Random Gaming Thoughts

[Opa Opa]

Don't forget that the larger entities have trade in programs. (Amazon, walmart, best buy)

GameStop might not be around that much longer.

[ZeroAX]

GameStop might not be around that much longer.

Good riddance

[lisalover1]

I guess I should have clarified that; what I meant was it had far and away dominant control over the market of stores that focus on video games. Since GS outnumbers its closest US rival Play N' Trade by an enormous margin, it's safe to say that it owns that particular market. Sure, other general retailers like Wal-Mart and Amazon sell games and present competition, but if you want to go to a brick-and-mortar game store to buy a new game, then it's likely your only option is GS, since they bought out nearly everyone else.

[noiseredux]

I guess I should have clarified that; what I meant was it had far and away dominant control over the market of stores that focus on video games. Since GS outnumbers its closest US rival Play N' Trade by an enormous margin, it's safe to say that it owns that particular market. Sure, other general retailers like Wal-Mart and Amazon sell games and present competition, but if you want to go to a brick-and-mortar game store to buy a new game, then it's likely your only option is GS, since they bought out nearly everyone else.

I don't know. Just watching people's habits here, there's plenty of folks who buy their games and brick n mortar Target, Best Buy, Toys R Us and so on. Just because they're the only buildings with "Game" in their name, doesn't really mean that it's them or online only as your choices.

[Gunstar Green]

There isn't another big dedicated game chain because there's hardly enough room in that market for Gamestop already considering consumers can choose just about any other retail chain on the planet to shop for games. A lot of them even sell used games these days.

[AppleQueso]

Wal-Mart's getting into the used game business too.

Makes you wonder how GS is going to react.

[mjmjr25]

As for the cases, ZeroAX, in a word - space.

Most Gamestops are about 600-1,000 sq. feet. They can put out one blank case with a game title on it and it takes up so much room, then they can have 25 discs stacked in paper envelopes in the drawers, to stack 25 cased games would take considerably more space.

The reality is - plenty of people don't care if it's loose, if enough did, then they'd make a decision to not do it.

It would be nice if they gave them away or let employees take then, but obviously you'd be getting into slippery slope territory and opening the door to orchestrated diversion. As a collector, I don't like it, but being in dozens of gamestops, I can see why it makes sense to them.

[oxymoron]

Why would someone want to trade a game in at Wal-Mart? They have a much smaller selection of games and surprisingly, worse customer service.

[isiolia]

Why would someone want to trade a game in at Wal-Mart? They have a much smaller selection of games and surprisingly, worse customer service.

Quite a lot of people in the U.S. simply don't have a lot of other stores near them.

Beyond that, presumably, game selection is weaker, but far as I see, the credit can be used for anything in the store. So, they'd have the angle of trading games in towards a TV, or beer, or whatever.

Also, funny enough, they have higher standards - they require the original case

[oxymoron]

Why would someone want to trade a game in at Wal-Mart? They have a much smaller selection of games and surprisingly, worse customer service.

Quite a lot of people in the U.S. simply don't have a lot of other stores near them.

Beyond that, presumably, game selection is weaker, but far as I see, the credit can be used for anything in the store. So, they'd have the angle of trading games in towards a TV, or beer, or whatever.

Also, funny enough, they have higher standards - they require the original case

That's a good point; I didn't think of that. I know it's kind of douchey but whenever I trade in games at GS (which is very rarely), I always do it disc only. I kinda feel bad for the guy that came in hoping to save some money only to find that it was disc only.