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Businesses Entertainment Games

Regulators Approve EB/Gamestop Merger 44

Posted by Zonk from the more-store-for-your-dollar dept.
Gamasutra is reporting that the U.S. SEC has approved the merger of Gamestop and EBGames, which was proposed earlier this year. From the article: "If completed, the merger between GameStop and EB would create a single company representing 20 to 30 percent of the overall market for video game products in the United States, and practically the entire market for used games. It's currently unknown whether EB and GameStop stores would keep their current monikers, or unite under one central name for branding purposes."
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Regulators Approve EB/Gamestop Merger More

Regulators Approve EB/Gamestop Merger

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  • bad deal on used games... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by beowulfy ( 897757 ) on Tuesday September 06, 2005 @03:39PM (#13492500) Homepage
    I just have to say here that I hate how little these stores give you in store credit for good used games. You can sell them back any popular, good condition game for store credit, and they will give you about 5 bucks for it. Then they turn around and sell the used game for $45, only $5 off the retail price. So they screw you at both ends. I wouldn't mind if they charged this much for the used games if they gave you a more fair trade in value and vice verca. I stopped shopping there years ago because I didn't like supporting such a greedy company.
    • well ive never seen much of a game stop and i admit ive been ripped off with credit but maybe because of the acess in money they will be getting they may give us more credit for the better games...hey cant help hoping...
    • That's not a good rational to no longer shop there. What is a good rational is that you can have that profit yourself by using Ebay. I had to have bought and sold 60+ Xbox games through there.

      Plus, EB games is pretty competitive with Ebay on the older used games that go for around $20.

      • to hell with ebay. its all about craigslist.org now. I can buy and sell a game in a snap and craigslist is all free! plus since i'm just dealing with people in my city, (sf) there's no shipping or scam artists to worry about. I don't know what people do where there is no local craigslist yet, I use it for everything.
    • Pfff.. i just got Oni (a bungie title) for my PS2 (a bungie title on the PS2!) at funcoland^W^H gamestop^W^H EB for $6. Then i noticed that they had a used copy right next to it for $35... all i could say was "haha"
      • fff.. i just got Oni (a bungie title) for my PS2 (a bungie title on the PS2!) at funcoland^W^H gamestop^W^H EB for $6. Then i noticed that they had a used copy right next to it for $35... all i could say was "haha"

        I've noticed frequently the sticker price doesn't match the actual price of the game, when you go up to buy it you'll pay whatever is listed in the computer and it is usually cheaper than the sticker.

    • Re:bad deal on used games... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by slashrogue ( 775436 ) on Tuesday September 06, 2005 @05:28PM (#13493659)
      It's because they make so little profit on new games. Reselling used games is how they make their money.
    • Some games you get quite a bit for. What really annoys me is that since they swallowed Funcoland, they've stopped publishing pricelists. It's all hit or miss depending on what store you go to, now. Funcoland used to have a monthly master list on their website.

      Here is their response to my inquiry as to where it went.

      Dear Gamestop Customer,

      The prices are based on each different district and the prices change daily.
      Therefore, we cannot keep an accurate price page on our website. You will
      have to contact the sto
      • How is that a load of crap? Game trade-in prices are based on supply and demand, so it would make sense that they'd change every day and vary from district to district.
        • Funcoland did it just fine. It was convenient for, you know, the people who give them money and games.

          The new policy is convenient for maximizing the extraction of cash and goods from consumers and is a pain in the ass. It is a removal of a useful service with nothing in return, and thus I dub it "load of crap."

          Obviously your opinion differs.

          It doesn't make you any less wrong.
    • For the local EB store in my area stopped buying used games. :( How about your stores, people?
    • What's your idea of "popular?" Popularity has nothing to do with the amount of credit you're offered at a Gamestop or EB. Madden 2005 - that was popular. Do you expect to get more than $1 for a game that no one wants to buy? Enter the Matrix was also a huge seller. Broke some records, I think. That was popular, too. Clearly, they should be giving you $30, at least! I mean, you PAID $50 for it two years ago. $5 is highway robbery!

      As a general rule of thumb, if you bought a new released game and brought it

  • Entire market for used games? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by LordNimon ( 85072 ) on Tuesday September 06, 2005 @03:39PM (#13492506)
    practically the entire market for used games.

