Blockbuster Defends Used Games

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Ah, ye olde "run by a terrifying man with a beard" gameshop. They're still around, they're just for tabletop games[footnote]As they always have been, unless you count a skinny 30 year old with a goatee as a "terrifying man with a beard."[/footnote]. And don't be terrified; he's usually a teddy bear, not a dire bear. Usually.

OT: I just find it sad that this is even an issue. This is the result of standing by and letting a corporation say we don't own what we pay for, just because they can pay lawyers. It's also a sign that our legal system is seriously screwed up that this can happen; no laws have changed, we've just had some well paid lawyers convince some aging judges that the law said something other than what it said. That should not happen.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

Yep, that sounds about right. Maybe if they scaled back their budget a bit and started focusing on game mechanics as opposed to top-tier graphics it wouldn't even be a problem.

Captcha: good riddance

Heh.

 

[Fasckira]

I like Blockbusters; they're literally 5 minutes drive from me, they give me good prices when I trade games in and their second hand titles are typically reasonably priced with some good offers (the whole 2 for £20 and so on).
The guys who work there are, for the majority, gamers. You can have a chat with them and they're pretty forthcoming with helping you find any games that they don't have on the shelves. I appreciate that's kind of their job but they genuinely seem to want to help.

 

[Kahani]

Without the second-hand market, there's no way for specialized game stores to survive.

That's not really much of a defence. "If these mechanical looms take over, there's no way for artisan weavers to survive.". Absolutely correct, there isn't. What's missing is the important part to make it an actual defence "... and that would be a bad thing because...". There's a reason "Luddite" is now generally considered a negative term. All I'm reading here is that if people don't have a reason to visit a particular shop, that shop will go out of business. So what? If people don't have a reason to visit that shop, why should anyone care that it goes out of business?

 

[JWRosser]

I use Blockbuster a lot. It would be a real shame for them, and the second hand market, to go.

There needs to be second hand games.
People don't want to pay £40 for a game that they don't know if they'll like. Renting is a great way to test, or play a game, that you otherwise wouldn't try. For example, I've rented and played Sonic Generations, Operation Raccoon City, Force Unleashed 2 etc. The latter two especially aren't particularly good games, but I wanted to play them, but not spend all the money, which I think is fair, seeing as once I'd finished with them...I'd finished with them. Furthermore, my housemate and I enjoy playing shitty coop games and recording it. That wouldn't happen if we had to fork out £20+ each time for a game that we're going to play once.

Also, some games are hard to come by new.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

This is operating under the assumption that specialty game stores are necessary... supermarkets will serve, and if gamestop vanishes, they will take its place in the world with ease.

Why do we need GameStop anyway?

if you are happy with only the top 20 for each platform, then you wont need them.

 

[Kiardras]

Make games worth the money and most people will buy them. Yes, you will always have the pirating minority, but if a game is worth the money, people will buy it. COD is nowhere near worth £40. Most games aren't.

If games companies stop expecting shit to sell like solid gold, and charged prices that were idicative of game quality, people will pay.

 

[Thandran]

Games were just better 10 years ago. They were better 5 years ago. They didnt have to find something to blame, because games were worth buying.

Watch a few Angry Video Game Episodes and say that again.

Some games were so bad that they had to bury thousand of unsold cartridges.

 

[Something Amyss]

In related news, bears take crap in forested areas. Unconfirmed sources report the sun may in fact rise tomorrow (if you're American).

/sarcasm

Hey, I've been saying this for well over a year, now, and people argue with it. So while you may think it's obvious enough for "the sun will rise tomorrow" cracks, it seems most of the gaming community just doesn't get it.

This is operating under the assumption that specialty game stores are necessary... supermarkets will serve, and if gamestop vanishes, they will take its place in the world with ease.

Why do we need GameStop anyway?

And if you don't mind a lack of selection and only the Call of Duties and God of Wars being stocked, you're golden.

