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[RUMOR] - GameStop officially won't be sold.... for now.

reconceptualize

reconceptualize

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,509
Somewhere in Zanarkand
GameStop has communicated to its managers that the company is safe from turnover or being sold in the immediate future. Working to get a copy of the verification document, but that's the final word. For now.

I'm guessing they'll review store layout and make official announcements soon, but there you go. ERA, your favorite store is here to stay.

EDIT - missed this announcement. Bad news.

https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/gamestop-just-gave-up-on-trying-to-sell-company-1203122042/

GameStop Tuesday announced it was no longer trying to sell the company due to a "lack of available financing on terms that would be commercially acceptable to a prospective acquirer."

The company didn't lay out what that meant in terms of the future for the company.

What that means, according to Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter, is that while GameStop may have been able to find investors, they weren't able to find any lenders who thought that company was a good investment.

"A new console without a disc drive — unlikely, but possible — could kill their business," Pachter explained. "And all this talk of Amazon, Apple, and Google streaming (video games) causes some to question whether there will be consoles at all."

Pachter added that he doesn't believe those future game-streaming services are intended to replace game consoles, but rather to supplement them.
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Last edited:
ffvorax

ffvorax

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,855
I stopped even to enter in a gamestop by at least a couple of years... high prices, annoying employees, used games in bad conditions...
 

Deleted member 17627

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,364
I really feel like people undervalue Gamestop as a valuable asset to the physical games market. Other retailers like Best Buy and Target pretty much have only the most popular and newest items in stock, but pretty much have nothing else. I made a thread a few months back about how Best Buy pretty much does not have games that are more than a year old here.

Having games from last gen, and having games that are low print and more costly on online marketplaces, but much cheaper at Gamestop, has definitely made them a place worth keeping in my opinion. As others have said, customer service and corporate policies need A LOT of work, but overall, keeping its stores around is much than not having them at all.
 
IzzyRX

IzzyRX

Avenger
Oct 28, 2017
5,816
You guys talks so badly about this company, that this come as a surprise, even for me who doesn't have them in my country.
 
OP
OP
reconceptualize

reconceptualize

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,509
Somewhere in Zanarkand
King of Dreamland said:
I really feel like people undervalue Gamestop as a valuable asset to the physical games market. Other retailers like Best Buy and Target pretty much have only the most popular and newest items in stock, but pretty much have nothing else. I made a thread a few months back about how Best Buy pretty much does not have games that are more than a year old here.

Having games from last gen, and having games that are low print and more costly on online marketplaces, but much cheaper at Gamestop, has definitely made them a place worth keeping in my opinion. As others have said, customer service and corporate policies need A LOT of work, but overall, keeping its stores around is much than not having them at all.
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Agreed. I found a used copy of Fire Emblem Fates in-store last year for far, far cheaper than anywhere else. They can be just as guilty as upping prices based on trends, but they sometimes are really helpful.

I'm hoping the new look GameStop favors table-top stuff too. Get people into the store and make it preferable rather a last-option for people.
 

Wander_

Banned
Feb 26, 2018
5,552
King of Dreamland said:
I really feel like people undervalue Gamestop as a valuable asset to the physical games market. Other retailers like Best Buy and Target pretty much have only the most popular and newest items in stock, but pretty much have nothing else. I made a thread a few months back about how Best Buy pretty much does not have games that are more than a year old here.

Having games from last gen, and having games that are low print and more costly on online marketplaces, but much cheaper at Gamestop, has definitely made them a place worth keeping in my opinion. As others have said, customer service and corporate policies need A LOT of work, but overall, keeping its stores around is much than not having them at all.
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indeed. people need to stop shitting this company, we need em
 
night814

night814

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 29, 2017
15,040
Pennsylvania
King of Dreamland said:
I really feel like people undervalue Gamestop as a valuable asset to the physical games market. Other retailers like Best Buy and Target pretty much have only the most popular and newest items in stock, but pretty much have nothing else. I made a thread a few months back about how Best Buy pretty much does not have games that are more than a year old here.

