Gamestop: "Vintage Game Business"

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Olengie

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IGN had recently reported that the global entity, Gamestop, plans on foraying into the Vintage Game market, having observed and noticed the profits and interest made in recent years. They had stated they had amassed a large amount of these "vintage games" over the years and are looking to unload them on the market. Now, what does that mean for us? Will the games be sorely overpriced or decently understandable? Thoughts anyone?

Complete Video Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEx8yMxORB8&feature=g-user-u
Check out GameStop's website and you can pretty much buy any game from the past generation or two - or pre-order anything due out for the next several years. But one thing that's missing from the global retail giant is the ability to buy games prior to the era of the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube. Want a classic NES or SNES game? Some other classic part of gaming history? You won't find it.

According to GameStop CEO Paul Raines, that's going to change.

"We think there's a vintage sales opportunity, so we're accumulating some inventory," Raines told Verge in a recent interview, specifically pointing towards GameStop's website as the destination for this new venture. "If you go to eBay and look at all of the gaming stuff that's on there, it's unbelievable. Collector's stuff. We've got to be in that business. We will be."

Raines noted his company already has many old school classics, the result of trade-ins over the company's meandering 25-plus year history. According to the executive, there are a few challenges remaining, such as "sourcing the product, the condition [and] the refurbishment," but because the demand is there, the effort to expand the business is seen as worth it.

Raines offered no timetable for this expansion, merely noting his company is "working on some stuff we haven't announced yet." - IGN Article
Click to expand...
 
This will probably be a clusterfuck.

The vintage market fluctuates a bit too, so they may run into some issues with that kind of stuff.
 
They're probably going to screw up big time, especially if they assume too much and believe they could make a profit by overpricing games people could generally get a more a decent rate.

Gamestop may have some success with the collectors but I'm not quite sure with everyone else.
 
Wait, they're trying to go into the vintage game market?

Isn't this the company that periodically flushes out older inventory as it's no longer "current", such as the GB/GBC, GBA, GameCube and Xbox, just to name some recent items?

I see this working as well as a screen door on a submarine.
 
Yeah, that is what they're planning. I always wondered what Gamestop did with their games and this might be one reason. They've been looking at Ebay and seeing the potential profits they think they can make.

I read the comments of the video and loved the examples of the prices they may use.
 
They intend to sell these items on-line only, and not in any of their stores? Why on earth would I want to go through GameStop for vintage game purchases, when Craigslist and EBay already exist? It's just adding another middle-man, when the mechanics for selling directly through the internet have been well established.

There are already stores in my area that sell vintage games. GameStop was responsible for closing down the vintage game business in the first place by refusing to stock older titles or systems. They aren't winning any points by saying that they are now going to try to get into that business on-line. And they REALLY aren't winning any points by revealing that they are sitting on top of a large vintage game stockpile. They may very well be responsible for the artificial inflation on some titles.
 
[quote name='shrike4242']Wait, they're trying to go into the vintage game market?

Isn't this the company that periodically flushes out older inventory as it's no longer "current", such as the GB/GBC, GBA, GameCube and Xbox, just to name some recent items?

I see this working as well as a screen door on a submarine.[/QUOTE]
:applause: I agree 100%(for once) with you.
[quote name='Olengie']Imagine a whole warehouse full of boxed Earthbounds? :lol:[/QUOTE]
Knowing Gamestops' usual 'quality' of their pre-owned games, I'd venture a guess it's more ripped/stained/faded label disc only/cart only copies that look like they were dropped in the bedpan of a person with dysentery repeatedly to coat all portions of it and left to dry in the hot summer sun.

But maybe that's my extreme dislike of the chain showing.;)
 
[quote name='Olengie']Imagine a whole warehouse full of boxed Earthbounds?[/QUOTE]

:bomb: Grrrrr! It wouldn't surprise me. GameStop took vintage game sales away. Only the most obscure stores still carry my beloved cartridges thanks to those corporate ninnies. This crap just fills me with rage. I need to cool down with some iced tea and a good book.
 
[quote name='Olengie']I think that's the corporate dislike speaking IATCG. :p

I just hate how GS just waste space in their stores.[/QUOTE]
There's a lot of wasted space, but it's usually between the ears of the corporate goons behind the counter at GS. I find myself running into less and less free thinkers who actually can converse about anything other than what the evil empire tells them to shill for that week/month.

