Gamestop closing 120 stores; focusing on mobile market.

[Solkia]

http://www.ign.com/articles/2014/04/24/gamestop-closing-120-stores-focusing-on-mobile

 

Famous games retailer GameStop is looking to expand its reach in what it deems more viable markets while shedding some weight from its traditional brick-and-mortar GameStop stores.

GameStop CEO Paul Raines gave a presentation at GameStop's 2014 Investor Day -- as reported by Games Industry International -- and revealed his plan for what he's calling GameStop 3.0, "a new phase of the company's lifespan that will see it aggressively expand its footprint into gaming-adjacent tech fields," according to the article.

As such, GameStop has its collective eyes set on mobile, and specifically on Apple-branded devices, like iPhone and iPad. GameStop-owned brands -- like Spring Mobile and Simply Mac -- will expand at a significant rate in the fiscal year to fulfill Raines' goals for the company.

At the same time, GameStop will close between 120 and 130 of its nearly 6,500 global brick-and-mortar locations.

So I'm not sure what this means for the US gaming market, but as much as I fucking hate GameStop and all of their corrupt practices, they're still the main place I go to for games.

Think they'll eventually leave the gaming industry for this for good?

[azoo]

They've always been a more media-centric than game-centric company (no matter how much they've tried to shroud it), so moving on to a mobile game industry is not surprising in the least if they decide to move on some from what they're doing now.

 

If this gives room for another game store company to come in and take the floor without the messed up practices then I'd be good. No skin off my nose.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

They've always been a more media-centric than game-centric company (no matter how much they've tried to shroud it), so moving on to a mobile game industry is not surprising in the least if they decide to move on some from what they're doing now.

 

If this gives room for another game store company to come in and take the floor without the messed up practices then I'd be good. No skin off my nose.

Cept for one tiny little problem: Walmart is trying to bug-in, and if they took the market things would proably be even worse

[PSI Wind]

Oh great. I love my Gamestop and now I'm afraid it'll shut down. Is there a list?

[TCB]

Ah...so that's why the two in my neighborhood 'merged'.

[Solkia]

Not that I know of. You could try contacting your Gamestop and seeing if they're being shut down.

 

I think it's for the better. They've been a pissstain of pre-order exclusives for too long.

[Mando-Whirl-Wind]

I think mine are safe, I am in the third largest city in the state, and they are 20-30 minutes from each other, and one is technicly in another city... and the one closest is the nice one with nintendo loving staff

[PSI Wind]

Not that I know of. You could try contacting your Gamestop and seeing if they're being shut down.

 

I think it's for the better. They've been a pissstain of pre-order exclusives for too long.

Yeah, it's totally for the better for good people to lose their jobs.

[Solkia]

I never said it was. I said it's good that the torch GameStop currently carries with its ass is better off being passed to a company worth a shit.

[Chaos Warp]

We need more local stores run by cool people who actually care about gaming, so if this allows for that I'm all for Gamestop losing a bit of their market share. 

[Jix Hedgehog]

X

Edited August 15, 2015 by Jix Hedgehog

[Autosaver]

I dislike the attitude with "think about the employees" whenever someone says something bad about a company. Most people want an alternative to the company. I would also like to point out that while they are closing 120 Gamestops, they are opening 250-300 Mobile Shops. I also have to agree with Jix, Gamestop flooded their stores when they were the big guy for video games. There are THREE of them here all within a 5 minute walking distance. I don't think that's going to go over too well. Obviously it's sad that employees will be lost, many new positions will be open.

 

I do not do any business with Gamestop. They are greedy and hold horrible business practices. Their prices are absolutely insane and they have been found doing sketchy stuff such as reprinting very rare titles and pretending they came off as used (Xenoblade). I also dislike when they have exclusive bundles such as the Wind Waker Collector's Edition and charge extra compared to the Nintendo press release MSRP.

 

I buy my games at Amazon. 2 Day/LAUNCH shipping, low prices, amazing customer service, no shitty luring me into buying different stuff, and convenience. I'm also able to sell a majority of my games (obviously Nintendo) for their actual market values. 3 dollars at Gamestop vs $35 at Amazon. I feel like a valued customer instead of a tool.

