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?
Related Stories
GameStop's future is grim as its stock price crumbles
GameStop is falling, and many analysts and industry observers are skeptical it can recover. The retailer reported earnings yesterday for Q1 of its fiscal 2020 yesterday where it missed its revenue target. Now, the company's stock price has crumbled to $5, which is the lowest this has been since 2013.
For Q1, GameStop generated $1.55 billion in revenues. That was significantly short of Wall Street's expected $1.64 billion. The company did cut costs to improve its earnings per share, but that's not something it can do every quarter. And GameStop's outlook is dire in part because its core business — selling hardware and used games — is starting to dry up.
Used game revenues dropped 20% year-over-year last quarter. And hardware revenues dropped 35 percent in the same comparison. And while the company has diversified into collectibles with its ThinkGeek brand, that growth wasn't enough to offset other declines.
[...] "Pre-owned revenues declined 20% year-on-year in Q1 2019, driven by continued traffic headwinds from a tougher year-on-year software release slate," Baird analyst Colin Sebastian wrote in a note to investors. "While new hardware sales declined 35% year-on-year, as Switch growth was more than offset by declines in Xbox One and PlayStation 4 sales. Reflecting a console cycle now long in the tooth."
Services like Google Stadia won't help GameStop's situation.
See also: GameStop Slumps 40% to 16-Year Low as Gaming Passes It By
The video game sales slump is killing GameStop
GameStop Stock Is Plummeting. The Bonds Are Doing Fine.
GameStop Has Become the Poster Child for Retail Woes and Tech Disruption
Previously: GameStop's Future in Question after Failing to Secure Buyout
GameStop Posts Massive Loss as Pre-Owned Game Sales Plummet
GameStop shares rise, fall and rise again in roller-coaster day of trading:
GameStop shares spiked Wednesday, reaching $348 apiece, only to come crashing down to $172 each early in the afternoon, causing multiple halts in trading of the stock due to volatility. Stocks then moved back up and ended the day at $265[*], a 7% increase for the day.
The past two days were a buying frenzy for the video game retailer's stock since Monday, when it was $136. That surge coincided with a lift to the entire stock market after Saturday's passage of the COVID relief bill in the Senate, as well as with an announcement that the video game retailer is developing a new e-commerce strategy, with Chewy.com founder Ryan Cohen heading that effort.
Cohen, who made a large investment in GameStop last year, will lead a committee seeking to transform GameStop a "technology business," the company said in a press release Monday.
GameStop shares skyrocketed from less than $20 in early January to more than $480 at the end of January thanks to a massive push by traders on the Reddit forum r/WallStreetBets. The stock price has dropped dramatically since then.
Price quote on Yahoo!
Also at BBC
Previously:
The Complete Moron's Guide to GameStop's Stock Roller Coaster
Console Options Without Disc Drives Could be GameStop's Final Death Knell
Web Site thinkgeek.com Moving in with Parent Company GameStop
GameStop Heading Towards Possible Doom
GameStop Posts Massive Loss as Pre-Owned Game Sales Plummet
GameStop's Future in Question after Failing to Secure Buyout
GameStop (the stock) and GameStop (the retailer) continue to be worlds apart:
The last time GameStop announced its quarterly earnings, in early December, the stock market valued the video game retailer at about $1 billion. Following a worse-than-expected earnings report released Tuesday night, the company now has a market cap of just under $10 billion as of Wednesday morning.
Sure, that's down roughly 18 percent from Tuesday's closing price, and off roughly 44 percent from a January peak that saw the stock offering become a poster child for the retail investor-driven "meme stock" phenomenon. Still there's not much in this week's report to suggest that GameStop as a company is worth ten times as much as it was just three months ago, much less the higher valuations it briefly enjoyed in the interim.
[...] Overall, GameStop's latest earnings report shows a company still struggling to turn itself around. For the full fiscal year, the company lost $215 million on net, improving on a net loss of just over $470 million the year prior. Net sales for the year were down over 21 percent, to $5.09 billion, a decline GameStop blamed in part on its "de-densification efforts" (i.e. closing nearly 700 stores). Even taking that move into account, though, sales for comparable stores were down 9.5 percent for the year.
Previously:
GameStop Shares Rise, Fall and Rise Again in Roller-Coaster Day of Trading
The Complete Moron's Guide to GameStop's Stock Roller Coaster
Console Options Without Disc Drives Could be GameStop's Final Death Knell
GameStop Heading Towards Possible Doom
GameStop Posts Massive Loss as Pre-Owned Game Sales Plummet
(Score: 4, Insightful) by zoward on Thursday April 04 2019, @10:59AM (6 children)
On PC, where I do the vast majority of my gaming, I buy my games through GoG.com. I download the game, and push the compressed package to a backup drive so I have it later. On consoles, I always buy physical media. I tend to stick to single-player games and I expect to play them years later - why would I want to have to depend on the distributor for the right to sell, lend or even play the game I just paid them for? They may not even be in business a decade from now. Or they may have been bought out by someone with a different idea of how their customers should have access to their library. Or something may happen that makes the distribute decide I shouldn't have the right to access my library anymore. In short, I'll take the extra steps to keep control of my (paid-for) software library.
