Walmart's Used Video Game Business Won't Kill GameStop

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
I don't think Walmart getting into the used game business is going to "kill" GameStop but, one thing is for sure, it sure isn't going to help them either.

For Walmart, which has been increasingly interested in used electronics of all kinds, the strategy is pretty simple. “Our goal is to buy used video games for more, and ultimately sell certified pre-owned video games for less,” says Laura Phillips, the company’s senior vice president for entertainment. It is starting aggressively next week, with the release of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare, one of the most anticipated games of the year.
 
Someone explain to me how this will work out for them:

Our goal is to buy used video games for more, and ultimately sell certified pre-owned video games for less
 
Dunno, but I got rid of Ghosts and Battlefield ps4 games with a decent price when it first started.
 
Someone explain to me how this will work out for them:

Gamestop buys a game for $5, sells it for 35.
Walmart buys a game for $10, sells it for 30.

Still make profit, just a little less, and at the scale Walmart operates they would still earn a shitton of money.
 
Someone explain to me how this will work out for them:

I assume they meant as compared to Gamestop. So they will give you more for your trade than Gamestop would and charge less for a used copy than GS would. Walmart due to it's size can probably accept lower margins on trade in items.
 
To me there is value in the game itself. So happy to have switched to digital media. Gamestop puts on a big push to sell your games back to Gamestop. You show up and they tell you that the game you purchased a week ago for $60 is now worth about $15 then will sell it to someone else for $55. I'm sorry but that is just throwing away $45. At least Walmart see's a little more value in pleasing the customer. For me that goes a looong way. Not that I will ever have a physical copy of a game ever again. Never have to worry about my game getting scratched. :)
 
The real diffference is that Walmart sucks.
Imagine waiting for half an hour for some idiot to ring you up a used game at Walmart. If you can even find anyone to help you at all.
That would take 5 minutes at GS.



There is only one reason to go to WAlmart. Pistacios.... and motor oil. Two reasons. Pistacios and Motor oil and headlight bulbs THREE reasons.
 
The real diffference is that Walmart sucks.
Imagine waiting for half an hour for some idiot to ring you up a used game at Walmart. If you can even find anyone to help you at all.
That would take 5 minutes at GS.



There is only one reason to go to WAlmart. Pistacios.... and motor oil. Two reasons. Pistacios and Motor oil and headlight bulbs THREE reasons.

You must be lucky... I loathe going into a GS... there is ALWAYS at min 5 min wait to buy something. Then you find out why with a "why didn't you preorder" sales pitch and some form of odd ridicule for telling them you don't pre-order cause obviously you are soooo stupid for not pre-ordering to get that kool new skin or shotgun that is just barely different than the other shotgun blah blah blah.
 
The real diffference is that Walmart sucks.
Imagine waiting for half an hour for some idiot to ring you up a used game at Walmart. If you can even find anyone to help you at all.
That would take 5 minutes at GS.



There is only one reason to go to WAlmart. Pistacios.... and motor oil. Two reasons. Pistacios and Motor oil and headlight bulbs THREE reasons.

I prefer to get my motor oil at Advance because they give me a free filter (I pick the one made here in the USA even though it is demonstrably no better than the ones from China), so the overall price works out just slightly lower than at Wal-Mart. As an added bonus, I don't have to step foot in Wal-Mart...

The scale at which Wal-Mart operates makes the low-margin, used electronics/games market viable. GameStop has to generate enough revenue to stay open primarily via used game sales as their new game sales are much lower margin. Wal-Mart just sees another area of the market where their low-margin strategy can be profitable.
 
Gamestop buys a game for $5, sells it for 35.
Walmart buys a game for $10, sells it for 30.

Still make profit, just a little less, and at the scale Walmart operates they would still earn a shitton of money.

I was thinking they meant: They buy your game for $10, sell for $5 :D
 
Gamestop buys a game for $5, sells it for 35.
Walmart buys a game for $10, sells it for 30.

Still make profit, just a little less, and at the scale Walmart operates they would still earn a shitton of money.

Sounds like they are in fact trying to kill Gamestop :p

That would be great for the gaming community though.
 
