Target Clearance Thread XXIV

Shad0WeN said:
Referenced this twice recently and this is the situation:

https://www.cheapassgamer.com/topic/369240-target-clearance-thread-xxiv/page-94#entry14500440

https://www.cheapassgamer.com/topic/369240-target-clearance-thread-xxiv/page-97#entry14504185

I've been to several Target locations in my area over the past few months and in each case they had pulled most, if not all, of the off-planogram/discontinued video games for salvage so if there is some kind of promo this time around it looks to be slim pickings.
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Unless its the Switch area Target is getting sad in the gaming area in general

 
Speaking of Target YMMV, WTF is up with CS disputing their holiday PM policy lately? Twice now I've had to fight for a match to another retailer on their list that isn't even remotely close to being on their exclusions. We must be getting their offshore monkeys because I've normally never had an issue.

 
Jodou said:
Speaking of Target YMMV, WTF is up with CS disputing their holiday PM policy lately? Twice now I've had to fight for a match to another retailer on their list that isn't even remotely close to being on their exclusions. We must be getting their offshore monkeys because I've normally never had an issue.
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I think they decided to have their cs reject everything
 
I’ve probably price matched 6 things and gotten price adjustments on a few more. Between price adjustments and selling Target gift cards for 10% off, their profit margins must be slim to none. I noticed on cyber Monday their chat was suspiciously down all day and I had to call in. I WAS NOT DETERRED 😜
 
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chibul said:
Historically speaking, next week should be a B2G1 sale, correct?
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If you mean on video games then I would have to say most likely, no. Target does not typically run this promo in December as far as my recollection of more recent times goes. Looking back at the last couple of years I seem to recall there being one in November shortly before Black Friday and then not again until the new year.

 
Semi-off-topic (and regional), but it seems that all of Target's Halloween candy in the Philly area ended up at the Franklin Mills Turn 7. What's that you say? "Ewwww, you didn't shop for food in those dirty assed bins, did you?" Look, you enjoy your healthy disease-free lifestyle, and I'll enjoy my $3 boxes of Boo Berry and Fruit Brute.
 
Oh, and they have a few copies of Hades (PS4) at the checkout area for $5 each, along with what's left of their Xbox game dump from months ago.
 
Omg target finally shipped my 30% off Evil West ps5 after being delayed 3 times. Thought it’d be cancelled but seems like they restocked. Whew
 
I'm so excited to announce that my black friday order is stuck in a UPS distribution center in LA and UPS is suggesting I file a claim.

 
Hypebeast69 said:
Final fantasy 16 deluxe edition comes with $10 gift card for those who want to order from target instead
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This is truly bizarre; applies to standard as well. BB would always do the $10 rewards with preorder but now for Target to randomly have it for this game, first time ever AFAIK, is very strange. Now I just need to wait for another B2G1 sale to lock in a preorder as the promo is until release. I'll take 33% off + $10 over some jank steel anyday.

 
Some of the vinyl that hit 70% off around here (note that some stores didn't have these labeled):
Halsey, If I Can't Have Love I Want Power
Kanye West, Donda
Sam Cooke, Portrait of a Legend
Lady Gaga, Dawn of Chromatica
Kacey Musgraves, Star-Crossed
ChangesOneBowie
McCartney III-Imagined
Ed Sheeran, Equals (the Cherry Hill store had a jillion of these)
Guardians of the Galaxy Mixtape + soundtrack 
Olivia Newton-John, Physical
 
Still at 50%:
Aerosmith, 1971: The Road Starts Hear
The Beach Boys, Sounds of Summer
 
josekortez said:
I think that a lot of games are like that now where the disc is just a "key" to unlock the download on the Microsoft store.
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Sadly, it seems to be another ploy by these companies to marginalize physical copies of games in order to push digital on everyone.

 
I need some advice. Which is the better game? Soul Hackers 2 or FF7 Remake? I'm thinking of buying one of these at Target. I can't buy both.

 
josekortez said:
I think that a lot of games are like that now where the disc is just a "key" to unlock the download on the Microsoft store.
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It's just an awful practice. I mean, what's the point of even releasing a disc, then. I get day one patches to fix some bugs, but when we're now talking about not even having a playable game, or any game, on the disc, why even bother? You're literally just making landfill waste.

This is yet one more (giant) step towards that digital future in the game industry ... that I won't have any part of. PS5/Series X increasingly looks to be the last round for physical media.
 
