GameStop is Vile and Disgusting Part XXVII
07-30-08, 07:59 AM
#126
DVD Talk Hero
Originally Posted by discostu1337
If you would have reserved the game, it would have been sealed. This Gamestop bitching is annoying sometimes...
07-30-08, 08:03 AM
#127
DVD Talk Godfather
Originally Posted by slop101
Are you kidding? Maybe he stepped in there on a whim and isn't a store that he's never had an opportunity to pre-order from. Maybe he has both a 360 and a PS3, and like me, didn't know which version he wanted until the day it came out. Furthermore, pre-ordering doesn't necessarily guarantee you a copy. Also, This a fairly major release. If they're a video game store, not only should they have way more copies of it on release day than reserves, but they sure as shit don't need to gut a copy since they still have all those empty "coming soon" boxes up, not to mention, people can see the game just fine behind the counter. Is it so outlandish for people to expect to buy a new copy of a major game on the day it's released from a video game store?
Any way you cut it, GS is the annoying party here.
Any way you cut it, GS is the annoying party here.
One less stop in GS is a plus in my book.
Seriously, how hard is it to stock new (SEALED) games on release day?
07-30-08, 08:46 AM
#128
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Originally Posted by Michael Corvin
One you left out is that pre-ordering requires two trips to the store vs. just stopping in to buy a game on release day(gas money, dealing with employees, answering annoying questions, etc).
One less stop in GS is a plus in my book.
Seriously, how hard is it to stock new (SEALED) games on release day?
One less stop in GS is a plus in my book.
Seriously, how hard is it to stock new (SEALED) games on release day?
I'm not going to reserve a major-publisher, popular, flagship game. Best Buy had like 6 copies on the shelf, and I'm sure Target did too. For that matter Gamecrazy had some from what I heard over the phone (although they ran out of pre-order goodies for people).
I just find it ironic I got attitude for asking to look at the disc, and to find out it was scratched. Duh. Paper sleeves suck.
Last edited by GreenMonkey; 07-30-08 at 08:57 AM.
07-30-08, 09:44 AM
#129
DVD Talk Legend
I wouldn't have even asked to look at the game. If it's not sealed, it's not new, and I'm not taking it. Not even for that POS $5 off.
07-30-08, 11:47 AM
#131
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I mentioned this in the Wii thread, but (since it is GameStop-related) I'll repeat.
What the hell is the point of having boxes for products on the shelf if you have none in stock to sell (or pre-order)?
My sons and I walked into a GS looking for Mario Kart Wii. There, on the shelf, are four boxes sitting among the other Wii games. My son takes it to the counter and all the bitch working there can say is "no no no." When I ask if she can look to see if any other stores might have it she says "they don't" and refuses to even look.
What the hell is the point of having boxes for products on the shelf if you have none in stock to sell (or pre-order)?
My sons and I walked into a GS looking for Mario Kart Wii. There, on the shelf, are four boxes sitting among the other Wii games. My son takes it to the counter and all the bitch working there can say is "no no no." When I ask if she can look to see if any other stores might have it she says "they don't" and refuses to even look.
07-30-08, 12:28 PM
#132
DVD Talk Hero
Originally Posted by discostu1337
If you would have reserved the game, it would have been sealed. This Gamestop bitching is annoying sometimes...
I'm really starting to think that it's not really the last game they have that they're selling you, but I'm finding it hard to come up for a reason why they'd want to gut games like that and sell them. I mean, how many times are you really going to be the one to buy the very last game in the store? And yet this has happened to all of us.
edited to add: Greenmonkey, maybe you can check if it shows as in stock on the website for this particular store? I'm curious.
07-30-08, 12:33 PM
#133
Moderator
Originally Posted by achau9598
What the hell is the point of having boxes for products on the shelf if you have none in stock to sell (or pre-order)?
