2012 annual sales figures were recently released, and according to Business Insider, the used game juggernaut is downsizing across the country. At least 500 GameStop stores are potentially closing their doors, and there aren’t too many gamers that are sad to hear it.
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Unfortunately the western world suffers from structural problems. This recession isnt going to end despite what politicians might say. Recessions not going anywhere not for another 15-20 years.
Actually it's across the globe. Japan has been in a recession for years, China is slowing down as well. The fact is the retail space has changed as more and more people look at alternative methods like E-Bay and buying games digitally.
It ain't the economy. It's the politicians.
I have to say I won't shed a tear if Gamestop went under. I do feel bad for the good employees there though. Not so much for the many poor ones.
Agreed, there are within two blocks where I live.
With the massive worldwide sales power that they had, they should have been able to come to some kind of agreement with Sony, Microsoft, EA, Activision and others to get their costs down for purchasing games. They then could have passed those cost savings on to the consumer, which would have actually given people a reason to go there instead of elsewhere when people were out to buy a brand new game.
I agree GamerCheese. There is a different/better game store here in CT that is packed every time I go there, so it's not only the economy. Like someone mentioned, there are often 2 or more gamestops within a 1 mile radius, sometimes right across the street from one another, so many are redundant. Here's to hoping they find jobs at other burgeoning game stores.
They are closing 500 stores...how many are they going to be opening? I know one near my house is closing down this week, because two other stores opened up in better locations to service the area that that one store was servicing. Last year alone 3 stores opened up all within 20 miles of my house.
Stores close for a lot of reasons. High rent, bad locations(which may not have been bad originally), redundant locations, lack of sales, too much competition, etc.
The downturn in the gaming market though is a big reason though, and that is certainly not good for anyone who enjoys or makes games. If there are gamers who are happy at this news then it makes me sad that people could be so oblivious to the bigger issues this represents.
I know many people have issues with GS, even I did for a while due to some Xbox fanboy clerk literally calling me stupid for wanting a PS3 6 years ago (took me 5 years and having an amazing staff at a new one 2 minutes from my house to get over that), but they are about the only specialized gaming store of any scale here in the US. For them to be gone would be a huge blow to gaming unless there was someone else to pick up the slack. Best Buy, Target, and especially Wal-Mart leave me wanting more from a game store. Amazon is OK, but having only online doesn't lend to just going to the store and browsing and finding some cool deals at the spur of the moment. Seeing another company take up the helm would be doubtful given the current state of the gaming market, and the fact that GS couldn't manage it, so where does that leave us?
I just wanna say that I've been thinking Sony PlayStation is brewing up something with gaming sales and/or retail business. Maybe, maybe not, just a guess.
Not only are they reselling your games at a profit but their standard game releases are always overpriced compared to almost every other game store.
A simple google search and you'll find, for example, AC3 for 34,99$ somewhere but at gamestop it's still 59,99$.
screw this greedy company. i hope they close them all.
they were parasites on the industry. hopefully next gen wipes them out completely and this is just them trying to holdon to some of the money they pulled out of the pockets of developers and ignorant consumers.
I still have friends that work for Gamestop and it will suck to see them lose their job.
Here is hoping he doesnt dude!
Also why are you getting mad at the workforce? They don't make the financial decisions, and sure while there may be a few D-bag workers, most people with a job would love to keep it and do their best. Have some decency
I don't usually respond in comments as I am doing, but really? You wish death upon someone? You want his family to be burnt to death? As someone who has a family, a wife and daughter to be exact, I would be completely devastated if I lost my family. Your comment is not only rude and immature, it's completely inappropriate for this site. I just wished to express my personal disgust for your absolutely horrid comment. Good day, sir or madame.
As far as retail environments go, GS is probably an OK place to work if you don't mind sales. The people that I see that complain about working there don't seem like they understand the retail environment, and act like it would be better anywhere else.
thx for that my brother happens to love his job because he loves gaming, and he acknowledges that it does piss him off sometimes but he still loves it.
what i find disturbing is the people who disagreed with me. i hope the ones who did lose their jobs to know what it feels like to have that happen to them.
I just recently started looking for better deals online and haven't gone back to retail ever since (apart for Rayman Origins which I saw for about €20)
BestBuy is destroying Gamestop as a retail games store, and online stores are wrapping up with the finishing blow.
They're closing over 200 stores in 2013 themselves.
It's an inevitable situation caused by over saturation. I can hit up over 8 Gamestops within 10 miles of my house. That's far too many and it was bound to happen.
