobbled up and assimilated by Game Stop, but I did notice that Game Stop more or less had the same model.
Pushing preowns and trade-ins and other sell-ups. The margins on preowns was massive. Even in the early 2000s, EB was pushing preowns hard. Until I left, they kept raising and raising goals for preown sales. I recall they wanted more than half of all sales in the store to be preowned. Tradein prices were pretty low back then as well. For an AAA title that just came out that cost $49.99, you could probably expect maybe $30 tops for trade in. Everything else was usually half retail new, with trade in prices plummeting pretty fast on titles after a few weeks. The preown price was usually on average $5 less than new.
"Protection plans" first started with consoles, then they eventually expanded into games. They were one of the few things the employees actually got commission on. It was something like 20% when I was there. So there was a stronger incentive to upsell that if you're making barely above minimum wage. Then they also had a few upsell items you would make commission on, like those Game Doctor "scratch remover" things.
But preowns were the bread&butter and basically propped up their business for the past 20 years. Console companies and developers -hated- the after market, but until recently, couldn't really do much about it. Attempts at protection in the past had strong resistance. I forgot, was it Microsoft or Sony that had announced limited physical game sharing with friends and that blew the fuck up in their face, so their rival said "lol you can share" and forced the other to back down. A move to a pure digital format, that cuts out the middle man, has been their dream. It hasn't been until recently, with improvements in store and internet speeds, that is has slowly become a reality. Consoles were the last bastion of the preowned market place. If that erodes/goes away, then the whole business model of Gamestop is fucked. Not only do you lose out on aftermarket sales, but you also become less relevant for physical sales as well.
Trying to turn Gamestop into a Newbury Comics or some Pseudo-Arcade isn't going to turn their fortunes around. I do agree that they need to diversify and have a revenue stream in a post-aftermarket world, but the time to do that was years ago, not on the doorstep of bankruptcy.
edit: Lol it was Xbox that had the restrictive sharing, then Sony made this epic response that completely nuked Microsoft's model
Radio Shack is the last one that springs to mind. They spent a ton of money completely revamping stores/changing inventory/etc. They had a vision of people coming in to try stuff/etc. It was a risk that didn't pay off...the customers didn't come, and the customers they did have previously turned away because it wasn't the same store anymore. They shuttered about a year after the change (although that 80s Super Bowl commercial was awesome).
I worked at EB, which eventually was gobbled up and assimilated by Game Stop, but I did notice that Game Stop more or less had the same model.
Pushing preowns and trade-ins and other sell-ups. The margins on preowns was massive. Even in the early 2000s, EB was pushing preowns hard. Until I left, they kept raising and raising goals for preown sales. I recall they wanted more than half of all sales in the store to be preowned. Tradein prices were pretty low back then as well. For an AAA title that just came out that cost $49.99, you could probably expect maybe $30 tops for trade in. Everything else was usually half retail new, with trade in prices plummeting pretty fast on titles after a few weeks. The preown price was usually on average $5 less than new.
"Protection plans" first started with consoles, then they eventually expanded into games. They were one of the few things the employees actually got commission on. It was something like 20% when I was there. So there was a stronger incentive to upsell that if you're making barely above minimum wage. Then they also had a few upsell items you would make commission on, like those Game Doctor "scratch remover" things.
But preowns were the bread&butter and basically propped up their business for the past 20 years. Console companies and developers -hated- the after market, but until recently, couldn't really do much about it. Attempts at protection in the past had strong resistance. I forgot, was it Microsoft or Sony that had announced limited physical game sharing with friends and that blew the fuck up in their face, so their rival said "lol you can share" and forced the other to back down. A move to a pure digital format, that cuts out the middle man, has been their dream. It hasn't been until recently, with improvements in store and internet speeds, that is has slowly become a reality. Consoles were the last bastion of the preowned market place. If that erodes/goes away, then the whole business model of Gamestop is fucked. Not only do you lose out on aftermarket sales, but you also become less relevant for physical sales as well.
Trying to turn Gamestop into a Newbury Comics or some Pseudo-Arcade isn't going to turn their fortunes around. I do agree that they need to diversify and have a revenue stream in a post-aftermarket world, but the time to do that was years ago, not on the doorstep of bankruptcy.
edit: Lol it was Xbox that had the restrictive sharing, then Sony made this epic response that completely nuked Microsoft's model
Nester
Vyemm Raider
- 4,929
- 3,125
I hope they make it until the cash cow of new system releases.
