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GameStop Posts Massive Loss as Pre-Owned Game Sales Plummet:
One of the world's biggest video game retailers just announced its worst annual performance in decades, raising renewed questions about the health of the physical video game market as downloadable games continue their ascent. Net sales for GameStop were down 3 percent for the 52-week period ending February 2, a slide that helped flip last year's modest $34.7 million profit to a sizable $673 million operating loss. On top of that, the company expects sales to decline another 5 to 10 percent in the next fiscal year.
GameStop's massive loss is the largest ever reported by the company, and only the third annual loss since it grew out of the corporate remains of FuncoLand in 2000. GameStop last posted a loss in 2012, when it lost nearly $270 million thanks in part to weak holiday sales near the end of that era's console generation.
But more than the amount, the reason behind the new loss could be cause for long-term concern at the retailer's thousands of worldwide storefronts. While hardware sales were roughly flat and new software sales fell about 4 percent year over year, pre-owned software sales cratered nearly 12 percent for the year, continuing a years-long slide.
GameStop has always relied on the high margins of buying low and selling high on used game discs to buoy an otherwise low-margin business. But the rise of downloadable games, which can't be resold, has taken the wind out of those sails to a large extent. "We continue to see declines in pre-owned software, reflecting the decline in sales of new physical games and the increasing demand for digitally offered products," GameStop COO & CFO Robert Lloyd said in an earnings call.
I'm curious how many Soylentils still prefer to buy their games on physical media and who prefers a digital distribution. What's your motivation? Also, what if anything, can Game Stop do so as to continue as a going concern?
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Thursday April 04 2019, @05:17PM (6 children)
Absolutely. I see no reason to be constantly installing things on machines I do work with and for which my family depends upon for income, particularly when console gaming is wholly sufficient.
End of the usable line for me is PS3 (original, can run PS2 games, of which I have plenty), XBox 360, and Wii... though really, I never found and games of significant interest to me personally on the Wii... but I think my SO uses it for various walking and other exercise games. I'll have to ask her... there's one down in the weight room, but I get my exercise from martial arts practice, so I don't fool around down there. Now I'm curious. 😊 I have XBox (because MechAssault, mainly, but there are some other goodies), XBox 360, which has all kinds of neat games, and an original vintage PS3 on the main theater system, which is where I do my gaming.
We do have the latest XBox and PS units, but they aren't used. Neither one of us likes them, having found them to mostly just be annoying and constrained as I described in the GP. They're no longer connected to anything, not even as Blu-ray players. I'll probably sell them on EBay at some point, I guess, or they'll just get (more) dusty. It's not a priority.
There's another issue for my primary setup, and that's the limiting factor of the number of inputs on the system. I have enough devices to use all the inputs up — and each additional gaming machine consumes one. Trying to get around that, external switchers, I have found, tend not to work too well. Power supplies fail, sync quits, switching and recovery delays, etc. Damned HDMI/HDCP nonsense. Converters aren't quite as bad... but they're still bad. Nice thing about the XBoxen is they can use component, so they actually work properly without all that in-the-face annoyance.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 04 2019, @07:16PM
+999 internet points!
I didn't remember the removal of PS2 game support from the PS3, what a shitty greedy fucked up thing to do, but hey it is Sony! DRM is invasive and can be malicious data harvesting bullshit as well. Steam seems pretty good but I'm over that as well. No I don't want to need an internet connection at least 1x a month just to play my own games, no I don't want you tracking everything I do in every game.
The world is figuring out data privacy but we have a ways to go yet.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Friday April 05 2019, @02:52PM (2 children)
Let's say one of your friends has recommended a game to you. You visit the game's website and see this:
What do you tell your friend when your friend asks you what you thought about the game?
Another question from left field: Would you buy a console version if it's a cartridge for the Nintendo Entertainment System?
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Friday April 05 2019, @05:36PM
I'd tell 'em I didn't try it. I might, mostly out of politeness, but at least a little bit out of academic interest, enquire as to what they liked about it.
Possibly, if it looked fun enough for me to go and get the console off of EBay or wherever. I own, and have owned, some 8-bit arcade machines, I love 'em. I used to work in the arcade machine industry in various hardware and software capacities, way back in the day. I've done some independent/contracting stuff as well.