    They must mean just brick-and-mortar stores, because used games are definitely a lot cheaper on eBay or Amazon.com, even if you include shipping. Frankly, I don't know why anyone would buy a used game from these stores. After all, you have to have a computer or console to play the games, so chances are you have Internet access, too.

    • I dont sell my used games there, but i sure buy em. However, it is only the much older games (mostly xbox games in my case). I dont may more than $15 for a used title, so i avoid the $45 dollar used games they try to sell. Im always in EB, and it is easier than ebay/etc for me.

      ive bought over 20 used games at my local EB, and ive spent less than $250 on em. i feel like i saved some cash, and didnt have to deal with the hassle of ebay/etc.

      yes, i do think buying stuff on ebay is a hassle. Also, I work at a
    • Probably because most of the sales are impulse buys, or people who don't want to wait. I go into a store, see game X that I've always been curious about, so I pick it up. I'm not actively seeking the game, so I don't think about finding it online.

      Or, I am actively seeking game Y, I call the local brick-and-mortar, and they have a used copy in stock. Buy it online for $5-10 cheaper, or just go get it right now? I want it now, so I'll pay the extra for it.

  • Very little competition, especially online. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by frederec ( 911880 ) on Tuesday September 06, 2005 @03:45PM (#13492572)
    For quite some time I've lamented how few video game retailers there are. Gamestop and EB have very variable workforce and policies. Larger stores that do video games in addition to other products (Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and so on) have a terrible selection. Even Best Buy, who is good with DVDs at least, tends to be a few weeks behind on the video games, if they get them at all.

    This is compounded even more when looking online. I have yet to find an online video game retailer that is decent. Especially regarding preorders. If I preorder three things from gamestop.com, two come out one day, and a third comes out one day later, they will send them to me UPS. In three different packages. And there's no way I know to keep that from happening.

    So when I heard the news of the merger, this just made me depressed that there would be that much less competition between retailers. Unless there are some magical game retailers I'm missing. Does anyone out there know of (especially online) game retailers that are good?
  • A lot of malls have both an EB and a Gamestop, they will probably just keep 1 of the stores open to save money, and more than likely let some workers go. I think on the business side this will be positive, because the merger makes sense in a lot of ways. Don't see any major positives for the consumer.
    • The only benefit I could see is if they combine their membership systems so you don't need one for each store. I could see them doing one of two things when you mention the simultaneous mall pressence:

      1. They keep both stores open and maintain their 'identities' on the outside to give the identity of competition to anyone that doesn't know they're both the same company.

      2. Or EB and GameStop (under whatever moniker they choose to adopt) could create one monolithic store to compensate for two seperate locati
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • the $2,000 XBox 360 Omega package is still being offered, it's gold.

  • I would have cared... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rAiNsT0rm ( 877553 ) on Tuesday September 06, 2005 @03:59PM (#13492723) Homepage
    But anymore the two companies are almost mirror's as it is. Back in the day I would have preferred EB over Gamestop as they had better deals and incentives on trading in used games/systems and they marked games down a good bit at times. More recently it is almost the opposite in that Gamestop has had the better trade-in deals and at times lower prices.

    But now both tend to have ineffective staff, poorly staffed, and cloned stores. The merger will mean very little IMHO. I personally can barely stand to go in either of these stores as I am barraged with stupid sales pitches for their store card that I have to pay a yearly fee for or pre-orders, or just deal with the lame-ass employees. These stores never did anything to differentiate themselves anyhow.

    I now have a new favorite haunt called The Exchange, where the staff are normal, they pay great for trades and their games are 20%-50% the price (even new) of EB/Gstop. That or ebay and I can generally get any game I want for a fraction of the cost and time.
    • I now have a new favorite haunt called The Exchange

      I can't seem to find hide nor hair of this store on Google. "The Exchange" is just too generic of a term to search on. Even when coupled with "game" and "store".

      Could you point me in the right direction?
      • "The Exchange" some people call it "The Record Exchange" but the real name is The Exchange. They are located in PA and OH in the U.S. I believe they have a store or two in NJ but I'm not sure.