I agree about online sales impacting traditional brick & mortar stores though. Shame to see so many people unemployed soon but I fear it's gonna get worse before it gets better
They're currently offering $20 reward coupons (basically a $20 best buy gift card) on 12 of the most anticipated games of the first half of the year (although GTA5 has been pushed back to September).
On top of that they ALWAYS have a deal of the day, and EVERY SUNDAY they launch a new games promotion with some steep discounts like 12-months of XBL for $35, fairly new games getting price drops down to $39.99, older games dropping to $9.99, and more.
Their store closings have nothing to do with the fact that they have great deals, nor is Best Buy a games only retailer like Gamestop, which is the main reason it's struggling, because it sells all kinds of electronics and many of those divisions are suffering in market-wide sales thus Best Buy's going to suffer.
I have a feeling that their current pre-order promotions are more to get people to start buying their games at Best Buy, thus it's going to be limited in time.
Same goes with their trade in prices. People seem to be OK with them, however GS was the same way back in the day. Prices were decent enough, but eventually they had to get into a position of being able to turn in a profit. If Best Buy starts doing what GS does on a much bigger scale (which they are getting to I believe), then they will eventually have to do the same things GS does to turn a profit. The advantage goes to BB however since they have other products to rely on to remain profitable. But if gaming profit doesn't become significant they would have to retool their practices.
Fun fact - In over a hundred years the worlds population increased from 1.5 billion to over 7 billion.
Nice.
Gotta cut the fat somewhere.
It really is a shame so many will lose their jobs though. In this economy even huge corporations are suffering! I wish them all the best and timely re-employment.
It's a site run by gamers for gamers
Now down to this news. It's sad for those loosing their jobs and I hope they find better ones
Here's the story with Amazon and me: I wanted to pre-order Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time on Amazon and the game costs $39.94 on Amazon. So I bought it and the shipping came to $43 and since they tax now, it came to $50. What a rip-off. The game costs $40 and I can go to Gamestop and get it for $44 which has tax included in that price.
I just wish they can generate more revenue to keep the stores from closing.
You do realize that if you selected Free Super Saver Shipping on the last checkout page (it defaults to Standard Shipping, which costs money), because the order is over $25, the shipping is free?
Thus, you would've gotten it at the same price/cheaper than Gamestop, ie. the $39.94+tax price
And if you had Amazon Prime/signed up for it for say, Students, you could've gotten free 2-day shipping.
Either way, shipping should've been free.
Plus when they bought out EBGames, they kept them all open. So in malls, like the one I used to work at, they had 2 stores. And that was unnecessary. You'd go into one store looking for something and they didn't have it, they'd tell you to go try the other.
They should have started opening some mid-size warehouses, 10-15 throughout the country, close the stores that weren't doing good, and just push for online sales while keeping the stores that were doing good open.
Mid size warehouses are easy to upkeep and cheap, it could honestly be half the price of some of the stores.
They need to act in 2013 if they want to last.
That's like asking the customer if they want Halo 4 for Xbox, ps3 or wii. C'mon, smarten up.
Fanboy employees, incompentent managers, shady practices and arogant attitude towards complaints are their downfall. With digital downlaods becomming more common and online retailers providing better prices and service it is a no brainer to abandon these outdated money grabbing retailers.
I hate the idea people are losing their jobs, but I don't hate the idea GameStop is finally losing ground and need to step it up to stay in business. To have games posted for $25-35 before initial release is not only stupid but shows how your open about ripping customers off. Don't even get me started on their prices for buying used consoles.
I hear ya. Typical experience for me nowadays. But we always end up going to them because they get the best 'exclusive' editions, at least in my country anyway. Gaming is not a cheap hobby, so I might have to start looking around more. Paid $128 for the Darksiders 2 collectors edition, and on there 'mad monday' sale, they were selling them for $60 a couple months later.
It is bad that they are going under, but I just wished they would cut their prices, as I'm sure they can afford to. Always loved the brick game-stores, it is like being a kid in a candy store.
Im a manager somewhere and few of people I manage they only work minimum hours weekly so they dont pay taxes at the end of the year.they think they r smart but its the opposite they just barely have money to survive.better full time no matter how much taxes they have to pay they will have more money at the end of the year.They have Mc Donalds pretty much every day($hitty food and any other fast food)Im european myself and eat healthy food.Doesnt mean that who is not european doesnt eat healthy but from what I see in generally North Americans eat junk food.Anyway who's smart should always eat healthy cause you will gain in the long run.Moeny comes and goes but health soon as you lose it you cant take it back.
ON the topic I only feel bad for the GS employees.
willy wonka and his friends at the chocolate factory.
