If they actually took the time to see why it was pirated so much, they'd know most did it out of spite for their ridiculous initial DRM practices and to send a message rather than legitimately not wanting to pay for Spore, of all things.
So your rationalizing stealing? Stealing is stealing. i dont care if you do it because ur broke or if your "trying to make a point". its still wrong.
also makes things worse. and i cant wait til next gen consoles :D cause apparently they wont play used games (thought im not sure on details)
the problem is drm punishes legitimate users, and doesnt punish pirates. if someone really wants to pirate a game then no drm is going to stop that. I remember bioshock 2 was cracked before the game was released and the cracked drm free version still allowed you to play online.
so if you actually put the money down you get an inferior, sometimes dangerous product. which in turn turns legit customers into pirates.
That being said I don't support piracy, and you can't leave software completely unguarded so that any random person with a dvd burner can copy a game. One anti-copy form of drm I think is warranted, anymore and you start punishing the people who actually support you.
I had that same thing happen to me. I bought a copy of Mad World, got home, no game in case.
Also, why open the games up when you can just have dumby cases out? Person brings it up, ask for it, then you go and grab an on open copy in the drawer.
Gutting new games and calling it new is really shady.
Last year my store lost $250k worth of merch on black friday weekend. Granted I wasn't the manager at the time but still.....this year was 80k over the entire holiday season, which is still a ton of theft.
uh... what? how did you lose that much? lol. Game stop doesnt even keep 250,000 worth of product on the floor for people to steal.
It was over an entire weekend. The store manager at the time had consoles on the floor.....he's no longer with the company. TBH, that is what the DM told me so if it is likely that it is exaggerated and he was trying to scare us into not making the same mistake again. I do know that we did post a HUGE *** loss at the end of the season. Still made money though.
This was all going to happen sometime. I really think that video games need to get away from the "for-profit" scenario and go back to releasing labors of love. I'm sure that's an extremely complicated process, but its the reason indie games are hitting so big right now, and larger company games are mostly trash.
At that rate I think installing a security gate in the doorway would pay off. the obstacle alone would cut down on theft, and just gluing some tags to the back of the plastic film on the case would make a huge difference. you'd likely notice most people trying to rip them off.
Also, why open the games up when you can just have dumby cases out? Person brings it up, ask for it, then you go and grab an on open copy in the drawer.
Unfortunately they require a certain number of guts to be on the wall. I know some shady employees will hand out open copies first but I hate that. Personally I will only give an open game if there is no other option. We have several stores literally within walking distance, I'll send them to one of those stores if they prefer a sealed copy. I do know some of the publishers do dictate our marketing, they will come in from time to time and check us over. Sony, Nintendo, M$ as well as developers. But yes, I hate gutting a million copies of one damn game and then having to sell them as soon as marketing tells us to reverse gut them.
This was all going to happen sometime. I really think that video games need to get away from the "for-profit" scenario and go back to releasing labors of love. I'm sure that's an extremely complicated process, but its the reason indie games are hitting so big right now, and larger company games are mostly trash.
Absolutely right
I don't agree, I think the solution is on the consumer to not always jump out and purchase a game as soon as it comes out without being informed. I'd rather not hope that someone decides to make a game out of love for gaming and purely that. If you don't want to buy garbage, learn to read, dl demos, or talk to people who have played a game. Not spending blindly will have a greater effect than reducing the amount of games put out per year due to companies out there to no longer make a profit.
At that rate I think installing a security gate in the doorway would pay off. the obstacle alone would cut down on theft, and just gluing some tags to the back of the plastic film on the case would make a huge difference. you'd likely notice most people trying to rip them off.
I agree seeing as the anti theft tags are already in the games. You wouldn't believe how many people I have coming back to my store asking me to disarm the games. I have no way to do it either. But at the same time, employees are not allowed to apprehend a shop lifter. The stores would need a loss prevention team to oversee the stores. Sure the mall stores have mallcops....they're useful.... >.> With that added requirement for the alarms it's not cost effective. It'd deter theft to some degree but it won't stop a majority of it.
If none of the games on the floor has the actual games in it, im confused as to what they are stealing? The only product I ever see out on the floor is like, used controllers. And like, lame DS accessories.
This was all going to happen sometime. I really think that video games need to get away from the "for-profit" scenario and go back to releasing labors of love. I'm sure that's an extremely complicated process, but its the reason indie games are hitting so big right now, and larger company games are mostly trash.
