PlayStation Now Results in GameStop Stock Price Drop

[Dragonbums]

Ah, dang. The one in my area was pretty good (in my own experience). They had games ranging from the Dreamcast to the N64. Hell, they were even SELLING at least one of each old console. But I guess it's one of those chains that are good by location and the amount of people living in the area who has the incentive to give the store their really old stuff.

Can I trade your store's stock for mine. XD
In the one by me the stuff the have the most of are NES cartridges, a slew of Game Gear games, and then Genesis games. Not a single SNES cartridge, PS1 game, and they didn't even sell a single console. The last time I went, about 2 weeks ago, they had like 2 or 3 really fun and popular games, and the rest were sports. :/

For me, Luna Video Games in my area is the one that sounds like how your Press Play Connection is. Heck they even sold peripherals. I got F-Zero GX from them for $7 and it came with the manual and original case artwork. I'm sad though because there used to be more of those types of stores around my area, but GameStop either put them out of business because they couldn't compete, or they bought the building it was in.

Maybe they are out of business? I never even heard of the Luna store before. Then again- I never heard of the Press Start store until they set one up here a year ago either. I was even more surprised to find out that they were a CHAIN store too. The only other alternative I knew about was EB games, and if I'm not mistaken here in the US they merged with Gamestop.

 

[Roxas1359]

Maybe they are out of business? I never even heard of the Luna store before. Then again- I never heard of the Press Start store until they set one up here a year ago either. I was even more surprised to find out that they were a CHAIN store too. The only other alternative I knew about was EB games, and if I'm not mistaken here in the US they merged with Gamestop.

Luna appears to be a Mom and Pop, but are trying to expand from what I understand. So far there are two in California, one in Ocean Side and the other next to San Diego State. EB Games was were I used to shop, and you are correct that they sorta merged, but actually GameStop bought out EB Games and turned all EB Games in the US into GameStops. It's still known as EB Games in Australia though, and in the UK it's just plain GAME. One of the other franchises GameStop bought out was Planet X, but I think they just sorta phased that one out.

 

[Treaos Serrare]

I really hate this trend of all digital for software, I WANT a tangible physical object to play my games or run my programs from not some Ephemeral void product that can be revoked at a whisper from digital spies to gold hungry gods of concrete and steel

Oh, and as for the conversation about expensive games from older generations. I bought Suikoden used from a Gamestop for $30, Xenogears used for $50, and every time I look up Suikoden 2, a never opened copy goes for a good $200. Fortunately, I already own Suikoden 2, but I was curious.

I got a copy of Xenogears from an EB Games back in god what was it 98-99 I think I dunno anyway got it used for like 20 bucks still have it in pristine condition same goes for all of my PSOne era games actually all of my Games remain in Pristine condition since it was released on psn the price of physical copies has gone down a bit, I can remember when my copy could have fetched $300-$500 on ebay, it still around or over $200 though.

 

[FalloutJack]

I almost read this as Sony having a problem with used games all of a sudden, as Gamestop seems to be the target of big business hate on that front. This is a bit more perplexing, though. We'll see how it turns out, as it is simply business competition, not blackballing.

 

[smithy_2045]

$50 says if Microsoft announced an identical service there'd be limitless outrage over how they're killing used games.

 

[ckam]

Wait, so there is backwards compatibility? That's ? quite surprising.

 

[MrBaskerville]

My worst experience was finding Breath of Fire 1 and 2 for $14 each(Rental store getting rid of old stock) and not having cash on me that day. Twas gone the next day... I cried...

I was close to getting the rare Misadventures of Tron Bonne on the PS1 once, but I passed it by and paid it no mind. I regret that decision to this day.

I owned Suikodden 1 and 2 once, now they cost a fortune and i sold them ages ago before i realized this + i really want to play them again :/.

Streaming is cool enough, i'd prefer the real deal, but it's better than nothing. It just sucks that it's only going to be selected titles, there'll probably be no Kuon or Echo Night, because those games are too obscure. Unfortunately i'm only interested in streaming stuff that i can't find a physical copy off, so probably relatively useless to me. But i have my fingers crossed that the service will cover some of the rare stuff too, i'd be cool to be able to play some of the games i haven't been able to find in stores (if i ever buy a ps4 that is....).

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Are game stop's investors so ignorant about technology?

