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Gamestop now selling an entirely new SKU of Metroid Prime Trilogy as "preowned"?

So, we all know about Gamestop getting a bunch of "preowned" copies of Xenoblade recently to sell at a high price - and that seemed really sketchy - but it's hard to outright prove that they were a reprint, as likely as it seems.

Seems someone at Nintendo age caught a glimpse of the "preowned" Metroid Prime Trilogy copies at gamestop, which are going on sale tomorrow for 84.99. Anyone who has seen Metroid Prime Trilogy knows that they were all steelbook cases, where these seem to be regular Wii cases.

Now, I don't know if gamestop just gutted the steelbooks or something, but they'd have to go through all the trouble of printing their own insert (which didn't exist before) and using a different case to do that, so it seems unlikely. My question is if this is true how can they get away with selling something as preowned that...literally didn't exist until this new shipment. Super sketchy at best. And also if true where does Nintendo themselves fall in all this? Hopefully tomorrow we can get a little more confirmation from people who can check these out in store.

http://www.nintendoage.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=5&threadid=110132

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Kyzer

Banned
They probably just put all the copies they had without cases in new ones. Either way, sucks for us.
 

AniHawk

Member
wow i can save $8.50 with a power up rewards card wow that's a good deal. and it comes in nice white cases unlike the first one wow.
 

Eusis

Member
They probably just put all the copies they had without cases in new ones. Either way, sucks for us.
Nintendo, maybe, but GameStop would just use a generic GameStop case and call it a day.

I said that this would be the ultimate test of whether there's a legitimate reprint or not due to the cases and age, and it looks like it's a legit reprint. Shame this is just a marked up GameStop exclusive rather than a Nintendo Selects, Pikmin 2 was made one of those so clearly they're quite open about whether or not something qualifies.

EDIT: Actually, they should've done that with Xenoblade too given how much people liked it and wanted it. Granted that depends on their deal with GameStop, and I guess both cases could ALSO be an area where other retailers just don't care to stock the games period, even as $20 or 30 titles.
 

Mpl90

Two copies sold? That's not a bomb guys, stop trolling!!!
wow i can save $8.50 with a power up rewards card wow that's a good deal. and it comes in nice white cases unlike the first one wow.

AniHawk
Cranky. Very cranky.
Rather sarcastic to boot.
 

troushers

Member
The financial incentive is there, this seems very shady. In the UK we sometimes get the cheaper retailers selling 'grey market' goods, which have been bought in Europe where it is much cheaper, and shipped to the UK for a budget price. It often happens with music CDs. Could these be a similar type of stock from, say, Canada?
 
They probably just put all the copies they had without cases in new ones. Either way, sucks for us.

That was my first thought too, but as I said in the OP they'd have to be printing (and even designing) their own insert because due to the Steelbook packaging of Trilogy there was never an insert or insert design before now.

They could do it I guess, but it seems like a lot of effort to swap out the steelbooks and do that. Something tells me there weren't many copies of trilogy out there in bad enough shape that the steelbook case was straight up lost, necessitating putting them into a new case and printing out an insert.
 

Eusis

Member
That was my first thought too, but as I said in the OP they'd have to be printing (and even designing) their own insert because due to the Steelbook packaging of Trilogy there was never an insert or insert design before now.

They could do it I guess, but it seems like a lot of effort to swap out the steelbooks and do that. Something tells me there weren't many copies of trilogy out there in bad enough shape that the steelbook case was straight up lost, necessitating putting them into a new case and printing out an insert.
And as I noted GameStop already has a solution for that, their own generic cases that just have the game's name and rating on them. Something like this would only result from Nintendo caring enough to do so.
 

AniHawk

Member
in the late 90s and early 00s, gamestop did print out cover art for upcoming and existing titles. i worked there when we were told to finally toss them in 2006 or so. one that i held onto because i thought it was neat was an m-rated cover art for half-life for dreamcast.

in this case, it seems that the art actually wraps around the back, so it probably wasn't gamestop who made the new print. i'm not sure what other markings could indicate the year it's from, but if there was a template change between 2009 and 2012 for wii software, that would be the first place i'd look.
 

Eusis

Member
Or they want to make it look like it's worth $85.

in the late 90s and early 00s, gamestop did print out cover art for upcoming and existing titles. i worked there when we were told to finally toss them in 2006 or so. one that i held onto because i thought it was neat was an m-rated cover art for half-life for dreamcast.

in this case, it seems that the art actually wraps around the back, so it probably wasn't gamestop who made the new print. i'm not sure what other markings could indicate the year it's from, but if there was a template change between 2009 and 2012 for wii software, that would be the first place i'd look.
Yeah, this just doesn't look like one of those mock cases, but something Nintendo really would do, I doubt GameStop would care for the bilingual bit for example. At best they got Nintendo to make those cases, but at that point why not go the extra step and request new discs too?
 