(Score: 3, Funny) by driverless on Thursday April 04 2019, @12:16PM (5 children)
I buy my games on C30s to load via my 1530. What is this "digital distribution" thing you refer to? Is it when you use your digits to press Play?
(Score: 3, Informative) by Pino P on Thursday April 04 2019, @03:05PM (4 children)
"Brick House" by the Commodores is playing on the radio right now. So let me try to explain "digital distribution" that a user of Commodore computers would understand.
You pay a BBS for access to download a copy of a game. Once you've paid for the game, you can redownload it when you want, so long as you let it dial the BBS once a month to make sure your receipt is still valid.
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Thursday April 04 2019, @05:30PM (3 children)
I am fascinated!!! I calculate that to download a 100K disk for my Model III TRS-80 that it would take approximately 45 minutes 30 seconds over my wonderful 300 baud modem. Unforunately I've heard that most games come on these things called CDs now. Downloading a full CD at 300 baud would take approximately 226 days. What? You say there's these things called DVD's now? Oh my.... I'm sure these games will also take awhile to load on my 2 MHz system....
This sig for rent.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Gaaark on Thursday April 04 2019, @08:14PM
Really!? On my Windows box, the download will take 45 days, no... 26 hours, no...2 days, no...65 hours, no...5 days, no...
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 3, Interesting) by driverless on Friday April 05 2019, @01:23AM
I use Kapute!s UltraHyperLoader, which will load an entire CD onto my VIC20 in under five minutes.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Pino P on Friday April 05 2019, @02:02PM
You'll need to sit down for this. If you live in a city, a cable company will lease you a modem that can do 30 million baud. With that, you can buy a buttload of games from BBSes like Itch, GOG, and Steam.
I have a gaming computer made by Nintendo with a 1.8 MHz CPU. Instead of tape, it uses something called flash memory, which is as fast as the BASIC ROM in several TRS-80 models. Games load in 2 seconds.
(Score: 1) by garfiejas on Thursday April 04 2019, @11:15AM (1 child)
I only use a PS3/PS4 for gaming and having to have the media in the machine can be a problem when the children keep swapping it out for something else. That said I do like to have the better games on media (e.g The Last of Us) but I've found if you wait a while the digital distribution is often (far) cheaper than the media.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Freeman on Thursday April 04 2019, @04:19PM
You might be surprised at how cheap some of those games are on PC, by comparison. While PS3 / PS4 are convenient, especially for Co-Op games, there's not a real good case to be made for their affordability vs a PC. Between Steam sales, GOG sales, and Humble Bundle, I get much, much, better deals than when I was heavily using my PS3. Also, pro tip, Humble Bundles, sometimes has digital deals for Console games. Hit them up every now and again.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 04 2019, @11:16AM (3 children)
with no easy way to backup and restore game disks I am very choosy about which games to buy
also I will wait for discounts
what, they think everyone wants to plunk down $80 per game? yeah right
(Score: 5, Touché) by canopic jug on Thursday April 04 2019, @11:28AM (2 children)
what, they think everyone wants to plunk down $80 per game per year? yeah right
There. Fixed that for you.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 04 2019, @01:37PM (1 child)
Per year? Is this sarcasm or a joke? I pay $20 to $30 for a game, usually less. $80? A year? That's nuts.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Thursday April 04 2019, @03:08PM
Madden NFL, FIFA, and other EA games based on ball sport leagues get a sequel every year. Most online players move to the sequel quickly, leaving players of the older edition without a substantial number of opponents, and the publisher ends up shutting off matchmaking for the older edition.
If you want a joke, demand for ball sport sims that aren't based on real world leagues is a joke.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bradley13 on Thursday April 04 2019, @12:00PM (9 children)
We're a pretty serious gamer family - me, wife, both kids. I don't remember the last time that any of us bought a physical copy of a game. The two kids (both now in their early 20s) own maybe a couple hundred games each, mostly on Steam but also on other platforms. The wife and I are less crazy, and have dozens rather than hundreds. We also have a local server with rips of old classics that we used to own physically (like the Diablo series), but I believe the kids have since bought most of those on GoG.
Why would I buy a physical copy? I have only bad memories: the CDs being infected with copy protection, so they were only readable on certain drives, and only on Tuesdays. Problems finding the right drivers, DirectX compatibility problems, etc, etc.. The online platforms have solved almost all of those issues. Everything is now a one-click install, regardless of OS, regardless of hardware - it just works. Given that I game for fun, that's how it has to be.
