f13.net

(http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/41161/Images/gamestop.jpg)

Oh snap.  Gamestop execs have got to be shitting themselves right about now.

Oh man, that's awesome.

Wish we had it here.

I assume this is temporary or made up?

Pilot. I imagine they'll be doing it for awhile.

Holy shit.

This is awesome.  Maybe EBStop will fire back by taking more than $5 offer for a disc covered in greasy finger prints.

If BB is in for a long haul with this, that's really all EBStops can do.  Put their used price point under BB's bulk cost.  Which, in turn, means EBStops are going to offer less in trade on games.  Then again, I never took Econ 101 so I'm talking out of my rear.   

All I know is that I'll drive an extra 20 miles to get a new game over used.  Last used game I bought years ago had a huge dried booger in the manual.

It doesn't require Econ 101 to see a price war at hand. Having worked at EB Games before and after the buy out, I can tell you two things: A majority of customers are like you and will drive that extra mile to get a new game. Also, EBStop has some seriously deluded people up at the top. When their margins get hit, they'll change. Otherwise they try and wait out the competition.

In my experience, most people are fucking dumb cheap bastards, and covet that $5 saved by going used. As we don't currently have a BB in our immediate area (in southern NJ, so wtf?), I'm not sure how much that would affect the stores in my area.

I don't know what planet you're from, but here on Earth people love blowing money, and absolutely hate buying used stuff.

Only somewhat related, of course. In my personal experience, the few times (3) I've bought something used, I've had no problem. But I'll pay up to double or more to get it new.

I've never had a problem buying used console games, when compared to new ones.  In fact, sometimes I'll buy a super cheap console game that looks awful cause I can pick up a used copy for less than 10 bucks.  Of course, I don't play console games very much when compared to computer games anyway.  Granted, computer games aren't really what this is about.

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing really wrong with used and in some cases people do trade in brand new sealed games, which EBStop insists you gut. The problem being people are paranoid and don't want to have to drive back a potential 2-3 times to get a working copy. It's all in their head, but in some cases it is the result of buying used. I think what BB is playing off of is the fact that EBStop guts new games and that can leave some people buy a new game that could be considered used and often times it makes people buy the used copy. Now they have an alternative and can buy that new copy they want at the price point of EBStops used one. Even if it is $5 less, it's a savings and they don't have to put up with worrying they might get the dreaded gutted copy.

FunFact: Gutted copies, in all the stores I worked at, were often run in the consoles for long periods of time or taken home by staff. Canada doesn't have a "take home" policy.

Conversely, I'll only buy used if it's half as much or less than the new version. And it still has to be in good nick.

Actually, I'll consider it if something is under $20 (remember, $AU, not $US - new game here retails for $80-$120). Third category is if it's something totally unavailable otherwise.





What's "gutted"?

But yes, I've done the above. Buy 4x super-cheap POS games from department store to take to media store to trade in for 2x copy of RE4 (they had a trade in 2 games that aren't on their exclusion list for RE4 deal - so I did it twice - usually it's 3 games).

Take 1 copy of RE4 home for effectively 60% of the sale price.

Take 2nd copy of RE4 to EB in the same shopping cente where (since it was just released) the trade-in value is very high.
Buy other game I wanted anyway (getting EB to price-match the game from another dept store's catalogue)
Take home $30 in change on a EB gift card.

There were two guys ahead of me who had done pretty much the same thing (well, trading in the RE4s anyway) - that particular EB was well-stocked on brand-new second-hand copies of RE4, selling for $5 less than a sealed copy.

Gutted is when they open up a sealed copy and take the manual/disc out so they can display the case.

Ah. Pretty much all their "new" games are gutted in the Australian EBs I've been to.

It's funny when we gut something for an employee to sign out, and when they bring it back, wrap it back up and sell as new.

At least I simply peel back the security stickers for putting them back nicely later, and return discs entirely undamaged. I have a feeling people at other stores are not as careful.

What really annoyed me is that ever since EB turned into pawn shop, and there is no market in used PC games, they eliminated nearly all PC games from offered selection altogether. Not having anything but used console games made shopping for a new game a prorder-agonizing experience where you have to keep track of release dates and such. Now I personally order from Amazon, despite in the past enjoying stopping by the game store and browsing selection of new PC releases.