        They are a small chain and sell new and used Movies, Music, Games, Accessories, and more. They also sell games all the way back to Atari. Their selection is amazing. For example Donkey Konga 2 is priced at $34.95 NEW all the time compared to most placed $49.99-$59.99 and most players choice titles are $10 used.

        The big

  • Confused (Score:3, Insightful)

    by HunterZ ( 20035 ) on Tuesday September 06, 2005 @04:33PM (#13493091) Journal
    If EB and GameStop account for only 20-30% of U.S. video game sales, where does the other 70-80% come from? Wal-Mart? Internet retailers? Independent game stores?

    GameStop is about the only brick-and-mortar game retailer I know of in my town (3 locations too) that even pretends to be devoted to video games, and even they're so bad now that their own employees have been known to answer the phone with "thanks for calling EAStop!" And of course their selection of PC titles has dwindled to a state of near non-existence.
  • For a while there I thought that even the trivial competition of two companies might push or at least hold down used game prices. Thank god they finally got over their differences and united around the common enemy of market-driven used game pricing!

    Seriously though, I can't see this as being any good for the consumer. We have an EB and a GameStop in the mall near me and for years they've been mirror images of overpriced mediocrity. I'm not sure what other good (franchised) used game stores existed elsewher

  • After Gamestop took them over, eventually they forced them to stop taking in NES and SNES games for trade, which in turn meant they no longer had them for sale.

    Oh well. At least there's GameCrazy now.
    (Plus eBay, of course).
  • I'm not sure I care. I don't buy ANY used games from EB games. I think they're all a rip off. So I buy my new games from Wal-Mart and my used games from eBay.
  • Anyone else remember the Real Life [reallifecomics.com] storyline in which they went to the future to pick up a game before it was released, and all the major game stores had merged into one, with all the names mashed together?

  • EB Managers can kiss their jobs goodbye. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Nikkos ( 544004 ) on Tuesday September 06, 2005 @09:14PM (#13495578)
    I used to manage a couple Funcoland stores a few years ago. Our company (over 400 stores) was bought out and a then the drama ensued.

    We were flown to the big company pow-wow and private trade-show and given lots of freebies. While there we were told we're all ok, and that there would be a place for us within the Barnes & Nobel megaconglomerate,

    Unfortunately our district manager (awesome guy) was gone within a week. A few long-time managers left soon after (stock options) but most of us tried to fit in.

    After the Playstation 2 release and the Christmas season, District, Area, and Store Managers were removed one by one for the vaugest of reasons.

    I was one of the last to go in my area, and while I happily took full unemployment and went back to college. I look back and still feel bitter about a promising management career cut short.
  • the merchant that shrinkwraps used games and passes them off as new? not to mention charging the full retail price of a new game.

    i suppose a call to the attorney general or the Better Business Bureau would be in order. and you can add Fry's, Best (worst) Buy and CompUSA to that list as well.

    i'm sure there are others but these are the ones i can be absolutely sure of that are engaging in this illegal and unethical practice.

    everytime an unethical business shrinkwraps used merchandise and passes it off as new,


    • the merchant that shrinkwraps used games and passes them off as new?


      I don't know about your neck of the woods, but at all three of my local Game Stops, as well as our EB, used games are clearly marked. And our Best Buy doesn't even sell used games.
      • obviously you didn't understand and i didn't make it clear enough.

        gamestop shrink-wraps returns and/or used games and puts them back on the shelf as new.

        worst buy, frys and compusa shrink wrap returned merchandise and put them back on the shelf as new.

        sometimes some of the contents of the box are missing, other times the device is purely defective/destroyed by the last person who bought it but is sold as brand new.

        they do this to software, dvd movies, music cds, hardware, etc.

        with software for consoles, it'
        • I can confirm this for EB Games, the jackass even told me "See? Original packaging." when he handed me the clearly rewrapped GBA game they even forgot to wipe their saves from! A local retailer does that as well.
  • 7 or so years ago when it was the Neostar retail group after the merger of Babbage's and Software, ETC the company was miss-managed into the ground...saved only at the last minute (Literally the last minute, Chapter 7 liquidation was to start pretty much the next day) by a buyout of the company assets from the founder of Barnes and Noble.

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