Now, I can imagine the objection: My gaming library depends on the continued existence of the online platforms. That's true, and that is why I don't depend on cloud platforms for anything important. But we're talking about games here. Entertainment. If I could never play Stellaris again...um...life would go on? I might read more books, or work more in the garden. Nothing of importance would have been lost.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bradley13 on Thursday April 04 2019, @12:06PM (8 children)
I maybe should have added two things:
- First, none of us game on consoles. Why have a console standing around, with inferior hardware, when we all have top-end PCs that we can also use for other things? Consoles make no sense to me...
- Second, what can GameStop do? Serious suggestion: Liquidate early, rather than throwing good money after bad. I cannot see any future for them...
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 04 2019, @12:21PM (3 children)
I only buy games on physical media, but I could be pursuaded to buy a game without DRM as a ready to burn ISO.
If gamestop want to stay alive selling physical games, they need to focus on the product they are selling. It is not just a game. It is the ownership of a game. It is the extra material. The personal service and chatter over the counter. They also sell game related gadgets and they could turn that up a notch for the nerdy cousy atmosphere. You can't just run a shop like it's an internet shop on-location. It needs to be warm and welcoming. I'd arrange game related events and so on.. come on gamestop you need a community and loyal customers.
(Score: 5, Funny) by VLM on Thursday April 04 2019, @01:52PM (2 children)
That's well intentioned meme advice that doesn't actually work in retail.
"Everyone knows" that "everyone loves" that old fashioned hardware store with old retired tradesmen who actually know what they're doing giving advice on product selection and use. The reality is they all went out of business because actual real world shoppers where the rubber meets the road love saving 25 cents at Home Depot while "interacting" with 17 year old store employees who don't even speak English and don't know which end of the hammer to hold.
When I was a kid I was a minimum wage shelf stocker at a grocery store and we'd have older women ask dumb cooking questions as if a high school boy can handle cooking beyond a TV-dinner level. At the time we laughed at the situation, but in retrospect those chicks were almost certainly MILF cougars looking for action. I guess GS should hire the hottest athletic male employees who can still spell "GTA" in order to lure in the "cool wine aunts" shopping for nephew's bday gifts. Sorta like a Hooters but for middle aged post-wall straight women customers, I guess. The image of younger me, in a tiny speedo, flexing my muscles for some cool wine aunt, while trying to upsell her on extended warranties, is disturbing, clearly I need more caffeine or less or something...
Also gaming is too big of a hobby for even the most devoted employee to have anything useful to say other than trivialities about the top trendiest game of the month, at best. I can read the package and ads as well or better than a retail service drone, but I can get way more info online.
I guess an even more cutting analogy is nobody wants Microsoft Clippy to invade and interfere with their online store, and frankly Clippy would be more intelligent to talk to than most underpaid retail employees.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 04 2019, @03:40PM
I admire your depressing apathy, but you're wrong.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 04 2019, @07:00PM
Ahhhh there is the good ol' racism peaking out again. Odd how racists tend to work their fucked up hatred into just about every conversation.
GOOD JOB FUCKWIT!
My guess is you get pegged as an asshole and those 17 year old kids say to themselves "fuck this guy, I NO SPEAKEE ENGLISH!" cause they know you'll assume their brown skin means they are telling the truth.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Thursday April 04 2019, @03:27PM
Among the talking points of the console proletariat [pineight.com] are these:
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 04 2019, @04:06PM (1 child)
Well, they could perhaps try to make a strong effort to actually make it a nice experience to go there for customers for starters.
Second, they could perhaps try to stop gutting games (pre-opening them to put the box out on the shelf) then selling that as "new" - this is especially the case for limited edition games or games that include one use DLC coupons since fuck all knows if a store clerk used it on you. (Most likely won't but all you need is one bad apple to make headlines.)
Third they could perhaps sell their used games with used prices - this 5 dollars off the new price is nuts and most people realize that. Especially when there are times when new copies of the game end up being dropped in price to liquidate - lower than the used price tag. I've seen several cases when I'd see the used game going for 28 bucks or so and the "new" (gutted most of the time) copy would be down to 19 bucks.
However the console market itself is trying hard to make the physical copies as unattractive as possible, so that just makes gamestop's job all the harder. Nowadays you're lucky you get anything beyond the disc. And I've seen several "Special editions" get labeled as such simply because they have a small manual included - and in some cases where the only special thing about it being a special cover wrapped over the case. Still nothing but the disc being actually bought.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 04 2019, @07:03PM
Yeah, like making a game require an update even though you did NOT connect the console to the internet. How exactly does that work? The game demands an internet connection so it can do shit before ALLOWING you to play?
Fuck it, I'm done with the AAA titles that are so very rarely worth the time anyway. There are so many games now I can easily choose to only support the decent ecosystems that don't treat users like shit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 05 2019, @01:39PM
I found a use for consoles. In games where you just can't play without drm and do want to try it, and I am looking at you Fortnite, a machine with no personal info that is rooted anyway will do. I have a PS4 now. Most games are quite cheap. This "pay to play online" pisses me off to the point where I think I should have gotten a ps3 but I will figure out a way to access PSN without giving away my credit card or personal details.