Absolutely right
I don't agree, I think the solution is on the consumer to not always jump out and purchase a game as soon as it comes out without being informed. I'd rather not hope that someone decides to make a game out of love for gaming and purely that. If you don't want to buy garbage, learn to read, dl demos, or talk to people who have played a game. Not spending blindly will have a greater effect than reducing the amount of games put out per year due to companies out there to no longer make a profit.
Your faith in humanity is disturbing. Call of Duty: Black Ops was voted the best video game story ending of all time on Guinness. Despite the reality of poll size, that is harrowing.
If none of the games on the floor has the actual games in it, im confused as to what they are stealing? The only product I ever see out on the floor is like, used controllers. And like, lame DS accessories.
some have consoles stacked up. because they stock up during holidays and dont have the storage to fit it all in the back room. so they put them up on high shelves or out on the floor.
This was all going to happen sometime. I really think that video games need to get away from the "for-profit" scenario and go back to releasing labors of love. I'm sure that's an extremely complicated process, but its the reason indie games are hitting so big right now, and larger company games are mostly trash.
Absolutely right
I don't agree, I think the solution is on the consumer to not always jump out and purchase a game as soon as it comes out without being informed. I'd rather not hope that someone decides to make a game out of love for gaming and purely that. If you don't want to buy garbage, learn to read, dl demos, or talk to people who have played a game. Not spending blindly will have a greater effect than reducing the amount of games put out per year due to companies out there to no longer make a profit.
Your faith in humanity is disturbing. Call of Duty: Black Ops was voted the best video game story ending of all time on Guinness. Despite the reality of poll size, that is harrowing.
If none of the games on the floor has the actual games in it, im confused as to what they are stealing? The only product I ever see out on the floor is like, used controllers. And like, lame DS accessories.
some have consoles stacked up. because they stock up during holidays and dont have the storage to fit it all in the back room. so they put them up on high shelves or out on the floor.
Even then though, like I said, that is A LOT of consoles to have on the floor to be $250,000 worth of theft. At $250 per console, that is 1,000 consoles. No store would have that many over a 3 day weekend.
This was all going to happen sometime. I really think that video games need to get away from the "for-profit" scenario and go back to releasing labors of love. I'm sure that's an extremely complicated process, but its the reason indie games are hitting so big right now, and larger company games are mostly trash.
Absolutely right
I don't agree, I think the solution is on the consumer to not always jump out and purchase a game as soon as it comes out without being informed. I'd rather not hope that someone decides to make a game out of love for gaming and purely that. If you don't want to buy garbage, learn to read, dl demos, or talk to people who have played a game. Not spending blindly will have a greater effect than reducing the amount of games put out per year due to companies out there to no longer make a profit.
^^This, it never ceases to amaze me how often people will go on about a specific aspect of a game after buying it within the first week when the info was there for weeks before hand. FF13 is a great example because it was no secret that the game was liniar for most of it, it came right from SE's mouth that the first 20-30 hours were mainly a story game with little to no side exploration. Yet people still rushed out to buy it then raised hell when the game was, exactly as was previously stated, very linear. I'm not saying FF13 was a great game or that it sucked, but lets face it the info was there, and people ignored it, and paid the (literal) price of buying a new game when they may have been better off waiting for a price drop or just skipping it all together.
Game companies are first and formost a buisness, if they can sell crap then they will sell crap. The way things are now they can make more money from putting out 2 average quick made games as they would from 1 great game that would take the same ammount of time to make as the 2 average ones.
This was all going to happen sometime. I really think that video games need to get away from the "for-profit" scenario and go back to releasing labors of love. I'm sure that's an extremely complicated process, but its the reason indie games are hitting so big right now, and larger company games are mostly trash.
Absolutely right
I don't agree, I think the solution is on the consumer to not always jump out and purchase a game as soon as it comes out without being informed. I'd rather not hope that someone decides to make a game out of love for gaming and purely that. If you don't want to buy garbage, learn to read, dl demos, or talk to people who have played a game. Not spending blindly will have a greater effect than reducing the amount of games put out per year due to companies out there to no longer make a profit.