Must....sell...PUR....cards....must....sell...pre-orders.....must....lick....corporate....masters....scrotal....sack;)
 
[quote name='Olengie']Imagine a whole warehouse full of boxed Earthbounds? :lol:[/QUOTE]

That they will open and gut and sell as "new"?
 
Like everything they do, this will be horrible and overpriced.

I'm just sad that people who might have these older games and systems will be less likely to take them to thrift shops, yard sales, or craigslist when they can trade them in for seven cents towards the new madden.

Then that copy of Ninja Gaiden 1 for NES goes on the shelf for $34.99 ($31.50 if you're a POWER UP REWRADS CARD MEMBAR)

With the added benefit of the people who still sell on craigslist or yard sales thinking that the Gamestop "VINTAGE" price is fair price to charge for super common NES and SNES games. Stupidity all around.
 
Is there really a market for this now? Its niche obviously and personally I've already played through all those titles and have too big of a next gen backlog to care about taking a trip down memory lane.

Now for all the young bucks out there who have never experienced the original Sonic, Streets of Rage, Super Mario World, Flashback, Out of this World, and even Atari classics...I don't think these games hold up well enough or are approachable enough to entice gamers to buy them instead of a new game for their 360. Games were HARD back in the day!

The day the gaming industry completely dries up of original ideas and lacks all innovation is the day I revisit the Nintendo64 and buy another Dreamcast. Thankfully, I don't think we are quite there yet...
 
These games are definitely going to be overpriced since GS basically monopolized the B&M used game market in most of the country.
 
The problem is they'll want collector prices for far-from-collector quality... But look at the bright side, there will be all these "new" vintage games to buy (at least by Gamestop's definition :p).
 
It sounds like it could be cool if they do it right. I love buying old SNES games at EB games/Funcoland 10 years ago or so. They were pretty reasonably priced then; some games might be in the $30 range (like Final Fantasy III and Chrono Trigger) but the majority were $5-$10. I'm curious as to how their pricing would compare these days.
 
[quote name='Abear21']
Now for all the young bucks out there who have never experienced the original Sonic, Streets of Rage, Super Mario World, Flashback, Out of this World, and even Atari classics...I don't think these games hold up well enough or are approachable enough to entice gamers to buy them instead of a new game for their 360. Games were HARD back in the day!
[/QUOTE]

And on top of that, for those who want to play these things and don't have the old consoles laying around, it's easier to just buy them on the Virtual Console/XBLA/PSN than going and buying a vintage console and game carts etc.
 
[quote name='Abear21']Is there really a market for this now? Its niche obviously and personally I've already played through all those titles and have too big of a next gen backlog to care about taking a trip down memory lane.

Now for all the young bucks out there who have never experienced the original Sonic, Streets of Rage, Super Mario World, Flashback, Out of this World, and even Atari classics...I don't think these games hold up well enough or are approachable enough to entice gamers to buy them instead of a new game for their 360. Games were HARD back in the day!

The day the gaming industry completely dries up of original ideas and lacks all innovation is the day I revisit the Nintendo64 and buy another Dreamcast. Thankfully, I don't think we are quite there yet...[/QUOTE]
Yeah. I honestly don't think most modern gamers could fathom having ONE life and no respawns in some games or the epicness of taking a blue dot to a series of green dots to use a yellow dot to unlock the front gate of those green dots, which were apparently supposed to represent a castle or something.

But as for the lack of innovation and original ideas, I'd say we're pretty close to that point now. Many companies just copy the formulas of tried and true games without trying to do anything really new in their versions.
 
Well I can understand last generation (GBA/PS2/Xbox/GCN) titles stockpiling at Gamestop's warehouse, but where did Gamestop acquire older generation titles (NES/SNES/GEN/GB/GBC) from?

Did some vintage gaming store chain go under or get acquired by Gamestop?

I can see this working for Gamestop since most vintage gaming stores are just local ones. I don't know any vintage gaming stores as big as Gamestop.

I'd rather see reprints and ports of older generation games appearing on current generation consoles, but that's just me.

HD collections of PS2 games will stop me from buying the older PS2 games secondhand. Also, would like to see more GCN games ported to Wii/Wii U. I'm still waiting for Time Crisis HD Collection (Time Crisis 2,3, and Crisis Zone)
 
Also, this would work great as online (especially if they offered to ship it to the stores for inspection before you actually bought a game), but I'd also like to see them segregate out "cart only" from "collector items". I (and I'm sure many others) would be more willing to buy and pay a few dollars more if I could be assured of getting better quality stuff. But that would mean no generic cases and NO STICKERS (gasp!).
 