It's nice to be able to stick in a disk and just play. It's a pity the future consoles will likely do away with disks so the game companies can screw people over the Microsoft way of "we don't support that anymore! Your content will be deleted!"
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday April 04 2019, @12:13PM (3 children)
Go for open-source games, or abandonware. They're entertaining, and cost me nothing, and don't have the problem of going away because Actiblindness or Electronic Farts decided they wanted more money. Rarely, I'll go for a retrogame for well under $20, which also can't easily be taken away from me.
This all may be because I'm way cheaper and older than the video game industry's target audience.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday April 04 2019, @03:40PM (2 children)
That's more or less my strategy too...mostly waiting for stuff I once loved to go on sale on GOG for under $5 then I buy. Don't discount indie games though, I've gotten a few good ones on Steam with reasonable prices and little to no DRM. Favorite is Factorio, which I can download for offline play from the dev's own website at any time. I've got an old version sitting around on my drive; when they finally reach 1.0 I might get an updated copy just in case. Great game, though dangerously addictive, I've got many thousands of hours of play over the past two or three years and it was only $20 with no DLC. Cities Skylines is another good one, not sure if that's "indie" or just not the big three, but it's good if you're a fan of the old Sim City franchise before EA ruined that. I think that was $20 too, although it does have a stupid amount of overpriced DLC. Lots of nice and free mods too though.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Thursday April 04 2019, @04:13PM (1 child)
Games are like cars - the longer they exist, the cheaper they get. Games are unlike cars - they usually work at least as well 20 years later as they did when they were new (emulators may be involved).
As for indie games: Sure, some of them are good. If they're good, they'll still be around 5-10 years later.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Friday April 05 2019, @02:41PM
Not necessarily. Some games, such as Umihara Kawase for Super Famicom, still sell used for roughly the same price for which they sold new. But I concede that classic cars also exist.
One key difference between a console emulator and a server emulator for an Internet-dependent game is that the former is legal (Sony v. Connectix), whereas the latter is not (the bnetd case).
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Farkus888 on Thursday April 04 2019, @12:21PM (3 children)
The online platforms for game sales do discounts. GameStop doesn't. Used games from GameStop was my primary means of buying around the GameCube early Wii days. They started raising the prices for the used games then and I quickly realized I could get NIB on Amazon or Steam for less than used at GameStop. If memory serves they didn't get any of my PS3/360 dollars or anything after that time.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday April 04 2019, @01:57PM (2 children)
Interesting pricing idea: There's like 20 amazon locker locations around me already; maybe its already too late; but if p-media is going to Amazon anyway, GS could get a piece of the action by giving up on selling their own stuff and going full on amazon locker provider.
They could go "gas station convenience store" on add-on sale items. Donno if I want to replace gas station sushi with gamestop sushi as a meme, or pay $5 for an energy drink like at Best Buy, but its an idea of how they could sell extra crap when people pick up their Amazon order. Gamestop sushi; my stomach is turning over just thinking what that would be like. Well, Monster Energy never killed nobody, so there's stuff I'd trust them to sell me.
Several local CSAs do this kind of partnering with grocery stores; the stores seem to run a net profit off people picking up produce "for free" although you'd think it would be a loss. If the CSA pickup gets them in the store they can sell extra stuff to go along, no problem. Whenever my wife picks up the CSA delivery she would always come home with a bag of stuff to go with it from the store; it does seem to work and seems popular. No obvious reason this couldn't be implemented as a business model at GS.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday April 04 2019, @08:36PM (1 child)
We did the CSA for a year, but then dropped it: we were getting a lot of stuff like kale and very little of stuff like zucchini and no asparagus. We love zucchini and asparagus and dislike kale, so we ended up buying extra on top. At least picking up our CSA tub at the store would have been handy, lol.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by VLM on Friday April 05 2019, @12:03PM
CSA cooking has definitely been more of an adventure than a business plan; gotta kinda cook with whatever they provide.
Fun, but its not a "I want a carrot now" "I got a carrot now" service.
There are CSAs that provide individual items like chickens or eggs and thats obviously different from "a bag of stuff from the farm this week" services.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 04 2019, @12:32PM (6 children)
The prospect of ownership excites me.
(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 04 2019, @01:24PM (5 children)
I used to have a huge porn collection. Hundreds of GB dedicated to the video and photographic aspects of human mating. Now I have pornhub. How times have changed. It's not always convenient but I have a data plan with plenty of data so all I need is connectivity. Progress, I tell you.
Just waiting for the day when "gamehub" offers something similar.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 04 2019, @02:15PM (2 children)
I'm with you, but how long do you even need to view porn?
For just about everyone, I would say it's no more than 10 minutes tops, and how picky are you about the content?
Porn is pretty disposable stuff.
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 04 2019, @02:26PM
BTW, to clarify my parent post,
that is why I agree with you that it makes little sense to "own" a porn collection anymore versus searching and viewing it as a stream.
