Microsoft Will Share Digital Revenues With GameStop On Every Xbox It Sells (gamesindustry.biz) 29
New details have emerged about a partnership between Microsoft and GameStop that will see the retailer receive a share of all digital revenues generated by a console sold in their stores. GamesIndustry.biz reports: The agreement has been rumored, but investment advisor DOMO Capital Management claimed via Twitter that it had received confirmation from GameStop: the chain will get a share of all downstream revenue for customers it brings into the Xbox ecosystem this generation. Essentially, if a customer has purchased their Xbox Series X or S from any GameStop branch, the retailer will get a share of each digital purchase the user makes, whether its full-game downloads or downloadable content.
DOMO even claims this applies when the DLC is being purchased for a physical base game that was bought at another retailer, providing the DLC is being bought from the Xbox store. This also extends to pre-owned Xbox Series X and S consoles, with GameStop reporting to Microsoft every unit that it sells. It's unclear whether a similar arrangement exists with Sony.
DOMO even claims this applies when the DLC is being purchased for a physical base game that was bought at another retailer, providing the DLC is being bought from the Xbox store. This also extends to pre-owned Xbox Series X and S consoles, with GameStop reporting to Microsoft every unit that it sells. It's unclear whether a similar arrangement exists with Sony.
Ulterior motive? (Score:2)
I'm wondering if this is to keep GameStop content enough so they don't press for government regulation or spearhead a class action regarding DLC, since it cannot be resold or transferred in most cases. IE you no longer "own" games you buy, and cannot share or resell them, which is a significant part of GameStop's revenue. I was expecting GameStop to follow in the path of video rental stores and go extinct before long, before this latest move by Microsoft.
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So you want a law prohibiting software rental? That seems like the only "solution." Let's say we force Microsoft to make its software available for outright purchase. Microsoft's top investors will sell their shares and buy smaller companies that follow a rental-only model. Or are you going to have it written into law that software rental is impossible?
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Um, if there's a law prohibiting software rental, there aren't going to be any smaller companies that follow a rental-only model. Since rental-only software is prohibited.
> Or are you going to have it written into law that software rental is impossible?
Isn't that what 'prohibited' means?
Re: Ulterior motive? (Score:2)
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They might not strictly "need" them but having them onboard means you have a happy retail partner that will push your product going into the holiday retail season.
I'm taking bets. How long till the deal falls apart and GameStop sues Microsoft for cooking the books and not paying what they owe?
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They might not strictly "need" them but having them onboard means you have a happy retail partner that will push your product going into the holiday retail season.
I'm taking bets. How long till the deal falls apart and GameStop sues Microsoft for cooking the books and not paying what they owe?
Microsoft doesn't have to screw them. Gamestop will be out of business soon so Microsoft won't have to worry about making these payments in the long term.
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"having them onboard means you have a happy retail partner that will push your product"
Do you think MS needs help pushing XBoxes? I suspect they would well just as many without GameStop via Wal-Mart, Costco, Target, Best Buy, Amazon, and whoever else sells them now.
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well they can't go porn like some video stores (Score:2)
well they can't go porn (unless it's pc games) like some video stores
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Much more likely M$ is just sucking gamestop dry. So in the future make a really big noise about abandoning gamestop and either take all the information they mined to create their own click and mortar gaming solution or buy Gamestop cheap, because watch the fuck out, Amazon is clearly going to for the computer gaming market. It bombed with it's first major game because of course it went micro transaction insane and created a grindy pay to win mess.
Generally speaking with M$ partnerships, watch the fuck out
Unique Serial Number and right to repair (Score:2)
GameStop is going to pimp that shit so hard (Score:2)
GameStop is all incentives based. Unless Sony does something similar, they're going to be pushing that shit hard.
rent-seeking bullshit (Score:2, Insightful)
Fuck that shit. Buying a product from a retailer does not mean they own me. A single voluntary transaction does not entitle them to an ongoing involuntary revenue stream from my future purchases - regardless of whether it results in increased prices to me or if gamestop's cut comes from microsoft, the publishers, or the game devs.