[quote name='Abear21']Now for all the young bucks out there who have never experienced the original Sonic, Streets of Rage, Super Mario World, Flashback, Out of this World, and even Atari classics...I don't think these games hold up well enough or are approachable enough to entice gamers to buy them instead of a new game for their 360. Games were HARD back in the day![/QUOTE]


did you really say that super mario world doesn't hold up well today? >_>
 
[quote name='anotherpoorgamer']Did some vintage gaming store chain go under or get acquired by Gamestop?[/QUOTE]

Yes. Just about all of them, in fact. GameStop bought out and replaced numerous competitors in their rise to power, and a lot of those competitors carried vintage games. I know Funcoland did, I shopped there all the time.

It's entirely possible that GameStop mothballed a lot of the "non-profitable" vintage material they collected from those acquisitions.
 
I think this will only work for serious collectors, and they would have to be priced correctly. If gamestop did in fact keep all the funcoland stuff they are sitting on some prime stuff. But it had to be marketed right, and packaged properly.
 
I have a hard time believing that this will work with the majority of their stores. They're too small already to have all of their games, so I don't know what they'll do if they try to jam even more into those stores. It would probably work best with a few larger specialty stores or through online sales.
 
I would think that all the funcoland stock was sold years ago when EB's website used to do their wonderous morning updates with super cheap classic games.

Or did that stop after gamestop bought eb? It's been so long I can't even remember a time before they were all one company.
 
[quote name='anotherpoorgamer']Well I can understand last generation (GBA/PS2/Xbox/GCN) titles stockpiling at Gamestop's warehouse, but where did Gamestop acquire older generation titles (NES/SNES/GEN/GB/GBC) from?

Did some vintage gaming store chain go under or get acquired by Gamestop?

I can see this working for Gamestop since most vintage gaming stores are just local ones. I don't know any vintage gaming stores as big as Gamestop.

I'd rather see reprints and ports of older generation games appearing on current generation consoles, but that's just me.

HD collections of PS2 games will stop me from buying the older PS2 games secondhand. Also, would like to see more GCN games ported to Wii/Wii U. I'm still waiting for Time Crisis HD Collection (Time Crisis 2,3, and Crisis Zone)[/QUOTE]

They bought Funcoland back in the day, hence Game Informer magazine came with it.

And if I remember correctly they did at one time start taking trades for 8/16 bit games for awhile, I know I saw them instore a few times when I used to visit fairly frequently back in around 2005-ish.

I'm surprised we haven't seen more collections like the Sonic's Ultimate Genesis collection on current systems that collect a good majority of the classic titles from the system (excluding 3rd party of course) and the Virtual Console never lived up to its promise and was too expensive as well.

I wouldn't hold your breath for updates for Time Crisis on current gen, they need to reprogram all of them to work with the Move and Guncon 3, since the older lightguns don't work in LCD TV's, I even own the Gunvari collection which has Guncon 2 support and contains all 3 Point Blank games as well as Time Crisis 1. The PS2 was the system for light gun titles, but we'll (almost assuredly) will never see them on current systems because of the need to put lots of work into them to make them playable on today's systems.
 
Man, this would honest suck. If this happened then what am I supposed to call them for? Battletoads won't be a joke anymore. :(
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']Maybe they made a big buyout of whatever was left of Hollywood Video/Gamecrazys' "Classic Plastic" before the company went into liquidation mode?[/QUOTE]

That makes more sense as the source for all those old school games.

[quote name='Richard Kain']Yes. Just about all of them, in fact. GameStop bought out and replaced numerous competitors in their rise to power, and a lot of those competitors carried vintage games. I know Funcoland did, I shopped there all the time.

It's entirely possible that GameStop mothballed a lot of the "non-profitable" vintage material they collected from those acquisitions.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I remember they got Babbages, Software Etc., and Funcoland in my area. Wikipedia says a bunch of others: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamestop

[quote name='jer7583']I would think that all the funcoland stock was sold years ago when EB's website used to do their wonderous morning updates with super cheap classic games.