I fast forward over 3/4 of that shit anyway.
And always, always put it on mute. When the porn girls talk, it just ruins it.
In high pitched, Valley Girl accent: "Yeah, yeah, OH YEAH! Oh I love getting fucked by your COCK! Yeah, yeah, OH YEAH! Oh I love getting fucked by your COCK!"
Guy in deepest bear growl: "ARRHRGRGRHHH! OOOOOOOOOO! ARRARR-OOH-AHH!"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 06 2019, @10:35PM
https://www.pornhub.com/insights/2018-year-in-review [pornhub.com]
https://cs.phncdn.com/insights-static/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/1-pornhub-insights-2018-year-in-review-time-spent-per-visit-world.png [phncdn.com]
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Thursday April 04 2019, @03:30PM (1 child)
How much does that cost you per year? I doubt a phone plan under 50 USD per year or 4.17 USD per month, such as the one I'm on, will come with much cellular data.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 05 2019, @01:56PM
The 1 year super pack is $250 / year is $20 / month gives unlimited calls and sms and 160GB of data (13GB per month).
I have paid $20 to $40 per month for a mobile phone for about two decades. Aldimobile does have $10 and $15 plans and a $99 / year 365 plan.
Given that Netflix only needs around 5GB per month I could cut the cord now and just go mobile. If everyone did this then dialup and ADSL and NBN would shrivel up and die. If the phone network could take it.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by pkrasimirov on Thursday April 04 2019, @12:59PM (1 child)
I prefer games in hard boxes because of the additional stuff in them. Maps mostly but also posters or figurines. Meaning I already have to be a big fan of the game before buying the hard copy.
Software in a box is not good anymore. If it comes on a disk then I need a disk drive. And it always has a "serial" or "key" so I have to register myself somewhere and accept all the EULAs. Then it immediately downloads and installs patches, i.e. a different software from the one in the box. Even my TV did that the first time I turned it on -- "what's your wi-fi?" So software download is absolutely unavoidable today, no matter how hard is the box. Even if only for the security patches. Or multiplayer.
I saw some of my old games updated recently. I was "Wow, really!? An 1990-ish game update just came???" Nahh, just the DOSBox with it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 04 2019, @07:07PM
I mentioned the updates in another comment, I will no longer support systems that require auto-update bullshit. Have a nice button "check for updates" and list out the changes, allow people to revert back. Being dicked around by developers who think they know best is becoming a very tired experience.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday April 04 2019, @01:02PM (4 children)
With physical media I don't have to have an Internet connection (I don't play online games). That's not the non-issue it might seem. There are a lot of places I go that broadband is regarded about the same as Chupacabra. Plus my cable connection goes out in bad weather, which TN has plenty of.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Thursday April 04 2019, @03:25PM (1 child)
FTFY. In this case, FTL of course means "For The Loss" and not "Faster Than Light", which is how fast bricks and mortar dealers of content ought to vanish. What seems most likely to happen to Game Stop can be summed up with one word: Blockbuster.
Mega indoor shopping malls, the places that I've most often seen Game Stop stores, are seriously out of step with current reality. Bookstores and record stores are mostly gone. Video arcades are no longer stores in their own right but might find one inside a restaurant or attached to a theater. Malls are like 75% women's clothing, and the rest is men's clothing, food, and a bit of entertainment-- theater and a skating rink. If they have any hardware related items, it'll be in a Sears store, and these days, Sears is on life support. No groceries.
And mega malls are so stodgy and pushy. They made themselves into islands completely surrounded by oceans of parking. Very hostile to pedestrian access, and they like it that way, because they think pedestrians are young delinquent loitering cheapskates who won't spend money, don't have any money. And they've made malls all about the shopping, which was not the original intent. They were supposed to be places to hang out and meet people, and shopping was decidedly secondary.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday April 04 2019, @03:52PM
Sears isn't on life support, it's gone. Our local GameStop is in a strip mall and almost always has two or three people in it any time I go in. They do good business around here because TN has a lot of really poor people whose connection to the Internet is nonexistent or a very limited data package from their cell phone provider.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday April 04 2019, @04:02PM (1 child)
Most of the games requiring an internet connection will store 99% of the game's files on your physical media (hard drive) anyway. If connectivity is for DRM and not multiplayer, then it is anti-consumer trash. But many of those games get cracked within days.
Now we have 14 TB consumer hard drives at our disposal, with 20+ TB on the way. This is a better time for sneakernets than ever before, assuming you can find someone who will participate.
