GameStop Policy of Destroying Retro Games - Insider Info
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- Опубліковано 2 гру 2016
- A GameStop insider explains the company's policy of destroying retro video games and accessories.
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To be fair, they are called GameStop. Their mission is in their name.
Sad but true. Fuck GameStop and fuck corporations like them.
It's probably safe to say that GameStop hates games MORE than Konami and Electronic Arts all together.
When Gamestop quit selling retro in 2003-2004, they moved all the games from the 6 stores to one store. Then after 6 months, they "Field Destroyed" them. A local guy took pictures, and posted them on a forum, their dumpster was probably half full of shattered NES/SNES/N64/ect... games. The thing that made me the maddest was that I had asked multiple times if they had other titles in the back, and they told me that what they had on the shelf was all they had. When the items were field destroyed, there were tons of titles in the dumpster that had never been on the sale rack, and that was just from seeing what was on top in the pictures.
Game in the UK did something similar when they bought out Gamestation. All the retro stuff was destroyed like a fucking book-burning
Not much gets me riled up but people destroying carts/boxes/disks just really irks me. Hell, I used to hate seeing my Saturn boxes come apart (UK ones where cardboard covers on a plastic box...kinda shitty) and my Dreamcast boxes break
I literally instantly cried reading that sentence
Wow. Fuck GameStop.
Ugh, this is sickening. Thanks for making me hate gamestop even more haha!
This is why I don't buy anything from GameStop and support the company.
+clydefrosch - Regardless of whether or not I buy their games, the staff and means of handling and selling older merchandise does not suit my standards.
+clydefrosch - Never said it would.
+clydefrosch - No, you dense fuck. As if I had the idea that me alone would have such an impact on the GameStop corporation from not buying from them. I just have a strong distaste for the company.
I worked at a GameStop. We used to throw so much "good" stuff away. Employees were constantly dumpster diving. I recall putting "garbage" in a box and placing the box next to the dumpster for me to pick up after a shift. Most likely, the reason the manager destroys the item is to eliminate this "dumpster market" that then was probably abused due to rampant declarations of "good-good" items to be "garbage".
You ever want some inside info on GameStop let me know. I was a manager there for 5years. A lot of the videos on my channel talk about their bad practices
+
Damn 5 years? Thats a lot someone can support.
Did you guys have BattleToads?
0zbrian lol I did a video on that
Robotniks Mean Bean Machine I want you to know your name is on of my favorite classic games
Ugh it's just gross to see so much waste. Buy out a Mom and Pop store, destroy half the merchandise and sell the rest then let the dollars roll in. This is going to go the way of their cell phone exchange program, no doubt about it.
I stop at one gamestop when I got into the large town north of me, and check the dumpster. There are always good items just laying in there. I find close to $100 worth of stuff every trip.
when do you go to do that? after close? and when is their trash day
Bensor999 i just go during the day. i used to go after close, but an employee told me they dont care.
i think trash day in my town is thursday.
interesting. its it illegal? i thought about doing it. also what do you look for in it? just games?
Dumpster diving isn't illegal unless you are trespassing to get to the dumpster or it contains medical/hazardous waste. And most medical/hazardous dumpsters are located in places where you would have to trespass. If it's out in the open you're pretty much fine.
If you're that worried, check local laws before you do anything. Most places don't even have laws that cover "trash picking."
I cant stand such savage tactics of GameStop, because they can't make easy money there going to destroy the product so nobody can have it like some spoiled child....disgusting company.
When I heard "throw out the case" and "Chrono Trigger", a part of my soul died.
Except the people who grew up playing those DS games will probably feel the same way you do about these older games when they're older. That's why this hoarder mentality is a bit silly when you think about it. Preserving the games is all that should matter really and there are already so many games that only a select few will actually probably be sought out in the near future by younger generations and even less so as time goes on.
Preserving as many as possible in digital form may serve some purpose but we have to lose this clinging to hardware that too many retro gamers have. I wouldn't mind seeing a few more video game museums pop up though so new generations can still play the stuff the way it was meant to be played fora little while longer. As with everything though, you have to start destroying the old if you want to bring in the new.
They are a corporation, and they want to make money. Some NES/SNES boxes and manuals are worth more than the cart.
+mason s.
But destroying the games makes them no money. It'd be smarter to just ship them off to a thrift store at least.
+Farreli81 Maybe not, but there is a small market for the DS cases, especially the ones that have the Gameboy Advance slots in them. Those aren't produced anymore and many collectors, myself included, like to use those to display/store their GBA games.
Farrell81 it's still just as bad. No gamestops i have seen in my area have cases. I will never buy a game without the case for the same price as cib.