I only buy used if it's under $10 and I only buy new console titles from GameStop if I absolutely cannot find it anywhere else.  I loathe their gutting policy.

It's a terrible policy that my manager and I tried desperately to fight, but when GameStop took over they started doing quarterly store layout changes. When they came in to do ours they gave us shit for only gutting 1 copy and bugging vendors to send us display covers to fill out the rest.

I never buy used anymore.  Almost every time the disc was scratched the fuck up and wouldn't play.
I don't understand how they get scratched from the case to the console.  

/edit grammer

Children.

And they often get scratched going to opposite way. They're fine going in, but games rarely make it back to their case.

I always make sure to check the disc beforehand, and make sure I can return it for a refund if there's any issues.

I was in GS about a month ago to buy PS3 Bionic Commando, they were running a $20 new sale on it.  Of course I get last new (opened) copy.  I asked to see the disc beforehand and  superdouche says "What, you don't trust us?"  So I asked him if I could borrow his wallet for a little bit.  He declined, I asked him "what, you don't trust me?".  Of course that shut his ass right up.  Why the fuck would I trust a complete stranger, as if working at Gamestop makes one morally absolute. 

A few years back I bought a last copy from them and they sealed it with a sticker before I looked at the disc.  Of course, it was scratched.  I mentioned this story to the guy and he said that all the internet and Kotaku press surrounding the employee borrowing resulted in them not being able to borrow games anymore by company directive.  I was hoping that's the case, but I bet it still goes on under the radar. 

Under the radar? As far as I know nothing changed.

For what it's worth, I explain the situation every time before I sell a gut copy, because most people are really confused when I hand them a "new" copy of a game that I have to put the disc into.



And to think, my last day is probably Wed this week...heh.

Interesting.  Must be a story they were told to tell at that store then.  Dunno.  I so rarely buy shit from there because they so rarely put shit on sale.  I'm a cheap ass.

When I run into this situation, I just personally say fuck it and go order it off Amazon nowadays.  I refuse to give Gamestop money even if it's something they get almost no profit on.

I've bought exactly two used items at Gamestop:

1. An XBox that didn't work.
2. A wrestling game that came with the wrong game in the box.

When you figure in the time and expense of returning those they were both net losses.

I must be an anomaly then - I've never had anything but good luck with both new and used purchases from my local Gamestop.  The staff is a bunch of nice guys that have been there a while and genuinely like games, so I don't mind preordering stuff from them to help pad their numbers when it's stuff that I know I'll be buying anyway.

It really depends on the staff. My main store was awesome and our regulars were great people, but the other stores were just terrible. I remember one mall store I worked at, one of the employees brought in his laptop, installed a gutted copy of Oblivion and proceeded to play the game for the entirety of his shift. At one point a customer asked him for help and he told them to wait. Then we get into management that doesn't know how to manage.. you get the point.

If you really want a personal experience at an EBStop, you'll have to go find it.

The one outside of the crappy mall near my house is pretty good.  It must be nice for them at some point in their day to actually serve someone that knows about games.  Most of them aren't hard to talk to either and one even made intelligent conversation about Persona FES when I preordered it.

Probably better than dealing with the usual Mexican day shopper (they are a fun bunch), mouth breathing teens, and trailer park folk.

This post struck me since I had this exact conversation with my then manager at the big box blue mafia store. I worked inventory there for a few years while moving around and country. We had a ton of preorders come in for their official copy of a game a couple of years ago. Almost 40% came back within a week due to scratching on the disc of a completely new, sealed case. At first, my manager and the rest of the crew thought it was a couple of kids coming in trying to pull some shit. However, when we got an influx of kids and adults all with the exact same problem, it became apparent something was amiss. Found out that there was a packaging fault in the process of applying the disc to the plastic tines that hold it in the case. Most broke and the tine that broke off was the culprit, but there were times the disc was completely loose and allowed to Smackdown inside the case while in shipment. Interestingly enough, this was so widespread that the company had to replace an assload of those discs which came in bulk in their own little paper sleeves. And that, my friends, is how Halo 3 was breech-born.

So actually, scratches can take place even before the shrinkwrap is off the package, let alone going to and from machine to case.

