Something that Satoru Iwata
(president of Nintendo) said a little while back has been floating around my mind lately. I won't quote because I can't find the link anymore, but it was somthing along the lines of:
'Games should be priced based on what they are worth. If we fall into a pattern of releasing a game for X-amount and within 2 months drop it to Y-amount, then the consumers will see the pattern and wait for the price drop. This would cause the industry to loose money'Very wise words, and this was directed to the entire idustry, rival companies and all. What was fun for me to note is that, after reading this I suddenly relized that Nintendos' games never really do have that 'patterned price drop'.
Anyway, back on point: EB Games, Gamestop, or due to the merge: EB Gamestop, or any of the
Corporate video game retailers have always played with our wallets in terms of our games value.
We all know the "I bought this horrible game yesterday for
$50 and today you will only give me
$5 for it!?... fine" routine.
Generaly, I try to work the trade off as best as possible. for instance I took a new release (wich was amazing btw) "SSX: On Tour" to trade in after I mutilated it and got a little back in trade so I could pick up the highly underated, inexpensive "Pikmin
tm" now the price diff was huge, but the trade worked out perfect... in terms of personal worth.
Now being a former employee of EBGames, I was forced to try and sell people the store card, a presale, a guarantee, a magazine
subscription, a gift card, memory card, extra controller. - seriously no etc, those were really enforced with all sales, unless they were buying one of those things, i.e. mem card. I want you all to realize that I tried my absolute hardest to never do anything that didnt matter, like a 25 dollar guarantee on a 1 year warrantee for a GBA. first - Nintendo doesnt break, second - Nintendo hardware has a FREE one year warantee built in. I wanted the shop to be a consumer FRIENDLY place, not a "high pressure salesman who pulls you from your day to check out the newest motorola phone that can fax reciepts to yo.." type store.
Well, I quit because the pressure was always on to sell to consumers, not to help.
For a couple years now, I have been graced to have a
franchise game cycler/re-cycler in the neighborhood who give fantastic prices, take SNES, NES, Lynx, Atari, Saturn, etc., offer great trade value, TEST the product, never pressure me into a sale, and whose word on holding a Wii for me at launch means more than the paper copy of the 'bond' I singed with the corp-guys. The place is called "Cool Stuff" and it is run by who I call the "Cool Guys". Anyway it moved from the 2 minute walk from my house, to a one hour drive... That I lovingly make, even with $3 gas prices. And why wouldnt I? honestly.
Now to put all these little snippets together and make one common Cent out of it all...
- It is in my best belief that shopping at the corporate places is okay for 'new' copies of the product, and just as good as shopping new at the franchise places. but bad for used sales. also, shopping at the store does add a demand for the type of store you are shopping at, wich means more of that shop around town.
- The corporate places create the drive for lowering game prices 'early' and causes the industry to loose money, and in turn higher production costs, and heres a big one... higher risk in originality from developers! - why create somthing untried and true, when another GTA clone will sell just fine? the developers want and do NEED that profit to create our pasttime.
- Recycling from franchise places increases competition from the corporate places to keep games priced well, and offer good trade on games - good news for all, we get more money for SSX, and the industry gets more money put back into it's pocket as well when we buy the new game.
- If things were to continue and ALL trading was done at franchise, and all new was done in corporate or franchise, then we get better trade value, as well as an increased profit margin for developers from new sales.
I guess basically what I am getting at is to help out our industry and save yourself a couple bucks in the process and shop at the "Cool-Stuff" type shops you have around your town. The points add up to alot in the long run, and in the short run are amazingly well recieved. I get long lost games that the corp places don't carry anymore (Mario is Missing!), get better trade and cheaper used games. - those are just the personal selfish reasons, I wouldnt want to repeat everything I have already written above.
plus eventually the demand for the corp places to wise up would help improve them in case of future purchase there.
- The Captain
8/4/06 EDIT: Took out all of
these (thanks Dave)
(5%)