^^This, it never ceases to amaze me how often people will go on about a specific aspect of a game after buying it within the first week when the info was there for weeks before hand. FF13 is a great example because it was no secret that the game was liniar for most of it, it came right from SE's mouth that the first 20-30 hours were mainly a story game with little to no side exploration. Yet people still rushed out to buy it then raised hell when the game was, exactly as was previously stated, very linear. I'm not saying FF13 was a great game or that it sucked, but lets face it the info was there, and people ignored it, and paid the (literal) price of buying a new game when they may have been better off waiting for a price drop or just skipping it all together.
Game companies are first and formost a buisness, if they can sell crap then they will sell crap. The way things are now they can make more money from putting out 2 average quick made games as they would from 1 great game that would take the same ammount of time to make as the 2 average ones.
Also note that the average gamer doesnt give a *** about the little details that go into a game to make it "Great". developers can spends all the time in the world making a game they think is going to be great and it just flop.
Risk is too high.
Edit: lol also why spend soooo much money making a game when a huge chunk of it you wont get because people are pirating and buy the game used?
why spend XX amount of money making a game when you only get X back from people who actually support the company by buying new games?
The less money they make from a game the less budget they will have for their next game.
maybe if gamestop gave a portion of their used game sells to the developers they might actually have a higher budget/more time to make the games.
This was all going to happen sometime. I really think that video games need to get away from the "for-profit" scenario and go back to releasing labors of love. I'm sure that's an extremely complicated process, but its the reason indie games are hitting so big right now, and larger company games are mostly trash.
Absolutely right
I don't agree, I think the solution is on the consumer to not always jump out and purchase a game as soon as it comes out without being informed. I'd rather not hope that someone decides to make a game out of love for gaming and purely that. If you don't want to buy garbage, learn to read, dl demos, or talk to people who have played a game. Not spending blindly will have a greater effect than reducing the amount of games put out per year due to companies out there to no longer make a profit.
^^This, it never ceases to amaze me how often people will go on about a specific aspect of a game after buying it within the first week when the info was there for weeks before hand. FF13 is a great example because it was no secret that the game was liniar for most of it, it came right from SE's mouth that the first 20-30 hours were mainly a story game with little to no side exploration. Yet people still rushed out to buy it then raised hell when the game was, exactly as was previously stated, very linear. I'm not saying FF13 was a great game or that it sucked, but lets face it the info was there, and people ignored it, and paid the (literal) price of buying a new game when they may have been better off waiting for a price drop or just skipping it all together.
Game companies are first and formost a buisness, if they can sell crap then they will sell crap. The way things are now they can make more money from putting out 2 average quick made games as they would from 1 great game that would take the same ammount of time to make as the 2 average ones.
I agree with you, but it's worth noting that the "gamer" audience has expanded so far and wide, that it is no longer a niche community that understands what goes into making a game, let alone what makes a decent one, to the point where marketing has taken advantage of the expanded demograph and made convincing enough that what they're eating is chocolate pudding, when in reality it's literally dog ***.
Also note that its more the fault of gamestop not giving a share of their profits to the developer/publisher then the gamer buying the game used.
Perfect solution is to lock a used game out until the person pays the 10-20 dollars for a code to be able to play it under his gamertag.
Since when is any business obligated to make charity of their profits to others, regardless of the nature of the industry?
Also why would you want to take away the consumer's right to ownership of their own purchased product? Don't we have the right to give/use/share/sell whatever we purchase with our own money?
Also note that its more the fault of gamestop not giving a share of their profits to the developer/publisher then the gamer buying the game used.
Perfect solution is to lock a used game out until the person pays the 10-20 dollars for a code to be able to play it under his gamertag.
Since when is any business obligated to make charity of their profits to others, regardless of the nature of the industry?
your an idiot. they arnt obligated to share their profits with the developers. but i was saying if they did then maybe the new consoles wouldnt lock used games out?
I think after the first 100 went missing, someone would notice.
Which is why I shouldn't take things at face value when told something. It could very well be the entire holiday season and not just that weekend. I do however know that an obscene amount of merchandise was lost or stolen during that weekend. Even for a mall store.Plus I'm 90% sure the manager had his hands in some of the theft as well.
Quote:
Your faith in humanity is disturbing. Call of Duty: Black Ops was voted the best video game story ending of all time on Guinness. Despite the reality of poll size, that is harrowing.
TBH I have no faith in humanity. I cling to hope. IMHO nothing is going to change so most of the time it's only worth bitching about when there is nothing else to do. Why am I bitching? I'm bored. I already cleaned the kitchen and the bathroom today, so might as well *** on the internets.