Mattiful-Joe said:
It's just an awful practice. I mean, what's the point of even releasing a disc, then. I get day one patches to fix some bugs, but when we're now talking about not even having a playable game, or any game, on the disc, why even bother? You're literally just making landfill waste.

This is yet one more (giant) step towards that digital future in the game industry ... that I won't have any part of. PS5/Series X increasingly looks to be the last round for physical media.
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It’s already meant I won’t spend any money on the disc versions of Forza, Halo Infinite (even when it’s only $10 now), or Flight Sim. My series x now that I haven’t re-upped my gamepass just sits collecting dust. At least PS5 is a little better about having playable versions of the games on discs.

Microsoft basically just quietly backdoored everyone into their original Xbox One always online plans with none of their games even having a playable version on the disc.
 
RedvsBlue said:
It’s already meant I won’t spend any money on the disc versions of Forza, Halo Infinite (even when it’s only $10 now), or Flight Sim. My series x now that I haven’t re-upped my gamepass just sits collecting dust. At least PS5 is a little better about having playable versions of the games on discs.

Microsoft basically just quietly backdoored everyone into their original Xbox One always online plans with none of their games even having a playable version on the disc.
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Yeah, I always find it interesting how many podcasters speak favorably about Gamepass. I've said this before - no company has done more to drive the game industry towards a digital only space than Microsoft.

Sony still has some vested interest to promote physical media because it is based on its bluray tech, but as more and more folks buy into (or suckered into?) Microsoft's digital-only future, there is just not enough monetary gain to support discs/carts.

Sony is basically being forced to move into digital because they just can't sink money like Microsoft to get something like Gamepass working. Gamepass makes a moderate return now, but no question it bled millions upon millions to get there (and still might). I don't know how you make AAA games, offer them free in a $10-15 service, and turn enough profit.

That's why Disney+ is bleeding $1bn-plus a quarter, and why Netflix is basically just a malaize of B and C level garbage.

I don't like where any of this is headed, but gamers seem content to keep it from happening.

Oh well, at least we all have our backlogs.
 
Mattiful-Joe said:
It's just an awful practice. I mean, what's the point of even releasing a disc, then. I get day one patches to fix some bugs, but when we're now talking about not even having a playable game, or any game, on the disc, why even bother? You're literally just making landfill waste.

This is yet one more (giant) step towards that digital future in the game industry ... that I won't have any part of. PS5/Series X increasingly looks to be the last round for physical media.
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Disc has resale value and ability to share with friends. That is about it.
 
Mattiful-Joe said:
Yeah, I always find it interesting how many podcasters speak favorably about Gamepass. I've said this before - no company has done more to drive the game industry towards a digital only space than Microsoft.

Sony still has some vested interest to promote physical media because it is based on its bluray tech, but as more and more folks buy into (or suckered into?) Microsoft's digital-only future, there is just not enough monetary gain to support discs/carts.

Sony is basically being forced to move into digital because they just can't sink money like Microsoft to get something like Gamepass working. Gamepass makes a moderate return now, but no question it bled millions upon millions to get there (and still might). I don't know how you make AAA games, offer them free in a $10-15 service, and turn enough profit.

That's why Disney+ is bleeding $1bn-plus a quarter, and why Netflix is basically just a malaize of B and C level garbage.

I don't like where any of this is headed, but gamers seem content to keep it from happening.

Oh well, at least we all have our backlogs.
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I think a more apropos comparison is Netflix. They spent years bleeding money for subscribers and now their own produced content is almost always considered budget and disposable. And as a result of declining quality and increased competition, they’re losing subscribers now.

Microsoft might be throwing money around now but at a certain point they won’t be able to keep funding production of AAA’s (Halo/Forza/etc) with gamepass release day severely cutting into $60-70 sales to fund the production. It’s simply unsustainable, Disney isn’t as far down the path but you’re starting to see the strain in other streaming services, HBO, Netflix.

All of the streaming services trying to rope you into annual subscriptions is a symptom of the fleeting nature of streaming. People pick up and drop their subscriptions on a monthly basis, they consume all the content in that time then cancel again. They don’t have the level of loyalty where they’re gonna pay for something they’re not using.

Then you’ve got even higher costs associated with game development and people are expecting to pay $10-15 a month for game pass? Something has gotta give at some point. I’d be frankly fascinated to see what their subscription numbers looked like a year ago, I’m betting there was a huge spike for everything that came out then quickly dropped down. Rather than getting $60/$120 for people buying Halo and Forza, instead they got $15 or $30 maybe for a month or 2 subscription to gamepass.