We need an equivalent to #FucKonami for Gamestop. How about...
#GoodGodGamestop ?
RarefoilB #GoddammitGamestop ?
#FuckGamestop nothing clever they don't deserve it.
#goddangitgamestop
#WhatthehellGameStop
This makes my blood boil.
RIP Ian.
RIP original comments
mjstory1976 RIP internet police
I've worked at several stores that will remain nameless that made me physically destroy an item and throw it away. More plastic for the Pacific Ocean. It should be illegal to put plastic in a dumpster.
Yeah, I went to buy some 3DS games and i asked do you have any with cases and they said no we don't keep the cases, i laughed and walked out lol.
They were wrong about that. Regular DS yes, 3DS no. The 3DS games we aren't required to make boxes for if someone trades it in without one (many people do not).
Why would I want a game for my collection that doesn't have a case? Stopped shopping at Gamestop a long time ago. They don't really care about gaming, just profit.
If only we could develop some sort of technique to take things off shelves, use them and put them back on the shelf.
mr42ndstblvd their*
Customer walks into a GameStop.
Customer: "Yeah...I got this Nintendo game...Stadium Events. Found in my attic and I have no use for it. Everything is there...how much will you give for this complete?"
*GS minimum wage employee looks it up*
GS: "We can give you $1.50 for it store credit."
Customer: "Well, I'm already here and at least I can use the credit towards a gift card to Taco Bell!"
*The next day, GS ceases their retro program*
GS Manager: "We got to destroy all of these retro games since we are no longer selling or taking retro games!"
GS Employee: "Even Stadium Events? It's worth a lot! Can I buy it for my collection at least?"
Manager: "Nope! Everything needs to be destroyed with this hammer! However, I'll let you do the smashing!"
If they did that, I'd just take stadium events when no one is looking and quit.. I can find another job. It would be worth it.
That is larceny. Also, when they stop retro buy backs that doesn't mean they cease retro sales...
Larceny or not... In this hypothetical situation that the op has put out here for us he has stated...
"GS Manager: "We got to destroy all of these retro games since we are no longer selling or taking retro games!"
GS Employee: "Even Stadium Events? It's worth a lot! Can I buy it for my collection at least?"
Manager: "Nope! Everything needs to be destroyed with this hammer! However, I'll let you do the smashing!"
In this scenario, they are not even selling the retro games anymore, but rather destroying them. Saving a game that collectible and preserving it from destruction would be worth it in my opinion even though I am adamantly against theft.
...Like I said, Gamestop will continue to sell until they are all gone. GS will not eat the loss on buying them back and then destroying them. Want proof? PS2 games were buy 2 get 2 free (and massively priced down) for YEARS. Gamecube and GBA were as well. Why would they destroy what they can sell?
You need to understand - Gamestop's BUYING and SELLING are sepearated. GS literally just stopped taking Skylander figures in trade yesterday. They are still being sold in store (buy 2 get 3 free I might add). None have been destroyed.
They will only destroy things they think are broken or they cannot sell, obviously some $$$ items will slip through but they are not completely insane.
Also it is illegal for these stores to not recycle these electronics.
They do recycle them. The person was either wrong or lying about electronics being destroyed. GS doesn't deal with them in store at all, they ship everything back to the warehouse (the ROC).
Heck, GS includes the ability to recycle items that we don't take back due to damages in cases where we take them at low values for good condition ones (thus damaged/ destroyed are not taken back at all).
Bull shit. I dive them everyday and I KNOW they do it.
Then it isn't because of this. It's probably customer's consoles they didn't take in trade, and the customer asked them to throw out for them, Because there is no other reason I've ever seen a system thrown out than this (especially not phones or tablets).
Bullshit, indeed. I used to dive GS as well, and I saw field destroy items in there all the time, with cut cords, cracked discs, etc....
Cut cords were likely those accessories I've mentioned (in another line). Discs I won't argue. They only are supposed to field destroy games with little to no value (like sports games).
I was fired from Gamestop in 2004 for questioning my DM to much about him destroying all our display systems once we were done with them...I asked to just buy it instead and was fired
My advice is don't sell your used games to Gamestop.
I worked at GameStop for 5 years, and I remember hearing about a business buyout in which they DID destroy retro games, like NES and SNES. About 10 years ago, they bought out a game store chain that I think was mostly big in Florida. They bought them primarily to get their games. This chain also carried retro games, and since GS wasn't selling them at the time, they simply destroyed them.
if theres a petition to stop this i'll sign it
Absolutely disgusting and despicable. Such an unnecessary waste. Yet another reason to hate GameStop.
