Putting a Stop to Gamestop

[pokeplayer984]

Okay, how many of us has, at one time or another, bought a game from Gamestop?  Raise your hand if you have. *I also raised my hand*

Yeah, pretty much all of us have.

How many of us have bought games "Used" from there?  Again, raise your hand if you have. *Again, I raised my hand*

I'm pretty sure most of you who raised it before did so again.

So, what exactly is the problem with this?  Well, here's the deal.

The way it works when you buy a game new, some of it goes to the store you bought it from, (a fraction of which goes to the employee there.) some of it goes to the publisher, some goes to the company that made it, and what's left goes to the developer.  How much does the developer get?  Less than 50%.

It's true!  Of a $60 game, the developer only gets $27.

Now, what does this have to do with Gamestop?

Well, when you return the game because you didn't like it, (or whatever other reason) you get your money back.  So, at that point, nobody gets anything.  You get to use that money to buy something else.  What happens when we buy a Used one from Gamestop instead?

Gamestop keeps 100% of that money.

That's right!  Nothing for anyone else, Gamestop keeps it all.

This wouldn't be a problem if so many of us didn't do it so much.  Yet, I'm sure most of us have one nearby (most likely within a 20 minute drive radius.) and we buy stuff marked USED from there more than we should.

So, what can be done to at least take this company down a peg?  Suggestions?

Seriously, with how many there are, this is serious.  If we want gaming to evolve the way it should we need to stop this.

We need to put a stop to Gamestop.

Thank you for your time and I hope to hear some suggestions from all of you.

See ya later!

[landbeforetimelover]

Your analysis of the situation is flawed.  The developers already got their cut when the game originally sold.  Now it's used and no longer available new.  Sure there are some that you can buy new, but a lot of them still just aren't available anymore from WalMart or whatever.  GameStop actually helps the industry because if a game sucks, it gets traded in real quick when it's still available new in the store.  If this happens, the developers get less.  Tough luck.  The game sucks.  They don't deserve much for it.  On the other hand if the game is really good, it will be hard to find at GameStop while it's still available in the new store and the developers get a cut from nearly 100% of the games sold.  GameStop ensures that the sucky games die off quickly and that the best games get the most money for the developers.  I remember that Fable and Morrowind were impossible to find at GameStop when they were still available in the new store.  I had to buy them new.  Now you can find them at GameStop now that you can no longer buy them new.

[Animeboye]

What happens when we buy a Used one from Gamestop instead?

Gamestop keeps 100% of that money.

So? Considering the fact that somebody had to have bought the game when it was still new, that means that the company that released said game still made a profit off it.

And seriously, do you really think the company would care if the game is, say, eight years old? Do you think Rockstar cares that I bought GTA: Vice City used, eight years after its initial release? Probably not.

Seriously, with how many there are, this is serious. If we want gaming to evolve the way it should we need to stop this.

We need to put a stop to Gamestop.

I think it's ironic that you say you want gaming to evolve, yet suggest that we put an end to Gamestop. Gamestop is where it is today for a reason: They're the best place to go to get games. Most stores take games off the shelves after like, what, three years max? Gamestop still has games  ranging all the way from 2001. Were it not for them, I would have never gotten Kingdom Hearts 2. I would have had to go on Amazon and pay an insane amount but I was lucky enough to get KH2 used at Gamestop for only $14.99.

You get rid of Gamestop, and the gaming world will suffer. Video games are easy to get BECAUSE of Gamestop. If they go, so do most games.  So no, I don't want to put an end to Gamestop. I like Gamestop and I'm going to keep purchasing games from them.

[Mumbling]

I don't really see your problem.. If i sell something second-hand I take 100% profit too, I don't see why a store cannot do the same?

We don't have gamestop here, though. So nope, never bought a game second hand from that store.. Though from many other stores I have, and I don't care that they take 100%, because I think that's their right. It has been sold before, that money had gone partially to the developers, as promised... It doesn't have to go there again.

[F-14 Ace]

I'm gonna pick this apart piece by piece.  Here we go.

