Is GameStop Facing Extinction?

"Gamer-rider.com writes-- All of that is set to change with the PlayStation 4 and Gaikai, as Sony has promised that every single PS4 games will be available digitally, and instantly. Meaning that the minute you want to play a title, it becomes a simple matter of “click and play”. One can imagine that this is the last thing that execs at GameStop wanted to hear. Numbered are the days when gamers would line up in the cold winter nights outside their local GameStop for midnight releases of big titles. To make things worse, Gaikai and the PS4 have the potential to completely destroy the used game supply that GameStop heavily depends on, as digital copies of games are tied to a specific user account."

[DeadSpaced]

Certainly not from Sony.

[Cupid_Viper_3]

@ DeadSpaced

Please explain your point of view a little more. Sony makes the PSP, PS Vita, the PlaySation 3, and soon the PS4. There are no bigger manufacturers in the consoles business then Sony when it comes to the sheer number of hardware they support at once.

In the Last 8 years, Sony have sold some 245 millions units of hardware between the PsP, PS2, PS3, and the Vita. That number is second only to Nintendo's 273 million. I think you might be underestimating the implications of Gaikai with Sony's Gaming division.

[DeadSpaced]

They did not block used games, therefore, a physical copy of PS4 games will exist. Gamestop banks off of this existence by buying low and selling high.

Therefore, Sony is not causing Gamestop's extinction.

[Cupid_Viper_3]

EA among many other major publishers are expecting their digital sales to overtake the physical sales within the next 2 years. http://news.cnet.com/8301-1...
In the meantime, even pre-owned games sales numbers are declining each quarter for GameStop. http://www.dailyfinance.com...
Used games sales fell 16% last quarter for them. http://www.marketwatch.com/...

All this is happening with the current slow digital distribution system we have in place. I imagine this trend to increase even more when Digital distribution will be much faster with the new consoles.

Look at what Netflix did to a business like blockbuster.

[LOGICWINS]

@Cupid- Physical retailers are going nowhere and digital isn't the ideal means for everyone. Not sure why your so obsessive in regards to this topic.

http://n4g.com/news/1179315...

1) Some people like to have a disc in order to let friends borrow a game or easily bring the game to a friends house without having to a lug your entire console.

2)Some people like to have a disc in order to be able to sell it back later

3) Some people would rather buy games on disc because they want to save hardrive space.

4) Some have slow internet connections as don't feel like waiting an entire day for a 12-15GB game to download.

5) What about Collector's Edtions...can you get that via PSN/XBL?

6) Bestbuy/Amazon demolish the PSN Store/XBL in terms of holiday sales, daily deals, Gold Box deals, Black Friday, AND Cyber Monday.

Your ignoring many factors that contradict your argument. Are digital sales rising? Yes. Will they overtake physical sales in the next two years? Nope.

[aCasualGamer]

I hope they go extinct. Gamestop rips off Devs, Publishers and Gamers. How? Let me tell you.

1. You sell your games to Gamestop, you get fraaaaaction of what the game is worth.

2. You buy retail games there and they're all overpriced.

3. You buy used games, they STILL are overpriced.

4. Publishers and devs get zero from all the second hand sales.

5. There are cheaper alternatives, much cheaper. (found a retail game that was cheaper than the same second hand game sold at Gamestop)

So what should you do with your games? Instead of selling them to Gamestop, sell them on Ebay in a bundle and you'll get more. Or talk with friends for trading ("Bro give me your COD i'll give you SKYRIM" win win).

The money you get back from selling on Ebay, you will most likely use on buying other games so devs win on this. Basically, what Gamestop is doing is building an empire because they rip you off and gamers don't care, which is really sad.

[LOGICWINS]

"Basically, what Gamestop is doing is building an empire because they rip you off and gamers don't care, which is really sad."

Actually, whatever empire Gamestop had is crumbling.

http://n4g.com/news/1166282...

I would say this has more to do with new options to sell and buy games(Ebay, Amazon, Bestbuy, Craigslist etc.) as opposed to people buying digital.

[dcbronco]

Developers could make the digital copies more enticing to the buyer. They could discount digital $5-10 below the disc. Ten dollars is workable because a lot of the expense of disc would be gone with digital. Even discount DLC for digital owners. It would be in their best interest to cut out Gamestop. They would sell more copies. Even if it was only 10-20% of sales Gamestop was getting it would be worth it.

[Cupid_Viper_3]

@ Logicwins

You seem to always change a topic to suite your needs. " @Cupid- Physical retailers are going nowhere and digital isn't the ideal means for everyone. Not sure why your so obsessive in regards to this topic."

This Article is "NOT" talking about General Retailers such as best Best Buy, Walmart, Target, and other major retailers. This article is specifically addressing "dedicated video game retailers." quite a difference.

You can always get a get a collectors Edition from Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy and other major chains. But GameStop sells nothing else but Video games. They've already had to close some 500 stores across North America with no plans of reopening them in the future.

"Some have slow internet connections as don't feel like waiting an entire day for a 12-15GB game to download." you don't have to wait with Gaikai, again, stay within the context.