I love how the NES had such a limited color palette but the creators of Castlevania 2 still made the game look so distinct.
Put GameStop out of business!
Joe Morrell
Agreed. People have forgotten the power of the boycott.
This means that emulation is now part of the preservation community more than guys like yourself. Crazy that Gamestop is doing this.
RodimusPrimal Emulation is essential now. Especially for CD games from the late 80s-90s. Since this is the time when disc rot sets in or the actual game systems start breaking down. Disc drives on Sega Saturn a good example.
The biggest issue with emulation is that it doesn't always offer the same experience. At least from the emulated games I've played, I could feel the difference between the controls of the original games and the controls of the emulated games.
@@megacide84 I've never experienced disc rot before tbh. I kinda think it may be people who get their games resurfaced too much
This unfortunate practice has been in effect for years. Field-destroying PS2 cases/manuals/games was painful to watch. Same with DS cases and manuals being tossed out. Many stores don't have the room for cases/manuals, and the practice of trashing them dates back to FuncoLand rules in the late 1990s.
My hope is that, if GameStop's retro initiative fails, the company will blow out its inventory instead of mass-destroying it. From what I've seen over the last couple of weeks, though, at least some categories of retro/vintage have been selling well. Dreamcast and PlayStation game availability, has been shrinking... but I haven't been following cartridge (NES/SNES/GEN/N64) closely.
I haven't personally purchased retro games from GameStop, but I have seen many people's purchases posted to Reddit. From what I've seen, they are throwing out the jewel cases with the back art for stuff like SEGA CD and PS1, and just shipping disc and manual to the customers. So they're still throwing stuff out that they shouldn't.
I see this is as deplorable an act as book burning.
The same practice was done when I worked at best buy for certain thing that were deemed cheaper to destroy than send back and or repair. We would get headphones, cellphone cases, wires, games, and sometimes a TV. We were not allowed to have anything and everything went into a trash compactor. Its a shame.
Zeithri Security cameras in every room. They would fire you and charge you with theft, plus the full value of the item you "stole"
Hook a chain on what? On a 1200lb dumpster full of about 900lbs of items?
Zeithri about 1200kg
Most stores will use a trash compactor with the shoot being inside the building to prevent dumpster diving. Once the stuff goes in you aren't getting it back.
clydefrosch no. if it was a return that went prc in the shoot it went. if it was end of life stock it would be taken out of the system and destroyed. occasionally you would fine a few thing that would go down to a penny but when this happened the managers would request you to collect them all and zero them out to destroy them. I still get why they do it. its cheaper to destroy it than to sell and maintain it after a point but still a shitty practice.
you can't use GameStop and business ethics in the same sentence
NATHAN NEVILLE I disagree sir! "GameStop is an evil sent to take maximum monetary advantage of our hobby by practicing evil buisness ethics!"
"Gamestop is a business ethics". that's a sentence.
i have worked in a shop and anything we got that was sealed we had to open them and say used.
turokforever007 I used to work at a GameStop. I can confirm that's exactly what we did.
it is sad when you have to do it.
turokforever007 really is. I actually tried to get as many of the games as I could so I could preserve some of them. Games I was able to get away with happened to be games like Jade Empire, Jet set Radio, and a few others.
Your not kidding!!!!
Gamestop is bullshit. I quit going there 2-3 years ago because I went there to buy a new game, they only had 1 copy of a brand new game, but it was their "display" copy that had already been opened. They give it to me, and rang it up for 60 bucks. So I asked them why they were making me pay the new price when they were giving me a game that had already been opened. They said that the game was still new, because the disc was never put in the console. HA. So after alot of going back and forth, I just overpaid for a used game, and never went back again. That shit doesnt happen ANYWHERE else. You buy a new game, its fucking sealed when you get it. Back to the topic of them destroying "broken" retro consoles and games. I am pretty sure they took out an inventory shrink sort of insurance policy when they started this retro game buying and selling, so they could pull the plug if it was doing bad, and they wouldnt lose money. There is probably a clause in that policy that says any "damaged" inventory has to be destroyed before they can get money back from the insurance company. So even if something isnt broken, it goes in the dumpster and destroyed, and Gamestop still makes a profit. BOYCOTT GAMESTOP. Problem solved. I still am able to buy all the games that I want, and dont need Gamestop to do it.
You have to do more than boycott GameStop. you have to make other people aware and boycott them as well.
I read that they allow their employees to play it for a week. scratches be damned. also, no money from used games goes to the devs
Mikey s
so i need to go dumpster diving now?
CthulhuChow
Dude you should've BEEN dumpster diving!
