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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Gamestop is dying a slow death: lays off over 100 people, nearly half of Game Informer´s staff

setsunatenshi on 21 August 2019

This really sucks, love GI and all the content they produce, especially the online stuff (super replays, GI show, etc). A ton of great personalities like Hanson, Tack, Leo Vader, Reiner, JeffM, Kyle, etc

Really hoping for a solution like the Easy Allies crew that can keep them rolling online, outside the corporate control of GS. Andy's been there since day one and I hope he will be able to run things independently again.



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OTBWY on 21 August 2019

It astounds me how businesses like Gamestop throughout history take so long to see the direction (of the very business they're in) and not enact on it.

How come Gamestop couldn't be the Steam or Epic store of today? What was blocking them from doing so? To evolve in the face of continued increased digital sales? It just boggles the mind. It's the same thing with Blockbuster and their inability to start a competent streaming subscription service. They sat there and Netflix and others took their business away from them. Theres also this: Every single time a business cannot adapt and finds itself in a death spiral, theres a string of CEOs lining their own pockets. This is ultimately what kills a company. Vultures.



vivster on 21 August 2019
CaptainExplosion said:
Bristow9091 said:

What does Amazon have to do with this? How about we try and keep it on topic and not derail the thread into something else, yeah? If you want to make a thread about your hatred for Amazon, go ahead, but please don't bring it up in here. Thanks.

I'm just saying it's not fair that Gamestop is dying, while Amazon treats it's staff even worse but gets to be a trillion dollar business.

That's like saying "It's not fair that we cure Ebola when AIDS is still around."



If you demand respect or gratitude for your volunteer work, you're doing volunteering wrong.

Pemalite on 21 August 2019
Vyse_Blue_Rogue said:
CaptainExplosion said:

Meanwhile, Amazon is almost the world's first trillion dollar company, while also not paying taxes and practically enslaving their workforce. -_-

Apple was the worlds first trillion dollar company (though it's market cap is currently just under a trillion) then Microsoft (which, unlike Apple, is still a trillion dollar company). Amazon will likely be the third.

Apple was the worlds first Trillion dollar company.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/aug/02/apple-becomes-worlds-first-trillion-dollar-company

Amazon became the second.
https://metro.co.uk/2018/09/04/amazon-becomes-the-worlds-second-trillion-dollar-company-7913735/

Microsoft became the third.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-25/microsoft-market-value-soars-to-1-trillion-us-dollars/11046038

And again Microsoft in 2019.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/25/18515623/microsoft-worth-1-trillion-dollars-stock-price-value

So it's already happened... And the discussion is moot.

JWeinCom said:
I actually think Gamestop has been fairly proactive in trying to adjust their business model to the times, compared to places like Blockbuster or Sam Goody. But, I just don't think there's all that much they can do against the technological shift they're facing.

Not sure what Gamestop has done specifically... But the Australian version of Gamestop... Aka. "EB Games" has done really really well to diversify by selling gaming related paraphernalia rather than just video games.

Digital was always set to to take over, it happened with music, it happened with video... It was only a matter of when, not if... That it happened to video games, so these companies need to evolve or die.

OTBWY said:
It astounds me how businesses like Gamestop throughout history take so long to see the direction (of the very business they're in) and not enact on it.

How come Gamestop couldn't be the Steam or Epic store of today? What was blocking them from doing so? To evolve in the face of continued increased digital sales? It just boggles the mind. It's the same thing with Blockbuster and their inability to start a competent streaming subscription service. They sat there and Netflix and others took their business away from them. Theres also this: Every single time a business cannot adapt and finds itself in a death spiral, theres a string of CEOs lining their own pockets. This is ultimately what kills a company. Vultures.

Steam has existed since 2003 and transformed PC gaming for the better.
iTunes has existed since 2001 and transformed the music industry.
Netflix has existed since 1997 and transformed the video industry.

Ironically there was an offer for Blockbuster to acquire netflix at one point... Boy. I bet they wish they did make that purchase.






--::{PC Gaming Master Race}::--

m0ney on 21 August 2019
OTBWY said:
It astounds me how businesses like Gamestop throughout history take so long to see the direction (of the very business they're in) and not enact on it.

