Are video game deals getting progressively weak?

[Sancho]

not sure where this topic should be seeing as there is no "Video game deal discussion" forum oddly......


Is it me or have video game deals listed here (not the fault of anyone here mind you) gotten slimmer, are a waste of time or non-existent?

I've been coming to this site for a little over three years now, and the deals are nowhere near like they were a few years ago, and it gets worse as the weeks go on. Am I imagining things, expecting too much,etc, or is this a legitimate concern?



I understand that sony, nintendo and micro$oft continue to increase their blatant greed and milking of products ( this certainly includes places like Gamestop/EB and FYE ) , but come on, don't use and shit on the people that are your most imporant customers (oldschool gamers over the age of 20) Granted I know that most of this has to do with retailers, but we all know how the big 3 are almost as much to blame.

[nwaugh]

You're right, but it's a cyclical process that follows the console lifespans. Most of the the games that can be clearanced from the previous generation of consoles have been, and the new consoles haven't been around long enough to generate a large number of titles stagnating on the shelf.

Of course, it also could be from the increase of the gaming population - more overall demand means there's less reason to do big sales or clearances.

[Sancho]

Y

Of course, it also could be from the increase of the gaming population - more overall demand means there's less reason to do big sales or clearances.


I think this is the main reason sadly


I have the solution, we should start a revolution to stop certain people from purchasing video games and implement a form of population control!

ok jk on that, but it's worth a shot :(

[thingsfallnapart]

i've been coming to cag since the start and i have to say deals have gotten borderline laughable. Most "deals" now days include sale prices on games that will drop in one or two weeks. Most of the "deals" now days are buy the game at launch or pre order it and receive "X" swagger to go with it. For instance i preo rdered the ace combat 6 for the faceplate and i picked up my game from GS and they didn't have the faceplate. They got them in a week later and gave them all away.

[FOnewearl]

I would agree. Sales & clearances this year haven't been has good has the past few years. Circuit City didn't even have a big yearly clearance this year like the past 3 years and pretty much everything starts out at $17 dollars if it goes on clearance during the monthly updates.

I have been waiting for Jak X Racing & Ratchet Deadlock to drop to $10 as the previous games in the series were rather easy to find at some point on sale or clearance for $10 and maybe even less but it doesn't seem to be happening even though my Circuit City (and probably most CCs) have a small army of Jak X Racings. I'm surprised that this and Ape Escape 3 haven't at least joined the $17 clearance months ago if not put on sale at $10 for a week to get rid of some of them.

Even smaller places around my area seem to be taking more value to video games. Small Mom & Pop rental store in my town used to sell games they used to rent that they were getting rid of for $10 a pop and half the time I'd go in they'd be 50% off that! I went in today for the first time in about 3 months since I remembered them having a copy of Okami. I also noted awhile ago that they started putting for sale prices on some of the older games if you wanted to rent them then keep them. They now had prices on everything to rent so you could rent or buy any of the games they rent out but most of the games were retail prices if you wanted to buy and the cheapest I noticed on a few really old games were $15. Okami was $40, Baten Katio Origins $40, Disgaea 2 50.99! I think they even had Metroid 3 marked $55 IIRC which I hope was a mistake and they though it was a $60 game. I found a few games just for sale in the sale bin and the only decent game was The Suffering Ties That Bind (Xbox IIRC) and it was marked $20, funny as I got the first Suffering game for Xbox from them for $5. They had Resident Evil Outbreak to rent and if you wanted to buy it you could for $20, they used to have a few copies as I bought this same game from them for half that when it was a few months old lol

I've also noticed that a lot of stores around me seem to not carry as many copies of B side type games probably as to be sure not to get stuck with excess amounts of games that don't sell and have to get clearanced out to make room for new stuff for example I saw Castlevania X Chronicles at Kmart a few nights ago and they only had 2 copies of it at my store.

Sorry for ranting on a bit much but this was actually an idea I've though about starting a topic on before and though about it again tonight after seeing the high prices on old rental games tonight at a place that used to sell all old games at a flat rate of $10~5.

Also OP I think you might have overlooked the "Deal/Shopping Discussions & Bragging Rights" section as I think that would be on par for a topic like this as you mentioned no "Video game deal discussion" section.