If you own a store that only sell Potatoes, and a new technology comes that allow people to grow instant potatoes from their home, you're probably going to run out of business. Why? Because you only sell Potatoes? But a business who sales potatoes, and carrots, and meats and other stuff will do just fine.

Again, the slow internet connection was used to compare Netflix and Blockbuster, but we all know how that ended.

'“There were divergent trends when looking at content spending in 2012 as a whole with a decrease of 21 percent in spending on physical content whiel digital content spending grew 16 percent.”

In 2011, NPD Group saw downloadable content as the one bright spot of the sales figures. Their report notes that the increase in sales help to offset the decrease in sales in other areas. In 2013, trends in the gaming market show console and physical game sales to be on the decline. This makes digital distribution even more important for the future of the games industry." http://business.financialpo...

[ABizzel1]

No, but their used game market may feel a drop thanks to companies pushing hard for digital.

[admiralvic]

@ Logicwins

You forgot data caps... why does everyone forget data caps?

[DOOMZ]

PS4 is a Trojan Horse, just you watch!

[GrandTheftZamboni]

I prefer to have physical copy but I also hate to swap discs. Lately I find myself buying more digital copies for the sheer convenience. Now I often have problem with used up hard drive space.
Ideally I'd prefer having game discs with the ability to copy them onto hard drive like I do with my videos.

[ichimaru]

not facing extinction. It's a retailer, they sell games, no platform is currently download only. I personally perfer physical copies of my games, cases purchasing the walkthroughs ect it's like a collector's item to me. also I don't the "no used games rumor coming to frutation soon". With both sony and nintendo supporting the secondhand market, microsoft from a business standpoint would avoid isolating their console

[BLKxSEPTEMBER]

You no before when people would hate on gamestop I would think they were just on the bandwagon, but yesterday I called them to see how much they buy back Wii U for. The guy told me 80$ credit and 50$ cash. When he told me this he almost seemed embarrassed. That is unbelievable that they would only give someone 80$ credit for a system that cost 299$ and just came out 3 months ago. So now I officially hate game stop so they can go to hell. I will never buy from them again.

[Jek_Porkins]

Not anytime soon, I think Gamestop beefed up when there was a boom in the industry pre-smartphone and tablet. I'd often see 3 Gamestops on the same road only a few miles apart.

I think they should never have gotten out of the retro business, there is huge money in retro, they should still be selling Gamecube, PS2, PS1, Xbox, Gameboy ect.

I think they are evolving a bit as well,they sell tablets, MP3 players and things like that.

[Gamer-Z]

GameStop will be ok like Jek_Porkins said "they are evolving", Gamestop deals in more than just games they buy and sell used devises as well and let me just say you would be hard pressed to find a digital copy of an iPad.

[Playstation4LyFe]

If that happened, 100's of millions of people would boycott

[madpuppy]

I'll still take physical media over digital downloads thank you very much.

[RavageX]

I HOPE that Gamestop is having a hard time because people are finally starting to wake up and see that they are ripping gamers off seriously.

It's ok to buy an old used game from there, or if they have a special sale...but buying a used game that's been out a week? I have seriously seen used copies of games costing MORE than a brand new one at Gamestop.

Plus, whatever you trade you in you might as well bend over. I personally keep my games. Used to trade way back and ended up losing some games that actually meant something to me once they were gone(memories).

Never again.

[tweet75]

its karma heard few good things about gamestop in the last 5 years. The last time i bought a used game there it was scratched to hell. I returned it and got another copy and it was scratched too!

[Darrius Cole]

Is Gamestop facing extinction,...YOU WISH. Not that I have intense love for Gamestop. But owning your game on a disc is still superior to owning the game on as a download from Xbox Live or PSN.

[7SBuzzLightyear7S]

Blocking used games or not, GameStop will no longer be what it is if it continues to sell games at the prices that it does.

At least here in Australia (EB Games), at this very moment you can get NBA 2K12 for $32 pre-owned. Another retailer (JB HiFi) are selling the game new and sealed for $24. This is only one of many games which GS/EB sell far more than the competitor and it's only pre-owned. Imagine a new and sealed copy?

Not sure how long it has been happening, but stores here in Australia take iDevices for trade-in. They sell PC and console games, hardware, redeemable codes (need those for digital content, don't you?), they sell Game Informer (the #1 game magazine in the world. A little hard to find elsewhere sometimes).

They also have a decent rewards system. Oh and online purchases, they are half-decent when games go on sale.

Their business has expanded across the gaming industry and this gives them a chance to redeem themselves by lowering the cost of games to compete with other retailers.

And they have one of the best return policies, in my opinion.

[thatruth86]

EB GAMES IS OWNED BY GAMEstop most known retailers are

[ThatsGaming]

Digital games take HDD space. Next gen the average decent AA and AAA game will probably be around 15-20 GB. Even with TB drives this will leave gamers who have a decent sized collection managing HD space which really stinks.

I buy a lot of games. I buy them all physically so I don't have to manage HD space.

Also, most of Gamestop, Game, Play Asia, and EB Games profits come from the used market. This will not change because the same people who sell their games to these retailers will still need/want to do that, and the same people who buy used will still want to get those deals.