Kmartgamer 4.0

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SHC-Gamer

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www.KmartGamer.com (Blog is effective in all locations)

March 20th through March 26th:


  • :ps3: 3-22 Playstation Heroes (Reg. $39.99) offer 10,000 SYWR + Save $25 instantly with purchase of Move bundle
    • Offer was extended through next week since Playstation Heroes is not arriving until the end of this week
  • :360::ps3: 3-22 Crysis 2 (Reg. $59.99) Offer Save 10,000 SYWR + Save $30 on $50 PSN or 4000 XBLA Points Card + Save $20 on Turtle Beach Head Sets
    • If the stores do not have the 4000 Points or $50 PSN represented on the sales floor send a pic of your receipt to SHC Ad Monster and we'll substitute with a $20 gift card
    • SHC Stock Boy will comment tomorrow on the Turtle Beach Head Set in-stock. This is featured in the circular so no gift card will be substituted but we will help coordinate a rain check if needed.
    • All stores will receive the LE edition of Crysis 2 for launch.
  • :360::ps3::wii::ds: 3-22 Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars 15,000 SYWR Points ($15) - 3DS not included
  • :360::ps3: Bullestorm $39.99 (Reg. $59.99)
Kmart Weekly Ad: (Circulars not effective in all stores, NYC and Offshore in particular)

March 20th through March 26th:

  • :ps3: $50 gift card with 160GB PS3 ($299.99)
    • Note: 3-27 (Next week) Killzone 3 bundle with free Killzone 2. Just want everyone to know if it affects buying decisions
  • :wii: Wii Consoles $179.99 (Reg. $199.99)
Note: Savings Coupon offers are valid in all stores

Coming Soon:

Update: Submitting Feb./Mar. offers as SYWR promotions. Will post as soon as they are approved. At the end of Mar. the coupon issue will be fixed and we'll go back to normal. For Feb . SYWR offers, there will be limit 2 per customer (the SYWR card will limit bonuses systematically).

As of Feb 6th, to earn SYWR bonuses a member has to have a valid email address on their profile and opted in before purchasing an item with a bonus offer. This has been communicated to members through SYWR emails and in the circular along with new signage indicating to receive bonus offers they have to have a valid email address on file and opted in to receive email. Opting in to receive SYWR bonus offers is not too bad: .

1. Log in to your account online
2. Click "My offers"
3. Click "More about me"
4. Scroll down to contact preferences
5. Click the boxes to receive email from (I suggest all for tomorrow). I'll post if you just have to accept Kmart in the future.


*This list is not comprehensive of every promotion that may be coming and release dates are subject to change.
 
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[quote name='SHC-Gamer']I'll be in meetings til' about 4p.m. today but then I am going to jump back on. Talk to you then![/QUOTE]

Can we run that Arkham Asylum promo back again later this month? Maybe with the GOTY version included?
 
Guess in this industry advertising budget really can make up for poor quality in a game.

Glad to hear homefront sold well at kmart for the business' sake but this awful trend doesn't need any further encouraging.

"Hey publishers, you can make a poor quality CoD clone and we will eat that shit up, please give us more clones!"
 
Homefront isnt a poor CoD clone, it has CoD and BF elements mixed and its more BF than CoD, go watch videos of it on youtube and you can figure that much out.

It looks A LOT better than the reviews have said, I really dont get the "BAD GRAPHICS RJAIRTJEWO:TNWTG" that everyone is screaming about with it. I might actually pick it up
 
I posted a review that wasn't just about "bad graphics" and shipwreck's opinion was similarly meh on the title. Not to mention THQ's stock price has taken a 33% hit on lower sales expectations for Homefront.

It may be the case that kmart's strong deal on the title affected other retailers, the way they're dropping the price. Either way glad to see kmart's new direction working and gathering attention.

I see it as a positive for all if kmart makes out while THQ gets burned on this title.
 
[quote name='jer7583']I posted a review that wasn't just about "bad graphics" and shipwreck's opinion was similarly meh on the title. Not to mention THQ's stock price has taken a 33% hit on lower sales expectations for Homefront.

It may be the case that kmart's strong deal on the title affected other retailers, the way they're dropping the price. Either way glad to see kmart's new direction working and gathering attention.