[YoshiFan1]

I think the problem is there hasn't been a major clearance in at least a year. There was the $1.99 and $4.99 clearance at Best Buy in Feburary but that was a minimal deal since most stores had nothing or next to nothing.

As mentioned, CC didn't have a clearance this year and starting clearance prices at $16.96 is horrible. Spring 2006 had tons of games in the $2.96 - $5.96range.

I was expecting to see major blowouts on XBox and Gamecube and to a lesser extent GBA games but it seems like those game selections at stores have been slowly decreasing to very small amounts of games without any huge clearance.

Once in a while there is an awesome deal but it's usually exclsuive to a few games and not anything major. Perfect example is the $10 Tony Hawk sale at Costco this past May. Getting a $59.99 PS3 game for $10.00 was great but it would have been even better if 20 - 30 different games were $10.

[SaraAB]

Video games are still cheap if you are patient and can wait till price drops happen but I would agree that store sales are less than stellar. Several years ago you used to be able to get games discounted 5-10$ on release, I remember buying all the pokemon games at kmart brand new and factory sealed for around 20$ each one christmas and they were still going for like 24.99 used at gamestop. Those discounts happen rarely now, thankfully we have online shopping which replaces the discounts the stores now lack...

The only way to get discounts now at stores is to either wait for price drops or wait for stores to clearance out the games that don't sell...

[Mr Unoriginal]

Ah, the 'good ol days' when you could find a $5 game almost weekly on the front page.

I think much of it has to do with, like another poster stated, the life cycles of the systems. Three years or so down the line we can probably expect the same sort of sales with XBox 360/PS3/Wii games.

[62t]

Even BB phased out the gamer coupon. Those used to be really handy

[banpeikun]

i think english skills are getting progressively weak

[GuilewasNK]

i think english skills are getting progressively weak

Too easy...

The K-Mart clearances have been the best this year IMO. You can find some good PS2 and Xbox 360 game for $4.90 now.

[jkam]

I was starting to think the same thing but like GuilewasNK said the K-Mart clearance was pretty solid. The TRU clearance along with the buy 2 DS games get one free was pretty good too. It comes in waves and we are at the beginning of a generation. I think you just need to be patient and get deals when and where you can.

[Mako1215]

I loved the TRU Buy Madden 08' and get 50% off, because all I did was return Madden each time, plus I got an employee discount so it made it even cheaper for me. Buying normall 55-65$ games for 22$ i loved that. I miss it

[jbuck138]

It seemed like new releases would be on sale the first week they were out. I blame some of this on Sony and Microsoft selling games for $60 now on. People will pay that price, so why change it. At least Nintendo didn't try to dothat and no one would pay that extra $10 for their less graphically powerful (but fun) titles.

The companies see that customers will pay $100 or more for some special edition games. Why lower prices.

[Ice2Dragon]

Some deals are nice.

The free music cd with Timeshift was quite nice.. :) I got it just for the cd.

And honestly its a kick ass game.

THe simpsons freebie this week was also coo..

[MightySlacker]

Yup. They are. Now the "deals" are YMMV clearances.

A few years ago, there was the original $5 CC sale, the TRU magic coupon, and EB would toss out some great deals now and then.

Gamestop and EB merging killed EBs deals.

Gamecrazy not carrying classic plastic killed their biggest deal. Christ, besides that bonus 50% trade in a few months ago I can't even remember the last GC deal - can;t even remember the last B2G1

Gamerush is on life support and the plug is about to be pulled.

Other stores don't do the massive sales/clearances anymore - its all YMMV markdowns and gradual drops.

Sears and K-Mart clearances have been about it the last few months

Dave

[Ivanhoe]

Imagine if stores would sell new relese games like they do new release dvds.

Usually new dvds are 14.99-15.99 (regular priced the next week at 19.99)

Thats about 20-22% marked down for the first week of release..

So a high priced 59.99 ps3/360 game would be 48.99ish...



But you are correct their just arnt many deals anymore... frys.com use to have a ton of new releases/pre orders for 36.99-39.99 when games use to be 49,99 in stores.