As an aside, are you interested in getting Starlink [wikipedia.org]?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday April 04 2019, @04:28PM
Nah. If I can't get a wired connection, I'd rather just go fishing. Wireless is always going to be worse and more expensive. Physics says the higher the frequency, the worse matter penetration you get and that's eventually going to run into the fact that clouds and even air are matter. The FCC says you can only have so much spectrum to counteract this. The satellites say this shit's expensive to build, launch, and operate; and a nightmare to upgrade.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 04 2019, @01:28PM (2 children)
I stopped going to Game Stop about the same time they started their heavy push of used games. It was a simple economic decision. The used game at Game Stop was $10 cheaper than a new copy of the same game at the Best Buy down the street (if it was still available new) and was usually more expensive than buying the new game in the discount bin at that same Best Buy.
Saving $10 didn't really make sense when the new game usually came with a download code for some additional content that would otherwise cost $15.
Maybe the Game Stop where I live just sucks and others had better pricing?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 04 2019, @10:12PM (1 child)
I stopped going when they stopped carrying PC games. They went all in on used console games. I very rarely went in there after that.
They basically let Steam take their business away.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 13 2019, @03:47AM
Game Stop stopped carrying games on any platforms I wanted, both used games for Xbox(Original), PS2, or older, and PC games I was interested in (They kept selling PC games, but only MMOs, timecards, and other high margin items.) Eventually Best Buy dropped off PC sales as well, keeping some shovelware at the end while reissues of older games in jewel cases disappeared. Fry's still carries a few items, but all the boxes state they are steam and require online download or registration to work.
As a result I don't game at all outside of open source games or games I already own. Sadly the resale for my classics is gone thanks to the reissues, and my ability to interplay with others is gone thanks to patches via GoG and Steam for the games I do have original copies of. Buying a game for the 3rd or 4th time is definitely off the table, and even just buying a reissue of a game I already own seems ludicrious just to get multiplayer again while letting some company spy on my gaming activities. I like my privacy too much to pay someone for the privilege of being spied on. It's the same reason I am leaving the US when I get a chance, this sums up American society as a whole today.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Thursday April 04 2019, @01:35PM
Various unconnected ideas (typical of my posts LOL)
1) My FLGS makes a lot of money selling junk food and marketing to folks at the tables playing DnD, W40K, Pathfinder, Gloomhaven, MTG, etc. For no apparent reason my FLGS doesn't have an electronic crowd of nintendo switch players or tablet minecraft multiplayers or whatever, and I really don't know why not. Maybe fast wifi too expensive? I donno if a megacorporation can be as "cool" as a FLGS but for e-gaming, but GS theoretically have a chance at this market?
2) Barnes and Noble (has anyone else been in one in years, other than me?) has given up on generic book selling and like frankly all legacy brick and mortar they're converging on gift sales. So you gotta buy some friend of your kid a b-day present so its a room full of relatively cheap bland generic gifts you can paw over. My point is you can't make money in retail selling to principles anymore, you gotta sell to grannie or auntie trying to buy stuff for a gamer relative. Despite my making fun of them, Gamestop is actually doing pretty well here and I'd say my local Gamestop is about 1/4 gamer-shite so auntie can buy my son a "I paused fortnite to be here" tee shirt for his birthday. This is basically Gamestop's future, its a store for grannie to buy little trinkets and gifts for grandson, not where actual gamers pick up GTA:III on release day like back in the 90s.
3) Gamestop online price for Mario Kart Switch download code $60, physical media $55. The PITA of losing media or having to insert and remove while switching games is worth $5 to not put up with that. Of course you can't resell the download code, so people are willing to pay more. Conspiracy theory is console mfgrs will intentionally design consoles with crappy physical media interfaces and clumsy media specially to eliminate physical media.
4) Switch Mario Kart download code = "instant" OK a couple hours at $60, Amazon Prime $55 in two days, Gamestop $60 but you gotta wait in line and we're a busy family with work school sports church all kindsa stuff and there's no way we can shop at GS and wait in line for maybe three days (and thats just because this is near end of work week...) I mean... $60 to get it now vs $60 to get it next Sunday or Monday, uh hello GS why do you still exist for logistical reasons?
5) My current guilty pleasure: Portal Knights on PS4. What does Gamestop have to do with it? Nothing, absolutely nothing at all. Sitting in the house bored with kids during snow storm, lets find a new game, the online store provides the usual hyper-biased "everything is awesome" review of the game, the single most important sales channel on the PS4 is streaming, so we watch some Japanese dude stream his game (Not sure if unable to understand what he's saying was bug or feature?) watch a couple other streamers, this looks kinda fun in reality, not just the hyper-positive crappy store content, buy online and download while eating lunch, next thing you know I / we are addicted to Portal Knights. How can GS compete? It can't. GS gives me some pot smoking cashier who's never played the game but we can all look at the packaging while too many shoppers are in line for too few employees. Online gives me a hyper-curated fake-news-ish online store AND multiple real live human streamers integrated into the platform so I can see for real if I like it, leading to huge customer satisfaction.
Summary: Only hope for GS is selling gamershite gifts to relatives of gamers, and maybe do the FLGS technique of "lotsa tables and no carry ins" for mobile gamers to socialize. Can you run a legacy brick and mortar business selling minecraft bobble heads and fortnite tee shirts to grannies? Especially when all of retail is converging on that business model and Barnes and Noble needs to fill the legacy optical media department with "something" perhaps gamershite?