Or did that stop after gamestop bought eb? It's been so long I can't even remember a time before they were all one company.[/QUOTE]

Yup, I figured all of the "vintage stuff" from all of their acquisitions was long gone by now.

[quote name='uncle5555']They bought Funcoland back in the day, hence Game Informer magazine came with it.

And if I remember correctly they did at one time start taking trades for 8/16 bit games for awhile, I know I saw them instore a few times when I used to visit fairly frequently back in around 2005-ish.

I'm surprised we haven't seen more collections like the Sonic's Ultimate Genesis collection on current systems that collect a good majority of the classic titles from the system (excluding 3rd party of course) and the Virtual Console never lived up to its promise and was too expensive as well.

I wouldn't hold your breath for updates for Time Crisis on current gen, they need to reprogram all of them to work with the Move and Guncon 3, since the older lightguns don't work in LCD TV's, I even own the Gunvari collection which has Guncon 2 support and contains all 3 Point Blank games as well as Time Crisis 1. The PS2 was the system for light gun titles, but we'll (almost assuredly) will never see them on current systems because of the need to put lots of work into them to make them playable on today's systems.[/QUOTE]

Never heard of the Gunvari Collection until now. That would be cool if that was ported to the PS3 in HD! Needs Time Crisis: Project Titan and then I'm really sold.

[quote name='Luxuria']Man, this would honest suck. If this happened then what am I supposed to call them for? Battletoads won't be a joke anymore. :([/QUOTE]

I know it won't be as funny because they'll ask which version.
 
[quote name='Luxuria']Man, this would honest suck. If this happened then what am I supposed to call them for? Battletoads won't be a joke anymore. :([/QUOTE]

Well there's always Atari, Intellivision and Vectrex, think bigger there are many older and obscure systems left to mine that'll provide years of fun prank calls. :lol:

[quote name='anotherpoorgamer']
Never heard of the Gunvari Collection until now. That would be cool if that was ported to the PS3 in HD! Needs Time Crisis: Project Titan and then I'm really sold.[/QUOTE]

Neither had I until I was putting together a definitive Guncon collection on PS2 (none of the Guncon PS1 titles were compatible with the new gun, sound familiar) But as I said its unlikely due to sales vs development on reprogramming the game to work with Move and Guncon 3.

Sega seems to be the only one who seriously supported light gun games this gen on Wii and PSN. Capcom did the RE games, and Namco the light gun king of PS2, released 3 games total (4 if you count the single version of TC4) as I seriously think that TS: Raizing Storm collection sold pitifully bad for them.
 
I hope they have systems. I'd love a Genesis, Hyperstone Heist, a Dreamcast, an OG Xbox and Ninja Gaiden Black (non buggy POS edition)
 
I'll still be going to my local stores for older games so doesn't affect me anyways.

I wonder how this will affect the values of these games. If gamestop attempts to sell sonic 1 for about $8, I would imagine people on craigslist will try to sell their copies at a similar price. Especially if their not collectors and do not know the actual value of a game.
 
This is going to end badly. I can't imagine this turning out good, it's just going to inflated everyone else's prices.
 
There are only so many Earhbounds in the world. The vintage market is about hard to find games really. Where is Gamestop going to get these games to make a profit? They will have a shit ton of common games and gouge on whatever single copy of a rare game they can find. This will not be good. It is going to be all crap that can be bought cheaper somewhere else.

Seriously think about it. They aren't sitting on stockpiles of rare games. If they are sitting on stockpiles of vintage games it is copy after copy of stuff that people probably don't want. I wouldn't doubt that they have tons of PS1 games (disc only) from when they cleared those out, but why were they still there? Nobody wanted them.
 
Exactly. You know how many times I went over the PS1 dump bin they had all of the mostly disc only stuff in? A TON. I was able to pick out some decent stuff from there, but 90% of it was old sports titles or shovelware.

About the only harder to find title I left behind was the Arc The Lad Collection since it was missing one of the discs and this was after having searched through that bin about 5x to try and find the last disc. Thinking back now, I likely should've bought it to part out to people who needed one of the other discs. But I think at the time each disc was $3-4 after the discount and even though I had a ton of GS credit to pay for it with, I couldn't justify it if it wasn't complete.:bomb:
 
I remember combing through the ruins of the PSX era in Gamestop bins and being constantly excited then let down right afterwards.

A copy of Ogre Battle in the case?! Oh, sorry, no instructions or stickers or map.

