dsheinem wrote:Why is everyone so sure that this will be a negative thing?
Might it be possible that this will open up the possibility of finding some more expensive "vintage games" for a much lower price? I can't see them getting away with commanding more than $30-$40 at the VERY high end for any given older title in a store or online, and there are a lot of games for older systems that would be a STEAL at those kind of prices. I am picturing $25 copies of Guardian Heroes or $50 copies of Earthbound. Do you think they'd really be able to charge "market value" for these titles? They certainly don't charge "market value" for some of their rarer current/last-gen stuff - it is often worth picking up some used PS2 or GCN games at GS if you can, for example, as you'll pay much less if you can find a copy there than you would on eBay, etc.
On the other hand, expect plenty of $1 games to be sold for $5-$10 or more...
I don't expect to see Saturn stuff like Guardian Heroes, but maybe. I'm expecting they're going to go with the more mainstream consoles where they'll have the biggest supply and the largest number of potential buyers. I could be wrong but it's what seems most likely to me.
I was also thinking the same about what they'd price games that are really in-demand in the marketplace at, or if they could keep that demand supplied for very long. Who knows what they've got sitting around in their warehouses already.
My biggest fear about this isn't about the rare or hard to get games, but the sub-ten dollar ones being sold for much higher prices simply because they're "vintage" and other sellers using those prices as a reference. It might be kind of an unfounded concern at this point but it's still there.
GameStop has already been dealing in retro games through their rewards program with even stuff like Atari 2600 and NES games being traded for an absurd amount of points which is partly the reason I fear about what kind of dollar value GameStop is going to give these really common titles.
Like others I'm also concerned about what their definition of "refurbished" might be. Will we be dealing with games that have new cases and labels? I'm not entirely opposed to that as long as they're listed as such and the games they do it to were a real mess to begin with. I'm just not sure how responsibly and respectfully a company that throws away boxes and manuals is going to deal with restoring old hardware.
I'm really cautious and concerned about this and currently hanging over to the pessimistic side of things. If GameStop does go through with this though I do hope they prove me wrong.
All that said I think it would be really cool if GameStop got into the business of engineering better clone consoles and maybe even reproductions of hard to find games. I doubt this is a route they're going to take but it's fun to dream. They might start selling existing clone consoles though, if they're going to be selling retro games. I've started seeing Hyperkin stuff pop up in chain stores like FYE already.
