Help me explain how GameStop is screwing over gamers and developers alike

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AugustFall

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By selling used games Gamestop can undercut the sales price of new games by maybe $10 and then keep 100% of the profits.

People will buy the cheaper version and less money goes to the industry.
 

Owyn_Merrilin

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Rationalization said:
Owyn_Merrilin said:
They screw over customers because they have the used games market cornered, and are able to knock $5 off the new cost of a game, call it used, and actually get people to buy it. Before they bought out EB games, the highest cost you would see on a used game was about $20, with the average being somewhere between $5 and $10. This is barring, of course, extremely rare games sold at specialty shops and through auctions. A lot of people also claim that they're screwing the industry over by not giving the developers a cut of the used game profits, but that's a load of bull, and as far as I can tell is a piece of PR spin coming right from the mouth of the publishers.
Almost everything you said was wrong, it's actually kind of impressive. The things you weren't wrong about arn't their fault and involve customer choice. As stated others have used games, department stores are starting to do it so in no way cornered. The highest cost of a used game before they bought EB was NOT $20 I have no idea where you got this info, and the average was not 5-10.
duchaked said:
Brand new game: $60 (also it's not sealed, FYI)
Same game used: $55 (wtf?)
To both, if someone buys a used game that was released recently for $5 off how is that screwing them over? They could just buy the new game for 60. I'm about to buy a $55 force unleased 2 used game because I know it could suck I may want my money back (7 day full price return if you don't like the game, 30 day return if it doesn't work.)

Edit: Also they institued a new points system where you get free shit just for shopping there.

They really do have the market cornered on used games. There have been a few department stores talking about selling used games, but none of them have started the service yet. As I mentioned in an earlier post, online and independent brick and mortar stores do tend to have better prices, but they obviously aren't putting enough of a dent in Gamestop's bottom line for Gamestop to drop its prices. This is especially true of the independent stores, which are practically non-existant in many parts of the country.

As for the figures on the prices, that is what I remember games costing up until the mid 2000s. I live in a part of the US that had more EB games stores than Gamestops, right up until a year or two before the buyout, so if Gamestop has overcharged to the extent they do today all along, I wouldn't know. It would, however, be surprising that the company with the higher prices was the one that prevailed in the long run. If you can get me a source that shows my memory to be faulty, I'll accept it, but until then it's my word against yours.

As for your point about charging $55 for a used game not being a case of screwing over the customer, that's just ridiculous. It's screwing over the customer in that they're way over charging the customer. You said it yourself -- why pay that much for a used copy, when a new copy is actually new and costs a negligible amount more? The only reason Gamestop gets away with it is that its the biggest used game retailer by far, and in fact the only one in most parts of the country. You can't honestly tell me that a used game, regardless of condition, and which is probably extremely common, is worth $55, only $5 less than it would cost new?

TL;DR: You can only blame these things on the customer choosing to deal with Gamestop when the customer actually has a choice. Mom and pop stores are only an option for a small minority of game buyers,the big retailers have yet to actually do more than talk about selling used games, and there are plenty of reasons why a given individual might not do business online. Beyond this, the question was about how Gamestop screws over consumers, not whether we can blame them for it. Save that one for another thread.
 

Ironwampa

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Floyd defends Project Ten Dollar, and his logic is nonsensical from a business standpoint. Of course Floyd has this bizarre "movie industry" style of thinking which he applies to gaming in ways that are clearly bat-shit insane. Developers are simply going to have to drop their prices if they want to compete with Gamestop.[/quote]

Developers dropping their price isn't going to do anything to compete with gamestop. If the developer lowers the price of a game so will gamestop. The used game will still be 5 dollars cheaper than the new game and people will still buy the used so they can save 5 dollars. If developers want to make more money they need to make games that people want to buy as soon as they come out and continue to play long enough that the game becomes irrelevant before the owner wants to sell it. Besides game resales allow people to obtain games that they missed out on getting when new and can no longer get new.
 