I am not in the market for an Xbox or any other games console but if I was, this kind of rent-seeking bullshit would be enough for me to find another retailer to buy the console
Re:rent-seeking bullshit (Score:4, Insightful)
I think it's Microsoft playing dirty (though legally) to get Gamestop employees to push their console. It's classic Microsoft: worry more about market strategy than the product itself. They know Gamestop employees are desperate to keep their jobs and they will turn into all-out Microsoft fanboys with this incentive.
To me, I dislike the move more because, like always, Microsoft is looking to make deals people cannot refuse. It has pretty much no effect on the consumer (except for those who are naive enough to trust their local Gamestop employees for advice).
I also find your last statement odd. You were offended by the whole thing, but your response wasn't to boycott the Microsoft product (the ones who initiated this deal for their own benefit), it was to boycott Gamestop for accepting a deal they couldn't refuse.
Makes sense (Score:2)
Let me be the devil's advocate here.
Microsoft (and Sony) have near zero profits from hardware sales. They make the big bucks on software and services.
GameStop (and other retailers) have *some* profit from hardware, but they too make most of it on physical games.
An "all digital" console means, GameStop makes little profit on hardware, and no more future revenue from that sale. Essentially they become a showroom.
That is a conundrum for Microsoft (and Sony), which needs GameStop (and other retailers) to push t
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I do not think that source is accurate. I think guy who made it was just bullshitting numbers for his presentation. It's unlikely that retailers get $15 profit.
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It's unlikely that retailers get $15 profit.
Sounds low to me.
But of course, you think its high.
But then again, you've never run a retail space, or any other business for that matter.
Gamestop isnt a grocery store. A gamestop store isnt moving a hundred thousand items a day, but they do pay similar rent per square foot for their retail space, and so on. Therefore, its not possible for their profit per game to be much lower, and far more likely that its much higher, but here you are, not knowing shit.
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Well, I'm not proud to admit it, but as a wee lad I actually worked for Gamestop. I can't say that I actually saw the books, but the line we got from the district manager was, "we only make $5 per game off of new games, which is why you should always sell used rather than new." Maybe he was exaggerating, but they certainly ran things as if that were true. Back then games were $50 instead of $60, but I doubt things have changed much.
Gamestop has never been a high profit margin store. There's a reason they on
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I think that's the historical average for console sales - there's basically no profit once you factor in costs. It's why retailers often push bundles for in-demand consoles where they'll toss in extra controllers and cables and such stuff with higher margins so they can earn a few bucks. It's why you can always buy the bundle but the console by itself is sold out.
It's why they can also do tricks like sell you a bundle and hold a console when they "come in" versus
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"It's unlikely that retailers get $15 profit."
I worked at a store selling games in the 90s when they were $50 new. We generally paid $25/game. That doesn't mean $25 in profit though. Our rent in a tiny store was $5k plus a percentage of sales. Add in power, payroll, and the other costs of doing business a lot of that gets eaten away. Our model was to try to break even Jan-Nov, and actually make profits during the Christmas rush. Years with new consoles, good economies, or "must have" games were amazing. Th
Will GameStop still push the disc-based version? (Score:2)
If they push consumers towards digital game purchases in any way they will promote their own irrelevance in the long run, which may not be very long at this point.
Maybe Microsoft has changed... (Score:2)
After all, back in the old days, they would have been charging the GameStop a fee for every console they sold, whether it was an Xbox or not, just for the privilege of selling Windows for Xboxes...
Why would you want to buy a console in a retail s (Score:1)
Hey I am a nympho (Score:1)
A welfare system for obsolete business models? (Score:2)
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No, microsoft is going to pay them for aggressively selling xboxes. It's not going to cost the customer anything extra. Microsoft clearly sees value in having the name soccer moms trust to sell them gaming equipment for their precious snowflakes pushing their console.