So... GameStop is f**ked

Looks like they’re moving into GameStop’s old spot

The 3DS had such a narrow end-of-life window before the prices shot back up. It's more expensive to collect for than current consoles and that's more all the more painful by the fact that as recently as early 2020 they were practically giving away the big-hitters like DQ7 for absolute pennies in places like Argos.

HMV were two doors down, where Elverys is now.

Went to my local one and they are selling the fittings now.

I bought slatted wall segments and rows of shelving. Should make for a lovely display

They'll probably be selling the tills next, hopefully they forget to take the money out first 😂

I know you were saying that kinda tongue-in-cheek but have you seen how much retro gaming is going for these days? :D

Slightly off topic, but I'm struggling to figure out how any of these brick and mortar game shops make money

I suppose since GameStop is closing the simple answer is that they don't

But here's an example that has me confused. My wife wanted to get a Switch game recently that was €60 in the Nintendo store. She ended up buying it from Smyth's for €35

I figured it would be a game card, but it was actually just a download key. So the whole act of getting a physical copy was in essence a less convenient method of buying the game digitally

But how did Smyth's make any money in that scenario? I get that the case didn't cost €35 to produce and distribute (albeit being an incredibly wasteful way to distribute a game) but that must be close to the price they bought the game from Nintendo at

I assume Nintendo is going to give the retailers a slight discount versus the price of the game in the store, otherwise all physical copies would cost more anyway

But I don't see any reason for them to give a huge discount to retailers. Particularly if they follow the same model as Steam and take around 30% of the sales revenue, which makes more expensive games more profitable, and they'd have to split that with the retailer for physical copies

Frankly there doesn't seem to be any inventive for Nintendo (or any other console developer) to sell physical copies of the digital store is way more profitable for them and eliminates lost revenue from trade ins

Anyway, the end result of my thinking is that it seems like Smyth's either sold that game at cost or at a loss. If that's the sales strategy then no wonder GameStop fell apart

The only profitable side of the business seemed to be trade ins and the merch, both of which were always unreliable markets