My main stores demographic was angry jews, soccer moms, university students and people from DreamCatcher. Best day ever was when two guys came in and asked about Painkiller. I told them it was a fun game, but the companies marketing efforts sucked and they needed to stop relying on a 2 year old game to make sales. Turned out those two guys were VPs at DreamCatcher. :awesome_for_real:

You know, it's funny. I'm primarily a PC gamer. I've got consoles now, I just don't use 'em all that much. I thought the stock situation of Gamestop and Best Buy I've experienced the last few years was unique to Edmonton, or Canada -- but no.

Every GS I've entered here in Maryland (and they're thick as flies -- I know of four within a 20 minutes of the office) has the same thing - PC games on one side of a chest-high, free-standing shelf. Usually they're battered and dusty. Very few new games at all.

The two Best Buys I've entered, by comparison, have 3-4 times the rack space of the Gamestops, with a good selection of games (don't even bother trying to find City of Abandoned Ships or HoI3 at Gamestop).

It's pretty clear to me who's going to be getting all my money now.

EDIT: Oh, this is my 1001st post. I bet the thousandth was even less consequential...

I haven't bought a boxed PC game since WOLK.  Steam usually covers my needs.

Best Buy still has a long shelf.  GS has this ugly little cramped thing jammed with a hodgepodge games (mostly MMOs).  It looks foul.

I've never gotten an unworking game at EBStop, and I buy almost exclusively used because I am both a cheap and broke bastard. However, I've found that the amount of desire I have to stab the employees in the face is highly variable based on location. We have 5 stores within a 30 minute driving distance. The two nearest me are full of annoying fuckwits that I wouldn't piss on if they were on fire. They make me want to slap kittens in their presence. Whether it's completely ignoring me EVEN AS I'M CHECKING OUT just to talk shit with their friends in the store or humping my leg like a dog in heat for preorders, they fill me with rage. Two others are mediocre. Friendly, but the stores are disorganized. The last is in the posh section of the posh suburb where I went to high school (posh for Mississippi that is). Those guys have their shit together. I went in one night specifically to get Rugby 2006 for the PS2 used because the web site said they had one in stock. Not only did they have it, the guys behind the counter knew exactly where it was because all the used games were in alpha order. And I don't just mean the used games on the wall, I mean in the motherfucking chock full bargain bins on the floor, where they shove all the $10 or less used games. Best experience I've had at a Gamestop since they shit all over the EB Games name.

I also usually buy online, I got lucky with walmart in this story, usually the trip ends in me mumbling incoherently about being utterly incapable of impulse purchasing.

The staff at the Gamestop here make me want to go all Schwarzenegger on them and drive my truck through the window, pinning them behind the desk. YA, DIS IS WHAT I THINK OF YOUR USED CONSOLE CRAP UND ALL OF DESE THINGS!

Gamestop stopped caring about PC games long ago.

ZeniMax is Bethesda Softworks, right?  You'd actually be well off going to MicroCenter in Rockville.  It opened last year in the old husk of where CompUSA used to be.  I went there this weekend, and found DAI-FUCKING-KATANA brand-new in box.  Why?  No freaking clue.  It was $6 though, which is still more than Daikatana is worth.

I remember finding a copy of Asheron's Call 2, new, in a CompUSA. They were trying to sell it for $20.

The same month the game was slated to shut down.  :oh_i_see:



Also, Haemish - That nice store you liked is probably the District Manager's home base store. That's how it is near me anyway, and that store is Very busy.

The somewhat surprising part is that you are correct. I thought the game would have some sort of niche value nowadays, and, well... (http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m38.l1313&_nkw=daikatana&_sacat=See-All-Categories)

Micro Center is based out of Columbus, Ohio here; I actually worked at their home office for 10+ years before going into the library system in Columbus.  Their prices are high compared to internet sites, but they rarely junk stuff so you can find really obscure games there usually. 

For example, the broadsheet I got this past weekend had Nox on sale for like $10.   :awesome_for_real:  Not a joke.  Hell, nobody even played that game when it was released, let alone 10 years from then.

