GameStop completes Impulse integration, ex-Microsoft exec Shane Kim joins board

@TerryMasters you mean 4 years ago when Penny Arcade drew it?

@TerryMasters

But it never stopped being relevant.

@System Has Failed Right, because 4 years time isn't enough to generate 200 Gamestop posts. Guess you could say the system has failed, eh?

@Marshillboy Don't get me wrong I never said it wasn't, but am I seriously the only one getting tired of the same stale, not that funny anymore Penny Arcade/Scrooge McDuck pic everytime somebody mentions this place?

@TerryMasters

its because people put devs up in a pedestal... God forbid a COMPANY finds a way to keep 100% of the sales for themselves. I wonder why nobody holds Sony's team of inventors and makers of Bravia TV's? or maybe Dell/Apple makers... because if you put a 2000 computer for sale @ 1200 you damn better expect a fire sale. buuu... buuu... buuu.. waaaa about the devs. *rolls eyes*

@PR0F3TA

I'd rather buy a game $30 used than pay $60 out the mouth to these jerks, and THEN have to buy all the cruddy DLC they nickle and dime you with. Please people, the devs are reaping in a cash harvest as well just by stripping out half the game from the disk, then selling it over time as "DLC". The devs are also stripping out entire sections of Multiplayer to force new purchases. So hey, I'm with you Pr0f. Freck the Devs.

@ShivanSwordsman Yeah guys! Who needs game developers? Down with game development! Let's all go play with sticks in the yard and show them developers who's boss!

@FriedConsole

Finally, Origin has some real competition. It's now a race. A race... to the BOTTOM.

@FriedConsole

Usually a superior option that beats all competition, though. In the case of Netflix and Blockbuster, we have the beautiful Red Box.

@FriedConsole

Thank you Fried Console... for proving the mentality of a 12 year old gamer on Joystiq... how about choosing what if best for you. Theres a Blockbuster down the street, they also rent games, you don't want netflix + gamefly you can go with Blockbuster. You are a student, don't have a job, there is a sale on Uncharted 2 used for 20 bucks. If you buy it new it costs 30... what do you do? lets see.... DO WHAT IS BEST FOR YOU... not liking a company because of what its called is so pathetic and childish. Sadly, there are dozens of you.

@PR0F3TA

Not liking a company because I have had bad experiences there is not childish.

Reasons I don't go to Gamestop:
1) Multiple snarky comments about my games I am buying from the clerk.
2) Having to answer "No" to 5 different questions when buying a game.
3) Wasting time on getting an offer for a trade-in. Not even close. Selling them on Ebay for over twice as much.
4) Getting a "new" game in a opened box. Makes for an awkward gift giving experience.
5) Dealing with kids just left there by parents.
6) Avoiding smelly creepy guy who is there all day but doesn't work there. (What is up with that guy?)

If you like Gamestop, good for you. You deserve to be ripped off.

Do I even need to list things wrong with Blockbuster? Ever late with a movie at Blockbuster? I hope you can afford another mortgage.

@FriedConsole

oh ok, so let me get this straight...

1) Specific problem that is encountered at locations with no diversity (ohio?)... i live in NYC and i never gotten a scoff or "snarky" remark.

2) ITS THEIR JOB, you moron, have you ever worked retail? like ever? 5 questions apply to EVERY store... are you a member? whats your phone #? bla bla bla

3) You hate gamestop trade prices even though KNOWINGLY you can do it through other means and get more $$$... so you basically hate them for an option you don't use. real smart thinking

4) "Getting a "new" game in a opened box. Makes for an awkward gift giving experience." - THIS is a legitamite complain since the rule is you buy new you should get new. I never accepted a "new" copy, and nither should you (Target, Walmart maybe?)

5) So you want the store costumers and video game buyers in general to be that age YOU want them to be, you don't even want parents to buy their kids game. Nooooo not for Mr. Leet Gamer over here, He won't buy game at stores because of all those annoying parents buying game for their kids, or those stupid little kids who will soon become like Mr. Leet over here... a gamer. How do you shop at ANY stores at all really? all those inexperienced shoppers, must drive you mad.

6) Avoiding smelly creepy guy who is there all day but doesn't work there. (What is up with that guy?) - again, a problem someone who lives in (enter unknown town)... if there is a creepy smelly guy at my gamestop the managers would always ask him to leave. unless he's a legit costumer... then i'd have to ask, why do you care what Mr. Creepy Smelly guy is doing anyways?

@PR0F3TA

That's great that you care that much about a corporation to get all worked up about it.

I have a feeling if I said GameStop raped my grandma you would still defend it .

@FriedConsole I don't think you bashing Gamestop got him mad, it was your crappy points. My Gamestops have never had any of those problems.

@PR0F3TA dude i live in n.y and the cashier called me a monster cause i traded in 10 gamboy advance games he had to manually type in

@FriedConsole
Wow, did we use to go to the same Gamestop? :o

@xiLeShadow

This is, of course, they stand a chance, given the negative stigma Gamestop seems to have.

@xiLeShadow

oh lookie, a post hating GameStop and praising Steam... you are so new and original!

@PR0F3TA

Actually, the post is pretty much the opposite of what you say.

@PR0F3TA

Talk about raging fanboys.....

@The Scout

Seriously. Reading down over the comments section, he's in every major thread. Makes me wonder how much "prof3t" he's getting from GameStop (God, that actually hurt me to type it out!).

More likely he's just got a lot of extra time on his hands.

@xiLeShadow
true that except when they dont put games onto steam like EA -_- i will be waiting for origin to fail because im OCD about my game collection being in one spot , but yes i like competition aslong as its just that and not a forced alternative like origin

@US 447


... it's about Gamestop's complete lack of foresight and morality. yes making money is a good thing, but Gamestop specializes in undercutting the publishers revenue. we all despise how much the publishers milk us but if they don't ever get paid ... they stop making games and shift to doing something else.

