Tesseract
Banned
holy crap, pack it up.
Once Gamestop's gone, I'll literally have no dedicated gaming shops near me.
Sad to think about
good riddance
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GameStop Worried Digital Games Are Too Cheap
- Thread starter Avallon
- Start date
holy crap, pack it up.
good riddance
Exactly. They often sell used stuff more expensive then other stores sell it new. At least in Germany I wouldn't miss a thing without them. And since digital is cutting the distributer margins can be cut too.
//ARCANUM
Member
Edit - whoops wrong thread
alexandros
Banned
Nothing. Spot on.
Latching onto the last year or two of relevance before they become a dedicated phone pawn shop.
Polioliolio
Member
Look, I'm not the one making the huge discounts on digital games happen. They discounted, I buy. Simple as that.
Gamespot is finally starting to see the sustainability of their business strategy is falling apart. Another point that wasn't brought up in this whole thing was the division between AAA games and smaller titles.
Gamespot is much more worried about AAA games, but I think most of the industry has realized that AAA games are not the biggest part of the pie anymore and their piece of the pie is only getting smaller as publishers are bought up and then shuttered.
Gamespot is much more worried about AAA games, but I think most of the industry has realized that AAA games are not the biggest part of the pie anymore and their piece of the pie is only getting smaller as publishers are bought up and then shuttered.
I'm a hard line physical buyer and even I agree with this. It cuts down even further with a lack of all the logistic costs and such.
It makes sense that it would cost a good $10-15 less for physical and I'm more than happy to pay full price for my preference.
Gamestop is always there for the gamer and to lighten his wallet as much as possible.
I'm not saying you are wrong, but I am wondering how you came to that conclusion. Personally it seems like the "AAA is the only thing that matters" mentality has stayed stable, but perhaps I'm overlooking something.
If a developer is too lazy to look up regional prices for a game that they've worked on, I'd love to know where they got all that energy to develop it in the first place.
It would literally take less than 1 hour, I think they can make time.
ALLseeingEYE
Member
In other words, "the low prices of digital goods is hurting our business, and we are slowly learning we can't compete. Please stop giving better deals than us...". This is likely an incredibly anti-consumer sentiment.
If anything, game makers should realize that pricing everything at $70 (in Canada) is ridiculously high. Imagine if retailers actually started offering good sales on games? I could only see their business doing better. When I walk into EB Games, I often want to purchase Vita games from there, but games 6 months-1+years old are still selling at basically launch prices. Why would anyone bother?
In truth though, I hear this is due to the low markup on Physical games. Like, only $10-15 profit on a $60-70 game for the store. This is likely the fault of the game industry behemoths. I believe small retailers even need to purchase games up front for these high prices, which is also insane when it basically costs nothing for the publisher to print a disc. Putting all the risk on retail is a pretty jerk move. Game publishers need to work this out if they want retail to survive, and they need it to survive, how else are they going to sell systems through retail when stores make nothing on them?
If anything, game makers should realize that pricing everything at $70 (in Canada) is ridiculously high. Imagine if retailers actually started offering good sales on games? I could only see their business doing better. When I walk into EB Games, I often want to purchase Vita games from there, but games 6 months-1+years old are still selling at basically launch prices. Why would anyone bother?
In truth though, I hear this is due to the low markup on Physical games. Like, only $10-15 profit on a $60-70 game for the store. This is likely the fault of the game industry behemoths. I believe small retailers even need to purchase games up front for these high prices, which is also insane when it basically costs nothing for the publisher to print a disc. Putting all the risk on retail is a pretty jerk move. Game publishers need to work this out if they want retail to survive, and they need it to survive, how else are they going to sell systems through retail when stores make nothing on them?
/thread
Not only that but $60 is such an arbitrary price to have every game at. Games like Skyrim are easily worth more than $60 while games like Activision's The Walking Dead have no reason to be $60.
Aces&Eights
Member
Gamestop cares for their bottom line, not for "we the customers". Digital games are, quite frankly, the best thing to happen to developers and publishers. They can eliminate the retailer cost (what, 20 bucks per game?) and also avoid paying for packaging and shipping. They can further ensure that none of their games are sold again as used. It is this final point that really reveals Gamestops true hypocrisy: They sell a ton of used games and pocket all the cash. This is cash that publishers never see, ergo, there is less money recouped for development and publishing costs. So, GS has been doing their shady practice and robbing the developers of bucket loads of cash and they are now trying to take the stance that they are wanting to squash digital games in the name of saving the industry?
