I thought GS was going to be put out of business by the big guys?

New article:

How the PS4 and Xbox One Transition Has Turned Out Great for GameStop So Far:

• GameStop’s market share for sales of PS4 and Xbox One is up significantly (38%) compared to the same point during the lifecycles of PS3 and Xbox 360
• Retail spending on games was $13 billion in 2013, and with the popularity of games for these consoles, GameStop is in an ideal position to maintain presence as go-to place for interactive entertainment
• GameStop expects to grow its market from $23 billion annually to $260 billion with the addition of 300-400 new stores, including GameStop, Simply Mac, Spring Mobile and Cricket
• To the surprise of many, GameStop continues to own this space and looks like a viable retailer going forward

Gross.

Didn't realize that Gamestop owned Cricket. Guess you shouldn't be surprised if you buy a "new" phone there and it's covered in greasy fingerprints.

GameStop Closing 120 Stores, Focusing on Mobile:

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/04/...27b47264000041

120 stores is nothing. Never could figure out why there are so many instances of two Gamestops within a mile of each other.

There's an intersection near my home, where (if you count one inside of a mall) there are Gamestops on 3 of the four corners. And there's another less than 2 miles down on the same road.

Yep, I think there are 12 within a 10 mile radius of my house. It's because they bought every other video game store in existence.

I do have to say that, while they're still kinda' gross, GS has cleaned up it's act a bit compared to 3-5 years ago. I mean individual stores, not the whole corporation. Each store seems to be better managed, with less douchey employees and less shenanigans like selling opened games as new and crap like that.

Last time I was in "Mall of America" I think there were 3-4 of them.

I can't really comment on the douchey employees and shenanigans, but they still sell opened games as "new". Not that I'd ever buy a new game from them.

This.

Yeah, my only problem with GS is the gutted games. I don't buy anything there unless there is a good sale going on and I refuse to buy any gutted copies.

I think they have so many Gamestops because they bought out the competition and didn't close all the stores. They have been getting a lot of exclusives lately. I'm surprised that their market share of current gen games is up, considering Target, BB, and TRU have each had great sales on new games. Wait, that's sales of new games, right?

Haven't been in a Gamestop in years. It's stupid to buy games full price these days, and they never have used game sales anymore. I remember when they would release a B2G1 or 30% off used coupon at least once a month.

I miss the days when Gamestop would have three walls full of PC games.

They just had a Buy 2 get 1 game sale going on. Buy 3 get 2 free on used games.

This weekend:

No. GameStop owns authorized resellers of Cricket. Just by doing a quick search, there are only three corporate-owned Cricket retailers in Vegas. However, there's over thirty-plus authorized dealers of Cricket. Unlike AT&T and Verizon, Cricket will allow any reseller to use the name "Cricket" to sell their devices and services. That's why GameStop's AT&T reseller is named Spring Mobile.

As someone who worked at Verizon for a brief stint, there's a lot of money to be made by being an authorized reseller as the carrier pays the resellers per contract they create or renew. However, if you're a(n uninformed) consumer, prepare to take it in the ass.

SimplyMac is a genius idea on their part. They're a "Premium" Apple Authorized Reseller and Service Provider and they're only going in markets where Apple's official retail stores have not. Since GameStop has allowed the two original owners of SimplyMac to still control the business, they're probably a better ran company than GameStop themselves.

My GS closed down a few months ago. No idea what happens to my $5 on MK8.

That's not the case at all. They've opened up plenty of brand new Gamestops right near other ones in my area. It's nuts.