07-30-08, 12:44 PM
#134
DVD Talk Limited Edition
Originally Posted by fujishig
I'm really starting to think that it's not really the last game they have that they're selling you, but I'm finding it hard to come up for a reason why they'd want to gut games like that and sell them. I mean, how many times are you really going to be the one to buy the very last game in the store? And yet this has happened to all of us.
"Man, you lucked out and got our last copy! We used the box as the display, is that alright? You know, if you pre-order, you're guaranteed a copy. Would you like to pre-order anything today? It's just $5 down."
This is how they make their money. That, and used games. They take your $5 and just gain interest on it until the game releases. I hardly ever pre-order anything, unless it's niche, or it's a midnight release and I really need the game then. I may be doing this for Rock Band 2 if they can guarantee a midnight release. I think they need 100 pre-orders at a store to justify one.
07-30-08, 12:52 PM
#135
DVD Talk Hero
Originally Posted by Shagrath
I'm guessing here, but it's probably to get more pre-orders.
"Man, you lucked out and got our last copy! We used the box as the display, is that alright? You know, if you pre-order, you're guaranteed a copy. Would you like to pre-order anything today? It's just $5 down."
This is how they make their money. That, and used games. They take your $5 and just gain interest on it until the game releases. I hardly ever pre-order anything, unless it's niche, or it's a midnight release and I really need the game then. I may be doing this for Rock Band 2 if they can guarantee a midnight release. I think they need 100 pre-orders at a store to justify one.
"Man, you lucked out and got our last copy! We used the box as the display, is that alright? You know, if you pre-order, you're guaranteed a copy. Would you like to pre-order anything today? It's just $5 down."
This is how they make their money. That, and used games. They take your $5 and just gain interest on it until the game releases. I hardly ever pre-order anything, unless it's niche, or it's a midnight release and I really need the game then. I may be doing this for Rock Band 2 if they can guarantee a midnight release. I think they need 100 pre-orders at a store to justify one.
07-30-08, 01:16 PM
#136
DVD Talk Legend
Last time I was in the store (abusing the recent 25% off PS3) a mother was buying some RPG's for her son, and they tried to put Fable 2 on her for a reserve. She politely declined and said if they ever got it, shed just get it from Bestbuy, etc.
They then began to give her the rant about its going to be rare, hard to find, wont find it in any other store, etc. She still declined.
After she left they started to laugh at her notion she would find Fable 2 in any other store. Morons.
They then began to give her the rant about its going to be rare, hard to find, wont find it in any other store, etc. She still declined.
After she left they started to laugh at her notion she would find Fable 2 in any other store. Morons.
Last edited by stingermck; 07-30-08 at 01:43 PM.
07-30-08, 01:53 PM
#138
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While the opened-box thing is dumb, they legitimately don't get that many copies of new games in store, at least not anywhere near the quantities Best Buy, Target and Walmart do. New games take up space that is better taken up by old games they can make a bigger profit off of.
While they do see income from the preorder interest, I think it's also so that they can get you into the store multiple times. The more times they get people in the store, the more chances they have to sell high-margin used games. Similar to the loss-leader theory, only they aren't loss-leading anything.
While they do see income from the preorder interest, I think it's also so that they can get you into the store multiple times. The more times they get people in the store, the more chances they have to sell high-margin used games. Similar to the loss-leader theory, only they aren't loss-leading anything.
07-30-08, 02:01 PM
#139
DVD Talk Legend
Me and a friend always said that reserves would go a lot smoother if there was more incentive to do it. A while back they offered $5 off some game, I think Tony Hawk. Not a bad idea.
Freebies are nice, but sometimes they suck, you have to wait to get them, etc etc.
Give me a reason to reserve the game, visiting to the store multiple times, when you have other offers like Circuit City giving $10 GC's, etc.
And don't give me crap about not being able to find the game. 1 of 7 Gamestops here in town, is surrounded in a half mile radius of Walmart, Target, Bestbuy, Circuit City, and 2 more Gamestops.
Freebies are nice, but sometimes they suck, you have to wait to get them, etc etc.