Oh, the irony.
If MS, Sony and Nintendo all partnered with the big boys and made DD a viable and streamline process to deliver all end users games on day one and then announced that each game (AAA) will be 39.99 we would see a mass exodus of physical copy purchasers. Sure, there are those who want to hold their discs, collect the cases and there are those whose don't have the internet to sustain 50gb game downloads but I suspect that if the big 3 dropped all new game prices by 30% they would see a HUGE increase in DD buyers. To really drive that nail in the coffin, they could partner with Amazon for physical shipping to end users who still want a disc based game. Amazon would have no problem not charging the standard retailer fee as their cross selling yields them a ton of revenue.
Oh, the irony.
If MS, Sony and Nintendo all partnered with the big boys and made DD a viable and streamline process to deliver all end users games on day one and then announced that each game (AAA) will be 39.99 we would see a mass exodus of physical copy purchasers. Sure, there are those who want to hold their discs, collect the cases and there are those whose don't have the internet to sustain 50gb game downloads but I suspect that if the big 3 dropped all new game prices by 30% they would see a HUGE increase in DD buyers. To really drive that nail in the coffin, they could partner with Amazon for physical shipping to end users who still want a disc based game. Amazon would have no problem not charging the standard retailer fee as their cross selling yields them a ton of revenue.
SwiftDeath
Member
Seems to me, Gamestop's real concern is that these DL games will likely encourage future digital sales of games for consumers and eat into both their new sales and their used sales of physical games.
Entire thing reads like GS pleading with publishers to prop them up. Digital is the future. Why use a middleman when they're not at all necessary? Gamestop has seen what the PC has become. They're the next Blockbuster. It may take awhile, but digital will win out. The major players are just working towards the day when traditional retailers are no longer needed.
A no shit statement if I've ever seen one.
A no shit statement if I've ever seen one.
Khaos_Knight
Banned
"GameStop Worried Digital Games Are Too Cheap"
Translation: "There's no room for us to wedge our fat leeching asses in so that we can suck up more of your money."
Translation: "There's no room for us to wedge our fat leeching asses in so that we can suck up more of your money."
Well, I grew up with Babbages, Electronics Boutique, Funcoland, and mom 'n pop shops being everywhere. Now, there's just Gamestop, and once it's gone, it's like a part of my childhood will finally be completely gone. I already lost arcades.
Hamster Plugin
Member
Valve is just telling the devs that they don't even need to bother doing so - they automatically fill in the form after entering a price in USD. Because 90% of Steam's library is much higher priced in Euros, it seems everyone is following the guidelines.
That almost never happens though outside of PC retail, which is basically a dead business everywhere.
Price discrepancies do happen and there are some companies that are aggressive on lowering their digital titles while keeping the retail price high but most of the time outside of launch price drops are usually within ten bucks of each other barring a sale.
What really concerns GS is people waiting for those sales and deciding to get the game digitally, costing them a sale and any chance for a trade in.
FantasticMrFoxdie
Mumber
I lol'd nice try Gamestop
hodayathink
Member
His "worry" is pretty much the whole reason that digital games are still $60. Especially when you consider that, IIRC, about 20-25% of all new physical games sold in the US are sold through Gamestop. That's not a retailer you want to make upset by undercutting.
CambriaRising
Member
I'm not worried about that at all.
Then again I don't run a retail store who's main business model revolves around charging 90%+ for used games.
Then again I don't run a retail store who's main business model revolves around charging 90%+ for used games.
I actually think this has less to do with digital and more to do with Gamestop, in general, sucks.
I don't shop there at all, and do all of my game shopping at Best Buy now. They have better sales, better trade-in values, a better rewards program, and GCU is a crazy deal when it's on sale. I've bought like 5 games from best buy in the last few months, and most of them I paid like half of the retail price after all of the deals, and the paid the rest down with credit from the earlier sales. It's a no-brainer if you buy tons of games.
I can even shop at Target and get $7 off of a new game with their preorder + redcard.
Or I can wait a month or two and beat GameStop's price by buying from Amazon, probably avoiding sales tax.
Or I can buy used from Ebay or Half.com.
Digital is a problem, but frankly, GameStop just doesn't have a reason to exist as it is. They sell everything at full price, and have shitty used prices. They need to step up and get competitive, not whine about Deals with gold and PS+ deals.
