RSSThanks for the DSi, GameStop, and sorry for contributing to your irrelevance
By Tim Conneally | Published April 5, 2009, 3:00 PM
I've been to more than a dozen midnight video game product launches now, and I still get taken aback by how upbeat GameStop's employees are when doing such a launch. But at last night's launch of Nintendo's DSi, I couldn't help but feel sad.
I showed up at my local store hoping to buy two DSis, but without any real expectations of leaving fulfilled as I hadn't pre-ordered Nintendo's newest portable. That's generally the reason why these midnight launches take place: to give the pre-order customers an 8-hour jump on general product availability for being supporters of GameStop.
Showing up without a pre-order is like crashing a party, but I did it anyway.
The line was only four customers long when the clock struck midnight, and was led by a man in sweatpants and flip-flops arguing with the cashier about his $25 down payment not being included in the price he had just paid. The cashier was a soft-spoken girl in a Super Mario Strikers jersey who looked like she had reached the end of a 12-hour long coffee buzz.
Even though she was about ten minutes beyond frazzled, she dealt with the man as quickly and quietly as possible, printing numerous receipts, and circling the man's down payment in hi-liter. By the time I walked up to the register, the archetypal video game store employee: a slightly overweight guy with greasy black hair, glasses and goatee, was locking the store's door behind me.
I told them I hadn't pre-ordered a Nintendo DSi, but would pay cash if I could get two of the "general availability" units. The frazzled girl looked at the goatee guy without a single hint of annoyance and they both shrugged. After a quick whispered conversation, they told me they had to count their stock against their pre-orders first, and they would see.
This particular store had 8 units that weren't already claimed by pre-orders, and they cheerfully sold me two. All the while, both employees were laughing and chatting as if they were just hanging out on a Saturday night, not coming to the end of a 16-hour shift (which both of them were.) I couldn't help but feel sad as I walked back to my car that, with happy hearts, they had just sold me game consoles that will ultimately contribute to their businesses' irrelevance.
All video game consoles today have their own online stores, where users can download games directly to the machine, without having to go to GameStop to purchase a disc. The existence of such online shops does not pose an immediate threat to the video game store, since downloadable titles are not generally as high-quality as disc-only releases. However, since the Nintendo Wii and DSi offer less power and storage than their Microsoft and Sony competitors, the quality of downloadable Wiiware and DSiware is not too far off from the quality of physical releases.
Some die-hards still argue that pure data purchases will never replace physical media. But as far as the video gaming realm is concerned, one only needs to look at the iPhone for evidence that the mainstream adoption of download-only gaming has already taken effect.
The most telling aspect of this shift is actually right on the chassis of the DSi. Since the advent of the Game Boy Color, Nintendo's handheld platform has offered backwards compatibility with the previous generation. The DS featured games on small cards, while maintaining compatibility with Game Boy Advance games that used a secondary slot. The backwards compatibility for the DSi is the DS cart slot, and instead of some new cartridge port, there's an SD memory slot where downloaded games (and media and so forth) can be stored. Furthermore, every DSi purchase includes 1000 free points toward purchases in the DSi download shop, encouraging users to sign up to the new "Club Nintendo" (formerly known as "My Nintendo,") which is the company's loose equivalent to the PlayStation Network or Xbox Live.
So anyway, I just wanted to thank the staff of GameStop for being so helpful, despite the fact that they were selling devices that will eventually come to be their replacements.
Gamestop, the store that sells unsuspecting customers new games that their employees have already taken home and played. It's going to be hilarious when the FTC starts knocking on their door.
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|Hey Tim...what are your broadband assumptions?
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|Ever since I became a PC user I always tried to do my shopping at local independent stores, even for my software. But little by little over the years, each and every one of them has faded away with little notice to the rest of the world.
It reminds me greatly of the BBS days where you would logon to a local BBS and chat your heart out with other locals via ASCII mode. Then once a month everyone on the BBS would meet up at a Diner for breakfast, coffee and chat in person. Eventually the Internet buried the BBS and they slowly faded away with little notice to the rest of the world.
I believe why such things are sad is because these things were personalized, they were human and involved emotions, which gave it that special flare that we enjoyed. Unlike a large store or the Internet, you received personal attention and many times the store clerks even remembered your name. GameStop and other shops like it made it personal, and that made people happy. When GameStop and shops like it go, it will be like the last vestige of it being personal will finally have been removed from the chain.
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|Try plugging your R4DS or similar into the DSi, you will be severely disappointed. Also Remember when do plug it in, if you are connected to a wireless netowork, the DSi will report your IP.
Next, try playing Guitar Hero on your DSi ..... oops. No more slot in the front.
GameStop is not a real video game store. Yes, they sell some new releases and consoles, but it's basically a fixed price flea market. I tried to buy a new copy of Lego Batman for the 360 to no avail at three different stores.
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|I went to tell you that gamestop is an extremely bad video game store. First off you walk in and ask for a game and just maybe they will have it in stock. I went to tell you something about gamestop, I went to a gamestop to buy a computer game and they had it so I went to check out with it and the guy opened the box to make sure that everything was in it and noticed that someone had stolen the disc out of the box, now you tell me why they don't keep a better lookout for things like this. If you ask me they should be putting their game boxes inside of those plastic boxes with those metal things on the top, you know like what suncoast does with the blu-ray movies. Gamestop today has more video games then computer games, now please tell me why is this? When they were babbages they were a lot better then they are now. When they were Babbages they carried more computer games then they do today. It seems that ever since they took over EB they stopped carrying a lot of computer games. I do not know maybe you tell me what's going on with Gamestop.