Give me a reason to reserve the game, visiting to the store multiple times, when you have other offers like Circuit City giving $10 GC's, etc.
And don't give me crap about not being able to find the game. 1 of 7 Gamestops here in town, is surrounded in a half mile radius of Walmart, Target, Bestbuy, Circuit City, and 2 more Gamestops.
07-30-08, 02:50 PM
#140
DVD Talk Hero
Originally Posted by stingermck
After she left they started to laugh at her notion she would find Fable 2 in any other store. Morons.
Originally Posted by dvd182
While the opened-box thing is dumb, they legitimately don't get that many copies of new games in store, at least not anywhere near the quantities Best Buy, Target and Walmart do. New games take up space that is better taken up by old games they can make a bigger profit off of.
While they do see income from the preorder interest, I think it's also so that they can get you into the store multiple times. The more times they get people in the store, the more chances they have to sell high-margin used games. Similar to the loss-leader theory, only they aren't loss-leading anything.
While they do see income from the preorder interest, I think it's also so that they can get you into the store multiple times. The more times they get people in the store, the more chances they have to sell high-margin used games. Similar to the loss-leader theory, only they aren't loss-leading anything.
I look forward to the inevitable day when GS will be out of business , and it'll be sooner rather than later.
Much has been made of the dying record stores, and we've already explained why movies on physical media are doomed, but we're guessing even they will outlive the video game disc.
Services like Steam, Greenhouse and XBox Live are already delivering code in exchange for cash in a process remarkably free of scratchable discs and staff who appear to have been grown or scavenged rather than hired. You might notice that one of those (Greenhouse) is run by Penny Arcade. So what is it about game discs that is so egregious that even the guys whose job it is to draw funny pictures about them feel compelled to take action?
It's not the media itself, it's the retailers who sell it. The greed of shops like GameStop that make a binge-eating Hutt look like a Milan model. Their industry-breaking "Trade fifteen games you bought last week for one this week" scam allows them to resell games at "second hand prices". A leading team of scientists and economists are hoping to measure the difference between second hand prices and the regular retail price using a microscope, a supercomputer and five precisely calibrated millionths of a dime.
This racket allows them to make up to 400% profit on every title (because you can sell the same used game over and over again), which we think is slightly more profit than you're allowed to make without being technically considered a racketeering outfit. Total sales last year were seven billion dollars, otherwise known as "Holy Fucking Shit" money, and of the money made on used games, approximately zero of it went back to the people who actually make the games.
The executives seem blind to the consequences of their actions, possibly because they're too busy playing in forts built from bricks of thousand dollar bills. This isn't so much killing the goose that laid the golden egg as sexually assaulting it then filming the worlds first bestiality/metallurgy/snuff film.
It was around here that game developers realized that:
a) The vendors are screwing us over;
b) Our customers, by definition, have machines that can download things;
c) Downloadable games let us cut out the middle man, who is an asshole anyway.
Why are they still around?
There are still a fair number of consoles that aren't hooked up to the internet, since not every gaming family wants to spend a day fucking around with cables and/or trying to make their home a Wi-Fi hotspot. Plus, game makers may lose in piracy, what they gain by cutting out the GameStop racket. In consoles it's always been the disc itself that was the first line of defense against illegal copies, where PC games allegedly see piracy rates of 70 to 80 percent.
Still, the chance to sell direct to customers, as well as to release smaller, low-cost games and to release titles in episodes to be sold separately, is too much to resist for console makers (not to mention cutting the cost of printing the discs). When the next generation goes to a download model, they'll surely find a solution to the piracy problem. And that solution will no doubt be incredibly annoying.
Services like Steam, Greenhouse and XBox Live are already delivering code in exchange for cash in a process remarkably free of scratchable discs and staff who appear to have been grown or scavenged rather than hired. You might notice that one of those (Greenhouse) is run by Penny Arcade. So what is it about game discs that is so egregious that even the guys whose job it is to draw funny pictures about them feel compelled to take action?
