Gamestop Continues It’s Dedication to Crushing Gaming Itself

It is no small secret among those who know me that I have been boycotting Gamestop (henceforth known simply as That Gamestore Chain for the duration of this rant.) The reason for that boycott has been simply an overwhelming lack of respect for the consumer and solely focused on crushing the competition, regardless of the detriment to gamers, developers, and publishers.

I have declared from high atop my mountain that they realized that used games are basically a license to print money, as long as you offer less than half the retail price for brand new titles titles on a trade-in, and then resell that same game for 5 bucks less than you bought it for new. The implication being that merely playing the game has devalued the game so tremendously regardless of the physical condition of what you are selling back to them, but when they resell it it has magically regained a potent sell value of a loss of about 8% of it’s original price.

I fully recognize that shelf space is at a premium at what in my experience is a fairly small store that is packed with games. And I also see a case being made for you getting a slightly better deal if you are trading the game in with the intent of actually trading your game to get a another game without taking cash.

First, the news came that That Gamestore Chain allows employees to take a game home before it’s released. They get to play those games. They get to return those games. They then sell those games as being brand new. Huh, that seems a little strange. I mean, if simply opening a box and playing a game constitutes that game being henceforth known as used, why are my games any different?

As far as this affecting developers and publishers, used games sale’s account for a very large part of Gamestop’s profits and none of that money goes back to the very people who made these games in the first place. For those who would argue it is no different than a car dealership reselling a car while the manufacturer gets nothing, you would be wrong. Manufacturer’s continue to profit on cars that have been purchased by having aftermarket support through parts and recertifying vehicles. More and more the people making these games have to have downloadable content and passes to play their games online to create an aftermarket income to counteract the explosion of used games for their intellectual properties that generates the aforementioned gigantic profits they don’t see a dime. Remember though, I said you WOULD be wrong, but now not getting a game’s full content on release that will be unlocked if you purchased the game new has changed the gaming landscape the last couple of years. And frankly, we already know that car dealerships try to completely screw you when purchasing a used car, so that makes the pricepoint of a resold game even more aggravating when put into that context.

Just so we are clear, I enjoy DLC and don’t really mind the online passes, making games is a business and continuing to support a game post release means they can patch games that have deficiencies or bugs and modify online experiences, like they will be doing for Halo: Reach’s multiplayer in the coming monthes.

Another fun little issue I take is with pre-order bonuses, it’s content that is specifically for the game you purchased. Only, if you bought it somewhere else you don’t get that content unless you are lucky enough to be able to pay for it at a later date. To add insult to injury, I have heard numerous stories of people pre-ordering from That Gamestore Chain only to get the shaft from them when they are told they ran out of them. In all probability it is the result of their employees selling the preorders under the table or just giving them to people they know. But if you have a problem with not getting your bonus from them, the response from that retailer seems to be a basic “Too bad so sad.”  Customer service at it’s finest.

Now, comes word that they ARE PHYSICALLY OPENING COPIES OF A GAME AND REMOVING CONTENT MEANT FOR YOU! Is there anything more insane than preventing you from getting something the publishers of the game were trying to give you? Of course the content turned out to be a coupon for a competitive service, making That Gamestore Chain look petty and only concerned for the bottom line and could care less about the consumer. Other “evil empires” like Wal-Mart will actually just honor other stores’ deals. Ho, ho, ho, not these guys, they just want to squeeze every dime out of you and could care less about anything that actually helps the consumer out, be it a reasonable trade-in price or getting a fucking coupon.

There are a lot of games coming out at this time of the year, and we can’t control whether they will be spectacular or not However, you can control where you buy those games. I am not going to pander for any particular alternative place to purchase, but they are out there and it is worth looking for a place that will treat the consumer with respect

What do you guys think? Is Gamestop as bad as I make it out to be? Sound off below.