Quite simply, the all subscription/streaming future is starting to not look as rosy from a business perspective as it once seemed. Games are going to eventually suffer as a result.

Edit-and then I came across this almost right after posting this:
https://www.darkhorizons.com/the-era-of-peak-tv-is-seemingly-over/

“ This has led to a seismic shift in Wall Street’s attitude towards media and streaming stocks – now focused much more on profits than subscriber counts. That combined with a perfect storm of a slowing economy, cord-cutting, a dismal advertising market, and widespread layoffs.”

“The most profound declines in orders this year were from Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount, with Disney also slightly down.”
 
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RedvsBlue said:
It’s already meant I won’t spend any money on the disc versions of Forza, Halo Infinite (even when it’s only $10 now), or Flight Sim. My series x now that I haven’t re-upped my gamepass just sits collecting dust. At least PS5 is a little better about having playable versions of the games on discs.
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Tell that to my son's Jotnar edition God of War! Best part was the steelbook to keep his used code paper in. :lol:

 
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Mattiful-Joe said:
Yeah, I always find it interesting how many podcasters speak favorably about Gamepass. I've said this before - no company has done more to drive the game industry towards a digital only space than Microsoft.

Sony still has some vested interest to promote physical media because it is based on its bluray tech, but as more and more folks buy into (or suckered into?) Microsoft's digital-only future, there is just not enough monetary gain to support discs/carts.

Sony is basically being forced to move into digital because they just can't sink money like Microsoft to get something like Gamepass working. Gamepass makes a moderate return now, but no question it bled millions upon millions to get there (and still might). I don't know how you make AAA games, offer them free in a $10-15 service, and turn enough profit.

That's why Disney+ is bleeding $1bn-plus a quarter, and why Netflix is basically just a malaize of B and C level garbage.

I don't like where any of this is headed, but gamers seem content to keep it from happening.

Oh well, at least we all have our backlogs.
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Netflix and Disney+ are right now atm proving that this model does not have long term sustainability. 30-year revenue models do no matter when your company continues to incur billions in costs. The chickens come home to roost. Disney has lost $100million+ on several of its recent movies that went straight to the digital service. It is not sustainable. That's why the head of Disney was recently ousted.

Every industry player should be paying attention. Customers too.

Your first hit is for free. Everyone wants to build a massive userbase. Then the cost of Gamepass is going to go up. The quality of service is going to go down. They are going to find new ways to monetize it. Some upper management will leave and new suits will come in to monetize new things. It's all cyclical. Look at Twitter too; they've made billions off nothing and now they're in cost-cutting mode to pay off their (Elon's) own acquisition. They are over-leveraged and their debt is massive.

This $70bil, 4x overvalued, Activision acquisition isn't going to pay for itself in $10 increments.

 
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RedvsBlue said:
I think a more apropos comparison is Netflix. They spent years bleeding money for subscribers and now their own produced content is almost always considered budget and disposable. And as a result of declining quality and increased competition, they’re losing subscribers now.

Microsoft might be throwing money around now but at a certain point they won’t be able to keep funding production of AAA’s (Halo/Forza/etc) with gamepass release day severely cutting into $60-70 sales to fund the production. It’s simply unsustainable, Disney isn’t as far down the path but you’re starting to see the strain in other streaming services, HBO, Netflix.

All of the streaming services trying to rope you into annual subscriptions is a symptom of the fleeting nature of streaming. People pick up and drop their subscriptions on a monthly basis, they consume all the content in that time then cancel again. They don’t have the level of loyalty where they’re gonna pay for something they’re not using.

Then you’ve got even higher costs associated with game development and people are expecting to pay $10-15 a month for game pass? Something has gotta give at some point. I’d be frankly fascinated to see what their subscription numbers looked like a year ago, I’m betting there was a huge spike for everything that came out then quickly dropped down. Rather than getting $60/$120 for people buying Halo and Forza, instead they got $15 or $30 maybe for a month or 2 subscription to gamepass.

Quite simply, the all subscription/streaming future is starting to not look as rosy from a business perspective as it once seemed. Games are going to eventually suffer as a result.