Having games from last gen, and having games that are low print and more costly on online marketplaces, but much cheaper at Gamestop, has definitely made them a place worth keeping in my opinion. As others have said, customer service and corporate policies need A LOT of work, but overall, keeping its stores around is much than not having them at all.
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There are still smaller game shops along with reseller sites like eBay, Amazon, facebook/Craigslist personal ads. It's not like the used game market is going to disappear if GameStop closes. When I first got my PS4 2 years ago I went on Amazon and bought all the early games I had my eyes on for pretty cheap from resellers. One actually made a mistake and sent me FFXV instead of FF Type-0
 

Deleted member 17627

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,364
night814 said:
There are still smaller game shops along with reseller sites like eBay, Amazon, facebook/Craigslist personal ads. It's not like the used game market is going to disappear if GameStop closes. When I first got my PS4 2 years ago I went on Amazon and bought all the early games I had my eyes on for pretty cheap from resellers. One actually made a mistake and sent me FFXV instead of FF Type-0
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True, but not everyone has those smaller game shops, such as I. And eBay and Amazon often have used games at really high prices.
 
OP
OP
reconceptualize

reconceptualize

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,509
Somewhere in Zanarkand
Shatty McKracken

Shatty McKracken

Member
Oct 28, 2017
1,952
Some private equity firm will buy them on the cheap, suck whatever cash they can get out of it to put down on their next buyout and then close it down for good. The capitalistic parasite machine moves on.
 

Deleted member 17627

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,364
Brian Crecente said:
They officially announced this morning they couldn't land the funding to sell it. Which is probably really bad news.

https://variety.com/2019/gaming/news/gamestop-just-gave-up-on-trying-to-sell-company-1203122042/
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Wow, the removal of the Cricket Mobile services must have been hard for them. Also Patcher actually said something that is plausible? That a cheap next gen console option that has no disc drive would be bad for the physical game marketplace if it caught in. Still wild how much the physical games mentality has shifted since the 2013 where Microsoft said that the Xbox One would not allow for the use of used games.

Anyhow, I think Gamestop really needs to stop throwing money at the collectible side of their stores since those are just junk piled on junk and is probably not making them money. I would say that they should offer better memberships that would encourage consumers to purchase their games at their retailers; but unfortunately, the removal of the Elite Pro membership last year makes me think they're not going to take this approach.

I honestly don't know what else they can do to be honest.
 
MrFrankFontaine

MrFrankFontaine

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,038
As long as they stay in business for the next gen launch, that's all I care about. I'm sitting on a bunch of store credit that I'm waiting to use for which ever console comes out first. I do most of my shopping elsewhere, but use GameStop for selling used games. I could always go back to selling my stuff on eBay, but haven't wanted to deal with the hassle. It will be interesting to see what these streaming services do to brick and mortar stores selling games.
 

Deleted member 11626

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,199
King of Dreamland said:
I really feel like people undervalue Gamestop as a valuable asset to the physical games market. Other retailers like Best Buy and Target pretty much have only the most popular and newest items in stock, but pretty much have nothing else. I made a thread a few months back about how Best Buy pretty much does not have games that are more than a year old here.

Having games from last gen, and having games that are low print and more costly on online marketplaces, but much cheaper at Gamestop, has definitely made them a place worth keeping in my opinion. As others have said, customer service and corporate policies need A LOT of work, but overall, keeping its stores around is much than not having them at all.
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This right here. I don't understand why people want them to go. I get that the corporate part of it all sucks, but the used game market will essentially be handed to amazon and eBay scalpers without GameStop. Hopefully they, at the very least, retain an online presence that allows people to mail in their games for credit on the site or something. I don't want these old games to be at the mercy of scalpers.
 
Wulfric

Wulfric

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,965
Personally, I think Gamestop disappearing would be a net loss for the whole industry. The convenience of selling old games for new ones is a service that virtually no other brick and mortar has right now. Independent stores are a rarity outside of major metros. Selling your old games on eBay or Amazon is hurdle that many people and children can't deal with.

I don't know why people are convinced that less competitors in the marketplace is a good thing. Walmart and Target won't sell you that obscure Atlus or NIS RPG 4 years after release.
 
Tebunker

Tebunker

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,844
nrvalleytime said:
Ahh. Missed this entirely - didn't see the release. Not a rumor then, and yeah. Bad news.

I'd assumed this was for self-preservation. Nope.
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Yeah long term they need funding and a change in plans.

Short term they have like 5 years max.

They face too many headwinds. They have cash flow and are profitable but that isn't enough to run a large retail business when you need to inventory up or cover a lot of head count.

I fully expect them to shrink a lot of stores and cut back on other things to save money.
 
