While classic retail staples such as Blockbuster and Toys 'R Us failed to innovate after decades of unrivaled success and ended up fading away, one company continues to struggle and desperately try to stay relevant despite changing times. After financial concerns and rumored imminent buyouts earlier this year, GameStop has announced their latest attempt to revitalize their brand. The company will be teaming up with the designer firm R/GA, and plans to renovate some of its stores in order to spice up the "GameStop experience". A few of these ideas include letting consumers play games before they buy them, changing the store layout to "appeal to gamers", offering competitive e-sports sessions in-store, and selling more retro games. R/GA will be implementing these ideas in select stores across the United States. As to whether this is enough to prevent GameStop from becoming a mere relic of the past is uncertain, as one of their previous ventures--trying to pivot into selling mobile devices--resulted in major financial losses for the retailer. It also appears that GameStop's most recent focus, trying to sell more collectibles and toys has not been significant enough to secure the company's future alone.

The partnership with R/GA’s Austin and Chicago teams is part of GameStop’s broader business transformation strategy to evolve its efforts in cultivating innovative customer-centric opportunities to bring video game culture to life in every neighborhood. GameStop’s renewed customer-first focus stems from qualitative and quantitative research led by GameStop and R/GA that identified four major motivations gaming fans have for playing video games – immersion, achievement, creativity and community.

Source

 

[Kioku]

Here's the "GameStop Experience" your brand forced on everyone:

Gamer: Can I sell this brand new game here?

GameStop: I'll give you $5 cash or $7.50 in store credit.

For years you ripped off everyone as much as you could, for as much profit as possible. Ethics and care were left behind.

Now, we live in a digital age. No one needs OR wants the middle man taking chunks of profits.
As such, YOU GameStop are now irrelevant.

Here's the new "Gamestop Experience":

GameStop: We want to sell our stocks for $15 a piece.

Investors: I'll give you $2.50 cash or $3 in store credit.

What goes around comes around.

I always got $30+ cash for brand new games. The premise is there, but can we not be so dramatic?

 

[MasterZoilus]

Gamestop will never, ever, EVER recover...period! One word and one word only....PROGRESS. Can't stop it, never will. Depending on which source you go by, between 70 to 88% of GS's profits came from selling used games. In 2018 83% of all video games sales were digital, that number has been climbing by about 5 to 7% every single year since 2009. Actually since before then, they just didn't keep track of it as well.

So this is what has primarily killed gamestop (among other things like crappy service and shady practices to name a few). They now line there stores with overpriced funko's and stuff that can be had at retailers both in stores and online, for the same price or less. and when it comes to used games sales, there is no way they can compete with ebay, none! They want to sell physical retro games (at more than what they cost on ebay) and you have retroarch available on every platform available to mankind, where in a matter of minutes you can download THOUSANDS of retro games. So now they'll be catering to the incredibly small percentage of the "gotta have the physical old copy of that retro game" of gamers ... who only ONCE in a while by a retro game.

On top of that they want to put in game stations where you can try before you buy and have e-sports sessions, both of which would make the small store even more cramped!

This is being done by top exec's like the CEO, CFO, etc at gamestop so they can keep earning a paycheck as long as they can, and giving themselves bonuses and fleece as much as possible from this sinking ship before filing for chapter 13. They are doing EXACTLY the same thing as blockbuster, radioshack, sears...etc which is:
"lets show that we are trying to do something so we can keep remaining shareholders happy and or hopeful, but we really know nothing is gonna work, we'll just keep putting every penny we can in our pockets till the end"

Spending MORE money you don't really have to spend, at an outdated business model does not work! Of course this is NOT the exec's money its coming from the company budget so they don't care.

