GameStop: Publishers can make money on used games through DLC

[greenmedic88]

The reason why GameStop sells any copies of used games at $55 is because they don't have to keep new stock on hand.

The reason for the aggressive pre-sell policies is so that they only have to order numbers to match reserved copies, plus a handful of non-reserved copies, with the knowledge in mind that many of those reserved copies that are purchased WILL end up back in their store.

Without offering any averages on how often the average shopper is unable to pick up a new copy, only to be told the store currently only has used copies that are "good as new, but $5 less" I'd say it's common enough to keep the used copies selling at $55 rather than just burning up space on store shelves.

Shopper has the option of going somewhere else, or just picking up the "almost new" copy of recently released big title while they're already at GameStop.

It's instances like this that are the ONLY reason why shoppers would pay $55 for a used copy of a game that was recently released. Not because $5 off is a great bargain. Anyone who's bought a game from Amazon knows that they typically discount $5 off new games, no tax and offer a free shipping option.

But the $55 used games at GS cater specifically to those who don't want to wait and GS counts on these consumers to keep their lucrative used trade business moving.

To make matters worse/fuzzier is the universal practice GS has of "gutting" new inventory, in effect, making it used inventory, played or not (often, new inventory is in fact played by employees on new releases). The key difference being it is still returnable as "unopened" merchandise as long as the sticker they used to seal the case is intact.

But in the mind of the consumer, when you buy a "new" game and you see it being pulled from a disc binder, same as any used game and placed in the case at the counter, it is NOT the same as going to say Target and getting a sealed copy from the case that you can see is new.

It's for reasons like this that I pretty much never buy new games from GS unless they have GS exclusive promotional items to promote a new game release.