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Game Retailers to Have a Good Holiday Season
A story is up at the NYT (registration required) regarding this year's holiday sales, an interview with the President of Electronics Boutique. From the article: "Q. Are consumers spending as much this holiday shopping season? Wal-Mart says they're spending less. A. Based upon what we saw over the weekend and what we've seen for the month of November, I'd have to say that, at least on video games, they're spending a lot more. I do think the category is going to have a strong holiday season." I know it's a small thing, but the staff writer refers to Mario as a "construction worker". Could have done some more research there, sport.
His plumbing job was outsourced to India.
Mario was a construction worker in the NES game Wrecking Crew. Given that Mario has done way more than just his plumbing of late (cart driver, golfer, tennis player, etc.), is it right to still pigeon hole him as a plumber?
The only thing I hate more than hypocrites are people who hate hypocrites.
Mario was a construction worker in Donkey Kong, wasn't he? He was certaintly running around a construction site.
First there's news about how young people are using this new fang-dangled thing called the internet, now people are buying games at Christmas? I wonder what the connection between companies releasing huge titles, people buying tons of gifts for people who like games, and the fact that games are being sold at a greater rate, is. I really don't know.... anyone else?
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This holiday season seems to have an abundance of good games being released: HL2, WOW, Metroid 2, Pirates!, KOTOR2, etc.
IMO that's the reason for the increased sales.......
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In the first Mario game I ever owned he worked at a cement factory so I'd say construction worker is close enough. If "construction worker" was wrong, what was the answer that you were expecting?
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Back in the 'Donkey Kong' days, he was a construction worker. When 'Mario Brothers' was released, he and Luigi became plumbers at that point.
"Jesus saves, but everyone else in a 10 foot radius takes full damage from the fireball."
For a while people were posting links to NYT articles that didn't require registration using some kind of partner link. Does anyone know if this still works and how it was done? I tried reading the article off of Google News but couldn't because it only lets you read the first page.
The policy of the United States is worse than bad---it is insane. -- Ludwig von Mises, Economic Policy(1959)
How many of us buy games at wal-mart? How many of us avoid wal-mart at all costs?
I am genuinely intrigued!
I'll conceed he was originally a construction worker.
/ / / / / / / /
However, in my defense:
Yo, yo!
It's the Mario Brothers
And plumbin's their game
Found the secret warp zone
While working on the drain
Lend the princess a hand
In the Mushroom Land
Comin' atcha with the plumbers
You'll be hooked on the brothers!"
This seems like such common knowledge that I'd suspect a troll, but it doesn't sound like it at all.
Anyways, they use the word "holidy" to indicate other religions that have Christmas rip-off holidays, such as Judaism and so forth.
But there is another kind of evil that we must fear most... and that is the indifference of good men.
Considering that the year's two most-anticipated games and a new hardware system were released in November, I'd say the November data is a bit skewed.
It's normal for big releases to come out in November but I think Halo 2 and Half Life 2 are special cases.
With respects to Half Life 2, perhaps it is the combination of being a highly anticipated game as well as the difficulty of pirating the game thanks to the infernal 'Steam'.
Steam indirectly aiding Walmart?
"There's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all."
- Bob Dylan
For everyone else, the price of fuel is insignificant. I make decent money, and my family drives two fuel-efficient cars. The cost of gasoline could double and I wouldn't even notice it. People like me are much more likely to buy video games than the average Wal-mart customer, and so the price of fuel does not affect my spending habits.
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
Sure, game retailers are all seeing big profits, but the people in the games industry that might be seeing less-than-average profits this year are the video game companies that are not Microsoft, Nintendo, Konami, Rockstar, Valve, or Blizzard- ie anyone who is not releasing one of the HUGE titles this season. Joe Average Buyer will be more drawn to the games that have been receiving ridiculous amounts of hype than the ones that haven't (but are still just as worthy of a buy.)
That you aren't buying any of those stupid EA games. Holiday Boycott!!!
Netjak.com independent reviews of domestic & import video ga
I for one welcome^H^H^H purchased hl2 silver package, from steam. Which was quite good, because games in my country(australia) are quite expensive.
My Web Log
I just placed my first - and last - order on playstation.com. I only ordered from them in the first place, because they were the only place I could find the particular games I was looking for, which were for a Christmas present.
Well, rather than receiving my order, I received a pair of emails stating that my credit refund had been processed. When I asked why I was getting a refund, I was told that they had received my return, so I they were refunding the order - but I wasn't informed about any refund on the shipping.
Of course, I knew I hadn't returned the order, since I didn't even receive it to begin with. Obviously they must have shipped it to the wrong address, and it got refused on delivery. I double-checked the order's details, and I indeed got the shipping information correctly so it's their shippers at fault. But, rather than resend my order, I was politely informed that I need to place a new order - no mention about receiving a refund on shipping, or any special code to enter to not pay shipping on the new order.
Needless to say, I have no intention of ordering from Playstation.com in the future, and informed them that I would warn everyone I know not to order from them. I told them that if they can't either resend my order, without me having to place a new order myself and pay for shipping twice, or refund me for the shipping on the order I never received, I would call up Visa and have them cancel the transaction. Now to wait for their response.
Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
that bit about maintaining the lead over gamestop is quite funny, as gamestop is the #2 game retailer in the US behind Walmart, but ahead of both best buy and EB.
And worn out over-worked employees. Well, at least from my laid off ass it is. Thanks corporate Eb Games, for laying me off weeks before the holidays start, because you didn't have the hours. You make no sense in doing so, as this year is the year of the sequel. The games this year are going to sell like hot cakes, and frankly, i'm a bit, no, im very disappointed in your move to lay me off. I for one, need the job. I dont make the "big bucks" like you corporate clowns down. I cannot get laid off before the holidays and really expect to be "OK" through them. Greed is all I can think of, you know, the big boss needs another yacht in Brazil, just fire a couple people, big deal. (replies regarding, get a job loser, quit whining and get another job, that job sucks anyway you loser, oh too bad, hey i hear a small violin, and the ever popular, j00 g0t j0wnedz are not needed. Thank you)
Flat Screen TV for F
but then... I got that info from the Addams Family movie...
click-clack, front and back. I'm not moving this car otherwise.
"Ok, it doesn't have to, as the average american does have a substantial credit card debt, but that's another story."
Yes it is.
Indirectly related to fuel costs is that people will stay home more. Video games are perfect for that trend.
wasnt he also a fumigator in donkey kong 3? or was that a distant relative or something?
But Wal-Mart's prices on videogames usually suck, so I mostly only buy hardware and accessories from them.
For games, I usually go to Target. Occasionally they'll have an insanely good deal on a relatively new game. I got Harvest Moon: AWL there for $26 just a month or so after release! I also bought Tales of Symphonia there for $35 shortly after it was released!
"I know it's a small thing, but the staff writer refers to Mario as a "construction worker"."
Italian. Construction.
Just a bit of stereotyping, yes?
I do, despite having mixed feelings about them. Walmart IS evil, but then they always have the best price in town. Or sometimes, they are the ONLY game in town. For example, I was looking for Katamari Damacy and only found it at Walmart.
Working in the Electronics Dept. rather often, I can say that sales could be a LOT better if we could actually keep stuff in stock. I can't think of how many times I've had to say no to PS2s, Xboxes, GB-DS, and almost all of the digital cameras that we sell. It's quite frustrating, actually. I could see another 10%-25% more sales there, if only we stocked the items.