I give them 5yrs TOPS until the last store closes permanently.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/190225/digital-and-physical-game-sales-in-the-us-since-2009/

 

[Kioku]

Gamestop will never, ever, EVER recover...period! One word and one word only....PROGRESS. Can't stop it, never will. Depending on which source you go by, between 70 to 88% of GS's profits came from selling used games. In 2018 83% of all video games sales were digital, that number has been climbing by about 5 to 7% every single year since 2009. Actually since before then, they just didn't keep track of it as well.

So this is what has primarily killed gamestop (among other things like crappy service and shady practices to name a few). They now line there stores with overpriced funko's and stuff that can be had at retailers both in stores and online, for the same price or less. and when it comes to used games sales, there is no way they can compete with ebay, none! They want to sell physical retro games (at more than what they cost on ebay) and you have retroarch available on every platform available to mankind, where in a matter of minutes you can download THOUSANDS of retro games. So now they'll be catering to the incredibly small percentage of the "gotta have the physical old copy of that retro game" of gamers ... who only ONCE in a while by a retro game.

On top of that they want to put in game stations where you can try before you buy and have e-sports sessions, both of which would make the small store even more cramped!

This is being done by top exec's like the CEO, CFO, etc at gamestop so they can keep earning a paycheck as long as they can, and giving themselves bonuses and fleece as much as possible from this sinking ship before filing for chapter 13. They are doing EXACTLY the same thing as blockbuster, radioshack, sears...etc which is:
"lets show that we are trying to do something so we can keep remaining shareholders happy and or hopeful, but we really know nothing is gonna work, we'll just keep putting every penny we can in our pockets till the end"

Spending MORE money you don't really have to spend, at an outdated business model does not work! Of course this is NOT the exec's money its coming from the company budget so they don't care.

I give them 5yrs TOPS until the last store closes permanently.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/190225/digital-and-physical-game-sales-in-the-us-since-2009/

TBH, I always assumed they'd be on their last leg by now. We have lost one store when I live, and have one left. Didn't think they'd still be fighting to this day.

 

[MasterZoilus]

TBH, I always assumed they'd be on their last leg by now. We have lost one store when I live, and have one left. Didn't think they'd still be fighting to this day.

yepp me too but now with this, it will take about a year or so to do this "refreshing" of stores, then another year or so to see the "results" to then determine , they cant stay a float, to then file chapter 13, then liquidate assets and all that bs. I think within 3yrs or so they'll be done, but definitely not more than 5. And the few stores we have in my town are always empty. The only people hanging around in there are nerdy bar flies who are just there to nerd out and not buy anything.

 

[H1B1Esquire]

The company

Certainly.
From the start, they hired people who're passionate about video games....and quite unlikely to stand up and go on strike. I'd say it was one of those things that just "work", but of course, G$ abused this (the fact most gamers aren't the "type" topple an IRL "giant").

It goes waaay deeper (the psychology behind business), but there's no need for that right now.

 

[FAST6191]

Certainly.
From the start, they hired people who're passionate about video games....and quite unlikely to stand up and go on strike

Isn't this most retail workers? When you are so utterly disposable it becomes hard to risk things.

 

[MalikTH]

Maybe if GameStop handled their retro games better they'd get better sales? I ordered Pokemon Colosseum from their site recently and my Wii didn't read the disc because the middle ring was stripped. Shipped it back to get a refund, and they sent me a gift card with the half price refund on it.

Yeah, it's been said, but it's still ridiculous and I might as well say it anyway.

 

[H1B1Esquire]

Isn't this most retail workers?

This is true--it's business as usual.
The bigger difference is, most people don't work at a supermarket because they like food, they do it because it's a job and it'll pay. Most people work at game$top because they enjoy video games.

I'd get a real laugh if this opens the door for gamefly to set up shop.

 

[WhiteMaze]

I always got $30+ cash for brand new games. The premise is there, but can we not be so dramatic?

I have no idea what GameStop you did business with, but I never forgot the $80 offer they made me for an Xbox 360 with 7 games, back in 2009.

