Slashdot Mirror
Regulators Approve EB/Gamestop Merger
Gamasutra is reporting that the U.S. SEC has approved the merger of Gamestop and EBGames, which was proposed earlier this year. From the article: "If completed, the merger between GameStop and EB would create a single company representing 20 to 30 percent of the overall market for video game products in the United States, and practically the entire market for used games. It's currently unknown whether EB and GameStop stores would keep their current monikers, or unite under one central name for branding purposes."
I just have to say here that I hate how little these stores give you in store credit for good used games. You can sell them back any popular, good condition game for store credit, and they will give you about 5 bucks for it. Then they turn around and sell the used game for $45, only $5 off the retail price. So they screw you at both ends. I wouldn't mind if they charged this much for the used games if they gave you a more fair trade in value and vice verca. I stopped shopping there years ago because I didn't like supporting such a greedy company.
"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" -Hunter S. Thompson
They must mean just brick-and-mortar stores, because used games are definitely a lot cheaper on eBay or Amazon.com, even if you include shipping. Frankly, I don't know why anyone would buy a used game from these stores. After all, you have to have a computer or console to play the games, so chances are you have Internet access, too.
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
Now instead of two companies to boycott, I just have one. This will be easy.
This is compounded even more when looking online. I have yet to find an online video game retailer that is decent. Especially regarding preorders. If I preorder three things from gamestop.com, two come out one day, and a third comes out one day later, they will send them to me UPS. In three different packages. And there's no way I know to keep that from happening.
So when I heard the news of the merger, this just made me depressed that there would be that much less competition between retailers. Unless there are some magical game retailers I'm missing. Does anyone out there know of (especially online) game retailers that are good?There is a mall near me with 4 GameStops and EBs total. Another 8 are within 20 minutes of there.
Personally I see a lot of stores closing there doors because of this deal and a lot less ability for consumers to have choice in how much they pay for used games.
A lot of malls have both an EB and a Gamestop, they will probably just keep 1 of the stores open to save money, and more than likely let some workers go. I think on the business side this will be positive, because the merger makes sense in a lot of ways. Don't see any major positives for the consumer.
the $2,000 XBox 360 Omega package is still being offered, it's gold.
But anymore the two companies are almost mirror's as it is. Back in the day I would have preferred EB over Gamestop as they had better deals and incentives on trading in used games/systems and they marked games down a good bit at times. More recently it is almost the opposite in that Gamestop has had the better trade-in deals and at times lower prices.
But now both tend to have ineffective staff, poorly staffed, and cloned stores. The merger will mean very little IMHO. I personally can barely stand to go in either of these stores as I am barraged with stupid sales pitches for their store card that I have to pay a yearly fee for or pre-orders, or just deal with the lame-ass employees. These stores never did anything to differentiate themselves anyhow.
I now have a new favorite haunt called The Exchange, where the staff are normal, they pay great for trades and their games are 20%-50% the price (even new) of EB/Gstop. That or ebay and I can generally get any game I want for a fraction of the cost and time.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
I have shopped at almost every game store in Austin now, and GameCrazy is far and away the best. Great knowledgeable service, good stock, and a lot of good used stuff at cheap prices. Really fair trade-in prices too! EB's tiny stock of games and Gamestop's unbelievably bad customer service are not really a big draw for me. Let's hope they combine EB's fairly nice employees and Gamestop's larger stock FTW.
They still won't carry any good, old used titles though, will they?
If EB and GameStop account for only 20-30% of U.S. video game sales, where does the other 70-80% come from? Wal-Mart? Internet retailers? Independent game stores?
GameStop is about the only brick-and-mortar game retailer I know of in my town (3 locations too) that even pretends to be devoted to video games, and even they're so bad now that their own employees have been known to answer the phone with "thanks for calling EAStop!" And of course their selection of PC titles has dwindled to a state of near non-existence.
Arguing about vi versus Emacs is like arguing whether it's better to make fire by rubbing sticks or banging rocks.