I see it as a positive for all if kmart makes out while THQ gets burned on this title.[/QUOTE]

Dont know where you heard lower sales. Stock tanked yesterday because of metacritic ratings: http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/...ock-dips-after-homefront-reviews-surface.aspx

In terms of it being a COD rip off I disagree mainly because if anything youd have to say its a battliefield rip off seeing as cod came after battlefield and used alot of things from battlefield. In todays games what games dont borrow from other games? Almost every game has some aspect of another game
 
Giant Bomb, Joystiq, CAG, IGN, 1UP, Game Informer, Eurogamer, Edge Magazine, Destructoid all have given it middle of the road reviews. Most of the positive reviews were posted before release - a typical PR tactic for ensuring high scores by allowing sites to post reviews early.

I say low sales because both wal-mart and Amazon are selling it for $40 today. Not a strategy that multiple large retalers take for a title meeting sales expectations.

Just saying Kmart must have been one of the retailers to make out well with this title.
 
Could be alot we dont know. THQ is willing to try different models to shake up the game industry. Im fine with the game. Were to centred around graphics. Not every game is going to look like crysis 2 and alot of the reviews I seen mentioned it wasnt upto that quality. I havent seen anything negative from the people who picked it up yet on any of the forums here. They all mention the story is awesome and the multiplayer is fun and that works for me for a game.
 
Seriously, if you guys don't know how the stock market works, don't try to use it to gauge the game.

I played the game last night and loved it. The graphics weren't spectacular but they weren't bad either. The story was short but they MP is freakn fun!!!

I would honestly give this a 8.5/10

I took off 1 point b/c I wish they made the story much longer........lets face it, the trailer was epic and that's what we expected from the campaign. 1/2 point off for graphics.


BTW, I'm visiting CAG from my smartphone so did I read wrong that people were able to get HF for $42 + $15gc from amazon?!?!?!
I was pissed this morning when I found out walmart was selling it that low already!
 
[quote name='aznhero913']Seriously, if you guys don't know how the stock market works, don't try to use it to gauge the game.

I played the game last night and loved it. The graphics weren't spectacular but they weren't bad either. The story was short but they MP is freakn fun!!!

I would honestly give this a 8.5/10

I took off 1 point b/c I wish they made the story much longer........lets face it, the trailer was epic and that's what we expected from the campaign. 1/2 point off for graphics.


BTW, I'm visiting CAG from my smartphone so did I read wrong that people were able to get HF for $42 + $15gc from amazon?!?!?!
I was pissed this morning when I found out walmart was selling it that low already![/QUOTE]

For a short time they were. Amazon removed the $15 game credit almost immediately.
 
[quote name='aznhero913']BTW, I'm visiting CAG from my smartphone so did I read wrong that people were able to get HF for $42 + $15gc from amazon?!?!?![/QUOTE]
No. It was a glitch. Right now, it's just $42.
 
Maybe start making some of these lower quality titles less than $60 MSRP like they did with Majin. In a world where I can have a choice between a CoD or a Battlefield why the hell would I pick Homefront over those games for the same price? I personally would never pay $60 for a game like Homefront no matter when it released.

I dont know it kind of sucks when it's so hard for devs/publishers to take a chance and a huge risk with new IPs but at the same time when you have games like Call Of Duty or Uncharted or Batman or any highly polished quality game it makes everything else look mediocre. Maybe devs just need to step it up or publishers need to stop pushing releases out the door...

Unrelated but I googled "homefront developer" and google gave me a best guess based on other website results. I dont know if thats new or not but I've never seen it until now. Awesome.
 
[quote name='ucantcme69']Could be alot we dont know. THQ is willing to try different models to shake up the game industry. Im fine with the game. Were to centred around graphics. Not every game is going to look like crysis 2 and alot of the reviews I seen mentioned it wasnt upto that quality. I havent seen anything negative from the people who picked it up yet on any of the forums here. They all mention the story is awesome and the multiplayer is fun and that works for me for a game.[/QUOTE]

last word on this -

THQ is trying different models by producing an Mixed Martial Arts game, a Wrestling Game, and a Modern Military Shooter?

You don't see those everyday.
 