I could make nerds cream their pants if I went into detail on the employee sales we had.  Nothing over a dollar.  That server rack?  $1.00.  That 20# box of CDrs?  $1.00.  Demo PCs given to us for testing?  $1.00.  God damn those quarterly sales were  :drill:  Stacks and stacks of software, all $1.00, as much as you could carry in your arms to your car.  Then back again.  and again.

HEY, I played Nox when it came out. I even liked it.

I still have it!  :awesome_for_real:

I love that place. I'm willing to pay the 'slightly higher than internet' prices for objects I can see and fiddle with.  Microcenter hits that very well.

Same experience.  I went into GS looking for HOI3 and the guy says "PC games aren't really our thing".  Needless to say he didn't have it.  So I went next door to Wal-Mart and they had several copies.  I hate buying at Wal-Mart, but it's the only other place in town that sells games.  I wanted to help out GS, but now they "aren't really my thing."

(My god, the crawling, swarming mass of disease-ridden vermin at Wal-Mart.  They were  as thick as bloated flies around the $1 bins)

There's this thing called Amazon........

Seriously, I haven't bought a game at a walk in store in years.  Plus, if you wait around long enough for Steam, everything will eventually go on a good sale.

Ah yes my MILF club how I miss thee!

I really wish we could have operated that store under our own name without EBs corporate shenanigans, it was an awesome store with awesome people. I guess it was a good thing I never communicated with the DMs as it kept them out of our store for the most part.

Although you have to admit we...or I...am guilty of installing games and playing them on my laptop. Remember Half Life 2: Episode 1? I killed that game in one shift.

Yeah, but we defected that bitch before we left... didn't we?

Gamefly is nice for used games since you know what you're getting beforehand, but can't say I've ever had a problem with used games from other places.  But yeah, it's Newegg, Amazon or Steam for me now.  Not really for any fault from Gamestop either as I've never had a bad experience there.

Newegg's software delivery != Newegg's hardware delivery.

I'm so used to getting newegg stuff the morning after I order it (with their free shipping), I was disappointed when Drakensang took over a week to arrive.

And though I gripe about the inability to make impulse buys, it really only bites me twice a year at most. I generally plan way ahead for purchases, whether release date or my list of game I watch to hit the bin. My newer gripe is about amazon making it so easy for bin clearinghouses to step in and keep prices of games high. 1701 Gold should've been $20 at most by now, but it's still $30. So I bought the new one instead. My buying of bin games has gone way down since the pricing slowdowns. I've bought more through Steam sales than online bin boxes this year.

I buy all games through Amazon or Steam anymore. The only thing I kinda miss impulse buying is books, but the shit selection at the local Borders, and hovering annoying shits at B&N here make Amazon all that sweeter.

There are 3 EBGamestops here. They had 1 helpful, knowledgeable employee between them, and he's in prison now for terrorism.

I almost always go to Steam for PC and Amazon for console. The GS closest to me is trash, same as the one described above  where the employees ignore you even when paying for an item. The other one is a 20min drive and it depends on who's working if service is acceptable or not. The store itself is normally clean and usually pretty well maintained, so that's a bonus.

For the Newegg thing, since I've never had a part arrive before the 5th business day and Amazon is normally a faster arrival for me, I don't even think of ordering games from Newegg.

For me, buying through Steam is unclean. I will never buy anything from fuckers that fagged-up my CS.

That makes you a retard.

I impulse buy on the internet all the time.  I have, what, 40 Steam games to prove that.  This Newegg 1 day software thing intrigues me........

Really, the last time I went to Best Buy to pick up a game they didn't have it in stock, however they did have Hellgate London in stock (post shut down).  I can wait 2-3 days.

Do you bury all your money in your back yard in Mason Jars? 

Oh, lay off him.  I seem to recall that when Steam was first introduced, it was trendy for some obscure nerd-politics reason to be dead set against it around here.  For politeness's sake, I won't name names. 

Back when it was buggy and unbearably slow? Sure. And when Nintendo packages a regular controller on a high-def unit that isn't a couple gamecubes strapped together and a pack-in game that isn't made for mouthbreathers, we'll get off their ass too.

Steam has taken more of my money in the last 6 months than any other gaming outlet. The reason is specials, the $19.99 factor, and Mount and Blade.