Edit-and then I came across this almost right after posting this:
https://www.darkhorizons.com/the-era-of-peak-tv-is-seemingly-over/

“ This has led to a seismic shift in Wall Street’s attitude towards media and streaming stocks – now focused much more on profits than subscriber counts. That combined with a perfect storm of a slowing economy, cord-cutting, a dismal advertising market, and widespread layoffs.”

“The most profound declines in orders this year were from Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery and Paramount, with Disney also slightly down.”
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Agree with all your points.

It reminds of the interview recently of Sony's Jim Ryan. In that interview, he was asked about the business model for Gamepass, and he said that there is no way AAA game development could be done where it's then given away release day on a $10-15 subscription service. As you say, it's unsustainable.

I like smaller indie games but if we're headed for a gaming landscape where games just become as dosposable and forgotten as Netflix and Tubi films, the incentive to invest and make high quality AAA games will go by the wayside first and fast.

Folks frequently point to the lack of production by Microsoft's acquired studios and wonder why nothing is materializing.

I have to think some smart accountants and analysts over there are crunching numbers and figuring out the same thing Jim Ryan said, and are sounding the alarm on what sorts of revenue deficits they face when you spend $100m-plus on a videogame and give it away on a cheap subscription service.

MS may have a lot of money, but they have shareholders to answer to, and bleeding money with no sustainable course to boost it significantly over time (short of raising sub fees by huge amounts) is not an attractive game plan.
 
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People are overacting with Netflix losing some subscribers in two quarters. It was less than 1% and this was after a massive subscription growth in Covid 2020, which that kind of subscriber growth was not expected to get to that point until a few years later. Netflix is the only profitable streaming service and their ARPU, average revenue per user, are much higher than all the rest of the other streaming services who are bleeding money to try and gain subscriber growth. Not to mention most of these businesses are cannibalizing their legacy TV model revenue as they enter the streaming business. There is a reason why Disney+ subscription price increased more dramatically than Netflix. Netflix doesn't have that problem and they are far ahead of the competition in many other key metrics. Netflix subscriber numbers has recovered since those two quarters of losses and actually has more user now than before.

MSFT Game Pass has not met subscriber growth for the past two years and revenue growth of the game division has been reported as to not meet expectation from their CFO. Not sure how you are expected to meet revenue growth when AAA games cost a lot and your are basically cannibalizing your retail game sales by releasing AAA games day one on a heavily subsidized subscription plan that is not growing and revenues for it are not where you wanted at.

 
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briandadude said:
Disc has resale value and ability to share with friends. That is about it.
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Just to clarify, there is no game on the disc for Halo Infinite. It's a code to download it off Microsoft's server. Years from now, once the game disappears off the server, that disc is literally a coaster.

Can't say I'm surprised it's Microsoft that decided to do this.
 
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blueweltall said:
People are overacting with Netflix losing some subscribers in two quarters. It was less than 1% and this was after a massive subscription growth in Covid 2020, which that kind of subscriber growth was not expected to get to that point until a few years later. Netflix is the only profitable streaming service and their ARPU, average revenue per user, are much higher than all the rest of the other streaming services who are bleeding money to try and gain subscriber growth. Not to mention most of these businesses are cannibalizing their legacy TV model revenue as they enter the streaming business. There is a reason why Disney+ subscription price increased more dramatically than Netflix. Netflix doesn't have that problem and they are far ahead of the competition in many other key metrics. Netflix subscriber numbers has recovered since those two quarters of losses and actually has more user now than before.

MSFT Game Pass has not met subscriber growth for the past two years and revenue growth of the game division has been reported as to not meet expectation from their CFO. Not sure how you are expected to meet revenue growth when AAA games cost a lot and your are basically cannibalizing your retail game sales by releasing AAA games day one on a heavily subsidized subscription plan that is not growing and revenues for it are not where you wanted at.
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Telling it like it is with the facts... my man

 
Mattiful-Joe said:
It's just an awful practice. I mean, what's the point of even releasing a disc, then. I get day one patches to fix some bugs, but when we're now talking about not even having a playable game, or any game, on the disc, why even bother? You're literally just making landfill waste.

This is yet one more (giant) step towards that digital future in the game industry ... that I won't have any part of. PS5/Series X increasingly looks to be the last round for physical media.
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For the PlayStation and Xbox ecosystems perhaps, but personally I think Nintendo will end up being the last holdout with physical media.

Mattiful-Joe said:
Yeah, I always find it interesting how many podcasters speak favorably about Gamepass. I've said this before - no company has done more to drive the game industry towards a digital only space than Microsoft.