Teh_Lurv

Teh_Lurv

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Oct 25, 2017
6,098
King of Dreamland said:
Anyhow, I think Gamestop really needs to stop throwing money at the collectible side of their stores since those are just junk piled on junk and is probably not making them money.
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I think the collectible side has a huge markup, like most of that junk selling for $25-50 probably costs Gamestop a couple of bucks to buy.

night814 said:
There are still smaller game shops along with reseller sites like eBay, Amazon, facebook/Craigslist personal ads. It's not like the used game market is going to disappear if GameStop closes.
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Good luck returning a used game to a Craigslist seller if the game doesn't work. The used market isn't going to disappear, but let's not pretend it won't take a major hit if Gamestop were to go under.
 

Deleted member 17627

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,364
Wulfric said:
Personally, I think Gamestop disappearing would be a net loss for the whole industry. The convenience of selling old games for new ones is a service that virtually no other brick and mortar has right now. Independent stores are a rarity outside of major metros. Selling your old games on eBay or Amazon is hurdle that many people and children can't deal with.

I don't know why people are convinced that less competitors in the marketplace is a good thing. Walmart and Target won't sell you that obscure Atlus or NIS RPG 1 year after release.
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FTFY

And you're right, Gamestop's trade in system can be pretty great if you're able to utilize the deals that are always going on properly. It's pretty much the best on the retail market. An example being Luigi's Mansion 2 at Best Buy's trade in is $1.30, at Gamestop it's $7.
 

Deleted member 17627

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Oct 27, 2017
5,364
Teh_Lurv said:
I think the collectible side has a huge markup, like most of that junk selling for $25-50 probably costs Gamestop a couple of bucks to buy.
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Which I feel like isn't working out anyways given that stuff always has these large discounts and sales at them, and people still don't buy them. I get that they're cheap to make, but relying on these collectibles like they're still as popular as they were in the late 2000s/early 2010s to net you some profit seems kind of dumb.

The other day when I went there, I saw a Scott Pilgrim vs. The World The Game shirt. You can't even buy that game anymore, it's delisted everywhere, it's such a niche title that who would buy that shirt.
 
Kill3r7

Kill3r7

Member
Oct 25, 2017
24,424
It is inevitable. I hope they last until the start of next gen. I would like to use my credit towards buying next gen consoles. I do wonder what this means longterm for the used games market at B&M stores.
 
LOCK

LOCK

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Oct 25, 2017
465
For physical purchases GameStop is very important. And really their used prices are sometimes better than Amazon.
 
Symphony

Symphony

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Oct 27, 2017
4,361
King of Dreamland said:
Still wild how much the physical games mentality has shifted since the 2013 where Microsoft said that the Xbox One would not allow for the use of used games.
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Publishers slowly devalued physical releases with barely any pushback and now we're at a point where people see little difference. First manuals, then on-disc DLC, then day one DLC schedules, then optional downloads (extra languages, high resolution textures etc.), then mandatory installs, then huge day one patches, then putting half of a collection onto disc/cart and putting a bit of paper in the box for the other half, and now we're at a point where most discs just contain unfinished or incomplete games that require huge downloads to function.
 
RPG_Fanatic

RPG_Fanatic

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,635
King of Dreamland said:
I really feel like people undervalue Gamestop as a valuable asset to the physical games market. Other retailers like Best Buy and Target pretty much have only the most popular and newest items in stock, but pretty much have nothing else. I made a thread a few months back about how Best Buy pretty much does not have games that are more than a year old here.

Having games from last gen, and having games that are low print and more costly on online marketplaces, but much cheaper at Gamestop, has definitely made them a place worth keeping in my opinion. As others have said, customer service and corporate policies need A LOT of work, but overall, keeping its stores around is much than not having them at all.
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This is why I would be really sad if Gamestop went away. I like niche game more than the popular ones. I would have a harder time getting physical copies of these if Gamestop went down.
 
Bomblord

Bomblord

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Jan 11, 2018
6,390
I'll only be happy to see Gamestop go if another shop pops up that lets me locally sell my used games, buy used games, and continues to stock smaller niche titles.

There's a nice local shop that has really old stuff but they're selection isn't what it could be and they don't really get new games except when random people come in to sell them.
 

Deleted member 5593

User requested account closure
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Oct 25, 2017
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Man... I have a bunch of credit. Was waiting to use it on new consoles but I guess it's time to start using it up.
 