 

What I think Gamestop should do

 

1) Offer competitive used pricing

 

Gamestop used to be the only place where I could pick up a used game. Buying a used game would net me a $5 discount so why not? Well, in this day of age there are more accessible markets for used games. Using Amazon for example, I'm able to get up to a $30 discount on a used copy vs Gamestop's $5 discount. Gamestop is no longer competitive in this section of the market. Why bother using Gamestop anymore? Also, the trade in Gamestop offers is ridiculously low. I know it makes sense not to give a large amount for a trade in, but it doesn't make sense to give barely any when you're going to mark up the price to almost the price of a new title. Combining these two strategies would encourage people to trade in more and buy more causing a huge influx in customers.

 

2) Offer "swag" and preorder bonuses

 

It used to be that you would get a ton of preorder bonuses from Gamestop. Unfortunately, I haven't really seen any in years. Right now it seems to be focusing on only big name games like Call of Duty and these bonuses are mostly digital. What happened to all the physical goodies?

 

I also think Gamestop could open up more to the wearable business of tshirts, necklaces, gear, etc focused toward gaming properties. Maybe offer some of these free with preorder bonuses. It seems like a missed opportunity.

 

3) Get competitive in the digital market

 

I've never seen a discount off digital goods while I've seen tons for physical. It's hard to buy digital when you pay more AND lose selling rights. I also feel like Gamestop lacks severely in the PC market. If Valve is able to get tons of PC publishers to lower their prices, Gamestop should have enough power to do so in their market. I've seen Steam game distributors selling their copies lower than what Steam sells at. Gamestop should be able to do the same.

 

4) Get more into the mobile market

 

Honestly, Gamestop is being ridiculously late to the party here. Team up with big developers to offer something good. Maybe make an app that you can only buy exclusively at the store. Offer discounts/bonuses. Maybe a "Gamestop" Phone. Partner with big cellular companies. Etc etc.

[Cyalume]

We need more local stores run by cool people who actually care about gaming, so if this allows for that I'm all for Gamestop losing a bit of their market share. 

Any such attempts in my area (or rather, where I used to live) were short lived, remarkable failures. Especially the ones that tried their hands at selling "retro" games. We had plenty of these types of shops: In fact, there were two about five minutes from each other where I used to live around 5-6 years ago. Both have been wiped off the map since then/were shut down.

[Mollfie]

The issue with big companies like this is that the people working in the stores as just general staff probably care a great deal about gaming, but their hands are tied by the company so they can't actually make their stores into the great places they could be. Big companies try to aim their brand at too many people and often end up not really appealing to anyone and thus being bland. But that's just my opinion.

 

Sad for those losing their jobs, a friend of mine works for GameStop, but maybe a good move for the company as a whole?

[Tani Coyote]

They have excessive locations anyway. This isn't a decline so much as a correction. There's an area near here where there's about 3 stores in the space of about two square miles. That's insane and is only supposed to happen in super dense areas like Manhattan. Las Vegas is NOT dense. Quite the opposite; the average Las Vegas person chortles when folks from California discuss parking issues.

Anyway. Fat clearly needs to be trimmed.

As for local stores opening up - unlikely. If they aren't viable now they probably won't be any more viable when GameStop makes its presence more efficient. Heck, this could actually hurt them if it makes GameStop's profits more efficient; they can offer lower prices to drive out competition.

There's no shortage of bad practices GameStop engages in, but that's just how the business world is. They're the Wal-Mart of games; a lot of folks aren't going to be happy with how they do business, but they still offer enough convenience and value that they'll continue to shop there.

We're suffering the effects of a market that isn't really competitive. The small-timers just don't have the critical mass or brand loyalty that GameStop has, so GameStop continues to flourish no matter how much it urinates on consumers. Why go to Bob's Gaming and get 20 in store credit for a selection of 500 games, when I can go to Gamestop and get 15 in store credit for a selection of 10,000?

If anyone does compete with GameStop, it's going to be big name companies with the money to actually compete... and at that point, most of them are going to roll with a general product line instead of a narrow specialty line.

[Agie]

Great...I hope the GameStops I go to aren't affected.

[Autosaver]

Great...I hope the GameStops I go to aren't affected.

I don't think the point of this was to close down gamestops in specific areas. I think they're trying to close down the excess gamestops. Case in point, the examples several users had where there were multiple gamestops in one area.