Sony still has some vested interest to promote physical media because it is based on its bluray tech, but as more and more folks buy into (or suckered into?) Microsoft's digital-only future, there is just not enough monetary gain to support discs/carts.

Sony is basically being forced to move into digital because they just can't sink money like Microsoft to get something like Gamepass working. Gamepass makes a moderate return now, but no question it bled millions upon millions to get there (and still might). I don't know how you make AAA games, offer them free in a $10-15 service, and turn enough profit.

That's why Disney+ is bleeding $1bn-plus a quarter, and why Netflix is basically just a malaize of B and C level garbage.

I don't like where any of this is headed, but gamers seem content to keep it from happening.

Oh well, at least we all have our backlogs.
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Some truth there perhaps, but if we are to vilify Microsoft for what has been discussed here then let's be fair and honest about another thing: no one has done more than Sony to push the industry towards raising games to $70 in order to gouge more money out of consumers. And not because they actually NEED to (which they will happily use as a convenient excuse and to misrepresent things), but rather simply because they think they CAN. Games that frequently already have supplementary ways to monetize as it is with multiple variants, collector's editions, season passes (sometimes multiple), paid DLCs, and/or microtransactions. Basically, all of these corporations will make anti-consumer moves that they think that they can get away with so let's not let any of them off the hook. And yes, Nintendo too.

 
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shadowysea07 said:
Disney only went up a dollar vs Netflix continuously increasing their price by more than that.
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That first dollar price increase was from last year. Disney+ has gone from $7.99 to $10.99 monthly or $79.99 to $109.99 annually on December 8th of this year.

 
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This is an interesting topic I was literally discussing with two friends this morning... digital media and not owning anything anymore.

Quick button topic... new car, new computer. Nothing has a CD player anymore. I don't even know how or where to buy a CD in person. Perhaps that's our generations cassette tape? Then mp3s/digital albums... everything is now pandora, Spotify, Apple Music. Sure it's cool to be able to listen to anything at any time. That is for now, until they start pulling content like Netflix does with movies, or how HBO is removing their own show westworld. Then we have Disney streaming, paramount, direct to digital movies instead of 4K discs...

Now onto video games. I just read about a new game, Chained Echoes. I'd love to play it, it's a game right up my alley. Except it's digital only, with no physical disc planned in the USA. Looks like I'll never play it at this point since I won't buy digital games. A friend said gamepass is a great idea... you can pay $60 for one game and possibly hate it, or may a small monthly fee to play hundreds of games. Call me old school, I still want it in my hands. If this current generation of consoles is the last of physical media, then so be it. I'll build a nice physical collection and ride that out for many years to come.

 
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So I ended up getting Soul Hackers 2 and FF7R anyway. I had a 5% birthday discount, plus $10 in target circle points, plus a $5 off coupon I got in the mail. lol. Hopefully this one doesn't get lost in UPS. So in total I ended up paying $20.66 per game.

 
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shadowysea07 said:
I have the bundle for Hulu ad free which only went up 1$. I should have been more specific.
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A bundle which my understanding is no longer exists. We locked in to maintain our sub without incurring extra cost. Netflix we get sporadically but Hulu has actually never stopped giving us reasons to watch. Surprising actually.

 
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I've just kept hulu around every year due to the 99 cent / 1.99 cent a month deals. I think the only show I watched was the wu-tang clan show. Will need to see if there is anything else good.

 
josekortez said:
Target will be closed on Christmas Day so that the two working cashiers at every store can be with their families. :shock:
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Plus all the employees who have to go around the store fulfilling online orders both for pickup and for shipping (because yes some online orders come from stores, not warehouses). Then all the employees who have to deal with returns and pickups at the CS desk and the runners who have to go out in the cold to brings orders out to cars. Then all the employees who have to stock shelves and deal with the nastiness that customers leave behind. I think they deserve a day off.

 
Most of those employees are the same person for multiple jobs. Or at least at my closest store. Cs, is also order pickup, order fulfillment and takes orders out to cars. As well as one of the checkout registers.
 
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josekortez said:
Target will be closed on Christmas Day so that the two working cashiers at every store can be with their families. :shock:
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Tbf there are also the other 10 employees standing at the front door talking to security. And the 5 standing in the self checkout lane ignoring the flashing lights...and no one in electronics.

Happy festivus.
 
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