Joe Shlabotnik

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Oct 27, 2017
5,887
Do you think they will make it to the PS5 launch because I have been sitting on a considerable amount of store credit for ages.

Edit: lol beaten!
 
Soapbox Killer

Soapbox Killer

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Oct 28, 2017
27,119
Wulfric said:
Personally, I think Gamestop disappearing would be a net loss for the whole industry. The convenience of selling old games for new ones is a service that virtually no other brick and mortar has right now. Independent stores are a rarity outside of major metros. Selling your old games on eBay or Amazon is hurdle that many people and children can't deal with.

I don't know why people are convinced that less competitors in the marketplace is a good thing. Walmart and Target won't sell you that obscure Atlus or NIS RPG 4 years after release.
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I agree. I wish they hired knowledgeable gamers as staff but other than that, I feel they are better for the industry than not. They need to redesign all of their stores and bring back being able to play a game before you buy it.
 
Benji

Benji

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Oct 25, 2017
8,114
This is actually the opposite of good news

It means they cant find someone actually willing to put the deal through. Because this was not a hostile take over it was management actively trying to sell the company
 

Deleted member 17627

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,364
Symphony said:
Publishers slowly devalued physical releases with barely any pushback and now we're at a point where people see little difference. First manuals, then on-disc DLC, then day one DLC schedules, then optional downloads (extra languages, high resolution textures etc.), then mandatory installs, then huge day one patches, then putting half of a collection onto disc/cart and putting a bit of paper in the box for the other half, and now we're at a point where most discs just contain unfinished or incomplete games that require huge downloads to function.
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As someone who was excited for the Spyro collection, this hurts a ton.
 
OP
OP
reconceptualize

reconceptualize

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,509
Somewhere in Zanarkand
Benji said:
This is actually the opposite of good news

It means they cant find someone actually willing to put the deal through. Because this was not a hostile take over it was management actively trying to sell the company
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Yeah. I edited my OP to reflect that. My thought was they were tabling it until a better offer presented itself, but it was a misread. The managerial communication I saw also was filled with corporate optimism, so that'll teach me.

Also - off-topic: good to see you still around here. Haven't posted much in the sales threads, but forget the haters.
 
TheZynster

TheZynster

Member
Oct 26, 2017
13,285
They really need to do that rental program they were going to do with their used games library. I'd easily pay $20-$25 a month to be able to grab and play any 1-2 used games from their selection in store and bring it back monthly. Even if i don't keep it, it still smokes out gamefly and waiting over a week.
 
MrNelson

MrNelson

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Oct 25, 2017
4,356
night814 said:
There are still smaller game shops along with reseller sites like eBay, Amazon, facebook/Craigslist personal ads. It's not like the used game market is going to disappear if GameStop closes. When I first got my PS4 2 years ago I went on Amazon and bought all the early games I had my eyes on for pretty cheap from resellers. One actually made a mistake and sent me FFXV instead of FF Type-0
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GameStop is still a hell of a lot more convenient though. If I'm looking for a particular game I check which stores have it, and then make a quick run to it same-day. If it's not in a condition I find acceptable I can always hit one of the other stores in the area, and if I do get it and it stops working I can return it without any hassle. Buying online is much more involved if I end up needing to return it, if I can return it at all.

And not everyone has access to local game shops, and if you do it's a gamble as to how long they will stick around. Over the last 10 years I've had as many as 7 in my area, and as few as 2. Right now I have 3, and only 1 is worth going to every few weeks, with one of the others being worth a look every few months, and the last being in firm "avoid" territory. I had 4, but just last month one closed because the people that owned the mall they were in sold their space after 7 years. It sucked because it was my #1, but luckily they had another store in my area, so they aren't totally gone.
 
lasthope106

lasthope106

Member
Oct 25, 2017
921
Iowa USA
I would definitely shop more for collectibles if they stopped marking up things. Once my GCU expires they might get more of my business. Lately I've been buying used games from them but I hate they threw away the cases.

Basically they really need to stop being shitty. Maybe that will help their business.
 
Ricky

Ricky

Member
Oct 25, 2017
912
My wife and Inwere discussing GS recently. It's crazy how so many people have these horrifying stories but not us. I enjoy chatting with the employees. They never harass me. I normally buy all my games digital but we still like to go in there and raid the clearance section for collectibles and older games.
 
Y2Kev

Y2Kev

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,863
The leveraged finance markets are extremely volatile right now. This will likely revive if the markets turnaround.
 
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