Diablo?! Yeah, we went ahead and sanded it for you so you can return it in a couple days when it doesn't work.

Another big issue is cartridge batteries. Even if Gamestop manages to get ahold of some old RPGs, what are they going to do about dead batteries? I know that they can be replaced but it isn't exactly a simple process. Unless I'm mistaken, it always involves soldering a new battery (after using some oddly shaped screwdrivers to open the cart).
 
Yeah. That was the main problem with the leftover classic games at GS every time. Regardless of what game it was, nine times outta ten it was disc only and looked like someone had used a belt sander on it(aka how many of their used titles look now;)).

So it was rare to find some gems in the big dump bins. But since those bins were always so packed full, even when you found something that was at least partially complete it would have a cracked case from being smushed between the hundreds of copies of old sports titles and shovelware.
 
Which sort of ties back into one of my weird complaints about GS. It's sort of hard to define but it's almost like they don't actually like videogames.

I get it, they have to make money, they have to maximize space in their store and show the most product to have the best chance of selling something. But I couldn't imagine willingly shoving so many of my games into a box to the point that they're breaking.

I realize that it doesn't matter to 95% of "gamers" but I'd be much more inclined to stop by GS if they didn't regularly look like shit. I still shop there from time to time and I'll even trade stuff in as opposed to dealing with eBay and shipping and the like but most of my trips to the stores are very brief as I've already decided what I want and how much it will cost before I go to the store. If they had nice display cases, less obtrusive price tags, and fewer godawful commercials playing in endless-loop mode, I'd probably spend more money there.
 
But you said it yourself, condition doesn't seem to really matter to 95% of their customers. If it did, they might change things a bit. But we as nitpickers don't really matter since after all we're only 5% of their business.

But the price tags have gotten easier to take off, at least if they haven't been on there for over a year anyway. Most of the time as long as you can get an edge/corner of the sticker up you can slowly peel the rest off without leaving much(if any) residue.
 
[quote name='IAmTheCheapestGamer']
Knowing Gamestops' usual 'quality' of their pre-owned games, I'd venture a guess it's more ripped/stained/faded label disc only/cart only copies that look like they were dropped in the bedpan of a person with dysentery repeatedly to coat all portions of it and left to dry in the hot summer sun.

But maybe that's my extreme dislike of the chain showing.;)[/QUOTE]
Bingo. GS as a corporation doesn't get 'quality' because they're targeting the average consumer who might not care... not so much for the vintage collector. This will undoubtedly fail when they offer vintage collectors some overpriced games with scratched up discs in generic cases covered in random stickers. Hell, they might not even have cases...
 
Almost every store in my area has been getting rid of the cases for PS2 & DS games because they don't have the room (and getting rid of GC altogether). Unless every item is only going to be sold as cart/disc only, I have no idea how they would be able to do this in stores.
 
Gamestop has already done their best to destroy the collectibility of many systems (a good amount of their stores trashed the boxes for their remaining used Gamecube games and also threw out the boxes for their PS2, DS, and now even 3DS games). They're pretty much a collector's enemy, though even if their vintage stuff appealed to a casual audience they have way more other places to for their retro fix online (eBay, Amazon Marketplace, compilations, etc.)
 
[quote name='Rozz']Gamestop has already done their best to destroy the collectibility of many systems (a good amount of their stores trashed the boxes for their remaining used Gamecube games and also threw out the boxes for their PS2, DS, and now even 3DS games). They're pretty much a collector's enemy, though even if their vintage stuff appealed to a casual audience they have way more other places to for their retro fix online (eBay, Amazon Marketplace, compilations, etc.)[/QUOTE]

I have to agree that Gamestop is collector's nightmare when it comes to them throwing away cases/case art/manuals. When I heard that PS2 games were going the disc only path. I stopped buying PS2 games until the Buy 2 Get 2 free type deals kicked in.

I don't consider myself a collector, but I like to have the case art and manual in a case. According to a former Gamestop employee, I'm one of "those people." :roll:

That reminds me I might start buying Virtual Console games on the Wii.
My luck I won't find an SNES copy of Super Metroid, Harvest Moon, and Super Mario RPG. (Just noticed that Harvest Moon for the N64 isn't on the Virtual Console. I'd buy a 3DS port of that game.)

Hopefully sales will tell game companies to port the rest of their vintage games to current generations.
 
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