To me there is value in the game itself. So happy to have switched to digital media. Gamestop puts on a big push to sell your games back to Gamestop. You show up and they tell you that the game you purchased a week ago for $60 is now worth about $15 then will sell it to someone else for $55. I'm sorry but that is just throwing away $45. At least Walmart see's a little more value in pleasing the customer. For me that goes a looong way. Not that I will ever have a physical copy of a game ever again. Never have to worry about my game getting scratched. :)

They sell for $55 then offer disk protection for $5 more, which winds up costing the SAME as a new game, plus you have to add in gas costs where you take the F'N disk back 6 times until you find a working one. Bastards have even sent me home with disks split in half. There's a reason I no longer shop there.
 
Someone explain to me how this will work out for them:

I'm sure Wal-Mart means they will by games for more (than Gamestop) and sell them for less (than Gamestop).

Its not a bad idea. There is also more profit selling used video games than new video games. New video games will have the same price everywhere because it is set by the publisher and the profit margin is small. A used game the store buys from some kid for $5 and then sells for $10 just made a $5 profit. That is more than you will ever get selling a brand new game at $59.99

Electronics typically have a very small profit margin. That's why Wal-Mart has their electronics dept at the back of most stores. You have to walk past all the other items that Wal-Mart makes a larger profit on and they are hoping it catches your eye and you buy that stuff as well.
 
Law of the jungle,and business. No matter how big you get,there's always someone who will come along to knock you off the mountain. Considering Gamestop's practices,I'm surprised it hasn't happened already.
 
I can't believe people still buy games in stores at all.

It's more convenient than trying to look for a buyer/seller on your own each time you want to trade a game. This is probably the main reason why people still use these store to trade used games.
 
To me there is value in the game itself. So happy to have switched to digital media. Gamestop puts on a big push to sell your games back to Gamestop. You show up and they tell you that the game you purchased a week ago for $60 is now worth about $15 then will sell it to someone else for $55. I'm sorry but that is just throwing away $45. At least Walmart see's a little more value in pleasing the customer. For me that goes a looong way. Not that I will ever have a physical copy of a game ever again. Never have to worry about my game getting scratched. :)

That's why I dislike Gamestop. You see they buy them for $15, then sell them for $5 under new. I'll just buy new if it's a $5 difference between new and used. 15-20 difference between new and used, and I'll go used. That's where I hope Wal-mart goes. They don't need as high of a profit margin for each game. Buy high, sell lower. Buy at $20, sell at $30. Still 25 less than Gamestop, Even if they sell at 40, it's 15 less than Gamestop.

It might force GS to change their game around. Buy higher, sell lower. I'm good with that, too.
 
That's why I dislike Gamestop. You see they buy them for $15, then sell them for $5 under new. I'll just buy new if it's a $5 difference between new and used. 15-20 difference between new and used, and I'll go used. That's where I hope Wal-mart goes. They don't need as high of a profit margin for each game. Buy high, sell lower. Buy at $20, sell at $30. Still 25 less than Gamestop, Even if they sell at 40, it's 15 less than Gamestop.

It might force GS to change their game around. Buy higher, sell lower. I'm good with that, too.

The way things are moving towards digital, GS has a limited number of days just as Kodak had. If dealing in physical media is all they have, they are done for at some point. Walmart entering the used game market could actually help GS in the long run because Walmart actually have enough clout to force the market to continue with physical media if this becomes profitable enough for them. No developer or publisher is ever interested in pissing the big W off.
 
Well for consoles I could see why. I've not bought a physical copy of a PC game in at least 7 years I think.

Same here. I was very much against cloud based gaming platforms (Steam, Origin) in the beginning. I'm hooked, and I haven't bought a CD/DVD game in a while(SimCity, I think I did, but it was super cheap).

Consoles - I got Titanfall with my XBO, so that's my digital purchase. Others, I like having the physical media. For one, I can sell it or trade it if I wanted to, or loan it out. Plus, I collect video games. I like having the box and media there. That's just a tiny, tiny part of the market that would do that. The former (trade/sell/used market/loaning) is much larger.
 
The problem is, you have to go into Walmart!

Honestly though, they should have started this 10 years ago. Now with all the add-on parts, the used games may not be as good as they once were. Are you going to carry you game though the return line get a tag then romp though the store to find where to trade it in? I wonder how that part would work.
 
Back
Top