You can bet your life on that. Investors and politicians (regrettably they have close contact or are one in the same) couldn't find their way out of a paper bag even with military grade gps system. They only know money, and as proven by the US bailouts, they don't even understand much more than get as much as you can even if it means ripping of desperate poor people.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

$50 says if Microsoft announced an identical service there'd be limitless outrage over how they're killing used games.

Not really. See, the issue with the Xbone's original design was that once you registered a game with it, you couldn't sell it, couldn't trade it, couldn't give it away, couldn't do anything with it. A streaming service for older games doesn't lock a game to your console, it simply reduces the market of people who might buy used.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

Uh, don't you expect Gamestop not to open every other new game and sell it as used? Hell, even when they do open new games, they sell them as new.

Why would I care? If they were resealing used games and selling them as new that would be an issue, but if they wanna undercharge me for a product by selling a functionally new game for the price of a used one I'm not gonna complain.

I don't think you understand the issue. Xenoblade Chronicles is a game that had very high demand and very low supply. If Gamestop had put the game on the shelves as "New", then it would be the default $60. By opening the games and branding them as "Used", they can sell the game for however much they want; in this case for up to $100.

 

[smithy_2045]

$50 says if Microsoft announced an identical service there'd be limitless outrage over how they're killing used games.

Not really. See, the issue with the Xbone's original design was that once you registered a game with it, you couldn't sell it, couldn't trade it, couldn't give it away, couldn't do anything with it. A streaming service for older games doesn't lock a game to your console, it simply reduces the market of people who might buy used.

Except you could sell it or trade it, and your friends could play your games on their own Xbox disc free as long as you weren't playing it yourself. There were a lot of advantages to the Xbox One's content delivery system that were either ignored or just plain missed because Microsoft's marketing team fucked up big time.

 

[RicoADF]

well cell processor was more of a gimmick, pretty useful in mathematical calculations, not very good in 3d gaming (which was like the whole point of ps3) not to mention the fact sony spend billions on developing this thing instead of just using stuff from intel/amd like any sensible console manufacturer would do. Not a console developer myself but I'm guessing PS4 is more than capable of emulating ps3 given proper software. How hard could it be for sony to make it possible on their flagship hardware - they made the god damned thing, their engineers now all the tricks and secrets. If I'm mistaken please tell me.

Cell to x86 is a big change, there are only 2 ways to get the old games running on the new console:
1) Recode/port the game to the new system (basically a HD remake/re-release, ala Tomb Raider)
2) Build a PS3 in the PS4, which would raise the cost, increase heat and probably the size of the unit.

I wish they had of done a limited edition of option 2, I would have happily paid extra for one of them like I did my PS3. Emulation is not practical, it takes far more hardware requirements to emulate a game than to run it properly coded, older games like N64 and PS1 can be done because hardware is so much faster it can compensate and achieve it, PS3 hardware however isn't that bad (it was low on RAM and video card needed an upgrade but the processor is still quite valid), so getting it to run on newer systems via emulation is not viable. That said the PS3 will continue to be sold for quite awhile, so it's not a big issue to buy one if you don't already have one and sit it next to the PS4.

 

[Riff Moonraker]

Wouldn't it be cheaper to just make their console backward compatible? oh yeah pro-consumer approach, why give it for free when we can monetize it. I actually feel quite cheated I already paid for my psx, ps2, ps3 library, will we have to pay for games we already own?

My thoughts exactly. If they announced that I could go back and play all my games on the xbox 360, and the original xbox on the xbox one, I would be ecstatic. But if I then found out that I could only do it through a streaming service where I would have to pay for games I already own, I would be highly pissed.

 

[Riff Moonraker]

I really hate this trend of all digital for software, I WANT a tangible physical object to play my games or run my programs from not some Ephemeral void product that can be revoked at a whisper from digital spies to gold hungry gods of concrete and steel

Oh, and as for the conversation about expensive games from older generations. I bought Suikoden used from a Gamestop for $30, Xenogears used for $50, and every time I look up Suikoden 2, a never opened copy goes for a good $200. Fortunately, I already own Suikoden 2, but I was curious.

I got a copy of Xenogears from an EB Games back in god what was it 98-99 I think I dunno anyway got it used for like 20 bucks still have it in pristine condition same goes for all of my PSOne era games actually all of my Games remain in Pristine condition since it was released on psn the price of physical copies has gone down a bit, I can remember when my copy could have fetched $300-$500 on ebay, it still around or over $200 though.

