Best Buy GCU is being Discontinued?

Status
Not open for further replies.
I wouldn't mind buying digital as much if there were better deals (I'm looking at you Nintendo), but then there's still those ridiculous bandwidth caps. I do not want to pay $50/mo extra for unlimited. They really need to raise (or remove) the cap when there are quite a few AAA games that are 90-150GB and 4k streaming. It gets very annoying having to carefully monitor usage and predict other people's.

 
Last edited:
RatedIM said:
I saw this just now...

https://www.redflagdeals.com/latest-news/18/03/26/best-buy-ending-reward-zone-and-gamers-club-loyalty-programs/

I know this was in Canada, but why didn't it raise any concern here in the US?

Shame. Had a good run with GCU.
Click to expand...
So that was in Canada but is it going to be true here too? Meaning we’re also losing the Reward Zone program? If that’s true then BB can really fuck off. I get more RZ from using my BB Visa. If that’s gone, absolutely no reason at all to shop there again.
 
ElektroDragon said:
This is stupidest business move I've ever seen in my life.
Click to expand...
Best Buy already made the worst move award when they canceled the @gamer magazine, monthly coupon deals, and raised the price to the insane 2-year commitment of $120 with the secret: (psssst!!!...already a member? here's a special offer for the "real" price of $30 instead of the new loser price)...it was hilariously stupid.

They've been in an on-off high school relationship with their GCU program for a decade.

 
Depending on the ISP, there is no bandwith (data really) cap.  And I'm paying Comcast $50 extra per month to be capless.  Soon I'm moving to a capless gigabit fiber area.  YAY!

 
RatedIM said:
I saw this just now...

https://www.redflagdeals.com/latest-news/18/03/26/best-buy-ending-reward-zone-and-gamers-club-loyalty-programs/

I know this was in Canada, but why didn't it raise any concern here in the US?

Shame. Had a good run with GCU.
Click to expand...
Hopefully the reward zone thing just stays in Canada too. It's bad enough that we're losing GCU. If we lose the Reward Zone certificates too then my shopping at Best Buy will be almost non-existent outside of the occasional steelbook exclusive (and I won't even bother using my Best Buy Credit Card anymore)

 
Just a reminder in case gcu disappears totally - Smash Bros. Switch has a $10 pre order rewards cert (on top of gcu)

- On the digital note:

DSi (on DS), and PSP eShops have shut down..and Wii eshop is no longer open for new point additions..(it's closing soon)

Hoarders soapbox:

There should be a law 'guaranteeing' console digital purchase re-downloads for 3 decades... digital collections are great until the day your HD dies after the store servers have been shut down. I can still play my childhood games but how long can I play my current titles? All they have to do is leave a few computers alive to serve the downloads once the masses move onto the later gens... or at least make tools that allow people to easily backup their collections for restore in case of HD failure after the relevant eshop is long gone... (they would need to keep the account id's alive, but that's easy)

 
Pulling without notice was a dick move. If deals are good again, people able to get them plus a secret 20% off are in for a lucky ride.

Buying day one games for $48+ tax and trading them a month later to GS for $35-42 depending on the promotion , plus the reward points at both stores, was super convenient and made for essentially a $10-$12 month (or 6 week) long rental for brand new games until you beat em and are sick of em. So much better than 15 years ago when you had blockbuster renting new releases for 2.5days (weekend rental) for like $7 in 2003 dollars (10 today).

Edit: shit I didn’t know you can’t buy PSP games digital anymore that means no way of playing them on the Vita, have to use an actual PSP 1000/2000/3000 with UMD and no OLeD. I would’ve bought the five or so essentials like Pursuit Force. I’m on gaming sites everyday how do I miss such news.? :whistle2:(
 
Last edited by a moderator:
ElektroDragon said:
Depending on the ISP, there is no bandwith (data really) cap. And I'm paying Comcast $50 extra per month to be capless. Soon I'm moving to a capless gigabit fiber area. YAY!
Click to expand...
I wish there was fiber around here. Comcast is the only option.

 
ElektroDragon said:
This move by BBY is literally going to keep Gamestop in business for many years to come. Bravo BBY?
Click to expand...

All things being equal I’ll stick to buying new games that are still sealed.

IronChariot said:
I wouldn't mind buying digital as much if there were better deals (I'm looking at you Nintendo), but then there's still those ridiculous bandwidth caps. I do not want to pay $50/mo extra for unlimited. They really need to raise (or remove) the cap when there are quite a few AAA games that are 90-150GB. It gets very annoying having to carefully monitor usage and predict other people's.
Click to expand...
While I wish some of the sales were better, I do think Nintendo has the best rewards program on their shop. 5% back that you can immediately use on your next purchase is great. And I think the glut of games on the Switch has to eventually force publishers to be more aggressive with their discounts.
 
Best Buy’s Support Twitter has confirmed GCU is over and existing members keep their benefits for now. https://twitter.com/bestbuysupport/status/997675222655369217?s=21
 
GCU ending, no more physical Vita cards in the West, Steam pulling adult games... this week is like anti-E3 where gamers get disappointed instead of hyped.

