https://kotaku.com/gamestop-lays-off-over-100-people-including-nearly-hal-1837418024

The struggling retail chain GameStop laid off over a hundred employees today, both at its corporate headquarters in Grapevine, Texas and at other offices including its subsidiary Game Informer magazine in Minnesota, where nearly half of the editorial staff lost their jobs in a surprise cut.

“As part of the previously announced GameStop Reboot initiative to transform our business for the future and improve our financial performance, we can confirm a workforce reduction was implemented impacting more than 120 corporate staff positions, representing approximately 14% of our total associate base at our company headquarters as well as at some other offices,” a GameStop spokesperson told Kotaku in a statement.

“While these changes are difficult, they were necessary to reduce costs and better align the organization with our efforts to optimize the business to meet our future objectives and success factors. We recognize that this is a difficult day for our company and particularly for those associates impacted. We appreciate their dedication and service to GameStop and are committed to supporting them during this time of transition.”

This news comes just a few weeks after GameStop laid off dozens of regional managers, following a brutal year that saw the company try (and then stop trying) to sell itself. GameStop’s stock has plummeted over the past few years as the retailer continues to struggle to stay afloat in a world where digital distribution has grown to dominate gaming.

The layoffs blindsided staff at Game Informer today. Seven of the popular magazine’s editors announced on Twitter this afternoon that they had been laid off, including one who said he was on vacation. (Per Game Informer’s masthead, the magazine has 19 full-time editorial staff.) 

“I am trying to get things right with my people,” editor-in-chief Andy McNamara wrote on Twitter. “I love Game Informer, its people and its readers more than any corporation could, and I will address all the issues when I can, but for now I need to focus on my GI family.”

Look.... at a tiny personal level, if I go into my local gamestop the games in there which are preowned cost around 1.5 - 2x the cost of the same games in the 2 other pre owned game stores in town of CEX and a local owned store, if asked why gamestop sell pre owned games sometimes more expensive than the new copies of the games, the staff just shrug and say that's just the way they have to list the prices there, it is insane for anyone to work in a store where they look at the products they sell, know in their heart that the pricing model they employ for a ton of their produce makes no sense to make the store competitive... and then not question or have power to do anything about that. Of course those jobs are going to be lost some time soon, if I worked on the Titanic as the Iceberg spotter and I just shrugged when people asked why we just struck one I know my job is on the line and I know I'm on a sinking ship partially because I am a cog in a machine which is winding itself towards death.

Think about it, have you found yourself in a gamestop where you've seen a pre owned game being more expensive than a new one, did you laugh at how stupid that is... did you leave the shop without buying it new or used? To have pre owned produce on the shelf costing more than a new version just completely fucks with the perception of value of the products they're selling, if you went to a car dealership and found that new version of a car cost half what a pre owned one does... your mind would think, "this isn't right" the same applies to gamestop and confused customers just walk out of the store because their model is broken, everyone knows it but does nothing about it. Doomed store.

I’ve worked at GameStop... they do not treat their employees well... amazon employees get way better pay and benefits... 

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.

R.I.P. Game Informer

Another one of the last legitimately great outlets for game reviews is about to die. 

Physical is still very much a thing. Gamestop just has a terrible way of doing business. There's a thriving used games market in Phoenix and Austin. Lots of Mom n' Pop stores do just fine selling and trading in used games. 

^THIS! 

GameStop buys games for pennies, and then sells them at the highest price they can get away with. People flat out don't shop there, because the prices are insane. Take any Mom n' Pop video game store, and they will give you way better prices, as well as more trade in credit. 

Gamestop could survive for another ten years if they simply...

1. Stop renting out ultra expensive retail space. Look for the cheaper strip mall areas. 

2. Stop having three to four stores in the same city. The market isn't big enough to support all those stores anymore. 

3. Give a fair amount of trade credit like 60%, and sell your games for the going rate on https://www.pricecharting.com/

But, no they won't do that because the company is run by a bunch of corporate idiots that are blind to reality. 

But they pay their workers 15 dollars an hour!

this is what should happen when businesses don't evolve to continue fulfilling the needs of consumers
old businesses die out and new more competitive businesses rise
its beyond disgusting when businesses are able to escape this process through government taking tax payer money like what happened in the last recession

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.

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. 

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