UPDATED-Gamestop re-entering vintage game market says CEO

[a_hub10]

I hate this.  I wouldn't doubt it if we see prices rise at local retro stores.

[hXd]

As an employee, I've seen what the general masses want, and this isn't going to last. I love retro systems, as 80% of my collection to this days is still PS2 (I know that's not really considered retro YET, but c'mon, the system is 10 years old). They're merely trying to recapture an audience that has abandoned them ages ago, and I don't blame them for leaving. I go to Play N Trade for all my retro stuff and will continue to do so.

[nes_pimp]

This will have an effect on the retro gaming market forsure. They buy games for less then ma and pa stores and sell them for more. NES and SNES prices are going to get jacked up. Back in the day they used to sell retro. But I dont know how fairly priced games will be now, considering I cant imagine where they will get a decent inventory.

[RetroRage]

As an employee, I've seen what the general masses want, and this isn't going to last. I love retro systems, as 80% of my collection to this days is still PS2 (I know that's not really considered retro YET, but c'mon, the system is 10 years old). They're merely trying to recapture an audience that has abandoned them ages ago, and I don't blame them for leaving. I go to Play N Trade for all my retro stuff and will continue to do so.

But once it fails will they destroy the games again?  I have a terrible feeling about this.....

And I still wont shop at Gamestop.

[bombatomba]

I would actually be curious where they are getting the games from.  Knowing how these corporations work they would have had to aquire at a very good price warehouses full of old stuff.

I certainly not worried about this affecting prices in local stores.  If anything I see sales in these small stores increase a bit (really just from non-mainstream consumers) as Gamestop will likely price high to test the market in each region.  Plus, there is a great chance this won't be nationwide.

[Tynstar]

Gamestop can eat a dick.

That made me laugh.

[s1lence]

Gamestop can eat a dick.

This

[bickman2k]

This is actually brilliant on their part. Now that they have destroyed countless games, they have now created a slightly rarer game. Which makes for higher prices...

[Leynos]

Gamestop sucks donkey balls.

I have Ply n Trade & a Local shop. I don't need a store that ove rprices things charges new prices for used games and likely just toss cases away or something. GS cares not about condition either. I do remember when working there in 2006 people always asking about SNES,PSone,N64 Games

[OatBob]

I hope you guys like peeling off their price stickers.

[Crabmaster2000]

I hope you guys like peeling off their price stickers.

The new stickers they have up here are actually fantasticly easy to peal off. Much better than the old style, have to soak in goo-gone, type ones.

[wildbil52]

updated..

[Shadow Kisuragi]

...still bullshit. At least they detailed how they would do consoles, which basically amounts to RetroDuo and other clones. Count me out unless they let fully document their titles online, including condition of cartridge and contents of the package (e.g. box, manual, etc.)

[8bitSpriteLimit]

Whatever executive guy they got for that interview should be fired.  Fuzzy ideas, disregard for historical trends and a general ignorance of the nature of the business from the top down. Its crap like this that's indicative of why this company is floundering:

"Sometimes what's funny is if you put a pre-owned title in the store, a lot of customers may not really want it in a store," Raines said. "But if you're a collector of Call of Duty, and there's an old Call of Duty original, Call of Duty 2, floating around, it has a lot of value for you."

Yeah, the hardcore retro collectors are all over the Call of Duty series.  What a joke!

[blcklblskt]

Whatever executive guy they got for that interview should be fired.  Fuzzy ideas, disregard for historical trends and a general ignorance of the nature of the business from the top down. Its crap like this that's indicative of why this company is floundering:

"Sometimes what's funny is if you put a pre-owned title in the store, a lot of customers may not really want it in a store," Raines said. "But if you're a collector of Call of Duty, and there's an old Call of Duty original, Call of Duty 2, floating around, it has a lot of value for you."

Yeah, the hardcore retro collectors are all over the Call of Duty series.  What a joke!

...That was one example.  They're not necessarily trying to cater to the "hardcore retro collectors", but to the people who don't know where to buy older used games, or even what they're worth.  Even physical GameStop storefronts aren't for the collectors (generally).  They're meant to pull in soccer moms who don't know the value of games.

I once saw someone pay $50 for cart-only copies of Super Mario Bros 2 and Super Mario Bros 3.  Now, any collector will know that $50 is outrageous for those two games.  However, because the person who bought them wasn't a collector, it was obviously worth the $50 to them for either the nostalgic value or whatever reason they had.  GameStop is trying to attract those people, the people who will pay over the value of the game because they simply have no idea where or even how to acquire this stuff.  Surprising, yes, especially in the internet age.

Now, I don't know if GameStop has the ability to acquire and price all of these games they're going to be carrying, but they could certainly make money by buying huge quantities and by selling them over their usual online retail value.

The part I was most interested in was when the CEO hinted that they may even still be sitting on huge quantities of older video game stock.  New consoles, maybe?