I couldnt agree more. I hate digital copies. I want to hold the game in my hand, not have it solely exist in the ether. I got burned on the first season of Telltales Walking Dead. I had already bought the first three episodes by the time they announced it was coming out on disk, so it was too late at that point. But thats the same reason why I have NOT purchased any of season two yet. I am going to wait for a physical copy.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

$50 says if Microsoft announced an identical service there'd be limitless outrage over how they're killing used games.

Not really. See, the issue with the Xbone's original design was that once you registered a game with it, you couldn't sell it, couldn't trade it, couldn't give it away, couldn't do anything with it. A streaming service for older games doesn't lock a game to your console, it simply reduces the market of people who might buy used.

Except you could sell it or trade it, and your friends could play your games on their own Xbox disc free as long as you weren't playing it yourself. There were a lot of advantages to the Xbox One's content delivery system that were either ignored or just plain missed because Microsoft's marketing team fucked up big time.

Well, regardless of how it was actually intended to work; it's how it was perceived that matters.

 

[michael87cn]

As someone who has lived all over the U.S. and has never been able to obtain a 'great' internet service, no matter where he goes... this... sucks. This isn't going to work out well for Sony. This is a bad way to do this...

I have CABLE internet and I can't even view youtube in HD without it buffering all day long for a single video. I can't imagine trying to stream 1080p video of a game.

Damn. Not good, because I see this as a failing service before its even begun. Anyone remember cloud gaming....??? Yeah....

 

[smithy_2045]

$50 says if Microsoft announced an identical service there'd be limitless outrage over how they're killing used games.

Not really. See, the issue with the Xbone's original design was that once you registered a game with it, you couldn't sell it, couldn't trade it, couldn't give it away, couldn't do anything with it. A streaming service for older games doesn't lock a game to your console, it simply reduces the market of people who might buy used.

Except you could sell it or trade it, and your friends could play your games on their own Xbox disc free as long as you weren't playing it yourself. There were a lot of advantages to the Xbox One's content delivery system that were either ignored or just plain missed because Microsoft's marketing team fucked up big time.

Well, regardless of how it was actually intended to work; it's how it was perceived that matters.

That really does little to dispute my initial point that had Microsoft announced the exact same thing as Sony has here, they would've been panned solely because they're Microsoft.

 

[WhiteTigerShiro]

$50 says if Microsoft announced an identical service there'd be limitless outrage over how they're killing used games.

Not really. See, the issue with the Xbone's original design was that once you registered a game with it, you couldn't sell it, couldn't trade it, couldn't give it away, couldn't do anything with it. A streaming service for older games doesn't lock a game to your console, it simply reduces the market of people who might buy used.

Except you could sell it or trade it, and your friends could play your games on their own Xbox disc free as long as you weren't playing it yourself. There were a lot of advantages to the Xbox One's content delivery system that were either ignored or just plain missed because Microsoft's marketing team fucked up big time.

Well, regardless of how it was actually intended to work; it's how it was perceived that matters.

That really does little to dispute my initial point that had Microsoft announced the exact same thing as Sony has here, they would've been panned solely because they're Microsoft.

Yes it does. My point is that people only panned the Xbone's feature because, regardless of how it was actually going to work, it was announced and perceived to be a feature that would prohibit you from being able to sell a game once you registered it to your console.

 

[smithy_2045]

$50 says if Microsoft announced an identical service there'd be limitless outrage over how they're killing used games.

Not really. See, the issue with the Xbone's original design was that once you registered a game with it, you couldn't sell it, couldn't trade it, couldn't give it away, couldn't do anything with it. A streaming service for older games doesn't lock a game to your console, it simply reduces the market of people who might buy used.

Except you could sell it or trade it, and your friends could play your games on their own Xbox disc free as long as you weren't playing it yourself. There were a lot of advantages to the Xbox One's content delivery system that were either ignored or just plain missed because Microsoft's marketing team fucked up big time.

Well, regardless of how it was actually intended to work; it's how it was perceived that matters.

That really does little to dispute my initial point that had Microsoft announced the exact same thing as Sony has here, they would've been panned solely because they're Microsoft.

Yes it does. My point is that people only panned the Xbone's feature because, regardless of how it was actually going to work, it was announced and perceived to be a feature that would prohibit you from being able to sell a game once you registered it to your console.

So basically, don't bother making a good product, just make it sound good in the initial announcement and no one will care what it actually does. Gotcha.