GameStop to Close All U.S. Storefronts to Comply with COVID-19 Regulations

All U.S. GameStop stores are closing in order to comply with increasingly restrictive COVID-19 lockdown regulations. The company stated it will be moving to strictly curbside pickups and digital sales until further notice.

[Tetsujin]

Good. Granted video games do help with coping with the situation, and yes I'm a gamer, gaming is not an essential part of living currently. Even though GS claimed other products being part of the solution, bottom line is the upper group tried to capitalize on a national emergency and it failed.

[yellowgerbil]

good? This hysteria has destroyed far more lives than Corona has or will. Corona, like the flu, will have a mortality rate of at best 1%. With most of that 1% people that were on death's door to begin with.
For 80% of people that do get Corona the symptoms are no worse than a mild cold, and even those that are in that 20% they have already discovered multiple medications that drastically improve and shorten their time down.
Yet here we are, the governments of the world are forcing business' closed and people to stay in there home.
To quote V for Vendetta
"And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now high chancellor, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent"

[toxic-inferno]

You are, of course, entitled to your opinion. But regardless of the potential statistics regarding survival rate, the virus still endangers the life of every single person on the planet, and drastic measures need to be taken.

Comparing it to the flu is not appropriate - yes, flu kills many people every year, but it is well understood and easier to control. Covid 19 is currently an unknown danger with the potential to kill millions across the world.

Unfortunately, the purchasing of new, physical video games at this time is unimportant, and the sale of consoles will be far lower during these months anyway due to the impact on the economy. It's sad for Gamestop employees, but the situation requires drastic action.

[Nicknasty]

Thank you for that, finally someone with some damn sense for a change! I couldnt agree more. Experiencing it first hand i can tell you all it is no different than the flu! The media and the government have created mass hysteria and have instilled fear into everyone. Forcing the whole damn world to practically shut down over a flu is incredible. The Swine flu killed way more people than this amd was called for a national emergency. Still, nowhere near this garbage was happening. People are overreacting!

[toxic-inferno]

Swine flu killed around 18,000 over the course of about 12 months. Covid 19 has killed 13,000 in 3 months, and by current projection, is only just getting started.

[DarXyde]

"Corona, like the flu, will have a mortality rate of at best 1%."

So we're just going to minimize the fact that ANYONE will die from Covid-19. Cool.

"With most of that 1% people that were on death's door to begin with."

... wow. That's some perspective you've got there. In case you didn't know, people who die are often elderly, sure. This is due to compromised immune systems...but that also includes very small children without full immunization. There may literally be new parents who lost their babies.

"Yet here we are, the governments of the world are forcing business' closed and people to stay in there home."

Uhhh, yes. Because it's a f****** pandemic for which there is no vaccine that can, apparently, cause lasting lung damage.

Not going to bother with the V for Vendetta bit. Just know that many countries have been criminally unprepared for this.

It is killing people, it is tanking the markets, it is closing borders. You think you know better than the doctors? The health experts? The WHO? Son, you are clueless if you believe that.

[Cupid_Viper_3]

Awww that's so cute! @yellowgerbil

You know what I say? It's one thing to simply get on a forum and spout nonsense. But I'm pretty sure that if your family members were part of that current "supposedly only 1%" number, then your tune would be quite different. It's almost as if we're experts at defying the actual experts, regardless of the subject matter. lol.

As a society, we've collectively decided that we'll just live our lives expending as little energy as possible and we'll let others do the thinking and the most of the 'doing' for us. And a side effect of this is people like that person above who just read a few headlines and now feels like he/she is in a unique position to educate onthe many complexed issues plaguing us while quoting important data and passages from peer-reviewed papers such as V for Vendetta.

Meanwhile, real lives are on the line...

[medman]

@yellowgerbil
There's one in every crowd. Too bad stupidity isn't terminal.

[MadLad]

That's definitely a take on the situation. An idiotic and uninformed take, but definitely a take.

Let's hope nobody in your family gets it.