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|OK, Mr. Stream-of-Consciousness (lol)...let me see if I can help you out here. To the best of my memory, EB and Babbages were always run by the same company. EB was more PC-oriented, while Babbages was geared more towards consoles (EB even had some decent computer hardware occasionally). As time went on, both stores stopped carrying PC hardware and non-gaming PC software. At that point it didn't make sense to have two independent outlets, and to better reflect their specialization they became "GameStop." There's no arguing that their PC game selection has steadily declined over the years. Right now my local Gamestop has one side of a three foot long triple shelf rack devoted to the poor PC. I've inquired about it and the answer I got was about what I expected. Game piracy has cut into everyone's PC gaming sales, although it seems to be very inconsistent between titles: I'm guessing something like Crysis II would be far more pirated than Diner Dash. Meanwhile, console game sales have increased considerably over the past three years. Thus, less floorspace for the PC and way more for the Wii and DS. Its kinda sad for those of us who have no use for consoles and were impressed by the PC section at EB a decade ago. However, you need look no further than your local Wal-Mart or, if you're lucky enough, Best Buy for all the wonderful chemical-scented boxed PC games you can eat. Mmmmm, new game smell..
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|I'm sure it also couldn't hurt to have run your fingers through your hair and say to her ever-so-suavely...
"Hey there. I'm Tim Conneally with Betanews. I'm kind of a big deal. I have many leather-bound books, and my apartment smells of rich mahogany. I think you know what I'm here for..." ;-)
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|LOL!
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|Digital Distribution is pretty nice and very convenient. All PC games that I buy are digital downloads. Consoles are starting to go this route. I think we still have a while before it's completely main stream. But once it catches on, it will spread like a wild fire.
I too like "crashing" game launches at my Local Game Stop. I remember seeing a massive turnout for Halo 2 and WoW Burning Crusade. It's fun taking part in the excitement.
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|Thank you very much for this article sir.
I've worked at my game stop for almost three years now, and I am starting to get a little nervous about digital distribution, but at the same time, after all of the customers that I have become friends with and after all of the experiences I've had, I have to say that as long as there are people who love to talk to anyone who shares their love of the games industry, look no further than your nearest game stop. We all love our jobs when it comes down to it, no matter how much we have to go through by the end of that long s***. And personally i feel that after working with my friends at my store, we are kind of like a dysfunctional family on some late night comedy show than just another bunch of staff members at some other generic store.
So what I think I'm really trying to say is this:
Don't feel sorry for the people who sell you your games/ game systems. We love what we do because its our own way of being able to give back to the huge industry that's given all of us so much. And if digital distribution does in fact over take game stop someday...well, i would be happy to know that I had contributed to the evolution of the industry by selling you that DSi, and making my customers smile.
Josh
Game Advisor at Store 1744
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|I, for one, prefer physical copies over digital. Digital downloads are great for certain things, if done right, but you're talking about portable devices here. Not everybody has an iPhone, and while it's a great mobile device, I don't think it's anything to go by as far as the future of consoles are concerned. Digital downloads may be convenient for some people, but when they realize that it's usually limited to the lifespan of that service and/or device they purchase it on and that it won't be readily available forever, they'll see why physical copies (or backups) are so important. Microsoft totally screwed up the whole digital distribution experience for me. Going on my 3rd Xbox 360 now, the DRI problem is a real pain. My downloaded games are linked to the serial number of the console I purchased them on. When that console breaks, I can only transfer the licenses of those games to a new console once every year. In the meantime, I lose all functionality of those games; they resort to trial versions if I'm not signed in or if I'm on a different profile on the console. Although these are small arcade games, it pains me to know that I won't always have these at my disposal. The console will eventually break again and/or I might not always have Xbox LIVE. That said, I'd much rather own a physical copy of a game to avoid these kinds of problems and knowing it will last for decades to come whether or not the console breaks in the future.
That said, I do love Steam. Steam is one service I don't think this really applies to because, even if the computer changes, the service and software remains the same.
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|This was meant to be a comment, not a reply to the above poster. Apologies.
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|I can understand what you're saying. If Gamestop and other specialty stores are displaced by online resellers, you will still have your memories of a unique time in the annuls of technology and commerce. As much as people complain about slow service, poor selection or high prices, most folks will mourn the passing of brick and mortar media stores. I miss Circuit City despite having barely spent a dime there (thanks to their incompetent upper management) for over a year. Your magnanimous attitude regarding the march of progress is remarkable in these times. It marks you as a "true believer" and not just an employee. Personally, I don't see much time remaining for Gamestop, Blockbuster and maybe even the bookstores. Most average customers are more than happy to get their digi-tainment at the local Wal-Mart. On the hardware side, the PC gaming crowd has turned almost completely to online suppliers like Newegg and Tiger Direct. Netflix is rapidly claiming most of the dollars from hard-core video addicts. As I see it, the lifespan of the casual game and movie retailers comes down to one thing: bandwidth. About 25% of America's territory has no affordable broadband service. That's about 15-20% of the population who will still be getting their discs and cartridges at stores for the indeterminate future. The day that starts to change, all bets are off. In any case, I'd be sure to keep your resume updated. Good luck to you and Gamestop.
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