I suggest taking your ass to local GS dumpster after xmas EVERYDAY till after the new year!
thanks. i didn't know any of this, since i haven't been in a gs in at least 2 yrs.
@CthulhuChow
I dumpster dived a GameStop location once. I pulled out case and manuals for several PS2 games like Gauntlet Seven Sorrows, Devil Kings and The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age. I later bought the loose DVDs for ultra-cheap when GameStop was dumping the PS2 inventory.
Wasn't it stated in the last video that they had a wholesale buyer for that, who would buy up all of the stuff that failed GameStop's testing? Somebody who was (unlike GameStop) willing to take the time to do things like clean cartridge connectors to get games working again.
Adam Zey He mentioned the wholesaler towards the end of the video.
fun fact:
in the beginning of Cinema, all productions had the habit to take old films and CHOP 'EM so nobody could see that movie ever again just because were not profitable anymore. It's estimated that 70% of the lost movies from the first half of 20th century are lost because of this practice.
History is cycling again.
it sounds like GameStop is using a typical retail approach to these retro games. I used to do merchandise claims & control at a big retailer. when we received returns or damaged goods, what we couldn't sell to a third-party company that specializes in handling damages or that we couldn't sell directly at clearance, we just threw away. but before that we had to destroy them to ensure that the product wouldn't be returned and a refund given. no employee was ever allowed to have any item. sometimes corporate would send a check to the store to cover the losses for that month. they are out to make profits for their shareholders, not "do the right thing".
Sound similar to where I work. I'm in a receiving dept and next to our office is our Return To Merchandiser area. Anything that we receive full credit on from damages or customer return is trashed. Partial credit can be discounted and sold. Many times customers return things because they need the money or no longer want what they bought. They tell returns that something is wrong with it even when it's perfectly fine. Depending on what they say, we can get full credit from the vendor and then we're forced to trash the items. We can't have it because it 'encourages employees to be dishonest' and if the vendor found out they'd no longer issue credit. And we have a trash compactor which crushes everything. Sad but that's how it works in our wasteful world of money hungry corporations.
PairUgamers we had issues with people dumpster diving then returning the items.
They do the same thing with books and food. Retail stores that is. It makes me sick there are starving people out there.
right. someone in Africa could've eaten those cases
Kiki Yazure Wait did you not read my post?? I said retail stores throw out perfectly good food as well as books.
Do they teach reading comprehension anymore?
+Allen Ellsworth making a mean joke here about the cases lol
Just to be clear though, THERE ARE MANY retail/grocery stores and even bakeries, cafés, etc. that do infact disperse perishable foods and goods to the homeless and other organizations instead of just throwing out everything. My mom worked for a chain grocery store over ten years ago and pretty sure they (or at least that specific location) was practicing this back then.
There ARE some good hearts out there.
This is how I was able to get my 4 sealed box famicom micros. We received an email from corporate telling us to destroy and trash all left over stock. I didn't have much to loose as only a game advisor so I purchased them all from the manager for 20$.
I always find it very amusing that people talk mad shit about GameStop, but then continue to support them by buying from them.
Yep. I quit Gamestop about two years ago and get my games from a local mom and pop toy store. No longer am I bothered about getting an edge card /gameinformer subsciption/pre-order when I'm standing in line to buy my games. It's a great feeling.
because theyre the only fucking dedicated game store.
FiZzLE 030
That would only depend on where you live.
exactly i was surprised by when my local retro store i shop at lost to gamestop in Syracuse ny
yeah same i hated going in there to pick up one game and getting pre orders shut down my throat but yeah i was in shock this mom and pop retro store lost to game stop lol
The part about Gamestop destroying unchecked merchandise reminded me so much of an old Game Crazy that closed down with it's Hollywood Video back in 2010.
I used to frequent both stores during much of the 2000s and when it closed, I was in the area anyway so I checked the dumpster behind the GC. Lo and behold, there were controllers, plugs and entire 360s (a couple with hard drives) and a PSP, as well as unopened XBL cards, PS Store and Wii cards (which of course are useless unless they've been paid for and scanned).
I grabbed four of the 360s and cord setups/controllers for two of them, and the PSP. Got them home and tested them, and the PSP, while the discs could no longer read, otherwise worked fine (I downloaded demos and games for it and used it for a couple of years until I got a better one). Two of the 360s had RRoD errors, one had an E74 (I think it was called error, and the 4th worked great. I gave that one to my niece after making sure everything checked out.
A couple of the guys who used to work there got jobs at the used game store that opened up in the same strip mall, and I talked to them. They told me that they had tried to convince the liquidator that they could sell all of these, and the liquidator refused to allow them to be sold; he wouldn't even sell them to the guys. The reason I found them in the dumpster was because after the shop closed, the liquidator hauled all of this stuff out and dumped them himself.