I don't shop there at all, and do all of my game shopping at Best Buy now. They have better sales, better trade-in values, a better rewards program, and GCU is a crazy deal when it's on sale. I've bought like 5 games from best buy in the last few months, and most of them I paid like half of the retail price after all of the deals, and the paid the rest down with credit from the earlier sales. It's a no-brainer if you buy tons of games.
I can even shop at Target and get $7 off of a new game with their preorder + redcard.
Or I can wait a month or two and beat GameStop's price by buying from Amazon, probably avoiding sales tax.
Or I can buy used from Ebay or Half.com.
Digital is a problem, but frankly, GameStop just doesn't have a reason to exist as it is. They sell everything at full price, and have shitty used prices. They need to step up and get competitive, not whine about Deals with gold and PS+ deals.
FrostuTheNinja
Member
Don't know how much has changed, but back in the early PS2 days (2001/2002) EB was paying around $20 per game. You have to consider how many they were buying but at the same time, the mark up was still pretty nuts.
PuppetSlave
Member
The cry of a dying dinosaur. Evolve or get extinct
I agree digital games should be cheaper. I also don't think every non-indie game needs to be $60.
BUT, I agree that if everybody is only paying $22-30 for a full-fledged, new AAA game, its probably not sustainable(for the publishers/developers, not necessarily just retailers). And I think that some people will cry 'anti-consumer' up to, and after, the industry crashes because some people take the stance that they should only worry about themselves and not the business behind the products that they love to consume.
BUT, I agree that if everybody is only paying $22-30 for a full-fledged, new AAA game, its probably not sustainable(for the publishers/developers, not necessarily just retailers). And I think that some people will cry 'anti-consumer' up to, and after, the industry crashes because some people take the stance that they should only worry about themselves and not the business behind the products that they love to consume.
Vigilant Walrus
Member
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Tidus_Great
Banned
digital games are worth inherently less
as for gamestop i dont give a crap where they go i just want cheaper games
for you gamestop
as for gamestop i dont give a crap where they go i just want cheaper games
for you gamestop
Gamestop could disappear overnight and it wouldn't be a tremendous shock to the system. People would simply go elsewhere. They might not be happy about it, but it wouldn't be the end of gaming as we know it.
Tidus_Great
Banned
pretty much
if gamestop closed all the customers would just migrate to walmart, best buy or shop online with amazon. gamestop is in no way necessary for the gaming industry and it's importance is overblown.
matrixman92
Member
whatever happened to that being able to trade in used dlc and game codes thing?...I swear I read that somewhere and had no idea how it was going to work
hodayathink
Member
While I don't necessarily disagree with statement, the majority of the things happening in the industry that would cause Gamestop to go belly up would also cause all the other big box retailers that are the "elsewhere" that people would go to to shrink their gaming departments as well. I don't see a situation where Gamestop dies and Walmart and Best Buy's console games section stays the same size (and stocks the same amount of merchandise) as they do right now.
And all of this is why it's important that console manufacturers are seeing something like 90%+ of all next-gen consoles connected to the internet right now. If they can keep that up for the next year or two, then relying on digital with most people making the occasional retail purchase is something they might be willing to head towards (by giving incentives to digital sales like a cheaper price).
Duxxy3
Member
Years and years of bad will and price gouging on used games has come to bite them in the ass.
Gamestop/EBGames is almost irrelevant. Where I live, they were offering $30 for advanced warfare or Master Chief Collection 5 days from launch. I was curious as to their prices.
They sell the game for $69 here new and they sell used for $64.99. That means they'll give you less than half for your game, and charge only $5 less than new. So how can they say the price of games shouldn't be so low, when that's what they're valuing your games at? Even during launch week.
Seriously, call them up and ask them how much they'd give you for used game a day after launch. I think the digital industry will be great for gaming. Get games out of the grip of retailers. Do you know how many people are getting money back from bundles while providing those who want games, the ability to get them cheaper? Loom how many can save $10-$20 on new games buying codes off of Craigslist etc.
They sell the game for $69 here new and they sell used for $64.99. That means they'll give you less than half for your game, and charge only $5 less than new. So how can they say the price of games shouldn't be so low, when that's what they're valuing your games at? Even during launch week.
Seriously, call them up and ask them how much they'd give you for used game a day after launch. I think the digital industry will be great for gaming. Get games out of the grip of retailers. Do you know how many people are getting money back from bundles while providing those who want games, the ability to get them cheaper? Loom how many can save $10-$20 on new games buying codes off of Craigslist etc.