I'm one of those people and I still think that way. Unfortunately I'm a weak-willed lazy bum and I actually have a real Internet connection now so some of their sales have been too good to pass up.

Despised steam when it first launched but they have redeemed themselves a million times over. Steam is now mandatory for PC gamers. LIVE IN THE NOW!

I'm fine with steam for sale products, and obviously, Valve products.

Otherwise I prefer the packaged versions. Though even then unless it's something I MUST play immediately I often wait for it to get cheap locally, or get it from these guys. http://www.startupmedia.co.uk/ which is hugely cheaper than buying locally.

At the moment, Borderlands and Modern Warfare 2 strike my interest..

Really though, most of my buying for the last year or so has been cheap-ass 360 games on sale. Sometimes I even get what I pay for.  :why_so_serious:



It took that?  :awesome_for_real:

Triforcer has a point. (:uhrr:) When Steam was released everyone here was shitting all over it like it was the bubonic plague and predicted it wouldn't get anywhere as a digital distribution method.

Hardware I generally get next day, software is slow.

I still prefer boxes I can see on my shelf. Steam is good for sales on my "second tier" games I wouldn't have tried at full price (Dawn of War), indies ( Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble), and games whose boxed versions come with draconian DRM that I refuse to allow on my PC (X3, Mass Effect -- oh yeah, I went there).

That's because it was a complete piece of shit when it was released.  It's cleaned up a bit since then.

They fixed their problems.

As compared to Mythic with Warhammer, where problems weren't fixed. Sinij is just being a stupid, idiot, retard troll with his THEY HURT MAH COUNTERSTRIKE bullshit. GTFO with that crap and Triforcer's white knighting.

He doesn't have a point, he's just being a troll. No one here has ever had any quarrel with products that actually go through and fix their shit. Hell, look at Eve (and EQII to varying degrees).

I still think the former is Not a Good Game (TM), but I'd be a fool to say it wasn't 10x better.

With the vast amount of just crazy good bargains they have just about every goddamn week, shitting on Steam for being a buggy POS when it was released is the height of idiocy. But, you know... Sinji.

Did they add Trammel?

For certain creative values of "everyone", maybe.  I searched around for early Steam threads and this (http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=1145.0) is the first one I could find that was largely dedicated to slapfights over the future of Steam.  The "OMG VALVE JUST WANTS UR MONEYZ" doomcasting is limited to one or two people.

And my comments back then are still true today :awesome_for_real:

And yet you're merrily downloading cheap games through that "obnoxious piece of spyware" even as it "dumps software on your machine behind your back".   :awesome_for_real:

Yup :awesome_for_real:

I wish schild's prediction about POTBS was true.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawat?

From the linked thread. You predicted it was vaporware. That would have been the less painful way to go.

WAIT

PIRATES OF THE BURNING SEA CAME OUT?

HOLY SHIT.

Hey Schild, do you want to be in our Hellgate: London guild? We're all super excited about that.

Iain, if I ever meet you, I will rip your goddamn nose off with my teeth. I swear to god.

Nice to know, but why does it deserve a second chance?

He might be too busy enjoying new combat system in SWG.

His insult was well-timed and funny, yours was stupid and past its expiration date.

I was about to respond to you seriously, but then I realized that even if it literally pleasured you orally, you're happier continuing to live in the 20th century.  Who am I to interfere with your happiness?

I'd put it to him another way:


It had problems, but it's better now.

Try it, or don't - I don't really give a fuck. It doesn't effect me either way.

 :awesome_for_real:

If Steam raped and murdered your family and forced you to watch, I could understand taking that kind of uncompromising position.  As it stands, it deserves a second chance because it got waaaay better.  Almost good, even.  Almost.

At the time my sniper rifle and bridge @ dust was closest thing I had to a family... yes, they made me watch.

So you blame Steam for the irrational hatred of Steam that forced you to stop playing CS?

 :roll:

(http://www.comicsvillage.com/Images/Columns/5/FV_dramaqueen.JPG)

NSFW?

They did you a favor if it forced you to stop playing CS.

HEY-OH!

Any dislike I have for steam is eclipsed by the hatred I have for the gaming retailers. And that's even before I consider they demand ridiculous markups in Australia.

Knowing I'll probably never buy a game from EB again puts a smile on my face each time I walk by.