Well, when you return the game because you didn't like it, (or whatever other reason) you get your money back. So, at that point, nobody gets anything. You get to use that money to buy something else. What happens when we buy a Used one from Gamestop instead?

Gamestop keeps 100% of that money.

That's right! Nothing for anyone else, Gamestop keeps it all.

As LBTL already pointed out, everybody still gets their money.  The developer, publisher, etc get their money whether you return the game or not.  In fact, based on my experience, you can't even get all your money back for a game once you've opened it and played it.  You sell it back to them for a fraction of what it is worth.      

This wouldn't be a problem if so many of us didn't do it so much. Yet, I'm sure most of us have one nearby (most likely within a 20 minute drive radius.) and we buy stuff marked USED from there more than we should.

1. I like getting my games cheap.  Why should I pay $60 for a new copy of Modern Warfare 2 when I can get a used copy for only $40?  

2. Who the hell are you to tell me that I buy used games "more than I should"?

3. If you're gonna complain about Gamestop, why not complain about ebay, Craigslist, EBGames, and other outlets that also sell used games cheap.

So, what can be done to at least take this company down a peg? Suggestions?

Seriously, with how many there are, this is serious. If we want gaming to evolve the way it should we need to stop this.

We need to put a stop to Gamestop.

Thank you for your time and I hope to hear some suggestions from all of you.

See ya later!

You're worrying about crap that irrelevant.  Why shouldn't somebody be allowed to sell second hand goods and keep 100% of the profit?  Everybody got their money when the game was sold the first time around so it doesn't matter.  I'm going to keep shopping at Gamestop.  In fact, when The Force Unleashed II comes out in a few days, that is likely where I will go to buy it.

Oh yeah, another reason i shop at Gamestop is because I can buy really old games without having to go through the hassle of special ordering them off the internet.

[DarkHououmon]

Personally I like Gamestop and I don't mind getting games there. I don't see that as a bad thing. I also don't see buying used games as a problem either. I'm not sure about you, but I like saving money when I can.

[Truttle]

Hey now everyone, let's relax. No need to bash. Everyone makes mistakes. Let's cut Pokeplayer984 some slack.

Now really it's all quite simple. Gamestop has policies. If you return a new game unopened then you can get a full refund because it can be resold as new. But if you open it then it would cost money to reseal it and they aren't going to go through that trouble. So you're screwed, you opened it, then you bought it. It's damaged goods. So now you have the option of trading it in at a painfully reduced profit for store credit. In that sense all your money has gone to everyone involved, they get their cut. Trade-ins no longer involve the companies, you're dealing with gamestop now and their decision on how much credit to give you so they in turn can sell it to someone else. In that sense they take responsibility for selling used and malfunctioning products and have a liability to protect them from being sued because you know you're willingly buying used stuff. You won't find any of the companies caught dead purposely selling malfunctioning products right off the shelf on purpose. (By mistake is a different deal, it happens.)

There's also a flaw in gaining further profit from selling used games. On just one game, if it were to be sold and traded and sold and traded in again over and over and over, imagine how much profit they'd make. It'd be a monopoly and is illegal.

[Petrie.]

Gamestop is no different than any other party selling a second-hand product.  Nobody is out any money in the development department because they were all paid when the item was bought new.  

Would you make the same comments about the sellers of the LBT soundtrack--something quite rare these days and goes for over $50 in most cases?  James Horner got his cut when he got his composers fee.  The London Symphony got their share in the performance fee.  These were paid over 20 years ago, and you can't help the fact no new copies exist first-hand to still give profits to copyright holder, Universal.  If Universal wants to profit, they would need to re-release the soundtrack new in stores.

Same policy for the game developers.

[pokeplayer984]

How could I forget THE most important thing?  Showing your sources.

These few videos tell all.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/vie...ject-Ten-Dollar

http://screwattack.com/videos/TGO-Episode-41-The-Revolution

Tell me what you think AFTER you've watched and LISTENED to these.

If you still don't believe me, that's your choice.