It's not the media itself, it's the retailers who sell it. The greed of shops like GameStop that make a binge-eating Hutt look like a Milan model. Their industry-breaking "Trade fifteen games you bought last week for one this week" scam allows them to resell games at "second hand prices". A leading team of scientists and economists are hoping to measure the difference between second hand prices and the regular retail price using a microscope, a supercomputer and five precisely calibrated millionths of a dime.
This racket allows them to make up to 400% profit on every title (because you can sell the same used game over and over again), which we think is slightly more profit than you're allowed to make without being technically considered a racketeering outfit. Total sales last year were seven billion dollars, otherwise known as "Holy Fucking Shit" money, and of the money made on used games, approximately zero of it went back to the people who actually make the games.
The executives seem blind to the consequences of their actions, possibly because they're too busy playing in forts built from bricks of thousand dollar bills. This isn't so much killing the goose that laid the golden egg as sexually assaulting it then filming the worlds first bestiality/metallurgy/snuff film.
It was around here that game developers realized that:
a) The vendors are screwing us over;
b) Our customers, by definition, have machines that can download things;
c) Downloadable games let us cut out the middle man, who is an asshole anyway.
Why are they still around?
There are still a fair number of consoles that aren't hooked up to the internet, since not every gaming family wants to spend a day fucking around with cables and/or trying to make their home a Wi-Fi hotspot. Plus, game makers may lose in piracy, what they gain by cutting out the GameStop racket. In consoles it's always been the disc itself that was the first line of defense against illegal copies, where PC games allegedly see piracy rates of 70 to 80 percent.
Still, the chance to sell direct to customers, as well as to release smaller, low-cost games and to release titles in episodes to be sold separately, is too much to resist for console makers (not to mention cutting the cost of printing the discs). When the next generation goes to a download model, they'll surely find a solution to the piracy problem. And that solution will no doubt be incredibly annoying.
07-30-08, 02:57 PM
#141
DVD Talk Limited Edition
They could have been saying that the Fable 2 LE that's probably a GameStop exclusive will be limited and hard to find.
I'll definitely have to go plunk down some reserve money for that, as my wife is a huge Fable nut.
I'll definitely have to go plunk down some reserve money for that, as my wife is a huge Fable nut.
07-30-08, 03:00 PM
#142
DVD Talk Hero
Originally Posted by dvd182
While the opened-box thing is dumb, they legitimately don't get that many copies of new games in store, at least not anywhere near the quantities Best Buy, Target and Walmart do. New games take up space that is better taken up by old games they can make a bigger profit off of.
07-30-08, 03:18 PM
#143
DVD Talk Legend
Originally Posted by Shagrath
They could have been saying that the Fable 2 LE that's probably a GameStop exclusive will be limited and hard to find.
I'll definitely have to go plunk down some reserve money for that, as my wife is a huge Fable nut.
I'll definitely have to go plunk down some reserve money for that, as my wife is a huge Fable nut.
07-30-08, 03:27 PM
#144
DVD Talk Godfather
Originally Posted by stingermck
They always give the spill about they wont have any copies for walkins, and sometimes they are afraid the wont even have enough to fill preorders
07-30-08, 03:27 PM
#145
DVD Talk Legend
Originally Posted by discostu1337
If you would have reserved the game, it would have been sealed. This Gamestop bitching is annoying sometimes...
07-30-08, 03:29 PM
#146
DVD Talk Limited Edition
I generally figure are for people with plenty of extra time and money. I don't want to stop in do a deposit and all that crap for a pre-order nor do I want to pay full MSRP. I am super busy and poor and pre-ordering doesn't really fly with either of these.
I wait, and on release week I scrape around via internet, etc for the cheapest price / coupon deal/ etc. Normally I manage to save $5-$10 somehow on the few new games we buy. I couldn't find a good deal this week unfortunately on SC4.
The best deal would have been to pre-order at Gamecrazy and ebay the freebie xbox faceplate...eventually...since they didn't get enough of them.