There was still some equipment over in the dumpster (I only had a duffel bag and couldn't carry most of the stuff) when I left it, so I hope they got the rest. But what short-sightedness on the part of the liquidator! When the department store I worked at closed in 2005, I worked closely with our liquidator and he had no problem at all with the selling of used items. More money for his company!
The 'Field Destroy' box story is true, I have a friend that worked there back in 2003 & they were doing that with stuff back then. Sad state of affairs.
Just another reason to download ROMs instead for a Raspberry Pi
forget the raspberry pi, just take that piece of shit pentium 4 pc out of your closet and put every retro game emulator on it
My old p4 runs everything you just mentioned lol, it upscales psx and n64 wonderfully. dreamcast runs at like 45fps, but i'm not too fond of that systems' game library anyway. to top it off, i can hook it up to a crt with s-video. i recommend these things whole-heartedly.
***** That makes sense, i was just trying to point out that you dont need to buy anything if you have an old pc lying around. if anyone wants to buy something, then yes the pi is what to get for 80s and 90s console emulation.
I worked at GameStop about 13 years ago, and I remember that the "current gen" was PS2, with XBOX & GameCube coming out imminently. We had a lot of used NES & SNES games, with the latter gems (Chrono Trigger, FF2/3, Super Metroid, Super Mario RPG, Earthbound to recall a few) being held in a backroom locker. When we got the order to destroy all the retro stuff it was horrible knowing that not only the games you saw on the shop floor, but the gems that were priced for $60+ were simply broken into smithereens.
If they don't throw the box away, they put a sticker that does not come off on it.
What do we expect their name is Gamestop.......they stop games from existing..
Just so you know, retailers generally have to do this if they damage something out. If t ends up being repairable or sellable after they have damaged it out then they are guilty of tax fraud. I know Target once gave a lot of returned merchandise to Goodwill in my area which would probably maintain their legal tax status but Goodwill officially does not accept items known to be broken or non-functional. Still, I got a ton of copies of Wii Play with the Wii Remote simply because people didn't know how to pair them and thought that they weren't even coming on (no lights for an unpaired remote). Obviously, Target thought they were defective even though they weren't and Goodwill accepted as if they worked (thankfully, they did).
Too bad there will be no consequences for GS
For every customer that doesn't go in, some kid will convince their parents to go there
Matt Smith Which is one of many reasons people need to stop having kids... At least until we can figure what is driving them to become neocon money worshippers who put profit over preservation & humanity. Anyone born after 2000 is pure evil, and is literally hitler.
If people will have no kids humanity will die out.
i dumpster dive at gamestop and I have already found nes manuals and genesis cardboard boxes. so they do throw some things away from the nes and retro cartridge based systems.
Gamestop underling: "Sir the retro initiative has failed"
Gamestop CEO: "STOP! Hamma time!"
Senior Game Advisor is basically an assistant assistant manager .... but yes a lot of electronic stores do this inventory destruction. first time i encountered it was when my ex girlfriend worked at hollywood dvd and later blockbuster around 2000/2001. she spent an entire day at Blockbuster destroying VHS tapes once. while at gamestop (i started as a seasonal hire and worked my way up to assistant manager and probably could've gone on to manage my own had i not realized how much i hated gamestop) the district manager would come occasionally and smash shit up. some times it was because it was defective (though since they aren't tested maybe a customer returned it saying it was defective because they are afraid that we would refuse their return if they said "i don't like this game") or because corporate sent an email out saying "your store has these items and we don't want to carry them any more so put the field destroy sticker on it" and along comes the DM (district manager) with his hammer. and no you aren't allowed to remove something from the field destroy box because gamestop would consider that stealing. maybe that black bar Chrono cross or xenogears for PS1? you can hate me if you want but I'm sure I've probably destroyed something you love. maybe ivan ironman stewart's super off-road? ... SMASH! it's a part of business i truly just don't understand the logic behind it. i can only say sorry, i had no choice other than to get another job .... which i did. this will most likely happen to gamestop's current retro bullshit cashgrab
What the actual fuck?
How does that make sense in their minds at all?
Why not just have a "Free Bin" or something in stores or just let employees take them if they want them?
Pat and Ian are great to listen to together. No offense, but these bore me without a second person in the conversation.