[yellowgerbil]

To each of you down voting me.
Guess you don't like freedom.
Not going to be here all day so I will respond to 1 point from each of you
@toxic-inferno
Corona was loose in a country of 1 billion people yet only infected 80,000 of them. You say it is "hard" to control, clearly that isn't the case. When everyone says it's impossible to even know if you have it for upwards of weeks, there is no way to quarantine it. If this virus was as effective as you say, 1 billion Chinese would of gotten it.
In new york the news reported that 1000 people were admitted this week to hospitals and that was too much for the hospitals to handle... Yet CDCs own numbers for New York City put it at 1,800 hospitalizations to Influenza A, yet no panic there even though it is nearly double. Hysteria.
@Toxic 2
Swine flu did NOT kill 18,000 in 12 months. IT KILLED 500,000. Look at the H1N1 pandemic of 2009 commonly referred to as the SWINE FLU. We didn't shut down the worlds economy for that one and we continued on fine.
@Darxyde
To my knowledge it still hasn't killed a single child, Influenza A has killed over 150 children so far this year.
@Cupidviper
So if you were a small business owner you would be ok with this 1% death toll putting you out of business, because that is the reality right now in America and many places around the world. People are losing their jobs and in danger of becoming homeless. Entire states children will be held back a year because schools are closed for the rest of the year, how will that effect them? Dying sucks, but we all will at some time. Remember when people were brave and said "well if it's my time to die, it's my time to die" Now it's "PLEASE GOVERNMENT SAVE ME, HERE ARE ALL MY FREEDOMS, JUST PLEASE SAVE ME!"
@medmen
Stupidity is far more terminal than Corona.
@tedcruz
I hope my family doesn't get it, and I hope your family doesn't get it. But there is a limit to what is an acceptable response and what is hysteria. Forcing people to stay in their homes with the looming threat of martial law. Do you really want to be in an entire country that is run by FEMA (how'd that work out for New Orleans?) The cure is worse than the sickness.

[Atticus_finch]

I wish, I was as stupid and naive as @yellowgerbil. Life would be much easier and stress-free.

[toxic-inferno]

@YellowGerbil
I apologise - my stats regarding swine flu were misinformed, however the rate of infection and deaths over the initial months is still greater for Covid 19 than Swine Flu.

However, regarding your initial point, China is in a unique situation, where they went into total lockdown immediately in order to prevent the spread. No other country is prepared to do the same, because it would upset people who would argue that the governments were overreacting.

Take Italy and the UK (where I live) as an example - both delayed in closing schools, shops, etc. And both have struggled to control the spread.

This type of outbreak requires extreme measures in order to prevent the deaths of millions. We teach that to 15 year olds in Biology lessons.

Also, regarding your response to CupidViper - is that really what's happening over there? That does sound rather awful. In the UK, we've got emergency financial support that is supposed to prevent people from losing their jobs, and have a workaround to prevent students having to repeat years.

[Edgelordsupreme]

Yellow gerbil at it again, 2% mortality rate for a virus 40 to 70% of people are projected to get is still a massive number. Acting like this is some kind of assault on your personal freedoms is grade A paranoia. You're basically just as guilty of hysteria as the people you're railing on.

Remember when people were brave and said "well if it's my time to die, it's my time to die" Now it's "PLEASE GOVERNMENT SAVE ME, HERE ARE ALL MY FREEDOMS, JUST PLEASE SAVE ME!" Your perspective on things is clearly that of a teenager, if you're an adult do some growing.

[yellowgerbil]

@Toxic-inferno
My point with the number of swine flu is the reaction of the world (yes there was quite a bit of unnecessary panic) the world didn't shut down the economy over it and people went on living. What it boils down to is what is a reasonable reaction. If you stub your toe is it reasonable to cut your foot off to avoid the pain of the toe???
You are free to disagree, but a virus that only kills about 1% of those infected (the number is 3, but I think we can all agree there is about 10x as many infected as reported due to the fact that only the worst cases seek medical attention and 80% of people can walk around with it for weeks without much more than a cold for symptoms).
But back to my point. This virus kills 1% of people infected. I don't believe ruining the other 99% is a reasonable measure. Small business' have a hard enough time surviving in normal times, how is a little locally run deli going to survive months of forced shuttered doors? The fear of a potential of 1% dying has now destroyed that deli owners dreams and livelihood.
All the down voters out there. You say think about that 1% and grit your teeth to protect them, Well I tell you to look at the 1% of people who scrimped and scraped and worked there butts off to build something of their own, their own business beholden to nobody. Now Put your feet in their shoes when the government comes knocking and saying you have to shut down, for potentially months. I live in Michigan, that is the reality here. I see so many small local business' shuttered and know that for many they will never recover from this panic.
People lives are being ruined by this panic, not by Corona. The death toll is less than the common flu, but millions will lose their jobs, their pensions, their retirement money, their education because of the decisions of the government to force them to close shop and stay home.
I am a libertarian and look at it with a lense of the government shouldn't have any say in my life outside of stopping me from impeding the freedoms of others. I see this as a massive invasion of my rights and yours. You are free to disagree but I don't trust the government to ever relinquish any power they take (just look at the surveillance of our phones being acceptable. Once you accept something, getting rid of it becomes near impossible).

