Gamestop Financial Issues

[Dragon Lord]

I'm not surprised that Gamestop may be having problems. There's no reason to go there over anywhere else unless they have items that supermarkets don't tend to get. Plus if anyone thinks of ordering a game online to be delivered, most probably think of using Amazon first.

I forgot to address a couple of points in your post. Another factor is the fact that Gamestop doesn't really offer you any good bonuses when ordering through them (not including pre-order bonuses). For example, Amazon has Prime, which gives you 20% off all new games/pre-orders, while also giving you release day delivery. Yeah, you have to pay for Prime, but in the course of a year, you're going to save more on shipping than the price of Prime (hell, I had already saved more than the price of Prime by March). 

Unfortunately Best Buy shut down their Gamer Club program (though fortunately I signed up for a two-year subscription like a week before they shut it down, so I still get the benefits for the next two years). It was a good alternative to Prime, and a much cheaper option for those who don't want to pay for Prime (though Prime is much more worth it for the other benefits it gives you in addition to the 20% off of new games). 

Gamestop tries to lure you in with their exclusive pre-order bonuses, but half of the time they're not worth paying more for the game than you can get it through Amazon.

[Grungie]

I always pins it weird that I’ve been to about 200 GameStop’s across the country, and never had shit service, but everyone and their mother online has problems.

I’m not going to say these stories aren’t true, but I have seen a lot of stories where people leave out part of the story just to add impact.

[lp0 on fire]

I always pins it weird that I’ve been to about 200 GameStop’s across the country, and never had shit service, but everyone and their mother online has problems.

I’m not going to say these stories aren’t true, but I have seen a lot of stories where people leave out part of the story just to add impact.

I never had "bad" service. But the fact that GameStop normally only has one empoyee in the store at a time (if you are lucky 2) just screams "Hey GS treats us poorly I can't even get a chance to take a restroom break".

Along with the reported sales goals and other GS polcies that make staff pushy (I never got asked if I wanted to join their rewards thing, but when you are buying steam gift cards I bet they most likely know you are not interested in their shit).

I can see where the complaints come from.

[Grungie]

I always pins it weird that I’ve been to about 200 GameStop’s across the country, and never had shit service, but everyone and their mother online has problems.

I’m not going to say these stories aren’t true, but I have seen a lot of stories where people leave out part of the story just to add impact.

I never had "bad" service. But the fact that GameStop normally only has one empoyee in the store at a time (if you are lucky 2) just screams "Hey GS treats us poorly I can't even get a chance to take a restroom break".

Along with  the reported sales goals and other GS polcies that make staff pushy (I never got asked if I wanted to join their rewards thing, but when you are buying steam gift cards I bet they most likely know you are not interested in their shit).

I can see where the complaints come from.

I've always seen 2 at every GameStop I've been to. I will admit that them pushing stuff like the rewards cards and extra shit is annoying, but GameStop isn't the only one who does it, so I'm definitely desensitized to that, but it's interesting that GameStop gets the most heat for it.

The part where I'm talking about people leaving parts of the story out, is when it comes to when they sell stuff to GameStop. While I will admit that there are people out there who aren't willingly leaving the story out, they just don't know.

I'm not going to say GameStop gives fair second-hand prices, though it's not unique to GameStop, mom and pop stores in most hobbies give better deals. I see similar problems in any hobby/industry with a second-hand market is that people don't know how those market works, so they blame it on the store. People get hung up on how much they paid for said item brand new, and base the amount they want off of that, when in reality it's based off of how much it goes for used. I lost count of how many stories of "GameStop gave me $3 for a game I spent $60 on" and when you find out what game it was, you realize the game goes brand new for $20, so obviously they're going to give you even less if it's cheaper used.

Other situations would be them getting jack for a game that nobody cares about, so the store gives you little money because it's going to sit on the shelf forever. For example, I'm big into guitars, and people get angry that stores don't give them money for a guitar whose brand/model is not popular or known. Another situation will be with sports games, especially ones like Madden and FIFA which come out every year. I'm friends with people at GameStop and Mom & Pop stores and all of them will tell you that they'll either flat out refuse, or give you $1 for a sports game if it's not the current one.

[Moonface]

I've not found a source to link to yet, but I just heard that Gamestop have ended their attempts to find a buyer. Given their recent handling of KH3 PS4 Pro preorders I can't say I feel bad for them.

[Metallix]

I really feel like people undervalue Gamestop as a valuable asset to the physical games market. Other retailers like Best Buy and Target pretty much have only the most popular and newest items in stock, but pretty much have nothing else.

Having games from last gen, and having games that are low print and more costly on online marketplaces, but much cheaper at Gamestop, has definitely made them a place worth keeping in my opinion. As others have said, customer service and corporate policies need A LOT of work, but overall, keeping its stores around is much than not having them at all.

