Blog Archives
GameStop Closing Operations in Spain
Back during the global economic crisis of 2007, one of the hardest hit countries was Spain. That tidbit of information is normally irrelevant on the blog but when the Spanish games industry has a bit of a shake up, it suddenly becomes relevant.
This week, games retail chain GameStop announced that they would be ceasing operations in the Spanish market and selling off some of its stores to Game.
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GameStop Updating Trade-In Program and Offering More Money
GameStop catches a lot of flack for their used games trade-in program. Most people feel that the scheme gives sellers too little money compared to what GameStop is able to resell them for. When you take a look at the setup of the program, you can see that it’s geared very specifically to keep money inside GameStop’s “ecosystem” and throws a whole bunch of qualifiers at clerks and customers to do so.
Now, GameStop’s overhauling their trade-in scheme. It simplifies all the variables that affect the price sellers get and increasing the base price for reselling a game by 20%.
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GameStop Launching a Credit Card
Sometimes it’s not enough to make money off of new game sales, used game sales, hardware sales, game warranties, merchandise and the like. Sometimes, you have to think outside the game box. That’s what GameStop is trying by becoming the latest store to get into the credit card game.
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GameStop Working with Devs for Exclusive Gameplay as Pre-Order Bonuses
Well, the video game apocalypse is nigh. An analyst at R.W. Baird says that leading gaming retailer GameStop is looking at new ways of adding value to pre-orders and purchases of games at the store. One of those ways is working with developers to create exclusive “important” gameplay content for people who pre-order from GameStop.
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GameStop to Close 120 Stores, Switch Focus to Mobile and Apple Products
Gaming is a growing industry with a record launch of next-generation consoles with the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One outpacing their predecessors’ sales. Don’t tell that to GameStop, though. The biggest gaming retailer in America is planning to close some GameStop stores and expand Apple and AT&T retail chains.
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Italian inFamous: Second Son Pre-Orders Come with Glow-in-the-Dark Condoms
Just when you thought that the pre-order bonus wars had reached their crescendo, Sony and GameStop Italy have taken pre-order bonuses to new heights.
If you pre-order the inFamous: Second Son at GameStop Italy, you get a pre-order kit that includes a copy of the game, two cans of Red Bull energy drink and glow-in-the-dark condoms. No, that’s not a typo. Glow-in-the-dark condoms.
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EB Games Canada is Quietly Raising Prices
The Canadian currency market is probably not something most gamers pay attention to but it might be something that will concern Canadian gamers if what EB Games is doing becomes an industry-wide trend.
The Canadian arm of GameStop has very quietly raised the prices of some much-anticipated upcoming games. Rather than being $60 as it was for new games in previous years, EB Games is charging up to $70 for new games that are available for pre-order.
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GameStop Accused of Reprinting and Raising the Price of Xenoblade Chronicles
The one critically acclaimed Wii game that almost no one you know has been able to get a copy of is Xenoblade Chronicles. That’s because the game had a fairly limited print run and was only available through GameStop and Nintendo stores.
This week, mysteriously, GameStop stores seem to have been innundated with used copies of Xenoblade Chronicles and are selling them for $90 each. The problem is that people are accusing GameStop of shady practices saying that they aren’t actually used copies but reprints being passed off as used to justify selling copies at higher than the original $50 price.
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GameStop’s Supply of PS4s Runs Dry, Halts Pre-Orders
In June, Sony gave GameStop carte blanche to take as many pre-order for PlayStation 4s as they could. Supply wasn’t going to be a concern. An internal memo to GameStop store from management said “the floodgates are open.”
Well, it seems that the floodgates were a bit too open for Sony to keep up with. The standard PlayStation 4 console is no longer available for pre-order on GameStop’s website as they’ve sold out of PS4s.
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The Economics of Video Game Development
A few weeks back, one of the hot stories in the video game world was that Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 reached gross sales of $1 billion in only 15 days. What sounded like good news for publisher Activision was quickly reigned in by writers pointing out that CoD: Blops 2 sold fewer copies to reach $1 billion of gross sales than 2011’s CoD: Modern Warfare 3.
This raised an interesting question in my mind: How profitable are video games to make? Even if Blops2 sold fewer copies, shouldn’t Activision still have covered the sunk costs of development and marketing after paying for the variable costs of each unit sold? Read the rest of this entry
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