[quote name='SHC-Gamer']Holy North Korea Batman! Homefront sold great yesterday[/QUOTE]


prob not at my store since they hadn't even put out the game out yet and when i inquired as to why a game wasnt out a day later i was told id have to wait an additional 2 hrs for her to go back and take them out the reason she gave was that the area where they were was blocked off
i purposely waited a day later because the last time i went on release day i had to wait and loiter in the store because they had not put merch out but i felt dead space 2 was worth it

dont know josh things just get worse and worse at store #7625
 
[quote name='jer7583']last word on this -

THQ is trying different models by producing an Mixed Martial Arts game, a Wrestling Game, and a Modern Military Shooter?

You don't see those everyday.[/QUOTE]

I think you took that wrong. I was talking about pricing models. If you have been following the game industry lately you will find info on how THQ started the online code to play online and then are changing to a $40 price point. David Jaffe and other developers have publicly been stating the $60 price point needs to go away and games need to be priced on their content themselves and not just because its brand new so it needs its $60 price point. I also dont like the major companies thinking they can release broken games to us and then fixing via patches over time. This is called alpha and beta testing not lets let the consumer tell us its broken. So in all of this I applaud THQ for trying to change the pricing stand point because it is a old flawed method.
 
[quote name='ucantcme69']Could be alot we dont know. THQ is willing to try different models to shake up the game industry. Im fine with the game. Were to centred around graphics. Not every game is going to look like crysis 2 and alot of the reviews I seen mentioned it wasnt upto that quality. I havent seen anything negative from the people who picked it up yet on any of the forums here. They all mention the story is awesome and the multiplayer is fun and that works for me for a game.[/QUOTE]

Um, go to the 360 forum. A lot of us think it's junk because it is.
 
Discounted game does not a failure make. Look at Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit and Dead Space 2. They both hit $40 or less within a week or two of launch, as I recall. This may have happened sooner rather than later, but it's not going to be permanent, so I'm not sure where the idea that it's a huge failure comes from. It's just aggressive pricing. It can't really be called a sales failure until there's some metric to actually prove that's the case.
 
Josh, I know you're in a meeting but I've been wondering about something for a while now. I'm curious about what is considered a "success" for a videogame at K-Mart. This is a very broad question, but to me if the vast majority of videogame customers are buying the games with deals attached, how does that help K-Mart in the long run? I don't know the margins or markup on points cards, but on the surface if you guys sell 10,000 copies of Homefront in the first week to customers that take advantage of the deal (I know some won't but let's just say that 10,000 do), then you guys gave out $200,000 worth of merchandise and $100,000 in SYWR dollars.

I don't expect you to go into much detail, but are the publishers offsetting those losses? I mean obviously you guys know what you're doing but it's hard to ignore the math and not question what the long-term vision is for the gaming division at K-Mart. I know the thought is that coupons and SYWR points encourage repeat visits, but if someone doesn't spend considerably over the amount of their coupon or SYWR dollars then isn't this only magnified in that no extra revenue is generated? What if everyone redeemed their points on non-gaming items? Is that good or bad? Is there revenue sharing across departments in K-Mart like in baseball, where videogames are the Kansas City Royals and clothes are the Yankees and they help cover the cost of these promotions?

Sorry for the ridiculously long and loaded question. Feel free to take your time to respond if you can. If not, it's no biggie. I'm just bored at work and figured in lieu of Homefront's success it was as good a time as any to ask.
 
[quote name='ucantcme69']Could be alot we dont know. THQ is willing to try different models to shake up the game industry. Im fine with the game. Were to centred around graphics. Not every game is going to look like crysis 2 and alot of the reviews I seen mentioned it wasnt upto that quality. I havent seen anything negative from the people who picked it up yet on any of the forums here. They all mention the story is awesome and the multiplayer is fun and that works for me for a game.[/QUOTE]
It doesn't for most though. You can say people are graphics whores and it's the gameplay that counts and yada yada and it's true, except that in this day and age we can have both amazing graphics and great gameplay. There's no excuse for anything less than the complete package, particularly if you're trying to charge the same price as a top tier game.
 
All im saying about homefront is that im glad they released the game. They tried to add a good story something we havent gotten out of a military based FPS in a long time. Yea it was short but this is also What David Jaffe was talking about. The flawed pricing model. This game shouldve been $40 to start with. Only AAA titles should be $60 starting out and I agree. I tend to give more games a try than others tho. I dont like sticking with a trend and not giving developers incentive to improve their product as we see today.
 
[quote name='Saix_XIII']Granted he won't insult the store or employees, but he did come close just a short while ago today.