/s
I think the main reason I stopped shopping there, though, was because I smartened up on trading my games in. Before, the ability to trade games and put the money toward new games greatly appealed to me, but then I realized I could make more off my old games getting rid of them other ways. That kinda defeat the purpose of buying from GameStop when it's way more convenient to just buy the game next door at Walmart while I do other shopping. Walmart, which is open 24 hours, which means every release is a midnight launch.
Gamestop has only themselves to blame.
Every time.
Any computer.
Multiple IP addresses.
Multiple accounts.
It makes no sense to me. I contacted their "tech support" and sent them a screen shot and explained that I tried doing this on my home computer, my laptop, my tablet, my grandfathers computer and my work computer and basically got an email back saying "well shit ain't broke on our end, so it sucks to be you."
That is why they are failing.
http://www.youtube.com/watc...
Where else can you buy used games? get deals like B2G1F? Or do a midnight launch? It isn't just Gamestops closing, it's part of the industry closing.
And GameStop usually do those deals when stores like best buy or Walmart host there B2G1F on new games
Where can you buy used games? Plenty: eBay, Amazon, Best Buy, Goozex, Glyde, and especially GameFly (which makes Gamestop look like a joke with their prices and like-new condition).
As for deals like B2G1F, online retailers and reward programs like Best Buy's Gamer's Club crush those deals anyway. Just yesterday I bought Prototype 2 brand new with my Gamer's Club at Best Buy for $5. So no, Gamestop isn't leading anyone in deals, and if they did, they wouldn't be in this state of downsizing.
I'll give you one thing - the midnight launch. Only a few Best Buys do this occasionally for a game, but that's pretty much the only thing online retailers can't do. But the percentage of people that even show up for them, outside of major huge releases is miniscule. Also, that shouldn't be a reason to keep a whole company afloat.
Gamestop and other brick and mortar stores are closing down because they simply can't compete in terms of pricing, convenience, deals, and customer service.
Also, the general reaction on here seems to agree that losing jobs is bad, but frankly, too many people have been burned by Gamestop for their rude customer service and business practices that I can see why they'd want the company as a whole to go under.
Some places price match because of gamestop. If you get "burned" by trading in games, stop trading in games. I've never traded a single game or piece of hardware to Gamestop or any other store. I still have all of my games, why waste money by trading it in? I don't consider that Gamestop ripping people off, they are up front about what they offer, and from time to time offer good deals on trade ins.
What customer service does Amazon or online shops offer? I much prefer to talk with someone, but that's just me.
What happens to one, has an affect on all.
But Gamestop has been losing ground as a competitor very much like the Dreamcast was a decade ago. And what happened after it went away? Competition moved on with different players.
I'll even use a recent brick-and-mortar example: Circuit City and CompUSA.
Both stores went under and were taken in by the online retailer, Tiger Direct.
Pricing and competition for electronics has still been as competitive as it was when they were around. It's just that the scene has simply moved into the virtual space.
As for the price matching of Gamestop, I follow game sales very closely and I'll be honest, minus the few competitive sales they've had on select titles during the holiday/Black Friday season (which other retailers also had as well), their games are consistently higher priced than online retailers.
And if you ever used Amazon or another online retailer like Newegg, you'd think the "customer service" at Gamestop is a joke. Both of them have instant online chatting with a very capable representative. They handle price matching, returns, information, you name it.
If you do miss "talking" to someone, they also have excellent phone support. If you really wanted to see the person, then by all means, travel to Gamestop and talk to their employees in person.
But what I can achieve in terms of retrieving game information, pricing, purchases, returns, you name it, can be done with a fraction of the time and effort it takes to walk to a Gamestop and deal with oftentimes, an incompetent baffoon.
Like it or not, mainstream and brick and mortal retailers are vital to sales for the industry. If you are not at least a little sad about this, there is something wrong on multiple levels.
This will result in a loss of sales for developers whether you like gamestop or not.
I would hope we all could appreciate what brick and mortar stores do for not only the gaming industry but across the board as well as creating local jobs.
Try doing any of that in Wal-Mart.
Me: "You have Metal Gear Solid 3? I want a new copy"
Walmart Employee: "Huh? Did you check the auto department?"
Me " no the game"
Walmart "Oh, I don't think so. if its not up front we dont."
It sucks.
I haven't bought a game in Gamestop going on 8 years now (maybe 10). Heck even my kids know where to buy games (and my friends ONLINE BABY!
Amazon has amazing deals and there return policy is spot on.
Hell I bought X-com and Borderlands 2 for $20 bucks each, brand new, during their lightning deals.
Gamestop is a blemish on the whole gaming industry and this is the best news I've heard this year (will be hard to top) and all of last year.
Let them keep promoting garbage like COD.