I'm pretty sure this has got to be illegal Gamestop...

[Dark Jaguar]

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/...e-code.ars

Seriously? They're taking stuff out of the boxes now? Yeah, that's the line, and they done crossed it.

[Great Rumbler]

Gamestop's days are pretty numbered anyway.

[A Black Falcon]

No, I think they'll do fine for some time to come.

[Weltall]

They would have probably survived if they hadn't adopted a policy of FUCK ALL USED GAMES NOT FOR CURRENT SYSTEMS.

Soon, digital distro is going to send those cockpirates on a voyage to hell and I'll be on shore waving goodbye. Fuck GameStop.

[A Black Falcon]

I agree that DD will grow in importance over time, but I don't think retail's going to disappear quite THAT quickly...

[Dark Jaguar]

It's not that retail itself will vanish, it's this specific form, the Game Stoppery. My nearest Best Buy has any game Gamestop has, but in much higher supply (Read: enough for people to get them on day one without preordering). Gamestop invented the "preorder exclusive DLC", a horrible way to divide up a player base while simultaneously screwing over the collector wanting anything "complete".

Retail has one big benefit that Gamestop should focus on instead of their aggravating preorder DLC, and that's good ol' "feelies". Cram a special edition with physical objects that are actually reasonably limited in supply. While not every game is really interesting enough to deserve a pewter figurine, I love the glut of this stuff. Some of it is garbage, but things like a Fallout Boy bobble head or a massive dragon statue are nice collectibles. Keep it there, and put some work into making those things desirable for the public at large. If art books aren't getting people in the store, try something more substantial. Try interactive things. Try unique board games! Heck, go old school in the next Etrian Odyssey by making the map one creates an actual parchment with quill. That'd be cool.

In the end though, even these things are going to leave retail. I would say digital, but that's not entirely accurate. It's just that the process of manufacturing such things is going to eventually shift to the home instead of being made elsewhere and shipped to retail outlets. That's the big 3D printing revolution that's on the horizon. At first, it'll be plastic, yes, but I can see a day when substances that simulate other densities and textures can be used, and eventually an object's creation can be done from multiple vats to make an object of varying stuff. A 3D printing of a large story book, for example (using a papery paste and some sort of hardening emulsifier, or a 3D printed metal lunch box. The fine details such things can make will likely improve in the coming century to the point fine circuits can be printed, and so the day might come when someone can "print" a perfect NES replica just like it was assembly line made. Well, if that's ever possible it'll be a long way off, but at least in the shorter term, 3D printing will be a big punch to the retail industry. It'd certainly make shopping centers shrink, and honestly if it is good enough, then you get the best of everything right there ABF.

Well, until a toy company sues a kid who printed a Rubik's cube...

[Great Rumbler]

-Wal-Mart and Best Buy are now selling used games
-Digital distribution is getting bigger and bigger
-Publishers are increasing the incentives for first-time buyers

In it's current format, Gamestop cannot survive much longer.

[Weltall]

Plus:
- GameStop built its empire almost entirely on the concept of fucking its customers and a lot of people know it.

[A Black Falcon]

Best Buy sells used games? Where? I've never seen used games at Best Buy... no, if you want used games, the only options really are online (EBay, Amazon, etc), local stores, or Gamestop, pretty much. And they have a better selection of modern games than any Wal-Mart or Target, and overall better than Best Buy too. I usually get used, but even when I do get a new console game I almost never buy at Best Buy, and never at the big retailers (Target, etc), because I know Gamestop's going to have it for the same price or less, and with a better selection too.

Best Buy does have a pretty decent PC section, though. That is nice.


As for some of the other points, I think it'd be awful if games went DD only. DD has some huge, huge drawbacks, including that you can't really sell a DD game used, that DD games which are pulled from sale (for rights expirations, because the developer/publisher closed, what have you) simply vanish entirely from the legal market, and more... I really do think that those are very important points, and we've already seen multiple examples of both. There are games on both XBLA and WiiWare that you cannot buy anymore because they've been removed. And that money you spent on a DD game is gone, no way to resell the game to make anything back. And you can't buy used either, so you're stuck with full retail price most of the time.

I mean, I also like physical media of course, but issues like those matter a lot too. So yeah, DD is not exactly something better than physical media, to say the least. :) And for that reason, it would be horrible if the current DD model killed off retail, retail has so many advantages over DD...

I'd use the current state of PC gaming as an example of that, the death of retail PC gaming has, I think, hurt the industry. It's helped indies, but not all of the rest of PC gaming.

Of course, games have other problems too, like with how budgets keep ballooning in a perhaps unsustainable direction, to the point where the mid-tier game is pretty much dead now because costs to make those games are higher than the sales will ever make back, etc, but a DD future will not solve those problems.

- GameStop built its empire almost entirely on the concept of fucking its customers and a lot of people know it.

Sure, but then they go back anyway because in many places it's not like there are better options... Gamestop drove them all out of business.

In the end though, even these things are going to leave retail. I would say digital, but that's not entirely accurate. It's just that the process of manufacturing such things is going to eventually shift to the home instead of being made elsewhere and shipped to retail outlets. That's the big 3D printing revolution that's on the horizon. At first, it'll be plastic, yes, but I can see a day when substances that simulate other densities and textures can be used, and eventually an object's creation can be done from multiple vats to make an object of varying stuff. A 3D printing of a large story book, for example (using a papery paste and some sort of hardening emulsifier, or a 3D printed metal lunch box. The fine details such things can make will likely improve in the coming century to the point fine circuits can be printed, and so the day might come when someone can "print" a perfect NES replica just like it was assembly line made. Well, if that's ever possible it'll be a long way off, but at least in the shorter term, 3D printing will be a big punch to the retail industry. It'd certainly make shopping centers shrink, and honestly if it is good enough, then you get the best of everything right there ABF.

Well, until a toy company sues a kid who printed a Rubik's cube...

That's a long way off, expensive (just imagine how much they'd probably charge for those materials...), and as you say the rights issues could hold it up even longer...