A major contributor to the development of the Digital Distribution side to PSN, Live, and Nintendo's "Warez" stores IS Gamestop's efforts to essentially kill it's own market.

@Notme2

wait ... what the hell are you talking about?

with new games the retailer (like best buy, Walmart, and yes Gamestop too ... same thing with DD also) has to pay the publisher a set price for every game they sell, regardless of how much the retailer actually sold it for.

so if Best Buy sells a game for $59.99 and Walmart sells the same game for $39.99 they both still have to pay the publisher $29.99 for each copy sold ... this is great for the publisher because they get paid the same no matter what and it's up to the retailer's as for how much they want to undercut their profits in order to out sell their competitors.

but this also can turn around and bite the publishers in the ass because despite actually having to foot the bill to print up those boxes and disks, they don't get paid for the boxes that sit on the shelf and don't get sold.

now enter Gamestop:

they buy like 10-20 copies of a game per store (unless it's a "big" title like halo), just enough to cover the initial release week rush and have a few left over. then they leave the -new- boxes on the shelf for the full $59.99 price and start buying used copies for less than $10 each (usually something like a dollar each game), but reselling them for $39.99 - $49.99.

so now you have got $59.99 new boxes up on the wall next to $40 used boxes, which one you gonna choose: the $60 one or the $40 one?

a blind chipmunk could figure out that the only reason Gamestop is keeping those new boxes around is to make the used copies seem like a good deal even though everyone knows that Gamestop paid less than one of their employees hourly wage for it ...

back to the issue of the publisher take on things: the first time a game gets sold for $60 the publisher gets $30 as a cut from the sale, then that person sell the game to game stop for $1 (in credit so no money actually is returned to the player) and Gamestop resells that game for $40. two players have now spent $100 on that game: the publisher made $30, the retailer who sold it new made $30, and Gamestop made $40.

now say that the person who paid $40 for it used plays it and sells it back, then someone else buys it for $40 also: Gamestop has now made $80 off this copy but the publisher still hasn't gotten paid more than the $30 they got for the game when it was sold new.

... I'm guessing your still not seeing the problem here, but I really doubt you will -get it- even if I tried to make a logical explanation of how publishers need to make money to stay in business and developers kinda need the support of publishers to pay their bills while they are making the games that you buy, so I'm gonna stop here after making the statement:

"Gamestop does not make any of the games you buy from them, every cent you give to Gamestop for a used title is a cent that never has a chance to trickle down to the programmers, artists, and writers who's hands actually made the game your buying."

@Notme2

Are you 12? There are no "royalty type monies" anyone makes off the sale of used games. Its straight cash into GameStop pockets.

Fun fact: less than half of Gamestop's total profit comes from used games as of their fiscal year 2010 report. Anyone mind explaining where the other 60-something percent comes from?

@ecco6t9

AC: Brotherhood is now $40 on PSN. Why not buy that?

@ecco6t9 Really? A game has to last 5 years for it to be worth it for you? You go to the movies these days and a ticket costs around $10 depending on where you live. You get 2 hours of entertainment, so like $5 an hour. A single player game can last anywhere from 10-100 hours. Add on multiplayer and you're looking at 20 - 100 hours. At 10 hours it would be $6 an hour of entertainment. At 100 hours it's $0.60 an hour. Now let's think about how many hours you would spend over 5 years, maybe 500 hours? So gaming is only worth it if you're paying $0.12 per hour?

I think its 20 bux on ebay though...

@Roflrex upvote 4 u. Gstop only had a net income of 400 million in 2009 or 2010. Revenue of 9 or 10 billion. So that's like 4 % profit right? Doesn't seem that excessive to me.

@GuardianLegend

I've been checking the profit margins of various companies on Wikipedia.

Gamestop is about 5%. Microsoft is about 30%. Walmart and Target around 4%. Zynga 35%. Google 30%.

I used to be very anti-Gamestop but after doing the research it's really just like any other retail store.

Haha. Man my gamestop is great. Friendly efficient and fair. I'm so baffled when I read your stories. I guess I'm lucky :\

@GuardianLegend
Hmm maybe not. Gstop is worth 81 billion dollars I think! Wow. How can anyone buy that?!

Ok I think gstop iis worth 3.5 billion usd. So maybe game companies should just buy gstop afterall.

@AxelSteelBMX People said the same when Steam came out. "Why buy my games online when I can buy them in stores?!" Times change and people enjoy making money and updating with the times. Gamestop being only a video game store, it only seems like the next step to offer digitally distributed games. How would there even be a middle-man when you would be downloading it from the website, it's the same as Steam. Unless of course, you are referring to pirating and the middle-man = paying money.

@Roflrex

Technically there's always a middleman. Steam still takes a 20-30% cut for being a retailer. When you look at some of the insane sales they have with games selling for $5-10, many companies aren't seeing a great return even when they're moving thousands of copies. People rip on EA for Origin but they're just removing the middleman too. The irony is publishers are the middleman for developers. In a perfect world, developers wouldn't need someone to package and sell their game but until then EA will get 100% for Mass Effect while BioWare gets only what they need to produce their game and a big fat pink slip if they ever fail.

@ttank Right? They're always charging so much for stuff, never do sales, the service is always out, they have no system for blocking or banning cheaters, it's so insecure and people's accounts get hacked daily, they never come out with new features, I could go on and on. Finally some of these blaring issues can be addressed. Unlike Valve, GameStop really cares about the gamers. GameStop are innovators!