[toxic-inferno]

We're obviously coming at this from very different perspectives, so I'm going to bow out of this conversation, as I don't believe there's any likelihood that any agreement can be made.

However, I will say this: Comparing any current epidemic to previous epidemics is inherently naive. Doing so undermines the way that biology functions and risks the lives of hundreds of people. When hundreds of thousands of people's lives are at risk, it is foolish to continue as normal so as to protect small businesses. Comparing the current epidemic to a stunned toe is totally inappropriate, as this is instead a deadly and infectious disease. If someone's foot develops gangrene, or if someone develops a cancerous tumour, you do what you can to treat the illness, but you accept that massive sacrifices need to be made.

Over here in the UK, the government is doing what it can to support small businesses and individuals (and I'm saying this as a critic of the current government). Yes, some of those people will lose their jobs, and their dreams may need to be rebuilt once this is over, but that is something that needs to be accepted. The prediction in the UK (from reliable sources) was that 500,000 people would die in this pandemic if severe steps were not taken, including closing shops. 500,000 people is a hugely significant proportion of our population.

Should people have simply "carried on" with their lives when their country was at war? In Britain, life during the World Wars was terribly grim, but people did what had to be done.

[yellowgerbil]

@edgelord
You say 40 to 70% of people will get it based on nothing. Meanwhile based on the actual numbers in china as a sample. 80,000 people got it out of 1,500,000,000 which is actually less than .01% of their population. This is based on ACTUAL NUMBERS not catastrophic thinking.
60,000 people in Italy have it out of 60,000,000. a .1% of their population
8,000 cases in S. Korea out of 51,000,000. .01%
21,000 cases in Iran out of 81,000,000 people. almost .01%
----------------------------- ----------
The American population is 331,000,000.
Looking at the worst case (Italy) with an infection percentage of .1...
300,000 Americans will get Corona if the trends continue. With a mortality rate of 3% (again I believe it is closer to 1% but I will triple it for worst case for you).
1,000 Americans Will die to Corona.
For comparison. The CDC estimates 12,000 to 60,000 Americans will die this year to the flu. 60x as many as Corona.
So in conclusion, the numbers back up my estimation of this virus, and show that Corona is a minor threat outshines by the common flu. When's the last time the world shut down for the flu? It will kill 60x as many people. Why aren't you begging your governments to do something about that?

PS.
I am a grown man, I think for myself and I come to my own conclusions by looking at evidence. Clearly you should do some due diligence yourself, because everyone who down votes me is ignorant to the reality of this virus.

[yellowgerbil]

Too late to edit comment and I don't want to add more misinformation.
I said 300,000 Americans will get it and 1,000 will die.
I messed up my math a bit. 9,000 will die not 1,000 as the worst case. (I don't believe that is how many will, I believe it will end up about 1,000-1,500) but I don't want to contribute to misinformation and wanted the correct numbers here.
Flu will still kill 6x as many American's this year.

[isarai]

What happens to my preorders?

Not saying thats more important but i have like $110 wrapped up in pre-orders and some of those are releasing soon. Does my money or copy just disappear?

[ElementX]

"In a statement, the company said that the move to strictly curbside pickup and digital sales will allow them to still serve customers who have made orders on GameStop's website or app and have requested a physical product pick-up at their local store."

The stores are not letting people in, but the warehouses will probably still ship orders. If not then they'll sit in a warehouse until they can go out.

[isarai]

Well now im more confused, so will i still be able to put more money down on games i haven't payed off yet? My issue is if i have to do it all over the app im screwed cause for whatever reason games i preorder at my local gamestop does not show on the app, only on their local database.

Hmm, ill have to stop over there tomorrow and work those details out. Hopefully they're still open

[Gamehard]

Yeah I'm in the same boat. Got the RE3 collector's edition pre-ordered and not paid off in full, and it doesn't show up under my pre-orders in the app. Hopefully my store will do the curbside pickup, but yeah I was gonna call them tomorrow and see if they know any specifics.

[Urrakia34]

I would recommend either calling your local store to figure out the specifics of your circumstances or worst case you could also pull up with the remaining amount owed when you go to pickup your pre-order.