[landbeforetimelover]

^That is absolute BS!  Why the hell should I have to pay the publisher of the game over and over again?  They're just greedy bastards.  This is just going to blow up in their faces when everyone pirates their games because guess what?  It's f****** easier to pirate 'em than go the legit way with all those codes and crap.  Talk about a way to shoot yourself in the foot.  Haha!  I'm never BUYING a game again thanks to that BS.

[Campion1]

Sorry but uh, in my opinion, Game overthinker is a complete dumbass moron Nintendo fanboy. I can't believe he got to do something fancy at gametrailers now. I find a lot of things he says and believes to be flawed, so that's just my opinion. The other guy you linked though is moderately ok in my book, although his idea is messed up too.

The industry isn't ruled by hard core gamers alone. The only thing I could say that i think is really good turn is Steam.

[F-14 Ace]

Nope, I'm still calling this bullcrap and I'm still going to buy used games at Gamestop.  Anyway, EA Games is run by a bunch of idiots anyhow.  The only games by them that I've even remotely enjoyed were the Harry potter games.  

In regards to the first video, I've NEVER bought a used game and had pieces of it missing.  I also noticed how this person failed to give any actual examples of that.

The guy in the second video sounds like a complete, overly dramatic retard.  I got sick of listening to his crap about half way through.    

If you shut down Gamestop then people will just sell their old games on ebay and Craigslist.  Then what?  Are you gonna shut those down too?  What's next?  Outlawing selling used video games at yard sales?  Heck, why stop there?  While we're at it, let's raise a stink about stores that sell used books and movies!  After all, the people who made them aren't getting any money from it. :        

This whole thing is a load of crock.  <_<

[Littlefoot1616]

Err...none of this sits on any real solid ground. Game trades of console games have been going on long before ideas about DLC was even conceived for consoles. Once the developed games leave the publishers, they've already got their money (and a substantial amount consider the number of stores there are worldwide these games hit). To limit facts and figure purely to the US does not give an accurate representation of the amount of money developers get from their works. The games industry is worth more than the music and movie industry combined and it's been around for a fraction of the time in comparison. Used game trades are bound to only happen internally coz once the hard copies leave the publisher, they've already made their sale. Outlets like Gamestop (we don't have them over here but I think they're run under the same blanket corporation) offer these used games purely on the basis of that. They are used. They can't reclaim their original mark up price coz it's already gone for that once. And any bozo with a brainstem would never pay full price for a used game. The money spent on an internal trade can't then be expected to fall back to the creators. How can it? That's like saying if you were to buy a game off a friend, you'd have to pay them and also pay the creators for the transaction. If that were truly the case, would you honestly go out of your way to do it? All Gamestop is doing offering a commercial location for people to sell on unwanted products. They fork out for them by one means or another either by cash in hand (granted is normally quite low) or store credit. Again, they're taking a small hit coz some of the market value is lost due to it being second hand. The simple fact that X amount of hundreds of people choose to use Gamestop to sell on their games isn't Gamestop's fault. They are merely offering a service to the public like any other shop. Call it pawning if you will but that's just an over the top suggestive term for something that is effectively going on all the time.

There's no danger of anyone being out of a job or being conned. This "Revolution" guy is just some hot air blower trying to make something big out of nothing. I've bought used games and never felt guilty or felt like I was cheating developers. I'm aware that they don't see a penny of anything that's traded and resold but once the copies ship out from the depots and hit shelves, the developer have already got their money. And with so many outlets worldwide I really don't see how any of this worthy of "a shake up of the system" -- whatever the bloody hell that means?

[Petrie.]

I don't think John read any of our posts guys before giving the links.  I've never seen examples of missing game pieces either in a used copy.

[DarkHououmon]

Sorry Pokeplayer, but I still stand by what I said. I agree with the others on this issue. Think about it. If Gamestop truly was "taking money away from gaming companies", don't you think it would have been sued and shut down by now? Gamestop is, far as I know, not as large as Nintendo, Microsoft, or Sony, and if those three huge companies wanted to, they could shut down Gamestop.