[Moonface]

Their stores need a complete restructure. So many of them have random collectibles that no one really buys even when it gets put on clearance, and they continue to give customers a bad deal when it comes to trading in used games, despite that being their bread and butter. Unless it's a rare game, their used stuff rarely has a price worth buying it for compared to somewhere like Amazon, and the rare items alone won't ever keep them afloat. Their few benefits are vastly outweighed by their shortcomings and bad reputation, which is clear when no one wants to buy them. Just trying to turn the company image around is enough of a financial risk by itself even without any of the other poor business decisions they make.

The fact Gamestop don't even try to change themselves when in trouble but just want to give all the problems to someone else speaks volumes to me for how the company wants to run, and any buyer risks being seen as a supporter of that model by buying into it.

[Metallix]

I agree that they have terrible practices but it would still be a huge hole in the used game and used accessory market. There’s nothing to replace them and Amazon sucks for buying used games.

eBay is much better but not everyone wants to buy games online and no one wants a used accessory they can’t inspect in person because photos don’t always accurately represent an item’s condition. It’s a shame that GameCrazy died alongside Hollywood Video and didn’t spin off into its own thing because it was way better than GameStop. It’s a shame that there haven’t been any chain stores to compete with GameStop since then. All it would take is a company to come in with better consumer policies and it would gain traction. Alas it seems we are doomed to buy used games or niche new releases online.

[queenzelda]

I've not found a source to link to yet, but I just heard that Gamestop have ended their attempts to find a buyer.

Here's one I found; https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2...he-company

[Monocle]

[Dragon Lord]

I really feel like people undervalue Gamestop as a valuable asset to the physical games market. Other retailers like Best Buy and Target pretty much have only the most popular and newest items in stock, but pretty much have nothing else.

Having games from last gen, and having games that are low print and more costly on online marketplaces, but much cheaper at Gamestop, has definitely made them a place worth keeping in my opinion. As others have said, customer service and corporate policies need A LOT of work, but overall, keeping its stores around is much than not having them at all.

Except a large majority of time you can find a new copy of a previous gen game for less than a used copy at GameStop. I can't even remember the number of times I looked at a used copy of a game at GameStop for $20, then found a brand new, sealed copy on Amazon for half the price.

And games being limited print doesn't mean they'll always be an absurd price online. You can find plenty of Limited Run Games on eBay for the same price that LRG themselves sold it, if not cheaper.

Also your comment about Best Buy and Target only stocking huge AAA titles seems to be a bit... well, majorly incorrect. Just for the hell of it, I check out the gaming section of Walmart, Target, Best Buy, etc., every time I go into them, and I see plenty of more niche games. Sure, you're not going to see any games like Hyperdimension Neptunia or Atelier in those stores, but you'll still see plenty of other niche games in these stores. So I don't really know what making a false claim like that is supposed to do for your argument.

[Metallix]

Yeah that’s definitely false there. I go to Best Buy all the time and they don’t have that many niche games there. Target is laughable as well, their whole gaming section is tiny and definitely doesn’t consist of many niche games or games much older than 3 years old.

What games exactly are you talking about that you think are niche? When Guilty Gear Xrd came out on PS4 my local Best Buy only got three copies and they were all preordered, no extras.

[Moonface]

Judging in store inventory isn't going to be an accurate way to judge what goods stores like Target and Best Buy will carry as their ordering will also come down to local demographics. If certain types of games don't sell well in certain stores, they won't continue to order lots of them, if any at all. Larger or busier stores are more likely to get more inventory because they'll shift it.

I've gone to Target and found new releases not even being ordered in, but they'll have plenty of other things in there that would lead me to believe they would have carried the game I was looking for.

[Dragon Lord]

Yeah that’s definitely false there. I go to Best Buy all the time and they don’t have that many niche games there. Target is laughable as well, their whole gaming section is tiny and definitely doesn’t consist of many niche games or games much older than 3 years old.

What games exactly are you talking about that you think are niche? When Guilty Gear Xrd came out on PS4 my local Best Buy only got three copies and they were all preordered, no extras.

I'm not going to be able to remember every single niche title I've seen for sale in retail stores, but some of them I've seen in these stores were Hatsune Miku: Project Mirai DX, several titles in the Etrian Odyssey series, Tales games (and yes, Tales is a niche series), Senran Kagura (at the very least, I remember seeing copies of Deep Crimson for sale at Walmart), Star Ocean games and several different NISA titles over the years.

Plenty of niche games have been in these stores. I listed the ones I could remember for certain, but there's been a lot more than these.

[queenzelda]

The games I haven't been able to find at the big box stores are usually games you could only get at Gamestop, or off of an online store. Like "Little Dragon's Cafe", I was only able to find at Gamestop. I wasn't able to find it anywhere else physically otherwise. Same could be said if the Suikoden franchise came back to life, then I'd have to either reserve a copy at Gamestop or I'd have to just reserve a copy from Amazon & I'd rather just download it when it releases to avoid them.