Shinta

Banned
99.99% of the time, game value just steadily decreases. This is why we all enjoy used games. Don't want to pay $60? Wait 6 months. That other 0.01% of the time when a small handful of games increase in price, I have a hard time working up any outrage.

It does suck that they open up games and sell new ones pre-owned though, but Gamestop has done that since forever.
 

vaxick

Neo Member
Either GameStop is hording games to create a higher payout in the used games sector or their relationship with Nintendo is deeper than anybody knows. It just seems fishy with Xenoblade first and now this. Especially the fact they have cases made up for this game. They've never done this for any other used game.
 

chaosblade

Unconfirmed Member
If you read up on their Vintage Game stuff there was mention of them cleaning the games up to be more "like new" with stuff like new covers and manuals. I'm still skeptical about where they are "sourcing" so many copies of rare games from though.
 

Eusis

Member
99.99% of the time, game value just steadily decreases. This is why we all enjoy used games. Don't want to pay $60? Wait 6 months. That other 0.01% of the time when a small handful of games increase in price, I have a hard time working up any outrage.

It does suck that they open up games and sell new ones pre-owned though, but Gamestop has done that since forever.
I value them more for long term access of games that aren't practical to keep printed all the time, but then I guess the argument's still the same: sometimes they just get crazy expensive. I think it might be closer to .1 percent though, as it literally seems to be one in every thousand games, at least if you include those whose MSRPs fail to drop despite being years old.
Either GameStop is hording games to create a higher payout in the used games sector or their relationship with Nintendo is deeper than anybody knows. It just seems fishy with Xenoblade first and now this. Especially the fact they have cases made up for this game. They've never done this for any other used game.
It might also be that GameStop's the only one who'd want to do this AND that Nintendo would be willing to do this for. GameQuestDirect has done this plenty of times with publishers and more niche titles, and by proxy they usually help keep the prices down (in the long run anyway) on GameStop's "pre-owned" copies. This time it seems that sort of thing's happening but only GameStop doing it, and so they get to sell at a gross markup rather than original MSRP.
If you read up on their Vintage Game stuff there was mention of them cleaning the games up to be more "like new" like new covers and manuals. I'm still skeptical about where they are "sourcing" so many copies of rare games from though.
That sounds like refurbishing, and in this case this is straight up new cases/cover slips entirely. Heavily implying Nintendo reprints.
 

Easy_D

never left the stone age
This was my first thought as well. If they were just going to print new copies on the sly anyway, why buy back used copies at a "high" price?

Because they knew they were getting re-prints and buying old copies beforehand would just make the new copies seem like legit pre-owned copies. All because of Gamestop's greed for more money
 
Because they knew they were getting re-prints and buying old copies beforehand would just make the new copies seem like legit pre-owned copies. All because of Gamestop's greed for more money
That's conspiracy talk. There was no need for them to pretend to buy copies. The simplest explanation is they're selling the games they bought back, replacing lost cases when necessary.
 
Well, if it is a reprint, then at least more people will be able to play the game. It's unfortunate that the price is so high for pre-owned, but it's better than getting it for a higher price on eBay.
 

Maxim726X

Member
Gamestop is shady for selling a game well under the going market price?

They acquired the copies, they can sell them.

If they literally opened up new copies so they could get away with not selling it at MSRP- Then yes, what they're doing is extremely shady.

If other businesses had such practices, there would be a huge public outcry. If it really is a new SKU, then fuck them because something is clearly going on that shouldn't be.

That's conspiracy talk. There was no need for them to pretend to buy copies. The simplest explanation is they're selling the games they bought back, replacing lost cases when necessary.

Does it make sense that an extremely rare game is suddenly available in abundance, and at a cheaper price then what it was previously sold at, without the steelbook case?

That sounds like a likely scenario to you?
 

Het_Nkik

Member
What's also funny is that anyone buying the game now can't even unlock everything what with Nintendo shutting down system-to-system messaging via WiiConnect24. Can't convert Friend Vouchers to Friend Tokens anymore.
 

FyreWulff

Member
If they literally opened up new copies so they could get away with not selling it at MSRP- Then yes, what they're doing is extremely shady.

If other businesses had such practices, there would be a huge public outcry. If it really is a new SKU, then fuck them because something is clearly going on that shouldn't be.

There is no legal requirement to follow MSRP, regardless of the condition the item is in.