That's not really much of a defence. "If these mechanical looms take over, there's no way for artisan weavers to survive.". Absolutely correct, there isn't. What's missing is the important part to make it an actual defence "... and that would be a bad thing because...". There's a reason "Luddite" is now generally considered a negative term. All I'm reading here is that if people don't have a reason to visit a particular shop, that shop will go out of business. So what? If people don't have a reason to visit that shop, why should anyone care that it goes out of business?

Except Gamestop are in no way parallel to artisan anything. The removal of game stores is a bad thing to gamers and game companies because the physical distribution of games is still a big thing to game stores and game companies.

Seem redundant? Just making sure we're clear.

We're not talking about hanging on to the horse and buggy instead of the car. This isn't DD versus retail, this is retail, period, which is still the backbone of the economy. Gamestop is still so important to retail that the same people bitching about them actively pander to them with deals and special pre-order bonuses. Even the guys declaring war on used games seem to understand this.

The specialty operation is not yet outmoded. Especially if you want to keep a wide selection of games in circulation. If you're fine with a tenth, a twentieth, a fiftieth the number of titles in stock then fine, go to Wal-Mart or a "supermarket."

If you actually want selection in a store, you need Gamestop or something similar. And because of the way the industry has gamed (no pun intended) the market, used game sales are vital to a specialty store.

If we ever get to the point that Digital Distribution dominates the market and people are hanging on to the idea of a specialty store in the face of actual obsolescence, we'll have a comparable situation to the Artisan Weaver Scenario.

 

[tmande2nd]

I really hate this used game is evil thing.

I bought Morrowind used.
Know what? I then bought Arena and Daggerfall, and Oblivion and Skyrim because I had that much fun with it.

Dont make games that you play once and forget, then blame EVERYONE but yourself.
EA pisses me off so much "Small minority of players" "Casual gamers" and of course "PIRATES/USED SALES!"

Dont blame people for saying your shit stinks, blame yourself.

 

[Dryk]

This is operating under the assumption that specialty game stores are necessary... supermarkets will serve, and if gamestop vanishes, they will take its place in the world with ease.

Why do we need GameStop anyway?

Because some people like to play games that aren't CoD/Halo N+5 or Barbie's Kitty Adventure. Which is all you get from supermarkets currently. If specialty stores die, selection dies. Unless supermarkets step in to pick up the slack, but if they're only stocking games to get people into stores why would they take the risk?

 

[medv4380]

Who let Blockbuster talk? Better yet, who was still around to talk FOR them?

Dish Network bought them back a while ago so that they could offer rentals the same way Netflix does to help stem some of the customer attrition that Netflix was causing. The independent company Blockbuster no longer exits.

 

[Yopaz]

This is operating under the assumption that specialty game stores are necessary... supermarkets will serve, and if gamestop vanishes, they will take its place in the world with ease.

Why do we need GameStop anyway?

if you are happy with only the top 20 for each platform, then you wont need them.

Really? I usually find a wider range of games other places than GameStop than when I actually shop at GameStop. I also get better prices, better service and a better organized store. I even get free coffee from time to time. I don't want GameStop to go out of business, but I wont miss them if they do.

 

[Gmans uncle]

I love what Blockbuster are saying here, but they are making one fatal error if they expect publishers to listen. You can't make publishers change their stupuid, dangerous to the industry actions by telling them that their actions will kill retail, BECAUSE THEY WANT TO KILL RETAIL! They hate retail (despite what EA seems to claim these days) becoase retail means less money going to them, and thats all the publishers care about, not preserving the industry, not getting games recognized as art (those are things WE care about), they care about their bottom line.
I say we buy more and more self-funded inde titles and fund more kickstarter projects to do our best to kill publishers, that's the only way out of this hole we're in now.

 

[RJ 17]

According to Butler, publishers and developers are using used games as a scapegoat to explain why some games aren't meeting sales expectations.