One of the things my old reflex [datapipe-blackbeltsystems.com] 6809 emulation does is emulate one of the arcade machines I designed; some of the games I wrote run on them, and I still enjoy playing them (though I still have the actual hardware, which is where I play them.) But those are certainly cases where the games are tailored right to my tastes.
For me, a "good" game is defined by its gameplay. I put all other considerations second or further WRT "good." Which is not to say that a secondary or even lesser consideration could not rule a game or a game system out as something I'd invest time and energy into.
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(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Friday April 05 2019, @06:02PM
One more thing; DRM is one important touchstone, but another that is right up there is "does not ever require Internet connection for local play."
I'm okay if a game can use a network connection to create a multiplayer/multi-machine experience (for instance, MechAssault [wikipedia.org] can work with several machines over a LAN, and it used to be able to work with servers over the WAN to create a multiplayer/multi-machine experience worldwide, both of which were a complete blast.)
But if there's no network connection, it should fail gracefully and never complain, other than to (obviously) let you know that if you want to do something that inherently requires a network connection, you can't. DLC, multi-machine gaming, etc.
I'm also okay with the collection of anonymized stats, if the user permits it, and there is a network connection. Those can help the game's authors improve that game, and future games. Same for any other software. But again, if not, that shouldn't change a single thing about immediate playability/usability.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @03:59AM (1 child)
You may need to disassemble the controller and put in some more robust switches or controller parts. Sammy sold replacement internals, but I don't know if they are still available.
It is by far the most immersive mecha combat game available for console/home use. Basically the Virtual World Battletech pods made into a console game. The only downside in fact was that it only supported 480i or 480p resolution, when it really needed 720i or 1080i for longer range target identification, particularly in the lowest end vehicle, which only had monochrome displays (yes, they actually emulated monitors ranging from monochrome crts up to vivid real color screens on the highest end models.)
I bought but never got to play the XBox Live multiplayer expansion for it. They had online servers that played a campaign mode over the course of a month or so that would determine territory and technology available for each side, ranging from the starter models available in the original game up through a few higher end models beyond the final in the original game, complete with artillery and high tech weaponry that could end the battles very quickly if you weren't careful.
Also: permadeath. It was a little frustrating losing pilots, but it helped make it feel like an 80s console game, where dying too many times in a level meant you had to start over from the beginning, which also lead you to trying different tactics each play through.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Saturday April 13 2019, @12:52PM
I appreciate your input, and I'm sure for some folks it was great, but unfortunately...
I own Steel Battalion and have almost since it came out. I found the gameplay lame in comparison to Mechassault, and the graphics often fall into single-plane "billboard" display at even slight angles, constantly weakening the immersion and making suspension of disbelief a real chore. That happens within minutes of coming out of the initial mech garage, as soon as you're out stomping around. The controller could have been far better used, too — as it was implemented, it was more a requirement to enter sequences than it was really a proper controller of different things. Compare to Mechassault's mapping of every controller element to a specific mech function that you (a) often needed and (b) could take direct advantage of instantly: one press, bang, function. The dual joysticks handled torso and propulsion in a highly intuitive and fluid manner. Steel Battalion was (and remains) a huge disappointment.
The Steel Battalion controller... the potential was huge. Unlike a keyboard mapping of functions, the tactile landscape promised — but never delivered — mapping of function to physicality like MechAssaults, but broader-based. But they never delivered on that; a real shame.
I think I own every mech game for the XBox that isn't outright pitiful Japanese メカ / ロボットcartooning (I am not a fan of anime.) I have a few mech games for the 360 as well, but eventually just gave up.
Way back when, under Windows 95 (I think... it's really been a while), the Battletech MechWarrior2 game was pretty good. The many keyboard controls required a pretty long learning curve to get to the point where I was really effective, but they weren't all that bad once I had climbed that curve — and the gameplay was quite good. Plus, great sounds. I still have the "powering up [fyngyrz.com]" and "shutting down [fyngyrz.com]" .wav sounds in my sound library. Used to use them as my Windows95 startup and shutdown sounds. That was fun. 😊
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