Gamestop (Again)

[Dark Jaguar]

http://blog.wired.com/games/2008/04/excl...inter.html

This is the part I found really interesting:

Gabe: Robert said we could talk about that deal with GameStop.

We had a meeting with GameStop to talk about selling a boxed version of the game. Once we had a bunch of episodes together, we would collect them and put them in a box, you know? And GameStop said, oh, that's fantastic. We'd love to do it, we'd love to carry the game... but it's not going to be available anywhere else, is it?

And Robert said, well, we're going to digitally distribute it first.

They got really upset. And they said, no, you can't do that. We can't have it in our store if it's coming out digitally first. And he said, well, I'm sorry, that's the way it works. We're publishing our game and we can say where it goes. And so the deal that they tried to strike with Robert was okay, well, listen: If you cut us in on the profits from online distribution, and XBLA, and everything it comes out on, then we'll think about carrying it in the store. Just, what assholes.

So we're not going to be seeing this game in GameStop, is what you're saying.

Gabe: Probably not.

If this is "how the business works" then "the business" is an idiot, a rich idiot. No, being rich does not justify the choices you made in life retroactively somehow, and this is really just arse behavior.

Basically they are saying "Hey, for you to have the privilage of us making a profit off of selling your games, we should also make an additional profit from game sales we in no way have anything to do with at all". By the way, <a href="http://www.illwillpress.com/newused22.html">this</a> is the best commentary I've yet seen, if lacking in any real reason for it to be animated.

[Sacred Jellybean]

C'est la vie, it's big business. I can't wait to see GameStop sink into the sea as game sales turn digital. They have about as much respect from me as the RIAA or MPAA.

[Dark Jaguar]

It's just interesting to see a company that somehow manages to violate the rights of large businesses, individual customers, and small startup artists all at once and STILL turn a profit.

[A Black Falcon]

They've managed to buy every single one of their competitors without getting in trouble for it with federal regulators because they claim that they are competing with other types of stores like electronics retailers and not just game-specific stores, so it's not surprising that they do things like this...

[Sacred Jellybean]

I hear working there is a nightmare, with quotas of game subscriptions and shit like pre-orders forced upon employees, so they're TRAINED to be obnoxious bastards. I'd like to piss in the coffee of every single person on the executive board.

Maybe I can quit my software developer job and try to get an internship there.

[Dark Jaguar]

I think that would be the first time anyone has EVER made such a career choice.

[Sacred Jellybean]

I'm proud to be the pioneer. *strikes pose* It's for the greater good. I don't know why my petty psychological satisfaction is the greater good in this case, but sometimes you just have to take what life throws at you.

[Dark Jaguar]

Or in your case, throw away what life gave you.

[Great Rumbler]

I know a guy who used to work a Gamestop. The mindset in that article is probably at least part of why he doesn't work there anymore.