It's too bad Gamestop brand junk is usually just that Junk except for when it's actually manufactured by someone who's not them but has their branding on it like the MadCatz made wired 360 controllers that just have gamestop branded on them instead of MadCatz. But yeah, I'm sick of buying stuff from gamestop and it's either missing the case, or everything but the disc is in disrepair.
Gamestop keeps all of there new games in those paper sleeves but then they will argue with you on how the game is still brand new:lol:
I hate gamestop. Stinks like fuck and has this nasty feel to it. I have been ripped off many times by them. Once someone I knew tried to force a pre-order on me when I got rid of some stuff and was putting it towards something else. I keep telling him no he has this somewhat annoyed look on his face and hands me a thing with a demo code voucher. I repeat again I do not want a pre-order and he claims he is giving me the hook up. Sure enough two weeks later I get a call that my pre-ordered copy of left 4 dead 2 is ready.I got so pissed cause I repeated I did not want to pre-order. I go there explain the situation and they say they can't give me back my $5 unless I have the receipt even though they have all my info and I have my id to prove who I am. Even the way the reciept was written I couldn't tell that I was charged for the pre-order so I thought nothing of it and threw it away. I get new games from target, amazon, or best buy. Frys even carries more of the obscure stuff like arcade sticks and specialty controllers. Old stuff I go to luna games. I have been to game dude twice when visiting la. I got say the place is insanely huge and they have almost any game you can think of. Every time I go to la I try and visit it. It's like going to a costco for games. Prices are a mixed bag there, but surprisingly they sell some of their imports cheaper then anybody else does.
I hate Gamestop as well, but there are some good things about it. They sometimes have decent deals on used games. I don't think I've ever seen them raise the price on something; they always lower it, or keep it the same (FOREVER). That said, I would not shed a tear if they went out of business tomorrow. For every decent deal they have, they have about 400 terrible deals. Once I asked them what they would give me for Halo: Reach. I think he said "$15." I turn around and look at the shelf, and they have a pre-owned copy of Halo: Reach for $55. How greedy can they be? That means that (if someone bought it) they would make a profit of 2.6 times what they paid for it. They make $40 for taking the game, putting a little sticker on it, and giving it to someone else. That's nuts. I miss the days of competing game chains, and even more the independent game stores. There are still a few sprinkled here and there, but they can't compete with the giant that is Gamestop. We need tougher anti-trust laws in this country.
That the same parent company owns Gamestop and Barnes & Noble means that I also steer clear of that particular book store. I've always wondered if profit from one side of that business helps to subsidize the bad behavior of the other.
They buy out other companies and local game stores though. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GameStop They are the only major dedicated high street games retailer now in the USA.
So can gamers file an anti-monopoly suit against GameStop? Something that would force them to break up the monopoly, ala Ma Bell?
Not the same thing. With Ma Bell it was pretty much using them or not having a phone. While GameStop is really the only major gaming retail chain there are still plenty of choices for buying games. GameStop would have to do some drastic and stupid things for the government to really crack down.
I'm assuming you are talking about selling the last opened game as new and the recent Deus Ex controversy. In first case whether we disagree with them or not (I certainly do) it is a matter of opinion and precedent is on their side. For example dealerships sell cars as new that have obliviously been driven with miles on them. Stores do put opened merchandise back on their shelves at times to be sold as new. The Deus Ex thing is more tricky. My guess is that they probably did break some type of regulation but since they quickly backed away and offered compensation it wasn't worth the time to go after them. P.S. Damn you for forcing me to defend GameStop in any way.
Buying a "gaming tablet" certified by gamestop is like buying heart pills certified by Mcdonalds... Now there must be like 20 companies making those dumb suction controllers for tablets meaning theres a lot of people buying those, and these idiots from gamestop go ahead and release a tablet, not say an actual console with actual controls running android And whos going to pay upwards of $300 to get this thing?