[SaraAB]

Yeah that was my point with the older Pokemon games (like pokemon red + blue when they were newer), I got them all for around 20$ each at kmart discounted from 29.99 each. Plus they would also regularly discount other gameboy color games (and other games of course) back when they were new at various retailers. You just don't see discounts on new games anymore the first week they are released like you used to, besides the occasional deal from Circuit shitty, but those are few and far between and not worth going 45 min out of my way for.

Most of those type of discounts are only available at online stores now.

Part of this is stores closing, media play and toys r us closed in my immediate area and those were huge players for price competition with electronics and games, you could always find something on sale at one store. With those gone, gamecrazy in trouble and Eb/GS no longer competing with each other, the deals have gone sour imo.

I have to resort to big lots for electronics and computer stuff now, simply because they carry more than any retailer in our area does, including target or walmart. Thankfully there is online shopping for this stuff as well, man I don't know what I would do without monoprice and dealextreme.

[reicaden]

im fairly new to the Gaming CAG lifestyle. (i used to just buy 1 game, every 3 or 4 months, and i'd pick one i Reeeeeally wanted, and played the shit out of it!... now i buy 1 a month or so, sometimes 2... and my backlog is huge :( )

Because I am new, I dont know alot about the "good old days", but I will say that:

The February sale in BB was awesome! I got ALOT of great games for 1.99 that I've been meaning to get to in my backlog. Got like 12 great games for 17 and change after a RZ coupon.

the Kmart sale was sick, in my opinion. I made a good 80$ on flips, and it seems that many on here made ALOT more then that.

the Blockbuster 5 for 25 deal was wicked sick, but dunno if that even counts.

and the Toys R us B2G1 free deal was awesome! especially when I went to return a game (I found Bioshock in the 5 for 25 BB coupon, so went to exchange/return the one i bought from TRU) and they didnt deduct the free game... it was odd as hell. Essentially turning it into a B1G1 free, inadvertantly (I didnt return and do it again however, figured i was lucky they messed up and didnt want to abuse).

Me: Returning this, decided I'd rather not buy it.
Cashier: Sure, here is 63.00 back for ya, cash, anything else...?
Me:.....thats it? Ummm, Do ineed to go get another one?
Cashier: .....if you want.... *confused face*
Me: ......nevermind, thanks, and good luck? *outta there*



SSSsssooooo, I am not sure what the "old" deals were, but hell, those i've mentioned dont seem half bad. How great were the old ones?


And i agree with the general comments in here. Consoles are at a different stage in life cycle. We'd need to wait for the same point in life cycle of these new consoles to get those "old" deals back, most likely. The fact that PS2 is tapped out nearly entirely, means that the "next Gen" is in full power now, and has little need to clearance a whole lot of inventory, just yet.

But i digress.... how were the old deals any different then those i mentioned?

[Sancho]

Yup. They are. Now the "deals" are YMMV clearances.

A few years ago, there was the original $5 CC sale, the TRU magic coupon, and EB would toss out some great deals now and then.

Gamestop and EB merging killed EBs deals.

Gamecrazy not carrying classic plastic killed their biggest deal. Christ, besides that bonus 50% trade in a few months ago I can't even remember the last GC deal - can;t even remember the last B2G1

Gamerush is on life support and the plug is about to be pulled.

Other stores don't do the massive sales/clearances anymore - its all YMMV markdowns and gradual drops.

Sears and K-Mart clearances have been about it the last few months

Dave




and this is why I think that it's not just the "first cycle of the new systems " as a reason


When you have companies getting worse and then eventually merging with others, a shitload of competitors going out of business ( the mergers of the former mostly to blame), and moronic and brainwashed consumers that are willing to fork over any amount of cash for anything video game related....


Pretty soon all that will be left are a few chains that can and will manipulate prices, gouging whenever for profits without caring about any customer base. This will obviously mean extremely limited choices within a pro-capitalist country that has been spoon-fed on the brainwashing cliche of " under capitalism there is more choice "


sorry to turn this into a rant, but this is yet another issue to add to the heap of inevitable realities that people throughout history have touched upon, and yet the masses always repeat history and look like fools.


case in point................At&t, Verizon and a few others were recently revealed to have participated in handed over personal phonecall and internet records of their users to the govt, yet soon after we see At&T merge with Bell and continue to grow----Verizon, while without a merger, continues to gain popularity.


let's support and continue to give money to companies that screw us YEAH!