As a PC gamer I haven't been into a gamestop in at least 7-8 years and get 99.9% my games online (digital) or Shipped to me when I want the physical shit retail box,case,booklet.ect and to my knowledge console gamers have the same options;So is gamestop still THAT popular among console gamers or is just normal people buy their games from there?
also I hate when I find a case on the shelf with the manual and all original inserts and then they grab a empty case out of a drawer. one time when I asked if I can have the inserts the employee was like "pfffft those dont matter"
Wow, I never look at their DS games because they don't have cases. What a shame throwing all those cases away, actually makes me mad.
This is just sickening. They are ruining retro gaming, it's just gross what they're doing. Destroying gaming history.
I used to go to gamestop and ask for empty DS cases. I got quite a few of them for free. At first I thought I was being annoying, but maybe I should have done it more often!
So much hate for Ian, it's insane. He's very sharp, calls out bullshit and knows his stuff. Hope to see him back soon.
This is one of those times that the podcast would greatly benefit from Ian's input. Had he been present he would have been able to talk about the US tax code as it pertains to deducting business losses. Hopefully, you'll revisit this topic when he returns.
Gameplay is the new Ian. Gamestop has always been scummy, no surprise that they haven't changed at all.
I'm friends with a guy at my local Game Stop and he saves all the boxes and stuff they throw out for me to come pick up. It's helped me a lot with completing boxed sets. These stories make me friggin cringe though. It's horrible.
Can I make a suggestion? I like how you are showing the new NES, but when you are bring up images, you have them in a position where it is blocking the view of the game play. It's annoying to look at with the background image moving all while having the stationary image blocking your view. I have a few suggestions for this.
1.) Change the opacity of the foreground image. It's sloppy, but at least you can see the background.
2.) Change the location of the image/make image smaller. You could move the image to an area of the screen where it isn't blocking the game play. Or have a box of you in the corner of the screen while the game play is going where we see you talking, and when you want to pop up an image just do it in there.
3.) Just don't have the image pop up while there is game play footage.
I'm not saying these are perfect suggestions, or the right suggestions. It was just something I noticed in these videos that can be distracting...
It is such a waste of materials. They won't take recyclables that have been smashed because it makes more work for the recycling plant.
*Shudders* I can only imagine a sad little SNES or Genesis cart looking up at the warehouse ceiling wondering why he's in a heap of other broken cartridges, not knowing that he's going to suffer the same fate soon.
And you have just described the plot of 'The Brave Little Toaster'. XP
Dang good movie.
Business ethics are, one, make more money.... and that's it.
*Hoping* that game stop will do right by the retro community is a fools errand. This is exactly why digital preservation through emulation is so important. The powers at be don't give a dam about history or preservation. In fact they *want* you do forget old properties, so they can re-make them, re-package them and sell them back to you.
A local game store, that's not GameStop, has been clearing out their original Xbox games for a dollar each. I've been picking up as much as I could. I've been told by a district manager for the store chain that they're destroying the stock they don't sell. I want to tell them that they should put that unsold stock elsewhere or donate them somewhere, though I fear a place like Goodwill will overprice the games, then end up trashing them because of shelf rot. What exactly is the best course of action for them to take care of their unsold stock?
charity shops do this too. just throw items in the bin and if they catch someone take an item from the rubbish pile outside, they have the cheek to try and charge people.
Damn imperials and their charity shops.
Blockbuster used to destroy DVDs. They had way more copies than they could fit in the clearance bins. It wouldn't surprise me to see Gamestop do the same thing with games.
In this day of social media, I think if Gamestop actually did this, their stock would plummet. But people would actually have to put work into protesting and boycotting, and throw out the term Boycott while actually go through with it. This is what concerns me because I find the gaming community far too forgiving this day and age.
itchyisvegeta They're a business - not a musuem...
Matt Tardo I know that. You miss my point. My point is people in the gaming community love to rage on a company, but are also far too forgiving at the end of the day and keep spending money on whichever company.
I think you're right that they may be too forgiving - but they are also extremely unforgiving. Almost every single recent game I've played has been changed and transformed into a different game because of mountains of Reddit feature requests and complaints, etc. It's a mixed bag. These are the same people that begged Sony to copy Microsoft and start charging for online access, and then lapped up DLC and digital editions like hungry dogs. Gamers are their own worse enemies. And perhaps this matches what you're saying - they are too eager to suckle at their chosen corporate teat.
Matt Tardo Here is a perfect example of what I mean. The fact that games can be released when still needing patches to simply be playable, and the consumers are still willing to 99% support that product (regardless of the raging) is a huge. These companies should be getting Class Actions for that.
That is why I am REALLY hoping for the Switch to be a success, due to Nintendo's better track record of their policies of stuff working on release.
My cousin Jessica worked at a Gamestop until last year. She personally witnessed having to destroy the box and manuals of traded in Snes games, Including a complete Final Fantasy VI (III)!