 
Syntax Error said:
PC games sold retail are usually a clamshell DVD case with a slip of paper inside holding the Steam/Ubi/EA activation key. No reason why consoles couldn't change to the same "physical" purchase if store presence is a concern.
Click to expand...
It's possible, but all of them are hesitant to pull that trigger. Once you cross that line, there is no takebacks like: "oops, it was a accident"

The first one that does that will have to bet on enduring the consumer backlash that may come with it. And we all remember how fortunes changed when Xbox tried to implement it. They would be risking all that for what... slight margins on digital? Alienating customers... however small or large. That would be an affront to retailers like Gamestop, it would completely undermine their business model of selling used games. GS won't spare precious shelf space to sell slips of paper, that brings no profits. The spotlight be on them for taking away the consumer rights we've had as the status quo.

More options for the consumer are good.

 
bbprime.jpg


 
I wouldn't get too comfortable with Prime. Between continually jacking up their membership cost and what Best Buy is doing now, I would not be surprised at all if Amazon also discontinues game discounts.
 
OMG....  My sub actually ends June 13th!  Right in the middle of E3!  I misread earlier.  So hopefully by then pre-orders will go up and I can mega splurge right before the sub ends.

 
KaneRobot said:
I wouldn't get too comfortable with Prime. Between continually jacking up their membership cost and what Best Buy is doing now, I would not be surprised at all if Amazon also discontinues game discounts.
Click to expand...
not gonna lie, I don't really expect Prime game discounts to make it to 2019, Amazon Canada is at only a 10% discount as I recall atm

 
Oh my god - everbody running around screaming the sky is falling... Sales are mostly driven by price... Somebody will pick up the slack once these programs go away.
 
KaneRobot said:
I wouldn't get too comfortable with Prime. Between continually jacking up their membership cost and what Best Buy is doing now, I would not be surprised at all if Amazon also discontinues game discounts.
Click to expand...
With no one else doing it, there'd be no reason to compete.

That being said, I dislike that this is happening. I've been buying my games almost exclusively at Best Buy with GCU + Pickup discount + rewards.

I just resubbed a few months ago so I'm good at least 'for now'. I'm probably just going to pre-order everything I'm somewhat interested in, especially those with the $10 bonus and hope for the best.
 
There IS hope for Prime. Don't forget Amazon owns Twitch and have been making big pushes on that front lately, a large part of which is the game discounts. It might not be 20%, but I would be pretty surprised to seem them do away with it entirely.

Or they can decide physical is a waste of their time, create their own game system made just for streaming and aggressively go after the digital marketplace. But let's hope it's the former.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
kemosahbe said:
Best Buy’s Support Twitter has confirmed GCU is over and existing members keep their benefits for now. https://twitter.com/bestbuysupport/status/997675222655369217?s=21
Click to expand...
"At this time"

Don't overlook those words. If anyone follows other forms of news media, like sports, when a team says "at this time" we won't be trading Player X and they trade him a month later, it gives them a reason to simply state "We say at that time, and that time has passed."

 
Maybe this is just a bit of psychological warfare to get everyone to panic buy during the "summer lull" and pre-order new E3 releases like crazy, and then a few months later they'll be like..... nah, we were just kiddin'   ;)

 
ShadowAssassin said:
"At this time"

Don't overlook those words. If anyone follows other forms of news media, like sports, when a team says "at this time" we won't be trading Player X and they trade him a month later, it gives them a reason to simply state "We say at that time, and that time has passed."
Click to expand...
I mean, if you read GCU's terms and conditions it clearly states they can change or terminate the program at any time, so we're at BestBuy's mercy haha

 
tonyvx said:
There IS hope for Prime. Don't forget Amazon owns Twitch and have been making big pushes on that front lately, a large part of which is the game discounts. It might not be 20%, but I would be pretty surprised to seem them do away with it entirely.

Or they can decide physical is a waste of their time, create their own game system made just for streaming and aggressively go after the digital marketplace. But let's hope it's the former.
Click to expand...
I dunno... this is the same company that raised the price of Prime by 20% after posting record profits. Because they know they can.

 
Screw you Best Buy, I'll go back to Toys R Us...      Oh fuck.

No, but seriously, I wanted to pre-order some future games now just in case. Days Gone, Red Dead, & Last Of Us 2 sale pages aren't in existence, but Death Stranding is on there. WTF.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Unsupported prediction with an outside chance of being right:

Best Buy pulled the plug on GCU because Sony and Microsoft told them PS5 and Xbox Two will be digital-only, and it's less disappointing to GCU members if they end the program now rather than re-upping and getting less value out of their memberships.

 
ck0 said:
GS won't spare precious shelf space to sell slips of paper, that brings no profits.
Click to expand...
Well, from a retail perspective, a $60 box is a $60 box regardless of whether it has a slip of paper or a plastic/foil disc inside. No doubt GS wouldn't like it due to their reliance on second-hand sales but it's pretty much the same from an initial sale perspective.

 
dnl2ba said:
Unsupported prediction with an outside chance of being right:

Best Buy pulled the plug on GCU because Sony and Microsoft told them PS5 and Xbox Two will be digital-only, and it's less disappointing to GCU members if they end the program now rather than re-upping and getting less value out of their memberships.
Click to expand...
No, the reason is because Best Buy plans to discontinue sale of video game media next year as part of their absolute mentally insane "Best Buy 2020" business concept plan. Which is a nice way of saying Best buy will probably go out of business in 2021, because it is mind boggling what corporate has planned.