I will maybe do a pre-order if I'm a big fan and there's a REALLY cool bonus item. That's about it. I hate them otherwise.
I wait, and on release week I scrape around via internet, etc for the cheapest price / coupon deal/ etc. Normally I manage to save $5-$10 somehow on the few new games we buy. I couldn't find a good deal this week unfortunately on SC4.
The best deal would have been to pre-order at Gamecrazy and ebay the freebie xbox faceplate...eventually...since they didn't get enough of them.
I will maybe do a pre-order if I'm a big fan and there's a REALLY cool bonus item. That's about it. I hate them otherwise.
Last edited by GreenMonkey; 07-30-08 at 03:33 PM.
07-30-08, 03:29 PM
#147
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Originally Posted by fujishig
Sure, but this is Soul Calibur 4, not some niche game. the website shows that it's in stock in every store in my immediate vicinity.
As for why anyone should shop there, I only buy used games there when there is a good coupon from the e-mail list. Combined with the edge card, you're talking up to 35-40% used prices some weeks. That's pretty tough to beat, especially with how often kids seem to trade in games these days. I'll only buy new titles there if they have a preorder incentive.
07-30-08, 03:58 PM
#148
Originally Posted by achau9598
I mentioned this in the Wii thread, but (since it is GameStop-related) I'll repeat.
What the hell is the point of having boxes for products on the shelf if you have none in stock to sell (or pre-order)?
My sons and I walked into a GS looking for Mario Kart Wii. There, on the shelf, are four boxes sitting among the other Wii games. My son takes it to the counter and all the bitch working there can say is "no no no." When I ask if she can look to see if any other stores might have it she says "they don't" and refuses to even look.
What the hell is the point of having boxes for products on the shelf if you have none in stock to sell (or pre-order)?
My sons and I walked into a GS looking for Mario Kart Wii. There, on the shelf, are four boxes sitting among the other Wii games. My son takes it to the counter and all the bitch working there can say is "no no no." When I ask if she can look to see if any other stores might have it she says "they don't" and refuses to even look.
Originally Posted by slop101
They can't truly believe that, can they? They may as well say Madden '09 will be rare.
Sure, that's what they do to make more money, but why should anyone shop there?
I look forward to the inevitable day when GS will be out of business , and it'll be sooner rather than later.
But it can't be anywhere near as annoying as dealing with stores like Gamestop.
Sure, that's what they do to make more money, but why should anyone shop there?
I look forward to the inevitable day when GS will be out of business , and it'll be sooner rather than later.
But it can't be anywhere near as annoying as dealing with stores like Gamestop.
07-30-08, 05:55 PM
#150
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Why would anyone buy new stuff at GS/EB anyway?
Only reasons I can think of are:
* trade in specials (generally you'd get more money/credit selling on Amazon or Goozex, I'd rather give a game away than trade it in for forty cents) (and trade credit works on used as well)
* preorder specials (depending on the special, I'd rather get a 10$ gift card than a Making Of disk)
* preorder niche titles (I can see this one, I have done this once or twice)
I will still go to EB/GS to buy used games, and I still like buying actual disks (especially for 60$/new game), but I do not even think about EB/GS for new games.
Plus, while the level of service I have gotten there has varied (like in any retail establishment), why are virtually all of them--in malls or stripmalls or stand alone--hot as crap inside?
Only reasons I can think of are:
* trade in specials (generally you'd get more money/credit selling on Amazon or Goozex, I'd rather give a game away than trade it in for forty cents) (and trade credit works on used as well)
* preorder specials (depending on the special, I'd rather get a 10$ gift card than a Making Of disk)
* preorder niche titles (I can see this one, I have done this once or twice)
I will still go to EB/GS to buy used games, and I still like buying actual disks (especially for 60$/new game), but I do not even think about EB/GS for new games.
Plus, while the level of service I have gotten there has varied (like in any retail establishment), why are virtually all of them--in malls or stripmalls or stand alone--hot as crap inside?