Guys like Josh Ball are the reason GameStop will sell more copies of GTA4 than any other retailer this year. Michael Pachter, an industry analyst at Wedbush Morgan, predicts that of the 12 million copies of GTA4 sold this year, nearly one out of five will go through GameStop. "They'll be No. 1 by far," Pachter says.
That's what Wall Street has come to expect from the videogame chain started 21 years ago by Barnes & Noble chairman Len Riggio. Videogames aren't just kids' business anymore, of course - they're a fast-growing, $19 billion industry with arguably as much pop-culture significance as Hollywood. No retailer has more cachet among gamers than GameStop, and only Wal-Mart has a larger share of the market - for now. According to market researcher NPD, Wal-Mart had a 21.3% market share last year. GameStop's share was 21.1%, and may well overtake Wal-Mart's this year.
New report from Skillsearch found that 22% of those surveyed had been laid off within the past 12 months.
It's a step forward for Stop Killing Games.
The Callisto Protocol director thinks the solution involves the right people, the right timing, and perhaps a little bit of AI
I don't agree with that. I WISH I could agree with that. But buying habits and customer opinions prove otherwise
We've seen developers in the AAA space try new things and ideas. More often than not, the customers aren't willing to give things a chance, or not enough people buy into the project for it to grow.
Creativity works better in the indie space because the budgets, pressures, and expectations aren't the same.
it's a nice idea and it worked during the PS2/PS3-era when AAA didn't cost hundreds of millions of dollars. smaller budgets and shorter development time left room for more creativity and more risk. a game didn't need to sell 4 million+ copies to break even. things are different now.
This is the guy who bragged about crunching his staff and having them work through the night. Crunch culture has lost more talent and done more damage to the industry than any other factor. Screw him.
They rank up the money by giving you $15 bucks for a new game that you traded in and they go back and sell it for $54.99.
I never have had a good experience with them and games.
Michael Pachter seriously needs to STFU. I'm so sick of this guy. He probably thinks he's some kind of icon in the video game industry. Stay home and play Wii Fit, you douche bag.
Dateline NBC,
Chris Hansen
I try to avoid GameStop whenever possible. In Italy where I live there are basically two types of sales person: the robot who recites automatically the whole pitch about guaranteeing a game for a year - how its best if you order - why not take out a subscription to this or that magazine etc etc; and the totally ignorant one who tells you that The Orange Box is not available for the 360 but only for the Wii.
Add all that to the policy of selling used games at nearly new prices.
well you cant get mad at the guys that work there. they have a quota for preorders and gameinformer subs if they dont meet theyll get fired. alot of people forget that the guys working there dont set the prices for used video games.