It is actually WHY she quit.
Gamestop is one of the multiple game related companies that needs to go out of business. Just go the hell away.
just thought I'd chip in with an experience of mine.
around 10-15 years ago in the UK there were two gaming chain stores; game and gamestation. Gamestation would sell retro games which gave them a solid customer base and we're largely more liked here but they were a smaller chain compared to game. However game decided to buy out Gamestation in 2006-2007 or so and gutted all the staff and the retro selling division. They them commanded all the retro be destroyed so it could be written off for tax reasons. My old Gamestation manager lost his job there because he saved all the stock he could along with the employees and got found out.
I wouldn't be surprised at all if games top would do similar. I estimate thousands of PAL games were lost by Games horrific actions.
When I uses to dumpster dive years ago I always came across 10-15 Ds Cases every time,I had a box full of them within months.Also found tons of field destroyed accessories, my 360 Turtle Beach (which were in the box and I still use them everyday) I've seen everything thrown out that were brand new,it was insane.
This reminds me of my first time I sold games at GameStop. I turned in 9 PS2 games (most of them were horrible, lol. I had Simpsons Hit And Run, Powerpuff Girls, and some other games I don't remember the name of) so I could get Kingdom Hearts 2, because at this time, the game was relatively new. After I sold the games, I only had some odd store credits to buy KH2, and I learned that I STILL had half-a-bill to pay (It was originally 14 dollars used, and the price went down to 7 bucks after selling my other games). These games I was reluctant to sell because it was my very first time selling any games in my collection, and I did kinda like the games I was selling, no matter how shitty they were. Because of the sediment I had for these games and the half-a-bill still being there even after selling 9 games, I felt like I was ripped off and years later, I never sold another game at GameStop. Some more years passed, and later, I found out that Amazon sells used and new games whenever they are in stock. I now always use Amazon to buy older games, even if I have to save my cash to get a decent copy (Diablo 1 on the PS1 is selling for over 90 bucks for a used version with the manual included and original case).
I can’t believe this is happening! Even broken retro gaming hardware is a piece of history! This is so sad. I don’t collect or care about retro gaming, but this is heartbreaking.
I am sure this has already been said, but it's worth repeating. I have been dumpster diving for a few years now. I go to 5 gamestop dumpsters twice a week. in the last few weeks I have noticed an increase in retro games in the dumpster. last week I pulled a working zelda and godzilla 2 cartridge. to my disbelief, they were authentic and working. a few weeks ago I found an atari 2600 vcs with paddles and joysticks. roughly 30 games that aren't worth mentioning. I do not know if these were abandoned by customers or what the case may be. I find atleast 2 sealed games a week, and tons of ds and 3ds cases. most of wich are pokemon. I love the chanel. thanks for everything you do.
All major retailers do this for the merchandise that is returned or 'defective'. It sucks because working at a place like Best Buy or Office Max or whatever where perfectly functional electronics, games, movies, etc., get completely smashed that otherwise would have been good to donate or even sell at a lower price. Employees are not allowed to claim them as they consider it 'theft' and that it would promote negative competition if the items are resold. So they get smashed. And yes, they do use literal hammers.
It's a good thing that emulators are around to preserve the great games of the last few decades.
I stopped buying games at Gamestop when they tried to sell me opened shelf copy games as new. They have forever been careless about the collector market. Other stores keep the games either in cases or hard plastic boxes to protect the merchandise. I facepalm everytime I go in there because no other local retailer has the game I want.
Why don't they just cell it? You can make some serious cash with it. A local game shop here does that, the guy sells posters, banners, many old retro games, old PC games within their large CD boxes etc. Even when you buy a new game he lets you play the game first if you want just before you buy it. That guy does great business.
Because they don't have enough cells.
lol typo should be sell instead of cell. yeah since I started to type blindly I make some nasty spell errors lol.
Why don't they sell the contents of the destroy box on ebay once in a while? Just offer it "as is" and let someone have fun with it. I don't see why they wouldn't do it. It's easy profit.
While it may seem ridiculous to smash a bunch of untested retro games and peripherals, keep in mind, its their merchandise, and they do have the right to do what they want with it. People throw perfectly good things in the trash all the time, and just as game stop, they too have the right to do what they want with the items they own. I've seen people throw entire collections of games away.
This doesn't mean we have to agree with Game Stop's actions though. I bet its likely they destroy this stuff because they don't want their employees profiting off of it.
Destroying "Broken" consoles, games etc makes me sick.. you wouldn't believe how many things can be fixed with a simple cleaning or perhaps a soldering iron. At worst they can still be used for parts (like the rubber pads from controllers or shells from consoles)
why destroy older games, why not just donate them to charity. Gamestop could do some nice stuff for the public as a whole, it would help their PR honestly.