Shady would be if Gamestop took used copies, resurfaced them, and shrinkwrapped and sold them as new. Shady would be if they took a copy someone returned within 4 hours of buying it, rewrapped it and sold it as new.

Selling copies of a game that had a limited run, that was announced as a limited run, under the going market rate, is not even a hint of shady.
 
Does it make sense that an extremely rare game is suddenly available in abundance, and at a cheaper price then what it was previously sold at, without the steelbook case?

That sounds like a likely scenario to you?
You mean after they called up every GameStop customer one by one and offered to buy it from them? Well yeah. If they still have steelbook copies at the old price then they would sell "caseless" ones for less. Why is them printing their own covers so unbelievable? I'd have to check out the cases in person to see how they look, but I used to work at a print shop and we easily had the means to make excellent looking cases like this. That's where my Wii Sports case came from.
 
Makes me wonder what NOA is getting form this and when will someone ask whats up. I would say "I can't imagine other retailers being happy" but most of these struggled to get rid of it for $20 the first time...

Still, one thing I have to say about the gamestop vintage. Has anyone got a copy in less than good condition yet? I would imagine they are ordering some replacement games, but then a few more cases covers and manuals for them to patch up the bad condition copies they got from trade-in.

They probably just put all the copies they had without cases in new ones. Either way, sucks for us.
There might be legal issues with just reprinting cover art (plus it can be hard to source sufficient quality) hence going for the generic art for missing cases.

The financial incentive is there, this seems very shady. In the UK we sometimes get the cheaper retailers selling 'grey market' goods, which have been bought in Europe where it is much cheaper, and shipped to the UK for a budget price. It often happens with music CDs. Could these be a similar type of stock from, say, Canada?
A Canadian would be a better person to ask. IIRC Canadian copies of games tends to have French/English box backs and french manuals ( depending on where in Canada they are from). Canada also got the steelbox though.

IIRC some South Asian countries get American games (sans Club Nintendo slips) but I do not know if they got the steelboxes or not.
 

Eusis

Member
GameStop doesn't have the facilities or the rights to reprint a game.
Uhh, that's what they'd pay Nintendo to do, or at least bargain with them for. No one's under the assumption GameStop reprinted themselves, but Game Quest Direct covered the reprinting fees for publishers in the past to get a highly valuable game stocked on their store and similar probably happened here.

By the way just to make absolutely sure: anyone got one of those white case reprints and saw if there was a fresh key to use in them? I'm convinced these are a reprint now but that'd just about seal it.
 

Jubern

Member
I never lived in the US so I'm not affected by this, but this looks shady as fuck. Or sad, if you think it is fine and dandy.

I can see what Authoritative Shark is trying to say, but still, that's not how it is supposed to work. They may be in their good right, but that's shitty.

A few years ago, Konami reissued a limited run of tons of PS2 games that had went pretty rare, such as ZOE 2, Silent hill 2, 3 & 4, MGS 2 Substance or MGS 3 (normal). Sony did the same in a similar timeframe IIRC with Ico and Shadow of the Colossus, plus others. And I never saw those new prints go for more than 20€ (10€ for some titles!) until a few months had passed, let alone at the time of their re-release!
(And no, it wasn't a Platinum re-release. Same covers as the originals, only with the new PEGI logos).
 

web01

Member
If this is real then the most disgusting thing is that Nintendo of America is officially in cahoots with Game stop to pass new copies of a reprint of as used. Absolutely despicable behaviour. There is really no way to defend this.

Look at other companies like Atlus, they recently did reprints of the devil summoner games for PS2 and all at budget prices.
Even when used copies were priced sky high.
 

Kazerei

Banned
The financial incentive is there, this seems very shady. In the UK we sometimes get the cheaper retailers selling 'grey market' goods, which have been bought in Europe where it is much cheaper, and shipped to the UK for a budget price. It often happens with music CDs. Could these be a similar type of stock from, say, Canada?

It actually does seem like it came from Canada. The ESRB rating is bilingual. For example:


Canada got MPT in a steelcase though.
 

Tygamr

Member
It's dumb that they're charging just as much as the original release that came in a steel book. I wanted to get this when it came out, and it was gone so quick that I wasn't able to. I would buy one of their sketchy reprints if it wasn't so highly priced. Kind of ridiculous.
 
Nintendo's fault. Namco killed the silly 2nd hand prices of Vesperia by putting it on XBLA for $20.
Nintendo could do this with their Wii library.
 

synce

Member
Is anyone actually buying these games at their jacked up prices? I feel like this is going to backfire for GS
 
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