How come Gamestop couldn't be the Steam or Epic store of today? What was blocking them from doing so? To evolve in the face of continued increased digital sales? It just boggles the mind. It's the same thing with Blockbuster and their inability to start a competent streaming subscription service. They sat there and Netflix and others took their business away from them. Theres also this: Every single time a business cannot adapt and finds itself in a death spiral, theres a string of CEOs lining their own pockets. This is ultimately what kills a company. Vultures.

It's not so simple. Firstly they would be shooting in their own foot, secondly a digital platform of their own would not guarantee success. Retail and digital distribution are two different things. It's easy to judge from aside, like watching a poker game.



My Etsy store

My Ebay store

Deus Ex (2000) - a game that pushes the boundaries of what the video game medium is capable of to a degree unmatched to this very day.

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konnichiwa on 21 August 2019
Cerebralbore101 said:
CaptainExplosion said:

From what I've heard Amazon employees can barely afford to feed themselves.

But anyway, what can GameStop do with their business model to get out of this rut?

I used to run security at an Amazon Warehouse. This was in 2014. They made $12.50 an hour in a job market where most entry level positions started out at $8.50 an hour. They got four breaks a day, and during the holidays they got 20 hours of overtime per week for 2-3 months. Most of the workers there made $30,000 a year. Amazon bumped their wages up to $15 an hour a few years ago. You have no clue what you are talking about. 

Is this why Amazon created a Twitter army?

As Joseph A. McCartin, a labor historian at Georgetown University, pointed out to the New York Times, this isn't a particularly new technique. A century ago, the Rockefellers used PR and labor consultants to “promote its image as a model employer, despite the fact its labor practices had set off strikes that led to [a] massacre.”

Today, Amazon has a lot to distract the public from: a massive surveillance program, a burgeoning monopoly, and hellish working conditions (to name a few). Given Amazon's $41 billion cash on hand, it’s surprising how threadbare and poorly thought out this effort seems to be. The effort, though, has quickly backfired on Amazon and focused criticism on some of those problems.

On topic,  Gamestop is dying, they wanted to sell the business because they know it is finished and now they are trying to find a way to survive, instead of cutting the salries of some of the top dogs they choose to fire some grunts pity.

Last edited by konnichiwa - on 21 August 2019




konnichiwa on 21 August 2019

Ironically there was an offer for Blockbuster to acquire netflix at one point... Boy. I bet they wish they did make that purchase.

Well to be fair, Netflix offered to work with blockbuster to make the mail rental dvd's more popular and possible get aquired by Blockbuster.  The ceo of blockbuster laughed and in fact was right, because the next year other companies like Walmart also started with mail renting dvd's and netflix was losing +20 million a year, in fact everyone was and stopped with the service, Netflix is just one of those companies that should have gone bankrupt but investors kept it alive and later on the streaming service started.






Cerebralbore101 on 21 August 2019
m0ney said:

All are dying because of digital, not because of their business practices.

Why are Mom n' Pop used game stores thriving then? 



m0ney on 21 August 2019
Cerebralbore101 said:

Why are Mom n' Pop used game stores thriving then? 

Unless you show me proof that they are thriving I refuse to believe it because I have seen the opposite on youtube.



My Etsy store

My Ebay store

Deus Ex (2000) - a game that pushes the boundaries of what the video game medium is capable of to a degree unmatched to this very day.

AngryLittleAlchemist on 21 August 2019
konnichiwa said:

Ironically there was an offer for Blockbuster to acquire netflix at one point... Boy. I bet they wish they did make that purchase.

Well to be fair, Netflix offered to work with blockbuster to make the mail rental dvd's more popular and possible get aquired by Blockbuster.  The ceo of blockbuster laughed and in fact was right, because the next year other companies like Walmart also started with mail renting dvd's and netflix was losing +20 million a year, in fact everyone was and stopped with the service, Netflix is just one of those companies that should have gone bankrupt but investors kept it alive and later on the streaming service started.

That is basically still how they are today, lol.