(Score: 2) by ledow on Thursday April 04 2019, @01:44PM (3 children)
DRM is a factor in all purchases.
It doesn't "eliminate" it immediately from consideration for me, but is one of the factors in deciding a reasonable price, obviously.
My Steam account has more games than I'll ever complete. But they cost a relative pittance. I probably couldn't buy even 20 "AAA" console titles for the cost of my entire Steam account. And Steam is the "good" end of DRM to my eyes - I've never been hindered in doing what I want to do, online or offline, by Steam's DRM.
If someone made the best game of the entire millennium, and then put DRM on it, but priced it at a point that I could consider it a throwaway purchase in a year or two's time... I'd probably still buy it.
Similar, if someone made a game with no DRM, I'm likely to pay more for it.
DRM killed the used games market. I can't say I'm that upset about it. I only buy games at the price they are valuable to me anyway. If they aren't available at the price I'll pay, they aren't available and they don't get my money. And the "best" games I ever had are in fractions-of-a-penny-per-hour-played, so missing out on one game that maybe lasts a few hours and costs a day's wage is no big deal needing me to compensate for. You can't match that with some premium console nonsense, strict DRM, and a ludicrous pricetag.
GameStop is in the lamp-lighting business. It doesn't mean that we'll all pay more for electric lighting than we did gas-lighting, but their business is doomed anyway.
The fact is that there'll still be - as there have for the last 15+ years - people out there making games I will buy, with DRM I will accept, for prices I will pay. They just won't be the ones advertised on TV to people with more money than sense, and a complete misunderstanding of what "Not representative of actual game footage" actually means. And in a few years, I'll be able to pick up those same games anyway, DRM-free, for a pittance too.
Used game market is only ever viewed as a parasite by large companies anyway. They'd much rather sell you a fresh hardback book than you buy from a second-hand shop. Buy the DVD yourself than get it from a charity shop. And so on. Of course they will. They're a business. Fact is that the amount of books I read and the prices I pay haven't changed, even if the media format I consume them via has. If anything, they are more convenient and cheaper than a bunch of real books, and I still can always "keep" them in some fashion if I wish to. In the grand scheme of things, almost all consumers have bigger things to worry about than their Microsoft eBook account disappearing. They probably had to rebuy their content on more formats before we started going online than they ever have since... VHS/VCD/DVD/Blu-Ray, etc...
GameStop will die. Things will stay pretty much the same. Our kids will have one of two choices: a) the price is reasonable for what we want to do with it or b) it's too expensive, so why bother? Given that media consumption isn't an essential for even social acceptance, let alone human life, I'm pretty sure we aren't heading towards any catastrophe of dictator-like-media anytime soon.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Thursday April 04 2019, @02:09PM (1 child)
Yeah I also have a Humble Bundle habit. There should be a twelve step program for Humble Bundle.
Somewhat more seriously, I wonder what the HB of GS would be. Was Groupon ever a thing at GS, or could it be?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 06 2019, @01:20PM
There's a one step program right now. I block all google services so now can't login to HB.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Thursday April 04 2019, @03:55PM
Might you buy something like, say, Nova the Squirrel [novasquirrel.itch.io] or Lizard [rainwarrior.itch.io]?
That depends on with which groups of people you must interact in your daily life, such as not to be left out of water cooler conversation.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Thursday April 04 2019, @02:50PM (8 children)
I game on consoles. All my games are on physical media. I don't install games on my computer.
I have stopped buying modern games and modern consoles.
I'm not going to put up with the game (and as often as not, the console) jumping into sometimes hours-long update procedures. If I sit down to play a game, that is what I intended to do. Not sit there waiting for an update I didn't ask for.
I'm not going to put up with a game ceasing to function because either the game company, or the console manufacturer, has decided that the game servers aren't making enough continuing income.
I'm not going to put up with games that require me to be online, either all the time, or at any time.
I'm not going to put up with more consoles that won't run my existing game library.
IMHO, the behavior of (probably) the entire gaming market segment verges on criminally abusive. There may be exceptions, but I am unaware of them.
As far as the older consoles and older games that run on them go: Gaming reached some pretty impressive heights, as did console hardware, before the game companies and console companies began to abuse networking as opposed to just using it. There are literally more "old" games out there than I would ever have time to play, even if that was all I did, each and every day. Access to those old games is both easy and inexpensive.
So I'm all good, just watching from the sidelines.
--
Smart people sound like crazy people to stupid people.
(Score: 2) by Pino P on Thursday April 04 2019, @03:52PM (7 children)
So do you just choose to do without low-budget games whose developers lack the capital for a port from PC to console or for a physical console release?
How "modern" are you talking about? A Nintendo 64 console didn't run existing libraries of Super NES or NES Game Paks either. Nor did a Nintendo DS run Game Boy or Game Boy Color Game Paks.