If Gamestop goes, that you aren't really helping out the bigger companies and instead are more likely to create a lot more negative side effects. If stores like Gamestop cease to exist and no one could buy games used anymore, you are going to see a dramatic drop in games purchased. People like to save money when they can. While there are a lot of people who still buy games new (if there weren't, there'd be no used games), there are also a lot of people who buy them used. Take away the ability to buy them used and you essentially cut the amount of games purchased in half (or close to it).

Instead of just listening to people like Game Overthinker, consider all the facts from all the sides and try to think for yourself if it actually makes sense or not. Other members here had given reasons for why those people you linked are inaccurate about the issue and I agree with them. As stated before, if Gamestop was truly a problem, then the three main companies would have sued them. Gamestop may be a large video game chain, but Nintendo, Microsoft, and Gamestop are the companies who create the games, are larger, and they do have the power to do something to run Gamestop out of business. And yet they don't. I doubt it's because they are unaware, but because they don't mind or care that Gamestop sells the games and keeps the profit since they already made money off of those used games the first time around they were sold.

Far as I'm concerned, people like Overthinker are just overreacting to the whole thing and making a mountain out of a mole hill. They are talking about a "major injustice" that does not even exist.

[pokeplayer984]

Fine!  Don't believe what I have to say!  Go ahead and close this topic.  It's become pointless now.

I'll just say this before I go.

Where did all the money to pay the developer come from?  Us!  The Gamers!  It's how a business works.  You take a set amount of money to make a product.  You sell your products to your customers through multiple partners who can find those customers so you can use that new money to make more of them and thus sell more of them, maybe even better, more high quality ones and getting more money in the process to continue making those products we love.

Also, when customers give back a product for whatever reason, the money goes back to the customer, thus none going to the original creator or it's partners.

Now, if the money that is made from the products isn't going to those that made it, then that's a problem.  They can't make the stuff we love and thus are out of a job.  On top of that, their partners who helped sell the product also suffer because they don't have the product that they could potentially sell to customers and keep their own business of selling stuff from others alive, and the customers are screwed over too because we don't have a product we love.  Maybe even a product we feel could better our lives in some way. (That part of "making our lives better" usually doesn't apply to games, but I'm trying to make a point here.)

When you put it in that perspective, you can see how a partner in the business keeping the money all to themselves, and not giving it to those who deserve it is a problem.

See it from that perspective and maybe you'll see something else too.

Now go ahead and close this topic.  I've said what I had to and it amounted to nothing.

See ya later! -_-

[Animeboye]

I don't get what the problem is. The company made a profit off the game when it was still new so why should it matter?

If companies such as Nintendo had a problem with Gamestop keeping the profits from used games, they would have shut Gamestop down a long time ago. The fact that Gamestop is still up and running shows they don't care. And why should they? Like I said, they made a profit when the game was brand new. I doubt they'll be losing sleep because they didn't get what, five dollars from what was once a sixty dollar game when it was new.

You ignored one very important point I brought up: If Gamestop goes out of business. then the gaming world will suffer.  Taking out Gamestop will do much more harm than good. Believe me.

This is just silly. If there are any gaming corporations out there who have a problem with Gamestop keeping the entire profit from a used game, then that's a textbook example of corporate greed.

[F-14 Ace]

@ pokeplayer984

Dude, you're not listening at all.  We've already responded to your arguments and explained what they were wrong.  In fact, we've done it several times.  Don't ask somebody for their opinion if you're just gonna completely ignore them and disregard what they say because they don't agree with you.  <_<

All you've done is use the same argument again and again, despite the fact that is has been refuted by everyone else who responded to this topic.  Now you're just being immature by running away and ignoring everybody, while still continuing to use the same (now debunked) argument.

[2007excalibur2007]

I smell someone ragequitting.

[DarkHououmon]

Just because someone like Game Overthinker says something does not mean it's true. His word is not some gospel truth that has to be absolutely true that everyone else must believe. If, even after listening to everyone's refutes about the whole "anti-Gamestop" message, you still think Game Overthinker is right, then okay, fine. I can't change your mind on that one. However, don't get upset just because people aren't agreeing with you. We gave our reasons for not agreeing with you. You can at least respect them.