Ah GameStop, a store with a storied history with many of us here at The Wired Fish. Gamestop’s annual sales report came in for 2012, and it’s not pretty. Gamestop sales took a hit last year with more people getting their games either online via Amazon or Wal-Mart, downloading digital versions of games, or getting their used game fix from Target and Best Buy. There’s also Gamefly and its slow, but useful, rental service for checking one’s doubts about a game. And in the wake of rumors of Anti-Used game features in the upcoming PS4 and Xbox Durango, the bread and butter of Gamestop’s business, the heat is on for the used game giant.
And of course the many, many stories online of people’s horrible experiences with Gamestop, whether its shopping there or working there. From the bullshit price for selling games to them, to the bullshit price of them selling back your game. From the constant hustling of its GameInformer subscriptions to the constant hustling of pre-orders. From the annoying kids and dumbass parents, to the stench of nerd heat that permeates across the store. We can all say with the utmost of confidence, “we saw this coming.” About 500 stores will be closing up nationwide this year. While it’s nice for some to hear such news, there are people that run those stores, and that’s a lot of jobs that are going poof. Given the employees are treated like shit by the managers and district managers, at the same time these guys might need the little money they get from the store. Or maybe they’re happy to leave their hellhole of a job for greener pastures.
This should be a sign to the managers and DMs of the remaining stores: treat your employees and your customers with some respect. It’s a couple of the factor contributing to your downfall.And shoppers, keep your eyes peeled ’cause there’s a good chance those 500 stores are going to have a Going Out Of Business sale, and GOOB sales tend to have some deeeeeep discounts.
Thanks to our Cameraman Gesfrid for the tip.
About 500 GameStop Stores Going Out Of Business [Playstation Gang]
The Wired Fish Network 
I hate this massive anti Gamestop crap that is all over the internet. Crap prices for used games you say? At my store(yes, I work at Gamestop) we have dozens of “Call of Duty: Black Ops” that we paid anywhere from ten to twenty five dollars for. Those copies are selling for $19.99 ($17.99 with a Power Up Card). That is about $9 of profit per game, if they were all bought at $10, and if they all sell. They will not all sell, not even close, and most were bought at more than the current trade in value. Gamestop pays for your games when no one else wants them, and has no guarantee that they will stay valuable, or even sell. If you want to get the current market value for your game, you can go elsewhere, but if Gamestop gave you that value, they would be out of business. When you add in the costs of rent, electricity and payroll, combine it with the risk that the game will never sell, or drop drastically in value, Gamestop is barely making a profit.
Allow my colleague Bryan “Daikuma” to chime in.
“I really hate to see so many people lose their jobs. But this was bound to happen. Gamestop refused to innovate or modify their practices that received the “worse” press. And this is the inevitable result. This isn’t something that is recent, but in the making of years of bad practices. They refused to give more bang for buck in the used game department and refused to keep new games in cases. They let companies use them as a system to disenfranchise other companies (i.e video game content codes). These practices, at first, bring in great profits, but they bottleneck at some point and this is said point. They are losing to online stores (Amazon, Gamefly, etc) because they never reevaluated their position. The had illusions of grandeur and now they are paying for it. Having game exclusives are nice, but if that is the only nice column in the ruins of the Coliseum, then the Roman Empire is clearly over. I wish the best of luck to the laid off employees. You can’t be the authority on gaming stores if you’re not constantly evolving to defeat your competitors”
And now going back to me, I never felt like I was getting any deal in the Gamestops I went to. If more Gamestops were like yours, then maybe things might be better for the company. But as it stands, Gamestop is just not cutting it. Plus, you bring up Call of Duty: Block Ops. Okay sure, high demand of that game (and its series for that mater) will make that game more desirable for both parties. But what about games like Ni No Kuni, The Last Story, or hell, Anarchy Reigns, a budget title. Suddenly that consumer-to-store sell rate drops like a rock, and that game is getting resold a $5-$10 less than the new price. What a joke!
Power-Up card. Wow, what a deal. I don’t get to spend $2 bucks. And who doesn’t want a game? I’ve never heard this complaint before. Any game store that offers to buy games from you will buy them if the disc/cart is in good condition. Doesn’t matter the game.
“When you add in the costs of rent, electricity and payroll, combine it with the risk that the game will never sell, or drop drastically in value, Gamestop is barely making a profit.”
That’s why you find another method of getting money. Maybe if GS had competition, some ideas might bloom! Oh, that’s right, your store bought them all off!
In the end, Gamestop has become a gamestore monopoly since there is no other game-only store competition. There is nothing from that store piques my interest. The quality of Gamestop today is just trash.
Fair enough. I really hate the opening of new games, and feel guilty every time I have to sell one to a customer. But the reason games like Anarchy Reigns don’t trade in for much is because, for the most part, people who want the game have already bought it at launch, and the Power Up card is valuable to those who use it a few times a year, even if Gameinformer is nothing but one huge ad. Gamestop has made some bad business decisions, but so has every company. It is the rise of digital distribution that is killing it more than anything else.
Allow me the opportunity to radically enhance the notion that the Power Up Rewards Pro/Edge Card program is a complete waste of money. Sure, it saves you 10%, but it’s only good on products in which Game Stop gets the money from. Also, $15 for a year is bit outlandish if you’re trying to market it as a savings card. Let me break it down for you, in order to make up for the cost of the card, you would have had to spend $150 in USED merchandise…not that much of deal now, isn’t it?
Also, charging a few bucks less for a used game is downright laughable. They have games that have a $5 price differential. A lot of new games have access codes in order to play the game online, and charging $5 less for a used copy (which may lack case and/or booklet), and then probably suckering them into shoveling out an extra $15 for the ridiculous Pro card, and then the gamer would also have to buy the access code via DLC just to play it online means that they’re paying more in the end.