Savagezion

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bahumat42 said:
Sir John the Net Knight said:
megaman24681012 said:
Watch the entirety of Extra Credit's episode: Project Ten Dollar. it'll explain it better than we can.
Floyd defends Project Ten Dollar, and his logic is nonsensical from a business standpoint. Of course Floyd has this bizarre "movie industry" style of thinking which he applies to gaming in ways that are clearly bat-shit insane. Developers are simply going to have to drop their prices if they want to compete with Gamestop.
that line of reasoning doesn't work at all. All that would do would make them get even less out of their original low cut, people buy used games even when they are only 10% less expensive. Its the publics mentality thats wrong.
You're assuming that a game is destined to sell X amount of copies no matter the price. (Don't worry alot of publishers think like this too. Most of the big ones.) Lower prices means more sales. I would buy more new releases if they were $40 instead of $60. Most people would. You may not see it as anything that would alter your purchasing habits, but this means 1 free game per year on the same budget for most of us. That means supporting 3 games/developers for every 2 otherwise.

The public's mentality is NEVER wrong in a free market. The publics mentality is what it is your JOB to figure out as a business. Gamestop has done that. Devs and publishers have not, because they have too large of egos. They think they tell the consumer how it is going to be, and this is just stupid. The customer is NEVER wrong when it comes to the economy in a free market. Now as for store policy, they customer is wrong often.

Its the same mentality which has shut most smaller retailers in the world down for the big chains. As consumers if you can afford to bite the bullet and pay a little more to support something good we should.
But there is no evidence of that. Most likely in today's economy people DON'T have the money to pay a little more on a leasure activity such as gaming. The publishers response to this was shutting developers doors/layoffs and pitching game ideas in the trash. This was a more destructive response. It is not the customers burden to bear messed up choices like this.
 

MercenaryCanary

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Serving UpSmiles said:
We don't have gamestop here in the UK, Scotland to be specfific, we do have GAME and gamestation and GAME overprice their preowned shit and gamestation overprices everything else.

Now here's some snacks for you all.

HERSHEYS ALMOND CHOCOLATE BARS?
WHAT KIND OF FUCKING MAD MAN ARE YOU?

On topic, I do believe it doesn't really hurt the developers or customers at all.
We just like to complain.
 

helldragonX

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Owyn_Merrilin said:
They really do have the market cornered on used games. There have been a few department stores talking about selling used games, but none of them have started the service yet. As I mentioned in an earlier post, online and independent brick and mortar stores do tend to have better prices, but they obviously aren't putting enough of a dent in Gamestop's bottom line for Gamestop to drop its prices. This is especially true of the independent stores, which are practically non-existant in many parts of the country.
Ok, I don't know where you live but in my area EVERY STORE sells games for $60, and I know for a fact that amazon sells games for $60.

Owyn_Merrilin said:
As for the figures on the prices, that is what I remember games costing up until the mid 2000s. I live in a part of the US that had more EB games stores than Gamestops, right up until a year or two before the buyout, so if Gamestop has overcharged to the extent they do today all along, I wouldn't know. It would, however, be surprising that the company with the higher prices was the one that prevailed in the long run. If you can get me a source that shows my memory to be faulty, I'll accept it, but until then it's my word against yours.
That is because Gamestop doesn't overcharge, they aren't the ones setting the prices. They were able to buy out EB Games because they were the better store, simple as that.

Owyn_Merrilin said:
As for your point about charging $55 for a used game not being a case of screwing over the customer, that's just ridiculous. It's screwing over the customer in that they're way over charging the customer. You said it yourself -- why pay that much for a used copy, when a new copy is actually new and costs a negligible amount more? The only reason Gamestop gets away with it is that its the biggest used game retailer by far, and in fact the only one in most parts of the country. You can't honestly tell me that a used game, regardless of condition, and which is probably extremely common, is worth $55, only $5 less than it would cost new?
Their not screwing over the customer because the customer is getting to pay less for a game, if they wanted to buy the game new they would. If they want to save that $5 they will buy it used. And were I live at least, both Toys-r-Us and Best Buy already sell used games. Guess what? Gamestop still gets the customers, you know why? because you can return a defective game within 30 days of buying for another copy that works. At no cost to you.

Owyn_Merrilin said:
TL;DR: You can only blame these things on the customer choosing to deal with Gamestop when the customer actually has a choice. Mom and pop stores are only an option for a small minority of game buyers,the big retailers have yet to actually do more than talk about selling used games, and there are plenty of reasons why a given individual might not do business online. Beyond this, the question was about how Gamestop screws over consumers, not whether we can blame them for it. Save that one for another thread.
Your right about the mom and pop stores, that I can agree with.
 

Krantos

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Low value on traded games. High on Used. If a person sells their old game online, they sell it for less than Gamestop does, but more than they'd be given on trade. So, buying used through amazon or ebay means the seller gets more and the buys pays less. Essentially, it cuts out the middle-man (gamestop) who is making a killing off these deals.