 
Vinny said:
I dunno... this is the same company that raised the price of Prime by 20% after posting record profits. Because they know they can.
Click to expand...
I mean their record profits are mainly coming from AWS, they are still losing money on prime even with the increase.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
These jerks... I made this video for you too...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZxiYcaAbfw

Now GCU is a relic we will look back on...

 
dnl2ba said:
Unsupported prediction with an outside chance of being right:

Best Buy pulled the plug on GCU because Sony and Microsoft told them PS5 and Xbox Two will be digital-only, and it's less disappointing to GCU members if they end the program now rather than re-upping and getting less value out of their memberships.
Click to expand...
There is 0 chance of being digital only. Digital only would be horrible for bestbuy sales.

 
jrr6415sun said:
Hard drive space? Download caps? Games are ridiculously big now.
Click to expand...
You're installing it anyway, hard drive space isn't a factor. Download caps are valid, but afaik that affects a minority of users. I'm not rooting against physical, I buy basically all my games physically, it's just inevitable imo.

 
jrr6415sun said:
There is 0 chance of being digital only. Digital only would be horrible for bestbuy sales.
Click to expand...
If they went all-digital, Sony and Microsoft only need to care about Best Buy sales insofar as Best Buy is motivated to carry console hardware.

IMO, the biggest argument against all-digital is what happened with Xbox One launch. But time has passed, the PC market has swung heavily toward digital, and digital has tons of advantages for platform creators. Digital means no used games stealing sales, no physical storage and distribution, no channel partners taking a cut, cheaper hardware with no/fewer moving parts, etc. And streaming services like PlayStation Now, while not good enough for fast, competitive games, are fine for many other kinds of games.

I don't know if I really think the 9th generation is the one that will go all-digital, but I have a hard time imagining the 10th generation (PS6, etc.) will still support physical media.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hmm after today's dip, might be the perfect time to buy GS stock. For real. GameStop would be idiots to not make a huge deal about this.

My GCU ran out a couple months ago. Really haven't missed it. Way easy to beat 20% off with GS if you know what you're doing. Will miss the flips, but honestly even those have been few and far between. Cashed out this year for my new TV and eBay cards to buy new parts for my PC with the 20% off eBay promos.

Sad to see the end of an era. But as others have said, maybe the elimination of GCU will bring better deals and a reason to shop BB for Black Friday again.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I find it hilarious that people on that best buy twitter are threatening to never buy games there again and throwing around their elite status. I dont know for sure, but I have read several articles that mention that with bulk ordering video games cost roughly $40 to $45 for retailers. Literally Best Buy sells one high end TV and makes more profit than these people spending $5000 on games.

 
My GCU expired last Friday. I guess I buy games through Gamestop and join Elite focusing on used games for the discount.

 
ritchardf said:
I find it hilarious that people on that best buy twitter are threatening to never buy games there again and throwing around their elite status. I dont know for sure, but I have read several articles that mention that with bulk ordering video games cost roughly $40 to $45 for retailers. Literally Best Buy sells one high end TV and makes more profit than these people spending $5000 on games.
Click to expand...
While most of these people are overreacting, I do semi agree with them. I spent around 6k there last year, maybe $1000 of that was video games. Gamers club and reward zone (and there price match policy) are the main things that keep me coming there.
 
My GCU expires on 6/11 so pulled the trigger and pre-ordered all the games I was going to pre-order anyway including Yakuza 2 Kiwami, Valkyria Chronicles 4, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and Smash Bros Switch.

Now I won't have any regrets since I can't renew, but I sure wonder how many new games I'm going to actually buy now. With my backlog at the point where I would be OK without buying a new game for well over three years, I see myself waiting until Black Friday to make my sole purchase unless random sales occur for titles I want at a price point I deem affordable GCU has spoiled me into waiting until things dropped to sub $25. For me, $40 is now "too expensive" if I didn't want a game on launch day.

 
phoenixlau said:
Noooo! GCU kept me a reliable Best Buy customer, because the large amount of games that I would buy each year due to GCU put me well on the way to Elite, which further incentivized me to keep Best Buy as first choice for any other items in order to hit Elite for free shipping on more games. Computers, KS8000, washing machine, etc. It became almost funny how every year I was able to rationalize other purchases to keep the video game train rolling.
Click to expand...
Yea, this is me. I buy things at Best Buy over Amazon and Newegg because it bumps me from Elite to Elite Plus cause of all the games I purchased. Just in the last six months, I've gotten 3 hard drives from Best Buy. Stuff like tablets and phones I'll probably just buy anywhere now.

 
Status
Not open for further replies.
bread's done
Back
Top