Before I begin, let me say that I know fully well about the stupid practices done in the US at Gamestop and how unfair there prices for trade ins and selling "new" games, but if you think you have serious problems over there then you are dead wrong.



Now I do like buying games from Gamestation or GAME from time to time, especially preowned games and the occasional Retro title that gets traded in (Thanks Gamestation for Ninja Gaiden and Truxton ), but sometimes it just concerns me how stupid buying in person could be. I know the economy isn't improving greatly but you can't just annoy hardcore gamers and collectors like this.

First part of my rant is preorders, now to be fair, they aren't terrible ideas. Unlike Gamestops reserving policy, you don't pay anything for preordering a game at either place until the game actually launches. GAME is better with preorders for two reasons.

1. There are benefits, if you have a GAME Reward card (which costs 3) then preordering a game will mean you get double points which equals money off your next purchase. Gamestation has to my knowledge no benefits except you have a copy waiting for you. Except when the DSi was ready for preorders where both shops you had to pay a small amount towards it (so basically that's only when they follow Gamestop), but Gamestation was 10 while Game was 25 and you can pay the same price at launch from both stores.

2. The people have better knowledge of upcoming games. I will say that my local Gamestation may be an exception to this fault but it still doesn't mean I can't talk about it. You see, I was wondering what prices for Punch Out for the Wii were so I asked the guy and he had no idea the game existed, let me tell you that this was about two days after the EU launch and there were reviews and advertisements from websites, magazines and TV. Another guy said that they only had two copies which were sold which is just...ridiculous beyond words. About a couple of weeks later preorders were opened for The Conduit. And would you believe, after being presented at E3 for two years in a row and being shown in magazines and online, just about two weeks before launch, the guy never knew the game existed. You have no idea how awkward it is to try and explain to a gaming retailer employee what a certain game is when they don't know it at all, I was trying to resist asking where he got his details from in a pissed off manner. GAME however on both hands instantly knew what I was talking about.

Now the second part of the rant, the prices. I think everyone on this website, including me, know what is a good price and a bad price for a game is, whether it is new or used. However, all the gaming retailers in my town go off the spectrum when compared to prices online. You see, I went into GAME to collect The Conduit which I preordered, I was planning on paying 30 since that's what the price online is, I walk through the entrance and the display cases say 37.99. Why would I pay 8 extra for a game in person compared to online? Even if I used my reward card, I would still pay 5.50 more. I went to Gamestation and HMV, and they had it at the same price. Whatever happened to competing prices?

Well I went home with my money, went online and found that Play.com was selling it 29.99 (free postage) while Amazon was selling it for 22.70 NEW with 4.99 postage so I saved a grand total 10.30 for a Brand New game released yesterday, and if I saved that much then I don't care if I have to wait around a week to get it.

So what are your views on this? Have you experianced what I have? Have you had worse?
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