As for developers, Gamestop doesn't pay them a cent when someone buys a used game. Even if it was a paltry sum, it would allow developers to get a slice of the used games market.

In a nutshell, GS gives people less than street value on trade in, while selling used at higher than street value, making a clear profit on every transaction without passing any of it on to developers.
 

Evil the White

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Serving UpSmiles said:
We don't have gamestop here in the UK, Scotland to be specfific, we do have GAME and gamestation and GAME overprice their preowned shit and gamestation overprices everything else.
Unfortunately GAME do a better job of supporting PC titale than Gamestation. Hell, I'm not even sure if most of the stores had enough stock of Starcraft 2 to ride them through the first wave.
 

Mehall

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I don't get everyone complaining about the cost of a newer pre-owned game. If a game is just out the retailer needs to highly reward the original buyer for trading it in so quickly (in the UK, £40 title gets you £25 back minimum for the first fortnight to month of release) and anyone who buys a used copy gets a small-ish saving on a new title with no disadvantage.

I've heard that Gamestop only order in enough games to cover pre-orders and I'll say that's bad for the industry but GAME order all the popular games in mass quantities and even more niche titles are generally easily enough to get a hold of.

Also: GAME (and other UK retailers) so frequently have near launch offers, like Pro Evo 11 was £24.99 for a fortnight and the new WRC and CSI games have significant drops just now even though those are games that will sell almost as many copies at the higher price point anyway.

Thing is, the preowned prices drop so fast on all but the most sought-after titles anyway. Assassin's Creed 2 has been available for £10 used since May, same for Darksiders.


EDIT:

DEAR WORLD: $5/£5 IS NOT AN INSIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF MONEY.

Saving £5 on a £40 release is saving over 10% and $5 off a $60 is just over 8%

Most places that give student discounts are 10! Buying used is like getting a student discount on all games you buy!

Also, £5 for lots is a fair bit of money. If they can only buy 1 game due to a lack of budget for many reasons (low allowance/no job/tight bills, anything) then saving that little bit on each and every copy can mean the world.
 

Buizel91

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Aug 25, 2008
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Serving UpSmiles said:
We don't have gamestop here in the UK, Scotland to be specfific, we do have GAME and gamestation and GAME overprice their preowned shit and gamestation overprices everything else.

Now here's some snacks for you all.

Wow, it aint like that in the north east of England!

Gamestation sells their games arguably the cheapest, next to Grainger Games, HMV are the culprits for expensive games here, Game is slap bang in the middle. Not to dear, but isn't exactly cheap.

And then we have CEX that only sells pre-owned stuff (360, PS3, Wii consoles and respective games, Gamecube games and console, NDS and it's games, DVD's PS2 games and console etc, they even sell PC parts occasionally.) so i suppose they are part of the cause as well.

Ooh by the way...that twix is mine!
 

astrav1

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If you have seen the one MovieBob video, he explains it pretty well. Some one might have the link.
 

Atmos Duality

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Gamestop tried to buy my friend's copy of Pokemon Ruby for 1 dollar back in 2004.
They were selling used copies of that very game for 30 dollars in the display case right beneath the cashier counter where the proposal was made.

That isn't an isolated incident; it's a common practice. I know many Gamestop/ex-Gamestop employees; one is probably soon to become my brother-in-law.
They are fucking the industry and fucking it as hard as they can.
 

irishstormtrooper

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Sober Thal said:
It's not. They give customers what they want.
Exactly. You can ***** about the prices, but how would you know how much games should cost? A lot of people are putting a lot of time into it. Also, does anyone know how much publishers charge the retailers for their games?
 

kikon9

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GeorgW said:
People seem to complain about prices. But that's the developer's fault, not Gamestop's. The cost of games have simply gone up, as they've gotten more complicated. Gamestop sell the games with minimal profit margin, less than 10$. What they're doing to screw over developers are selling used games. The developers get nothing and it's all profit for Gamestop. But that's good for the gamers, so how are they screwing us over? Well, that would be pre-order exclusives.
/thread
Well, yes, but pre-order exclusives prompt us to buy new, so the developers get money.
 

Defense

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Because they're a monopoly. Developers and publishers don't make any money off of used games, so Gamestop gets all of the profit.

I'm sure everyone likes to save money, but how would you feel if your hard work only got you a fraction of the pay that you were supposed to receive?