[Bunechunk]

kinda out of place but i just thought id mention this, it seams like you get more by trading in each game at a time in to game crazy instead of trading 3 games in at one time. for example, i went into game crazy and traded in gears of war, rainbow six vegas, and chromehounds all at the same time and received only a mere 30 stinkin dollars when on the CAP trade in value guide it says gears of war is worth 30 dollars alone!! im awful angry about this. im sick of getting ripped off!

[Bezerker]

I think its gotten a bit worse, but still not too bad. I remember back in 06 or 07 there was a $2 clearance at best buy where FYE paid $28 for the games. Meaning you could get a $60 game for a little over $4 cash. Right now im still only paying half price at most for all video games & consoles, so its not too bad.

[007]

This ties into the 'Buying games just because thread'. Because of the lack of deals, and maybe I'm alone here, I find myself picking up nearly ANYTHING I find a deal on now, regardless of whether I really want (I.E. Blue Dragon), just because I know that deals are now few and far between.

Most of the time my best deals come from a smaller franchise place out near Pittsburgh, and that's only because prices flucuate. Last week I went in and got Halo 3 for $25, and this week they had three copies and it was back to $40. As someone who doesn't buy online too often (usually only for Saturn stuff and occasional Amazon deals) that was a big deal for me.

Even the online deals haven't been too great recently, but I have to agree that if you have only major franchise stores around you, it's definitely getting harder and harder to find deals. Backwards compatibility is killing this, as well. Gamecube games that *should* have been clearanced and forgotten over a year ago are now commanding more than they did during the lifecycle of the Cube because of the Wii compatibility. XBox stuff is a little different, though, since most places seem to be doing as much as they can to ditch them (GameStop in particular, look at the number of B2G1 Xbox vs. anything else) and yet there's a huge glut of them just sitting around and not going anywhere. Point is, older games used to become irrelevant, generally speaking, whenever a new console came out, and that just isn't happening anymore.

I made a few points in there, though they weren't necessarily coherent. :lol:

[Samus]

This is just because video games are the new entertainment medium for this generation.

That's a good thing! The gaming industry is thriving for the most part, which means more great games for us, and more yardsale/craigslist games circulating throughout your town.

Once video games are replaced with something new, the deals will come back. But is it worth it?

[Gumby the Green]

i agree with the console cycle thing (i tore up some xbox games during the 2005 holiday season) but i also feel like the major retailers aren't giving us much anymore. circuit city isn't anything like the old days and i am getting so ridiculously tired of all the deals being YMMV clearances. i have never once found any awesome games, and I'm not gonna buy "cars" for 13.98

[IAmTheCheapestGamer]

I think part of the reason many of us aren't seeing as many deals anymore is due to the proliferation of sites like Slick Deals and Fat Wallet, where their members will buy up the entire stock of cheap games that a store has before they even figure out where the hell they can sell them for more.

Couple this with some consumers becoming more internet savvy and looking for deals. Hell, I came upon CAG by accident myself when I first found this site. I did a search on the net for 'cheap games' and CAG was one of the first 3-4 sites that came up.

I missed the 'glory days' of CAG, when CC had $5 game clearances on good games, but I've managed to get my fair share of deals since I joined here and even quite a few before I joined CAG.

Case in point, I was on the lookout for cheap games @ Kmart LONG before I read the Kmart clearance thread here. I snagged myself 2 copies of War Of The Monsters for $15 and $5, which was still $40 or so in most other stores.

About the only deal I really miss are the used guides that EB used to sell alongside their newer ones. You could grab ones for older games which you could otherwise no longer find the guides for, as well as other non-gaming guides(like a pro wrestling one I picked up 10 years ago from them for $1.99, which has bios of many top stars).

Aside from those deals, I'm content with what I DO get, even though my local Targets and Sears are picked clean and the local Kmarts are actually becoming diligent in their task of properly marking clearance games.

I've missed out on a couple of phenomenal deals(albeit one was an individual owner selling a PS2 with 40+ games and a ton of peripherals for $100), but the ones I've managed make me feel that while the deals may be fewer, if you really look you CAN still find them.