(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.
--
I'm trying to give up sexual innuendo.
But it's hard.
So hard.
(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.
--
The second line of this sig is hilarious.
The first line of this sig was misinformed.
(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.
--
"Faith": The possessive form of "Superstition."
(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. 😊
--
"You the bomb."
"No, you the bomb.
...
A complement in the USA.
An argument in the middle east.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Freeman on Thursday April 04 2019, @04:27PM (2 children)
Even most of the PC games in store that provide physical discs are Steam editions of the game and require you to register with Steam. The era of physical distribution is all but gone for PC games. Which is why I love GOG so much. Their policy on distribution, the ease with which to backup the installers, and no need for a connection to their servers afterwards. I do have the GOG Galaxy client installed, but it's a convenience, not a burden. As opposed to Steam, where you Can start in offline mode, but after a while are forced to re-authenticate. GOG's Galaxy Client is a helpful aid, it provides on place to access all of your GOG games, an easy place to access your online Library, and only requires an internet connection for updating games, the client, or downloading more games.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 04 2019, @10:20PM (1 child)
https://steam.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games [fandom.com]
I agree. Steam and GoG is where it is at. But that is mostly because Gamestop basically just stopped carrying anything worth a damn in the PC sector. They used to have walls and shelves of the stuff. Now a small terrible selection that is usually a steam code in a box. After a couple of those I just skipped the middle man. Gamestop screwed up hard here. They should have never let another store in their door.
I still buy my physical movies and music. Because those services come and go and suddenly lost my movie/tvshow that I was watching (netflix has done this to me a few times now). Ultraviolet died too, disney saw to that to replace it with their own. I could at this point never buy another cd/movie and still take years to watch what I have.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday April 05 2019, @03:19PM
GameStop stopped carrying anything beyond a tiny shelf of stuff over a decade ago in my area. My guess is that Steam just straight up killed off physical distribution. The only place I go anymore that has true physical disc PC games is Half-Price Books, for used PC games. You can obviously get old games on physical disc through places like E-Bay as well.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by chewbacon on Thursday April 04 2019, @08:43PM (1 child)
Downloadable games as mentioned above, but multiplayer passes that you’d have to pay extra for when buying a new game sucked. Thanks EA. Plus the whole lowballing for used stuff. I could sell on eBay or CL and beat GameStop on both fronts: I made more and the buyer paid less. Took a little longer, but paid off. GameStop seems to have the same problem Toys R Us did when it came to competing in the holiday season. That is, I could pick up a game console from a pricey Target store for less white GameStop sat there keeping their thumbs warm.
I’ll miss GameStop and waiting with my friends outside of the store for a midnight release.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday April 05 2019, @03:44PM
I was never the kind of person to go sit in line at a store for hours, that never appealed to me. For many people, that'll be an inconvenience they don't have to worry about.
I really do get the whole being ripped off by your trade-in. What's more, it's simpler to do a quick search yourself on E-Bay for the games you want to sell to see, if any of them are worth selling. That's how I sold my Super Mario Sunshine (gamecube game) for a pretty decent amount a few months ago. While it was a pretty decent game, it wasn't worth $30-$40 to me, but it sure was to someone. I would have been doing good to get that much for all of my gamecube games, if I'd taken them all to GameStop. I wasn't keen on getting rid of my entire collection, either.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 1) by anubi on Friday April 05 2019, @05:40AM (1 child)
I thought DRM would have killed off game purchase about as fast as a dab of dog doo on your suit would have killed off your chance of success at a job interview.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday April 05 2019, @03:33PM
It might have, except that Steam was convenient enough, and Steam Sales. Seriously, Steam Sales are probably the thing that solidified their place, if anything did.
In the past, you had inherent issues with distribution of physical media. You had to be able to move a certain volume of games to make it worth selling. Now, with digital distribution, and yes DRM in a whole lot of cases. There's not much of a downside to allowing Steam/GOG/Epic Stores to sell your stuff. Once you've got it on their platform, there is a pretty low upkeep cost to keep it there. Whereas with a physical retailer, if it's not moving for 6 months, it's a big problem. Not to mention, the cost of keeping up with demand. Whereas with Steam / GOG the distribution logistics for the publisher are greatly simplified. Also, you don't have to worry about the Newest Hottest game not being in stock, yet again, because the publisher/supplier couldn't keep up. The Up Sides to digital distribution so big, that everyone ditched physical media rather quickly. Kind of like how, once DVDs were affordable, pretty much everyone dumped VHS for DVD.
All of that was to say, Steam/GOG/Epic can have huge archives of games, and easily sell the entire collection of your published works. It doesn't have to sell like hot cakes, to be on the shelf in a digital store. Which means the publisher / distributor can have cheap bundle deals to push older titles. Which in some cases will directly lead to purchase of their new titles. It's like free advertising, except the publisher is essentially being paid to advertise their own franchise/game.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"