I remember ordering Chrono Cross from GameStop website and when it arrived the first disc was missing. When I asked for the first disc they refunded me in GameStop credit and also made Chrono Cross unavailable to buy on their website. Fuck you GameStop.
This is why you don't buy from Gamestop.
I've worked in a warehouse before sorting books.
Anything that didn't have a barcode or ISBN number would be throw aways (unless they were extremely old).
I only worked there for a week (very stupid reason, I was told I wasn't fast enough even though I surpassed my quotas by well over 100) I've chucked so many older books, (between 1969-1980) and a ton of children's books which people would enjoy and about 10 different bibles.
Not going to name the company since this is public.
Even from a business standpoint, the practice of destroying these items make no sense. They are assets, and could've been sold through a wholesaler/liquidator - outside of their own market if necessary, if the retail-ability was no longer there. Even throwing the cases out just devalued their own stock! (Retail stock...I don't mean company shares) Heck, they could've paid someone with a truck 10 bucks an hour to come around and make collections, and eBay the crap out of it all as multiple lots and made a profit.
Corporations don't suck because they are out for profit - they suck because the machine is incapable of making the necessary lane changes that come up during the normal course of business, and yet the leaders that could jump in and take the reins actually don't.
Yeah! Companies across the world in all sorts of industries are supposed to recycle and be smarter with resources but seem to be oblivious to the fact that they leave office lights on 24 hours a day, all year round and try to come up with new products to make us, the consumer use more electricity charging things up and buy and waste more.
They are either moron's or they are satanic actually trying to finish the Earth off?.
Either way, it's bad.
thanks for killing my childhood GameStop...
i can verify that, as a former shift manager, the district managers will come into the store every two weeks to one month and destroy every single item in the "field destroy" box.
i feel like there should be some sort of law against destroying all those games. the older ones are basically antiques. donate them all to goodwill or something.
just find a gamestop executive then simply harass the living day lights out of him, shove thousands of mail down his postbox until he gets the point, glad that I don't live in USA, yeah sure we have gamestop in sweden but they dont carry retro.
I don't work at Gamestop but during the past couple of years I tried to pick-up as many non-sports PSP titles as I could before they got "disappeared". Earlier this year I went in to check on the PSP games and they were gone. A buddy I know who works there confirmed they were all thrown away/destroyed.
I think people should just stop buying from Gamestop, no if's and's or but's.
James Cheng as much as we all hate GameStop, there is several issues with what your hoping for. Not gonna go into detail but think about it.
?
According to a Gamestop manager I'm friends with, when it comes to retro game boxes or manuals he's been told to keep or scrap them and not send them in with the games (he's just been giving them to me) so it seems like a worst case scenario.
This is pretty scary stuff. Those games are a part of history and are no longer in print/produced. Having thousands, if not tens of thousands of mementos from the video game legacy destroyed by a greedy corporation is absolutely disgusting. This should not be allowed to happen. Hell, even a copy of Conker's Bad Fur Day for the N64 goes for $120 or more cause it's so hard to find. I went to 3 local retro shops before the 4th one I went to had a copy... and that was only 1 copy for $150. History should be preserved not destroyed.
Because my I am mainly a PS3/PS4 consumer, GameStop will still be getting my money.
What a travesty...not surprising, but disheartening
these suck without Ian. I'll resub when he's back.
how can a company that markets games do this shit? this is like going to a veterinarian that hates pets.
PETA
Luminous player tch...well that would make scense as to why/she is vegatarian...after all he/she is eating all their food ;^)...
Vets both take care of your pet and put them down...
trinityparkradio STOP! We are creating a paradox, funny as hell...but we have created a paradox...
I went to a Gamestop in Southern, Ohio back in 2006 and they had decided that they were no longer going to carry Gamecube games. My mother and I went in and they were in the process of throwing all of their Gamecube inventory in plastic bins and throwing them in the garbage. after about twenty minutes of my mother and I pleading with the Gamestop employee the let us pick a few from the bin that was still in the store which was all games. We were only able to purchase Resident Evil Zero, Killer 7 , Luigis mansion and Star Fox Adventures mind you the bin which they threw away was full of copies of the afore mentioned games mario sunshine, all of the resident evils except code veronica and many more I'm sure.
I've been going to a local video game store that has a few locations. I love it there as they have retro games and you can tell they care about video games particularity retro games. I've been growing an NES collection and they've been recommending games for too. One employee fixed my n64 in their spare time. Their prices are really good!