Button- Mashing Facts About Game. Stop. Formerly the property of Barnes & Noble, Game. Stop struck out on its own in 2. Despite some negative forecasts about the future of physical stores when many consoles now allow users to download games, the company's shares are up 3. Nintendo just revealed its E3 plans, which are similar to years past. On June 13 at 9am PT, there will be a Nintendo Spotlight presentation for Switch games. Used titles that are purchased by GameStop don’t get plopped right onto store shelves. Instead, they’re sent to the company’s refurbishment center near its. Check out some details on how the company profits, proper etiquette for robberies, and how a former vice- president wound up in a federal courtroom. THEY STARTED OUT SELLING ATARI TITLES. In 1. 98. 3, Texas entrepreneurs James Mc. Curry and Gary Kusin opened a software store named Babbage’s (after 1. Charles Babbage) in a Dallas shopping mall. While Atari and the video game industry in general was about to suffer a steep decline in interest, Babbage’s was also trafficking in personal computer programs: The diverse inventory allowed them to tread water before Nintendo reinvigorated the industry. In 1. 99. 4, the company merged with Software Etc. Executive Dan De. Matteo took the name after Book. Stop, a chain he remembered from the 1.
THEY DON’T ALWAYS GET ALONG WITH GAME PUBLISHERS. Game. Stop’s lifeline is the buying and selling of used game titles. Rather than spend full retail on a new game, buyers can often find a used copy for significantly less. One estimate puts the . The game developer, naturally, doesn’t see any money from those secondhand sales, which has historically led to friction: Microsoft was once rumored to be working on lockout chips that would prevent games from being resold. THE USED GAMES YOU SELL BACK DON’T STAY IN THE STORE. Used titles that are purchased by Game. Stop don’t get plopped right onto store shelves. Instead, they’re sent to the company’s refurbishment center near its Grapevine, Texas headquarters. The games are “buffed” and inspected to make sure they're still playable before being shipped back out. The facility processes more than 4. EMPLOYEES CAN CHECK OUT GAMES. Game. Stop allows staffers to borrow game titles for up to four days. There are a few caveats, though: the game can’t be a new, popular title, and it can’t be the only copy in the store. MICROSOFT’S “RED RING OF DEATH” WAS THEIR GAIN. Microsoft’s highly- anticipated release of the Xbox 3. Red Ring of Death,” an internal failure on the console’s motherboard that manifested itself months or years after purchase. They bought damaged systems cheap, repaired them, and resold the newly- refurbished systems at a significant mark- up. THEY GOT NABBED FOR “GUTTING” GAMES. Social media reveals much more than just a person’s friends list and travel history. It’s unlikely the State Department will use such intensive tools on every. Typically, a manufacturer’s in- box incentives (coupons, freebies) are developed and distributed without requiring input from a retailer. In the case of Square Enix’s 2. PC release, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Game. Stop was irritated the developer had inserted a promotional flyer for On. Live, a cloud gaming service. According to CBS News, Game. Stop had employees open new copies of the title, retrieve the coupon, and throw it away. Customers were so enraged that the company later offered a $5. PEOPLE LIKE TO DIVE INTO THE COMPANY'S TRASH. You. Tube. Game. Stop does such a brisk business with its used inventory—1. As a result, the company tends to throw away games and other items that take space away from profitable inventory. Once discarded, titles, accessories, and guidebooks can be retrieved by enterprising gamers willing to paw through the dumpsters. When Game. Stop caught wind of the practice, they issued a new policy, “Field Destroy,” that calls for employees to damage anything that could be resold by the trash- picking opportunists. A ROBBER ONCE CALLED AHEAD TO MAKE SURE A GAME WAS IN STOCK. It wasn’t exactly a heist worthy of Danny Ocean, but it was certainly unique: a Nashville, Tennessee thief who stormed a Game. Stop at gunpoint in January 2. Xbox One and several games so he could swing by and pick it up—per his story, he was on his way to work and in a hurry. There were no subsequent reports of the thief being caught. STORES IN PHILLY ONCE REQUIRED SELLERS' FINGERPRINTS. IStock. According to a CBS affiliate, Philadelphia- area Game. Stop locations began requiring customers to have their fingerprint scanned if they were selling or trading in a used game: The prints were checked against a database operated by law enforcement that tracked stolen goods. Not surprisingly, customers were slightly offended by the measure. Riding a wave of negative publicity, the Philly- area stores abandoned the policy in August 2. THEY BOUGHT OUT THINKGEEK. Novelty ice- cube trays are about to become a lot more convenient to purchase. In June, Game. Stop announced their acquisition of Geeknet, parent company of Think. Geek, the online resource for plush bacteria and monkey- related business. As part of the arrangement, Game. Stop plans to open a series of retail Think. Geek stores. The first location opened in Orlando last month. A FORMER VICE PRESIDENT DEFRAUDED THEM OUT OF MILLIONS. The FBI issued a press release in 2. Game. Stop vice president of communications Frank Olivera to defraud the company out of millions of dollars. From 2. 00. 9 to 2. Olivera billed Game. Stop using invoices for a fictitious vendor called Cloud Communications. When they paid, Olivera would have the money transferred from the fake business account to his own. He cost Game. Stop nearly $2 million before being caught; the resulting mail fraud charge netted him four years in prison. DIGITAL GAMING A PROBLEM? THEY HAVE WHALES. With investor forecasts consistently predicting bad times ahead as a result of cloud- based and downloadable gaming, Game. Stop thinks they’ll stay afloat. Speaking with Fast Company in 2. Tony Bartel expressed confidence in their “hybrid gamer” consumer base, which he refers to as “whales.” Hybrids, Bartel said, buy both physical and digital copies of games. Thanks to their Power. Up Rewards Pro Card program, the company can track spending habits and recommend games in a way similar to Netflix’s suggestions. THEY’RE ALSO COUNTING ON RETRO GAMING. Game. Stop is hoping nostalgia will help keep their bottom line intact. In April, the company announced a new trade- in program for classic consoles like the Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Genesis, and their massive cartridge- based game libraries. It’s expected that all of their stores will be buying and selling retro merchandise by year’s end.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
August 2017
Categories |