"When the market was growing, nobody spoke about trade-in. It didn't matter. Everyone was hitting their numbers," he said. "But as soon as someone starts missing the numbers, they are like: 'Well this trade-in is killing us. How do we stop it?'"

This has really been my view on the matter the whole time. Game companies don't make the majority of their money on some random shmuck buying the game new 4 months after it's already been out, they make their money on the launch dates. How do you make a ton of money on your launch date? Make games good enough that people WANT to buy them as they're released. Make games good enough that the gamer no longer has the internal monologue of "Should I buy this game when it comes out or wait a bit and buy it used?" If it's a good enough game, people will be more likely to want it immediately rather than waiting a few months to buy it used.

That or lower the game prices so people can actually afford to buy them new.

 

[shrekfan246]

This is operating under the assumption that specialty game stores are necessary... supermarkets will serve, and if gamestop vanishes, they will take its place in the world with ease.

Why do we need GameStop anyway?

if you are happy with only the top 20 for each platform, then you wont need them.

Really? I usually find a wider range of games other places than GameStop than when I actually shop at GameStop. I also get better prices, better service and a better organized store. I even get free coffee from time to time. I don't want GameStop to go out of business, but I wont miss them if they do.

That may be your case, but it isn't the case for everyone. Here in Vermont, we don't have much in the way of "supermarket" stores. Even "the" electronics store we have here (Best Buy) has been gouging its gaming section. They have a "better" selection of PC games than Gamestop does (mainly because they actually have a shelf for PC games, instead of just tiny rack), but everything else is pretty much just games that have been released in the last two years or the really popular ones. Wal-Mart might as well not even have a gaming section anymore, same goes for FYI or FYE or whatever it's called.

The two local Gamestops, on the other hand, have a rather large and varied selection of games on: Gameboy Advance, Nintendo DS, Nintendo 3DS, Nintento Wii, Xbox, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, PSP, and even some Gamecube games still. For the older systems, you're never going to find a game new ever again. Hell, since production of games stops so soon after release for most games, even some of the older PS3/360 games are difficult to find. I wouldn't own Metal Gear Solid 4 if I couldn't find it used, because there are no new copies of it. And subsequently, I probably would not have purchased the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection and probably wouldn't be interested in the projects Hideo Kojima works on in the future.

I constantly read about how people have "horror stories" about their Gamestops, and every time I visit one I have to wonder how it even happens, because the employees in our Gamestops are all people who care about video games, just as I do. They know what they're talking about, they know how to talk about games, and hell, most of the time they want people to do things like pre-order games... which, I would hope I wouldn't need to remind people, is pretty much the exact opposite of buying used. I don't know how other Gamestops are run, but the ones I've been to have never been anything except helpful.

But maybe that's because I live in just about the only state that doesn't have a Target.

 

[Yopaz]

That may be your case, but it isn't the case for everyone.

This is the only part of your point that is really relevant. Stores aren't the same everywhere, so anyone saying that dedicated stores are needed are wrong. If GameStop didn't exist electronic stores would take in more titles because they would have more to gain in it.

The only horror stories I have from GameStop is that I can only find new titles and Call of Duty whenever I go there. Oh, and the fact that they refused to give me a refund for two of my games that I bought there which didn't work. Both new titles.

I don't hate GameStop like many others do. I simply don't see anything I'd miss.

 

[grigjd3]

It's funny to hear because back in the 80's, blockbuster used the same tactics to run all the local video rentals out of business. Anyhow, being hypocritical does not mean the point is wrong. Used game sales are not the cause of some publishers' and developers' woes - making crappy games are.

 

[Li Mu]

EA has just sent out the assassination squad to deal with Mr. Gerry Butler.

 

[ScruffyMcBalls]

stop making shitty games so game reviewers can stop giving you shitty scores for your shitty games.

(BTW Gerry Butler CEO of blockbuster in the UK is so right on this issue)

Pretty much covered it there. Scapegoat is now the word of the day.