Do you think Gamestop will be able to continue selling used games?

[Deleted member 17627]

Birthday was a month ago and got a coupon from them for 20% off a preowned game. Decided to check in on the inventory at the various stores around my area, and almost every single game that I was interested in was not in stock at any of them. It's not even as if I'm only looking for games that came out recently, but the stores I went to pretty much have nothing that was released from the past three years in their used inventory.

This wasn't a one time thing either, I checked again each week for the next three weeks, and still nothing changed in terms of the stock for these games that I was looking to buy.

I am honestly not sure what they can do resolve this issue. Feels like more and more people are moving towards digital versions of games, which means they aren't a population that could help them there because they aren't ones to trade in games. Even then, why would someone trade in their game at Gamestop when they can get much more for it online? On top of all that, feels like more games are getting smaller and smaller print runs as the years go by.

I don't know. Just my rambling thoughts as someone who used to be a frequent customer to the retailer and hasn't had much reason to go to them recently, What do y'all think?

 

[Lakeside]

I will be surprised to se GameStop selling any games in the not too distant future.

 

[Sacul64]

They don't make money on new games so it's used games or no games.

Also the coupon should work on the online store but I know they have gotten really shitty with shipping at least for amiibos.

 

[Ginger Hail]

They profit more off of used games than new, so there's no way they'd phase them out.

 

[PHOENIXZERO]

They're not phasing out used games, there's good chance they'll be phasing out of business before the next generation ends. They should've started transitioning their business like a decade ago or more for digital sales, maybe also to be a Steam competitor on the PC front.

 

[wombleac]

I give them 10 years tops. It will be like Blockbuster, when the right tech hits its gonna be a quick death. Really sad actually. I know they have their issues but I have a lit of fond memories of going there.

 

[Dragonyeuw]

I give them 10 years tops. It will be like Blockbuster, when the right tech hits its gonna be a quick death. Really sad actually. I know they have their issues but I have a lit of fond memories of going there.

Click to shrink...

We'll be in gen 11 by then. I'm having a hard time seeing how they're going to evolve their business enough to be viable in 5 years, let alone 10.

 

[Wulfric]

Growing percentage of digital sales = Less used inventory on the market

They're gonna ride the used game train until the wheels fall off.

 

[Pez]

I have no reason to go into a gamestop, but I do have a reason to go into older ma and pop used game stores.

If gamestop gets into publishing games exclusively like LimitedRunGames and others, then I'd be interested to walk in and see what they have.

Otherwise, anything I'd have an interest in I can find online.

 

[MegaXZero]

The question isn't if Gamestop will continue to sell used games, but if they will be even around to sell them. The used market is how they make a great chunk of their money.

To your point about why sell your game to gamestop, its purely convenience. Years ago, ebay was a better deal but people did it at gamestop because there is zero hassle. You give them a game, they give you cash.

 

[TimPV3]

What games were you looking for? Did you visit in person or through the app? The app hasn't had accurate used inventory for over a month, but if you're going to an actual store was it a mall store? I live in an area with ~20 GameStops, and the only section that is usually barren is the preowned Switch section, because first party Nintendo games sell out the same day they get them in.

Unless you're willing to post pics, I am calling bullshit on the "nothing that was released from the past three years" because every store has Fallout 76.

 

[Sampson]

5 years ago I thought they'd be out of business by now. It's amazing they have even survived this long. Their stock is under $5 now and their plan to survive is to cut costs and experiment with things like retro game stores. (Not a big enough business to support a $1B+ brick and mortar company imo.)

I'd give them like 2-3 years tops.

Traditionally the used games customer was someone who wanted to save money, but you have so many options now like game pass, EA access, games with gold, psnow etc and so many great free to play games you can play so many games for cheap.

 

[Eoin]

Depending on how the market shifts it's possible that used games might end up being the core of the only viable niche for a severely-downsized GameStop to survive within.

They're not phasing out used games, there's good chance they'll be phasing out of business before the next generation ends. They should've started transitioning their business like a decade ago or more for digital sales, maybe also to be a Steam competitor on the PC front.

Click to shrink...

They tried something like that by buying Impulse from Stardock. They never seemed to take it seriously though. The impression I got from them is that they viewed the downloadable purchase market as a secondary market for them, and never made the effort needed to build it into something worthwhile.

I give them 10 years tops. It will be like Blockbuster, when the right tech hits its gonna be a quick death. Really sad actually. I know they have their issues but I have a lit of fond memories of going there.

Click to shrink...

10 years seems optimistic. As a big chain store, a slow ramp-down isn't really an option for GameStop. Local stores will find themselves in localities where, for example, the local market would be 60% downloads, 40% physical, but the 40% physical doesn't provide enough money to keep a local GameStop running, so it'll be gone. With the market movement away from physical seemingly inexorable, it's likely lots of GameStop stores will hit the point where they can't survive long before there's no market for physical games, and I think it's also likely that this happens in the next few years, with the biggest effects probably being seen in the year after the next generational transition.

I would say within five years GameStop will be either dead or following a business model that is drastically different than their current one.

 

[khamakazee]

Retailers are simply going to have to ask for more profits on hardware, otherwise the only place to buy the next consoles will be on Amazon or through their own distribution. Digital sales are rising, streaming will be a thing. None of this paints a rosy picture for retailers in general.

 

[Lupin]

.

 

[Mothballs]

I friggin hope so. The majority of my game purchases end up being the endless loop of buying a game, playing it then trading it in towards another one.

 

[G_Shumi]

It's not just you, OP. GameStop's inventory in stores needs to get better. I was just at one near me and saw they had the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary collection for Xbox One used. There was only one copy. There weren't any new. There weren't any for PS4 or Switch either. So I just ended up buying the only used Xbox One copy they had.

There were a few other games I was interested in seeing if they were in stock but they didn't have them. What the hell? How does a store not have games that sell well? Don't they replenish at least new copies when they're out?

 

[KoopaSwitch]

TIL GameStop still sells games. It's mostly Funko pops, shirts and blind bags.

With stock at $4, they will be gone in the next 2 years.

 

[Xx 720]

The move toward digital/subscription gaming is killing gamestop's and used games, probably 1 generation left for them.

 

[butalala]

So should I spend my trade-in money while I still can? I was hoping to wait until my backlog cleared out a bit.

 

[Deleted member 17627]

It's not just you, OP. GameStop's inventory in stores needs to get better. I was just at one near me and saw they had the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary collection for Xbox One used. There was only one copy. There weren't any new. There weren't any for PS4 or Switch either. So I just ended up buying the only used Xbox One copy they had.

There were a few other games I was interested in seeing if they were in stock but they didn't have them. What the hell? How does a store not have games that sell well? Don't they replenish at least new copies when they're out?

Click to shrink...

This is exactly my experience.

 

[OrangeNova]

The EB games near me have plenty of decent used games, maybe it's your area?

I don't see them changing their model, at least for my city.

 

[Deleted member 11413]

If they stopped selling used games they would die as a business

 

[stizz]

Yeah that would kill gamestop no used games. There is one within walking distance to my house. But that area most likely needed it and I do not think it is doing too well. I usually preorder games from there but I rather go to an active gamestop in a mall 30 minutes away from my city and area. I guess the one near me does fine even though I know behind the scenes it may be horrible. I never ran into issues in any of the store so frequent in my state.