...intending to buy God of War: Chains of Olympus. Waddled over to the (unusually miniscule) PSP section, and there it was. 30 big ones, brand new. "Still pretty pricey" I thought, considering it came out nine months ago. Strolled to the used section. Had to look around a bit before I found it. Then... you'll never guess what...
30 bucks used.
My immediate reaction was
When I pointed it out to the guys working the counter, they said it was definitely a mistake, but there was nothing they could do about it since the computer rang it up for 30 as well. Even they were like "
WTF?". Now I know this happens in other retailers too (most notably Gamestop), but it's got to stop. Seriously. However, I managed to find a new copy in Smyth's for €20 and I was evidently pleased.
And another thing, what the balls is up with retailers having sales on games that were released mere weeks ago? GAME had Mirror's Edge for €34.99, reduced from €59.99. I know it isn't very good (having bought it on launch and brought it back 2 days later), but it
really mustn't be selling that well for it to warrant such a dramatic drop. Other games that similar situations have stricken: Unreal Tournament III, Gears 2, Left 4 Dead, Fallout 3. But the difference is, those games
have sold well.
I don't understand the economics of the video games industry, and it's making me inadvertently butthurt.
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Mirror's Edge is £25 on Amazon at the moment, for example. Left 4 Dead was also heavily discounted on Amazon at release.
My understanding is once they sell the games to the people who are willing to pay that ridiculously price, then their only focus is getting the games out the door. They want the games to go out so that people can bring them back and trade them in. Then they can justify that initial loss by selling the game ad infinitum. They also cultivate store loyalty and get them to buy other games and indulge in other sales or trades while in the store.
To be honest, GOW is one of those titles begging to go into the Christmas Sale this year (Which starts being put on V.Early next week) so that's likely why they've not dropped the game just yet.
To be honest, it is a little messed up, the company works in mysterious ways, however instances like that at the moment would be due to the recent increase in size of the BOGOF and the imminant sale.
As for the preowned not dropping in price - it seems to me that the prices of Preowned (Trading in AND purchase price) are directly relevant to the flow of the SKU around the branches. Titles that are frequently traded in and the company handled thousands upon thousands of have very low prices, while products that are rarely traded in and the company have lots of new will keep high prices as the push would be on selling the mint game.
I could however be completely wrong, I do just work there, which just means I see the awesome-madness up close.
Pattern seems to be, 2 weeks after launch DOTW, month after launch potential drop, 6 weeks after launch DOTW. Although this doesn't apply to all products across the board.
Mirror's Edge (a good example BTW), as you no doubt saw is blanketed everywhere, it is present in bundles, all over the walls and prominantly positioned in the chart - this is something my collegues call "Assasin's Curse" because it's exactly what happened with Assasin's Creed last year (And we are bad at making up names).
This is mainly due to games being over-hyped and overstocked.
Perfect examples of this are Mirror's Edge, Final Fantasy : Crisis Core, Too Human, Assassin's Creed, Crackdown, Burnout Paradise - to name a few.
While these games are lacking in certain departments, the price drop isn't due to quality, simply overstocking.
I really don't like game. I always find their stores to be badly laid out and it's hard to find any games that aren't either big hitters or out this week. I say go to hmv if there's a bigish one near by
They tell you in the store to push the mint(aka:new?) games before the used? I work at a Game Crazy in St Louis and we are always trying to push the used games, because we make a much higher profit off used games than we do new.
Would if I could...
@Marc of Arabia
SM64DS and WarioWare are STILL €44.99. Ridiculous.
Nah, we are exactly the same man. However the company does price drops like I said as they need to shift the stock - they still expect us to sell preowned before.
"1. In an evident manner; obviously."
Try again.