Seriously though, I can't see this as being any good for the consumer. We have an EB and a GameStop in the mall near me and for years they've been mirror images of overpriced mediocrity. I'm not sure what other good (franchised) used game stores existed elsewhere in the country, but in MA anyway we used to have Funcoland (bought out by GS), which was at least an excellent alternative. They published a monthly price list that literally listed every used game/system/accesory they sold and what their buyback and sell prices were for it. Granted you got rather lowballed when selling them stuff, but no worse than EB/GS today. And at least Funcoland kept the resale price down, but more importantly the prices actually fluctuated with supply/demand for that title/system. What I see at EB/GS these days are retarded inflated prices for used titles for all but the crappiest or most over-printed games (ala system-bundled games, which are a whole other rant entirely). I mean for some of these games the used price is only $5 less than the new price, but it can't be demand, at least not local demand, cuz I see 5 or 6 copies of many of these in stock.
I guess it's the same old tale of companies merging into ever-larger conglomerates of Doom, but it still makes me upset. I see less competition and less selection every time I visit these places. It also irks me that you can't buy a used system from them unless you pony up 95% of the new system price. Yes, they do a full system check and provide a warantee (usually around 6 months), but when you know for a fact they're getting 50% or better margins* on these things it's hard to justify that price point - at least for me - where's the value-added here?
*Easy to calculate, just ask them how much they're willing to buy your old system for, be prepared to be disappointed.
-- I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. It's not my fault that life sucks so much. --
After Gamestop took them over, eventually they forced them to stop taking in NES and SNES games for trade, which in turn meant they no longer had them for sale.
Oh well. At least there's GameCrazy now.
(Plus eBay, of course).
I'm not sure I care. I don't buy ANY used games from EB games. I think they're all a rip off. So I buy my new games from Wal-Mart and my used games from eBay.
I stopped shopping at EB a looong time ago. After the 4th time I was lied to by the employees and the manager. I don't mean mistakes, I mean blatant, bald-faced lies about when they would have games in, and about if I had really preordered a game or not. The last time I (tried) to buy something from EB was when SC3 was released. I was on the phone a week before, and I was told by an employee and the manager that they would have the game the day it came out, and that I would have a special edition DVD copy waiting for me. Long story short, I ended up having to wait for two extra days after it was released, and by chance managing to get an extra copy Gamestop had in.
I now buy all my games either online from Amazon, or in the store from Gamestop or Walmart. Where I live (Cvill, VA), our mall has a decent Gamestop. The employees actually have more than 3 brain cells.
Anyone else remember the Real Life storyline in which they went to the future to pick up a game before it was released, and all the major game stores had merged into one, with all the names mashed together?
I used to manage a couple Funcoland stores a few years ago. Our company (over 400 stores) was bought out and a then the drama ensued.
We were flown to the big company pow-wow and private trade-show and given lots of freebies. While there we were told we're all ok, and that there would be a place for us within the Barnes & Nobel megaconglomerate,
Unfortunately our district manager (awesome guy) was gone within a week. A few long-time managers left soon after (stock options) but most of us tried to fit in.
After the Playstation 2 release and the Christmas season, District, Area, and Store Managers were removed one by one for the vaugest of reasons.
I was one of the last to go in my area, and while I happily took full unemployment and went back to college. I look back and still feel bitter about a promising management career cut short.
the merchant that shrinkwraps used games and passes them off as new? not to mention charging the full retail price of a new game.
i suppose a call to the attorney general or the Better Business Bureau would be in order. and you can add Fry's, Best (worst) Buy and CompUSA to that list as well.
i'm sure there are others but these are the ones i can be absolutely sure of that are engaging in this illegal and unethical practice.
everytime an unethical business shrinkwraps used merchandise and passes it off as new, God resurrects a kitten and donates money to Stallman.
Science : Proprietary , Knowledge : Open Source
7 or so years ago when it was the Neostar retail group after the merger of Babbage's and Software, ETC the company was miss-managed into the ground...saved only at the last minute (Literally the last minute, Chapter 7 liquidation was to start pretty much the next day) by a buyout of the company assets from the founder of Barnes and Noble.
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.