No reason to worry as I seriously doubt GameStop will flat out keep your money and pre-order copy. If anything, you'll receive the game later than expected which tbh is not that big a deal in light of the world's current dire situation.

[isarai]

Lol why did i get so many disagrees for simply asking a question? This site i swear lol

[isarai]

Ok so stores are already closed in my area, but i got to speak with the manager. Seems they haven't really worked out all the details either, which is expected given how quickly it was mandated. But so far the only option is pay in full on the app and they will reimburse you what you already had down on that game once they open back to regular operations. Or theoretically they may be able to take payments via gift/E-gift cards over the phone but that was more the manager spitballing as right now corporate wants nothing to go through the registers at the moment. Sounds like there's still quite a bit they have to work out.

[blackblades]

Guess this is where buying from amazon and going digital with psn/live comes in handy.

[Ascalon94]

Dont buy from Amazon because you'll experience a huge delay. They are only mailing out "essential items" for the time being. Video games are unfortunately not on that list haha.

[NapalmSanctuary]

I hope they send out my digestion enzymes. They aren't prescription or anything but I can't eat without them.

[rainslacker]

I don't like ordering CE's from amazon anymore. I can't remember the last time I've gotten one that didn't have a damaged box because they just throw it into a bigger box, and maybe sometimes throw one of those bubble things in there which don't prevent it from getting knocked around. Regular games from them is usually OK, but they haven't been able to get me my games on release day since I moved. Normally that doesn't bother me, but Amazon is far from perfect.

Don't think I've ever had a game not be at GS on release day if I preordered it. Even though they say they will only hold it for two days, I've also never had a problem waiting longer if I couldn't make it. I'd usually call them first and let them know though.

I personally wouldn't consider what is an extreme case like we have now, as some sort of huge advantage for digital or online ordering. I'd rather hope that things like this are so rare, they wouldn't have to be used to try and wage a war against retail.

[dp277407]

I got Doom ce for eternal and it was fine the huge outer box was wet bought it had another smaller box then the actual box inside although i'm not trying to dispute your argument just providing my one small real world experience on that one case and I've have tons of problems with shipments i get being damaged but its usually books and stuff they put in the shitty bubble wrap packaging.

[rainslacker]

I just had a run of bad CE purchases through them. They replaced some of them if they still had them available, but when they stopped doing that, I stopped ordering them from them. Now I either get them through Best Buy, GameStop, or directly from the publisher. I've cut back on my CE purchases anyways. I don't have a game room since I moved, so I have less space to have them out. I get one or two a year now.

Otherwise, most new game purchases are through Amazon, because I just add them to my purchases and forget about them. Since moving out in the country though, they can't seem to get here on release day. They ship them UPS, but often times it gets transferred to regular USPS SurePost(or whatever it's called), which tends to delay the package. Not amazon's fault specifically, but I have gotten into arguments with them about just having them send it USPS from the start. They said they would, then just ended up not doing it.

What you end up getting may be dependent on the distribution center they send it from. The one here in NC is really bad about packaging stuff. They sent my $800 receiver in a 2nd box, but absolutely no packaging inside, and lots of space for it to move around. Would have been better off just slapping a shipping label on the retail box, because at least then it wouldn't have been as suseptible to shock damage. Luckily it worked, but I couldn't believe it when I got it.

[esherwood]

Saw like 100 people bumping into eachother today at Walmart...

[FernDiggidy]

idiots plane and simple.

[Edgelordsupreme]

Plain

[dp277407]

I like plane for imagination reasons while reading.

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

GameStop stayed up because one of their biggest competitors, Walmart is required to close. Walmart officers essential goods (foods, toiletries,etc.) in addition to video games. Thus, Walmart can stay open as they sell things people need.

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

I meant Walmart isn’t required*

[rainslacker]

I've been told Lowes is also considered an essential retailer, mostly because they're a FEMA store which provides things that might be needed in an emergency. I guess they do stay open during emergencies in places prone to natural disasters.

I'm not sure what the laws are about people actually going out, or how many are allowed into these stores at a time. Seems kind of pointless to just have everyone still going out, but have fewer choices of where to go, so now they're all huddled into a few locations.

It just seems to me, that if this were something that needed to be done to contain a virus, that some limits would be set to not allow people to just go shopping for the heck of it. I mean, being quarantined for a couple weeks, I can see why I'd want to go to Lowes to grab some stuff to work on the house for two weeks. Doesn't mean it'd be a good idea to actually do so if they had a bunch of people there.