I play the trade in game hard...preorderd all games on amazon for $50 and trade them in to EB for $50 in the first 2 weeks or 30 days.
I play games for free (almost)
I have a few hundred in credit that i am saving up for a "free" ps5.
I hope they make it, i am willing to take the risk !'
I will be very sad if they nerf the trade in meta game i often enjoy playing more than the games themselves.
Buy on a deal, trade in on a bonus day...bathe in tiger blood.
I play the trade in game hard...preorderd all games on amazon for $50 and trade them in to EB for $50 in the first 2 weeks or 30 days.
I play games for free (almost)
I have a few hundred in credit that i am saving up for a "free" ps5.
I hope they make it, i am willing to take the risk !'
I will be very sad if they nerf the trade in meta game i often enjoy playing more than the games themselves.
Buy on a deal, trade in on a bonus day...bathe in tiger blood.
meStevo
I think your wife's a bigfoot gus.
- 6,370
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Gamestop was actually 'excited' about the original vision of the Xbox One, because they were going to be able to manage licenses w/ their POS systems, enabling used games even w/ the DRM.
Daidraco
Golden Baronet of the Realm
- 9,185
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The clerk asking me questions never really got to me all that much. I'm in sales, and I get it. Some of those options have value under certain situations. But the one thing that grinds my gears about buying any copy of a game is that I have to patch every f'n game I buy. Day 1 release of a game, get it, install it, wait hours for it to update. Game Stop should be looking at ways to reduce the headache of purchasing a physical copy of a game. "This game has a 50 gig update after install - would you like to purchase this update tool that is preloaded with the data for an extra 3.99?
Sign me the fk up right then and there. Cause if Im at game stop at all its an impulse buy and I want to play that shit right then and there. Not the next day. Hell, if they had an updated version of an online game ready on a disc (with no license to play) - Id probably go there for that. That way I dont have to download the GD thing every f'n time I have a love / hate relationship with the game.
Sign me the fk up right then and there. Cause if Im at game stop at all its an impulse buy and I want to play that shit right then and there. Not the next day. Hell, if they had an updated version of an online game ready on a disc (with no license to play) - Id probably go there for that. That way I dont have to download the GD thing every f'n time I have a love / hate relationship with the game.
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Cukernaut
Sharpie Markers Aren't Pens
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So true. Local game store + Warhammer 40K + auto-updates on the games with the local feel and recommendations. Maybe an area to chill and try soemthing. BOOM back in business. I FUCKING HATE UPDATING. Give me suikoden 1 on PS1.
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Nester
Vyemm Raider
- 4,929
- 3,125
My friend at EB said they never let district managers last more than 3 years, it’s seemed super odd that they would purposely churn like that.
Tarrant
<Prior Amod>
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That wasn’t my experience. EB was one of the best companies I ever worked for. Our yearly conventions in Vegas (all management went) and free trips to E3 alone were something to look forward to every year.
I wasn’t there 3 years but the DM before me was there for 5 before her promotion.
goishen
Macho Ma'am
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Right now is too late, though. They should've been hosting gaming events, esports events, etc, when the secondary market was in its heyday. Now that it's over, sorry, GameStop, You're SoL. If they would've done it in their heyday, they could've at least gained some measure of credibility.
Qhue
Trump's Staff
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GameStop employees report extreme pressure from ‘desperate’ bosses
In multiple interviews with Polygon, store managers and staff speak of plummeting morale
www.polygon.com
They continue to circle the drain it sounds like. I stopped going to Gamestop a decade ago when they became a full-fledged pawn shop and haven't regretted it seince. I am annoyed, however, that they ruined the ThinkGeek brand as that was always such a fun place for cool geeky gifts and is now just a shadow of its former self.
They should never have gotten into the 'used games' market. Once they started down that pawnshop path it sent the place spiraling into the gutter. Just think what would have happened if they had pivoted away from computer games and into pen and paper and board games at the start of the current boardgame renaissance? Picture a huge marketing campaign and midnight release parties for Gloomhaven or Scythe expansions or something of that ilk. Instead we have Target, of all places, serving as the vessel for mass market gaming in 2020.
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