Based on that statement I think Josh is getting a bit fed up with the lack of information employees are given and/or the lack of motivation the employees have in looking to see if the sales are active and helping the customer as best they can.[/QUOTE]

[quote name='sparkchronic']prob not at my store since they hadn't even put out the game out yet and when i inquired as to why a game wasnt out a day later i was told id have to wait an additional 2 hrs for her to go back and take them out the reason she gave was that the area where they were was blocked off
i purposely waited a day later because the last time i went on release day i had to wait and loiter in the store because they had not put merch out but i felt dead space 2 was worth it

dont know josh things just get worse and worse at store #7625[/QUOTE]



I had similar issue.. as I almost always do.... I came back four days in a row once for a game..and THEY HAD IT in the back the entire time!!!!
SO, The complaints that the electronics department kmart employees are not great-insert word of choice here... ;)), is an issue that i hope gets fixed, especially with how awesome SHC Josh/Monser/Stocky have done for us CAGS.. But the employee issues does not just fall on the employee. Meaning- it truly falls back onto the store managment, who 1-hired the employee, and 2-does not correct the behavior and their incapability to SELL merchandise so the store can stay open-resulting in their continued employment. In addition placing a person in a department they are not familiar with is never a good thing.. I mean, when I go to home depot I don't ask a checkout clerk about plumbing or electrician questions-as they have no knowledge of that, or more likely wouldn't as they aren't placed in the section for a reason. Just my thought on the issue..as it is an issue for many. But it can be fixed, but it comes down to Managment in the stores.

My main complaint is products not being out when they are in stock.. Every Tuesday, and I am in like clockwork-Tuesdays, items are almost 100% never on shelves.. What has baffled me, almost funny, is release dates are almost always, you can bank on, Tuesdays for DVD's, Games, CD's... Yet often I am told, "that doesn't come out today..or i dont' think they release today". And the employee does not check. No desire to sell-no desire to do the job I suppose, or the employee hasn't figured out in the last three years of working in the dept that these items are released...wait for it....TUESDAYS. lol...

If the local stores can get that fixed it should be smooth sailing..at least-in my area.
 
[quote name='chriscolbert']Sorry for the ridiculously long and loaded question. Feel free to take your time to respond if you can. If not, it's no biggie. I'm just bored at work and figured in lieu of Homefront's success it was as good a time as any to ask.[/QUOTE]
It's safe to say that they're not losing money on these promotions or else they wouldn't run them. My guess is that the number of total people who get the deals is a much smaller percentage of the entire group that buy games there, since not everyone knows about them or decides to bite.

I'm willing to bet the gaming division of Kmart does good business for themselves, though only Josh and his crew will know the ins and outs.

Personally, I'm just going to imagine them all diving Scrooge McDuck style into a pool full of all the money we've given them over the last year or so.
 
[quote name='ucantcme69']Only AAA titles should be $60 starting out and I agree. I tend to give more games a try than others tho. I dont like sticking with a trend and not giving developers incentive to improve their product as we see today.[/QUOTE]
I don't see how companies can measure the quality of their games outside of reviews, though.
 
[quote name='sadboy']I don't see how companies can measure the quality of their games outside of reviews, though.[/QUOTE]

Well just goign off with some other devs suggested but lets say you have a halo with extensive multiplayer and a fairly long single player/ co op story mode experience. That should be $60. They mentioned other games that are very short and dont add anything extra into replay. They were basing it off content more that they were how the game looked or played. Its virtually impossible to say well we think the game will be rated this but we know we game them a really short story so maybe we should sell this for less. I should try and find that interview it was pretty interesting.
 
[quote name='ucantcme69']Well just goign off with some other devs suggested but lets say you have a halo with extensive multiplayer and a fairly long single player/ co op story mode experience. That should be $60. They mentioned other games that are very short and dont add anything extra into replay. They were basing it off content more that they were how the game looked or played. Its virtually impossible to say well we think the game will be rated this but we know we game them a really short story so maybe we should sell this for less. I should try and find that interview it was pretty interesting.[/QUOTE]

Heres the link. Interesting read: http://ps3.ign.com/articles/115/1155383p1.html
 
[quote name='Gosha']Saw no copies of Yakuza 4 at the store I went to, but they did have Yakuza 3 for 14.99, so I just picked it up.[/QUOTE]

If you haven't opened it yet you can go back and simply ask them to return/rebuy for the promo. They definitely have the game, some kmart employees are just awful at stocking them on time. Probably in a box behind the counter or on some stock cart somewhere.