I just think people don't really know what to expect if their state shuts down. What they're allowed to do, and what they aren't allowed to do. I also question the intelligence of people to minimize their reasons for going out to the bare necessity of medical attention or buying groceries.

[william_cade]

HA!

[e3kehoe]

But I thought they were essential?? How can we as a nation ever survive without them??

[DEEBO]

Use to work for GameStop,my Avi is a pick from the Xbox one launch.
I hope they can pull through even though they put too much on the employees with low pay.
My friend is store manager and she was saying that the company was in trouble even before the virus.
Death Stranding was on to something with the delivery system.

[CorndogBurglar]

You don't have to be a store manager, or even an employee to know Gamestop is on their last legs.

You can go to subreddit r/Gamestop on Reddit, or watch Gamestop Chronicles on YouTube. Basically, Gamestop already wasn't even sure if they would be able to make it to the new console launches. The only thing they are making any profit on are Tech Trades. So this could, quite literally, be the nail in the coffin for Gamestop.

Its a shame too. I certainly don't want to see another choice for physical locations to shut down. But I also know Gamestop has been doing some extremely questionable and shady things over the past decade, as well as treating their employees like garbage. I would still much rather see them change course and become a good company than see them shut down though.

[dp277407]

I wish gamestop woulda actually cared about customers and employees instead of trying to cut the things that make them likeable to stay open longer because it def defeated the purpose, The only reason I wouldn't want them to fail is I just have Walmart here with a Gamestop and no small stores to buy from, closest Best Buy is 2 and half hours away.

[DVAcme]

Correction: GameStop FORCED to close all U.S. storefronts to comply with COVID-19 regulations. As a nurse and veteran, these fuckers' AUDACITY to say they're an essential vendor during this crisis is offensive and appalling as fuck. I hope this shit bankrupts them, good fucking riddance to this scumbag company.

[rainslacker]

It's not a national requirement yet to close down in every state. This is still a state level thing.

While I think they overstepped in this instance, hoping they go bankrupt over it is an extreme reaction, and if I had to guess, I'd find that hope expressed in other comments from you before this ever happened. I find it appalling that anyone would wish and hope for any company to have to shutter it's doors, and GS has certainly had it's fair share of this over the years.

GS made a bad decision. There are more important things to worry about, and it's not worth getting that upset over.

[NapalmSanctuary]

Yeah. Guitar Center closed down but I still managed to get my new pickups installed in my guitar through a local store here in Knoxville. A lot of nation wide companies are closing for precautionary reasons. I think Gamestop is just trying to save face after their dirty laundry got leaked.

[gold_drake]

haha ohhh how the tables have turned.

[PS4Gamer1984]

You guys want facts here are facts.
FACT-2009-2010, 60 Million got sick with swine flu in the US alone, estimated US deaths 150k to possibly as high as 540k, I have one simple question? Why didn't the world panic and shut down then?!?

[djplonker]

H1n1 deaths in the us between april 2009 - april 2010 were around 12,500 according to The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Normal flu death in the us in 2010 - 2011 were estimated to be 37,000
(source: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/abo... )

Even if the mortality rate is 1% that is still 5 times more deaths than h1n1, also we don't know much about covid-19.

Also as a final note those infected with h1n1 only took around 24 hours to show symptoms while covid-19 symptoms can take upto 2 weeks to show which makes it almost impossible to contain.

[Atticus_finch]

We in the USA had government that was way more proactive and aggressive when it came to pandemics (H1N1 and Ebola). Sadly that not the case this time, and it is very noticeable.
"I take no responsibility"
"Democrat hoax"

[Juancho51]

Good riddance. I know it sucks for the employees etc...but this company has ripped off gamers for decades. I stopped going to GameStop YEARS ago because of their bullshit.

Gamestop tried to say they were an "essential" storefront during the crisis and that was just them grasping at straws trying to stay relevant. They wouldve nickel and dimed us during the crisis too I'd bet if they're that desperate for cash flow.

[HexxedAvenger]

Lol I was waiting for this. Now that doom and AC are out and they raked in what they could from it, they would lift that stupid decision. If they were clear of their intention I’m sure the flak they got wouldn’t be so much. I hope Reggie is ready for what’s to come lol

[EazyC]

It's weird, we're in the midst of a new severe recession like '08 but because we're dealing with the pandemic the devastation to most industries and the economy in general seems downplayed in comparison