Tag Archives: gamestop

EA, Ubisoft agree to share downloadable libraries

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When it comes to purchasing downloadable PC games, there’s Steam and there’s everyone else. Today, major changes happened in that “everyone else” part of that equation, though probably not large enough shifts to make Valve nervous just yet.

The biggest news is that Ubisoft has opened up its UPlay service (yes, the same one that has encountered so many DRM problems in the past) to third-party publishers for the first time. The service will now also distribute games from companies including Electronic Arts, Warner Bros., Bohemia Interactive, Telltale Games, Robot Entertainment, and many more. The company is celebrating this new expansion by offering a free game download to anyone who purchases a game costing $19.90 or more.

EA, for its part, has accepted Ubisoft games such as Assassin’s Creed III and Farcry 3 onto its Origin service for the first time. This isn’t such a massive event considering EA has been offering third-party games on Origin since late 2011, but it’s still an important expansion for the service.

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GameStop: 60% of customers won’t buy console that doesn’t play used games

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Last week, a GameStop spokesman alluded to internal research that the company said showed consumers were significantly less likely to buy a console that wasn’t able to play second-hand games, but it wouldn’t reveal the specific results of that survey. Now, a GameStop executive has said publicly that three out of five customers it surveyed said they wouldn’t buy such a system.

“I think it was 60 percent of customers who said they wouldn’t buy a new console [if it blocks used games],” GameStop CFO Rob Lloyd told the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference (as reported by VG247). “Consumers want the ability to play preowned games, they want portability in their games; they want to play physical games. And to not have those things would be a substantial reason for them not to purchase a new console.”

It’s not clear how the survey was conducted, but the results likely come from a self-selected group of customers filling out an online questionnaire for the chance at a cash prize. Furthermore, simply saying you’re against buying a used-game-free system is different from actually refusing to buy a system that has that killer exclusive title you want. And GameStop obviously has an interest protecting the significant profits it makes from used game sales by casting the used game market in the most positive light possible.

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Going to block used games on your console? Here’s some PR advice

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Aurich Lawson

Look—taking away the ability to play used games will always generate some outcry. And so far, consumers have treated the idea of a video game console blocking pre-owned discs as shots fired. For many gamers, it’s a consumer-hostile idea forced on the industry by greedy publishers and console makers. Even the faintest rumors stating that the next Xbox or PlayStation will block used games is enough to generate hundreds of angry comments on Internet forums. They pledge blanket boycotts and argue that the big corporations are shooting themselves in the foot.

This could well be true. But it’s possible to imagine a world in which the powers-that-be use the elimination of the second-hand market as the impetus to shake up the way console gaming retail works. This change could potentially spark benefits for consumers and game makers. (Or at the very least, there’s a way to make this bitter pill easier to swallow.)

It starts with pricing. This is the big elephant in the room when it comes to used console games. Not only does the used game market ensure you can find a game for less than the original retail price soon after release, but it also means you can get a decent proportion of the purchase price back when you’ve finished a game (or if you just plain don’t like it). One of the main reasons digital distribution systems like Steam get away with removing the players’ ability to resell their games is that they often lower prices on games to a ridiculous degree in frequent sales.

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GameStop warns Microsoft on rumored used game-blocking console

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When we passed along word of reports that Microsoft’s next console would use an Internet-connected account to stop used game sales earlier this week, the vast majority of commenters were heavily against the idea. It turns out they have an ally in a major game retailer that doesn’t often get much love from the Internet throngs.

GameStop is taking to the press to try to highlight just how damaging a used-game-free system would be to a hardware maker’s brand. Speaking to Bloomberg, GameStop spokesman Matt Hodges said the company’s surveys of customers show that they would be much less likely to purchase a console that didn’t let them buy or sell their used games.

“We know the desire to purchase a next-generation console would be significantly diminished if new consoles were to prohibit playing pre-owned games, limit portability, or not play new physical games,” Hodges said.

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How I launched 3 consoles (and found true love) at Babbage’s store no. 9

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Oh, the places we went.
Lee Hutchinson

The parking lot is full—unusual for the small strip mall where I sell video games. It takes me a while to park my car, and when I make it into the store, chaos greets me: a line at the counter, the cardboard remnants of a FedEx drop shipment scattered everywhere, my harried-looking manager matching names from a printout to real customers standing in line, then doling out colorful boxes to the mob as quickly as she can. An unattended toddler knocks over an endcap display and starts crying.

I hurry to the back of the store to grab my name tag. When I return, a customer at the front of the line exclaims, “Bullshit, lady! I got the preorder slip right here. I want the damn jet ski game, not just the Mario one.” The other customers in line begin to stir angrily. My manager looks over at me as though I might be able to sort out the mess.

It is September 1996, I am 18 years old, and I am the “keyholder” at Babbage’s store no. 9 in Houston. This is the North American launch day for the Nintendo 64, which makes it the third major 1990s console launch I am lucky (or “lucky”) enough to work. As the yelling escalates, I wonder if I’m going to make it through my shift without getting punched in the face.

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Examining Sony’s Internet-free method for blocking used game sales

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Yogendra174

A newly published patent application filed by Sony outlines a content protection system that would use small RFID chips embedded on game discs to prevent used games from being played on its systems, all without requiring an online connection. Filed in September and still awaiting approval from the US Patent Office, the patent application for an “electronic content processing system, electronic content processing method, package of electronic content, and use permission apparatus” describes a system “that reliably restricts the use of electronic content dealt in the second-hand markets.”

Used game sales continue to be a major concern for many big-name publishers and developers, who see the practice as a drain on the revenue they earn from selling new software. Sony’s patent explicitly points out that suppressing the used game market will “[support] the redistribution of part of proceeds from sales of the electronic content to the developers.”

The used-game blocking method described in the patent involves a “radiofrequency tag” and a type of programmable ROM chip that are paired with each game disc and can communicate wirelessly with the game system. The tag and chip can be used to store “unique information” about each console the game has been played on. Thus, when the game is used on a second system, the unique information stored on the disc can be compared to the information stored inside the new hardware, and in turn checked against “use permission” data stored on the EEPROM chip itself. As described in the patent, this “unique information” could be a system identifier or some sort of unique user ID that is somewhat portable between systems.

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GameStop To Sell SIM Cards

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GameStop is hurting. Same store sales fell 5%-11% and revenue was down 17% to $2 billion. Profit fell to $72.5 million. Arguably, those are still huge numbers and presumably a new console refresh should push the company out of the doldrums. But what the company has just launched – a new MVNO called GameStop Mobile – is almost inexplicable.

GameStop Mobile is, in short, an unlimited data and voice offering for $55 a month (down to $20 a month for pay-as-you-go plans.) GameStop is just selling SIM cards and service and is running on AT&T’s network with some notable dead spots.

The stores actually do take trade-in electronics so, potentially, the company could begin selling unlocked GSM phones to customers who come in for games. Because of the intended audience – kids and the adults who bring them as well as a few die-hards who aren’t yet into PC gaming – it makes some sense for this service to exist.

The synergy also opens AT&T to new markets and, more important, places GameStop right at the nexus of mobile and gaming – a place it absolutely needs to be once future consoles stop accepting optical media.

However, with revenue down and hard-core gamers moving to services like Origin and Steam, there is little impetus for folks to trek out to the local GameStop for titles. Here’s hoping this latest attempt at monetizing the audience works as well as their midnight launches of Diablo III.