I'm like 4 hrs in and it's worth the hassle :D
 
[quote name='SHC Ad Monster']Thanks to those who have posted great feedback about how quickly I have responded to emails and how I have handled them. Today I am behind in getting back responses due to ad planning sessions. I will always be a little slow getting back on emails on Wednesdays because this is my ad planning day for when I create the ads that are printed in the circulars. I promise to do everything I can to address every email that comes to me.

On a side note, Josh is loving watching me run around like a crazed idiot trying to get my tasks done and answer emails. :whee:[/QUOTE]

I am all caught up now and all requests have been addressed. Thank you everyone for your patience.
 
I had another great experience at the west lebanon, nh kmart yesterday.

Homefront is great. Story has a lot of missed opportunities, but is still okay. Most importantly multi is fun.
 
I guess 375k is pretty good.

But when the dev budget is 50m+ and they spend 2mil on advertising they better hope that it has legs.

That would put it within range of titles like Dead Space 2, and little big planet 2 for launch months. So good, but not great. I don't see it sticking around the charts though. People will forget about it pretty quickly. If they weren't able to get a half million at launch (especially considering they were touting 2million preorders before launch) that isn't exactly comforting for THQ.
 
Jer is right, 375 is not great for the amount of money funneled into this.

Also, it's just damage control to appease the shareholders who were dumping them, so it's questionable to begin with.
 
less than 20% of people that pre-ordered homefront bought it day of release if those numbers THQ gave are true.

That's kinda rough, don't you think? 2 million was probably worldwide, but that probably evens out if you figure day one sales are not 100% pre-order customers and includes walk-in sales. Plus america is the target demo for this game 100%.
 
[quote name='mrn111']Went to the Manassas store last night. Got in on the Homefront deal almost no problem. They had about 6 copies for 360 and about 10 MS point cards. Didn't see any PS3 versions or Yakuza 4 although there were plenty of PSN cards. I think that store may have something against PS3 owners.[/QUOTE]
went to same store yesterday afternoon. They had no idea where the game was, after about 20 minutes they found them in the stock room.. Didnt know about the point card deal either and never did get it to work. told them to screw it and would go to TRU to get there deal. They are clueless. I'm glad you got it to work. They tried for like 20 minutes to get it to work.
 
I have a strange question. What happens in the NJ stores with the deal on Crysis 2. It's supposed to allow you a $50 X-box or PS3 card for $20, but our stores don't sell the points cards.
 
[quote name='specter316']I have a strange question. What happens in the NJ stores with the deal on Crysis 2. It's supposed to allow you a $50 X-box or PS3 card for $20, but our stores don't sell the points cards.[/QUOTE]

probably a gift card in the amount of $20 dollars since thats what i've seeing going on with deals with psn/xbox cards
 
[quote name='specter316']I have a strange question. What happens in the NJ stores with the deal on Crysis 2. It's supposed to allow you a $50 X-box or PS3 card for $20, but our stores don't sell the points cards.[/QUOTE]

Email Josh about restocking at your store. Thats what I did.
 
[quote name='Donut2922']Email Josh about restocking at your store. Thats what I did.[/QUOTE]

NJ prohibits any type of gift to be sold at any retail store, not sure if theres a penalty for having stock gift cards in new jersey stores.
 
Man now i'm thinking about taking the Yakuza 3/4 deal back. BB has it for $40 and Yakuza 4 has a $10 trade in value at Amazon...ouch ! :lol:
 
[quote name='Rodster']Man now i'm thinking about taking the Yakuza 3/4 deal back. BB has it for $40 and Yakuza 4 has a $10 trade in value at Amazon...ouch ! :lol:[/QUOTE]

amazon does that for every game on release week, price will shoot up in a few days.... gamestop does the same thing aswell
 
Thanks, medetron, I just wanted a precise answer before I invest my money. I've already had it preordered for about 6 months from amazon.
 
[quote name='medetron']amazon does that for every game on release week, price will shoot up in a few days.... gamestop does the same thing aswell[/QUOTE]

Whew thanks I didn't know that. :)
 
[quote name='ShadowJT']Are you saying if you go to Kmart, your going get mugged?[/QUOTE]

I think it has something to do with the area, but I personally wouldn't know.
 
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