 

[orangy57]

They've really got to get off their asses and do something with those stores instead of just filling them with Funko Pops. Hopefully these renovations will change the kind of stuff they put on their shelves. A gamestop with more retro merch and some older systems would be leagues cooler than its current state of just being a place to look at Five Nights at Freddy's and Fortnite toys

 

[tbb043]

TRU failed because they started overcharging for the same toys you could get cheaper at Walmart or Target.

Blockbuster failed because they tried to change into Netflix while Netflix already was already dominate in rentals by mail and were themselves reinventing as a streaming service.

 

[DryerRaptor4441]

Sometimes i go into gs just so that i can browse games to buy in other placer later lol.

Once in nov 2017, i brought in NBA 2K 18, bought about a month earlier, brand new. Guess how much they offered me? €1 in cash, €1.50 in credit.
Went into a nearby CeX (webuy.com), and I sold the game for €40.

 

[FAST6191]

Once in nov 2017, i brought in NBA 2K 18, bought about a month earlier, brand new. Guess how much they offered me? €1 in cash, €1.50 in credit.
Went into a nearby CeX (webuy.com), and I sold the game for €40.

I don't know if I can particularly fault them for that.

They probably have lots of data on how well their second hand sports games sell however long after launch, possibly even in that region (how well does Basketball really sell outside the US and Canada?), and don't need to be ending up with unsold stock. They probably also know refusing a customer ends with a sour taste in their mouth but offering even a small sum will still mean something, sort of the reverse of when you are bidding on jobs if you get one you don't want you set it high enough to deal with the aggravation and hope your competitors underbid you.
Not sure why there is such a disparity between them and CEX though -- I would have thought CEX was equally advanced, if not more so, but given every one I go in seems to have about 50 staff milling around and 2 tills open...

 

[DryerRaptor4441]

. .

 

[weatMod]

Gamestops in California should convert into a weed shop

Play games and smoke weed

just rebrand half their stores to adult stores and call them vape n' play and sell vapes and games
with CBD in ever state and THC in states where it's legal

 

[Mythical]

By the end of this I'm going to have to buy my consoles from Walmart

 

[RandomUser]

It probably was new, just without the cellophane. Most game stores open one or more mint copies in order to produce controls, as well as display cases. Licensing-wise the game is "new" until it was sold to a customer, only games that were traded in are considered pre-owned, since they had a previous owner.

Wondering though, Isn't that actually illegal in some states to call an open merchandise "new" . For example Best Buy sometimes have an "open box" sale at reduced price compared to their still sealed counterpart.

 

[Foxi4]

Wondering though, Isn't that actually illegal in some states to call an open merchandise "new" . For example Best Buy sometimes have an "open box" sale at reduced price compared to their still sealed counterpart.

What you're referring to is the difference between Mint and Non-Mint merchandise which is sometimes discounted. When you "buy a video game", what you're actually paying for is the license to use software, the medium is almost irrelevant and considered perishable. It doesn't matter if the box is open or not, the software is "new" so long as it is not resold on the secondary market. Some stores will discount open box software, but that's a matter of internal store policy.

 

[H1B1Esquire]

an "open box" sale

Yes, in some places in the US, this is called a "fraudulent sale", as you were lying about the description of ___
https://www.google.com/search?client=opera&q=fraudulent+sales+law&sourceid=opera&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

I guess, technically, you could say that opening a box of ___ and re-selling it as "new" is "adulteration".​

 

[FAST6191]

What you're referring to is the difference between Mint and Non-Mint merchandise which is sometimes discounted. When you "buy a video game", what you're actually paying for is the license to use software, the medium is almost irrelevant and considered perishable. It doesn't matter if the box is open or not, the software is "new" so long as it is not resold on the secondary market. Some stores will discount open box software, but that's a matter of internal store policy.

I still disagree with that concept.

For others playing along at home we met properly a few months back
https://gbatemp.net/threads/bethesd...-game-claims-it-was-to-protect-buyers.514662/