IMO, the only person to blame for buying a bad game is the person who is buying it. 98% of the time you can find out all you need to know to make an informed decision a few days before release. Granted, if it says Final Fantasy or a few other brand names.....I buy it anyways because I'm sad like that.
Artemicion said: »
Leviathan.Phenomena said: »
Also note that its more the fault of gamestop not giving a share of their profits to the developer/publisher then the gamer buying the game used.
Perfect solution is to lock a used game out until the person pays the 10-20 dollars for a code to be able to play it under his gamertag.
Since when is any business obligated to make charity of their profits to others, regardless of the nature of the industry?
your an idiot. they arnt obligated to share their profits with the developers. but i was saying if they did then maybe the new consoles wouldnt lock used games out?
So they are finding ways to get what they need.
First off, I will eat my own crap if companies end up locking out used games. Secondly, he's absolutely right. You're completely ignorant of how a business is run. Even IF GameStop WOULD give them a kickback, they'd still do it if they saw it as profitable. He's not an idiot, you're ignorant.
You really can't unless you know someone of similar taste, or have a large foundation of peers who you can relate to. Even then, with similar taste, there are large disparities. The only time you can easily say "Yeah, not getting that." is if it scores below a 5. Anything between 6~9 on game sites/magazines is fair-game, but also no indicator of anything other than that it's passable by their standards. It's media, it's a feeding frenzy, it's bought out.
I mean hell, I think FFXIII is an abomination, but people on this site will defend that ***to the death. Sometimes I wish I wasn't so fascinated by stories that I've come to have a higher standard, maybe I'd enjoy being spoon-fed crap more.
NEITHER GAME NOR GAMESTATION WILL BE STOCKING ME3.
Eurogamer said:
UPDATE: GAME has issued a statement to Eurogamer in response to the retailer's decision not to stock Mass Effect 3, blaming it on a "supply issue".
"We currently have a supply issue with regards to Mass Effect 3, which means that GAME and gamestation will not be able to fulfil orders for Mass Effect 3 at this time. We want to give customers as much notice about this as possible and provide them with a range of options ahead of launch.
"We appreciate that this is disappointing for our customers, and we apologise sincerely for the inconvenience that this will cause. We value the loyalty of our customers very highly and as a gesture of goodwill we are providing the following:
Customers who have pre-ordered in store, will have the opportunity to add £5 worth of Reward points to their card if they visit us from today through to 16 March 2012.
Customers who have placed a deposit for the title will receive refund as well as the £5 worth of Reward points between 1 and 16 March 2012.
Customers who have pre-ordered online, will be provided with an online voucher to the value of £5 to be spent on any purchase on our sites.
Eurogamer was told by GAME staff that customers will receive their refunds in store credit, not cash.
ORIGINAL STORY: GAME Group will not be stocking any EA games past SSX in March, including Mass Effect 3, Eurogamer has discovered. This encompasses all GAME and Gamestation stores.
Various GAME and Gamestation staff alerted Eurogamer to this situation after a company-wide memo was sent out at around 10.30am this morning.
Eurogamer has secured an image of this memo, which also reveals that FIFA Street 3, Tiger Woods 13 and Sims 3 Showtime will also not be stocked by GAME Group.
Eurogamer has corroborated this information with individual GAME Group stores. The last stocked EA game will be SSX, we were told.
If you have a pre-order, GAME will refund you via in-store credit, rather than with cash.
EA responded to Eurogamer's request for comment by directing us to a Mass Effect 3 Launch Update website. GAME's absence from the list of retailers speaks volumes.
This worrying text followed: "For customers who have pre-ordered the N7 Collector's Edition please re-order your copies through these retailers."
These are Amazon, Play, Zavvi and ShopTo. Blockbuster phoned Eurogamer to say it's stocking the N7 Collector's Editio,n too.
"For further information regarding the Mass Effect 3 Standard Edition with the N7 Warfare Gear in-game weapons pack, please check this page later today," the blurb continued.
"If you have placed a deposit for a pre-order or are uncertain that your existing pre-order will be guaranteed, please contact your local retailer."
"Your local retailer is doing everything possible to make this process as smooth as possible to ensure you get your copy on launch day."
HMV told Eurogamer it couldn't comment on a competitor's situation, but confirmed it would be stocking Mass Effect 3 and the rest of EA's titles.
GAME Group hasn't responded to Eurogamer's request for comment.
SSX may be the last Electronic Arts game that GAME ever stocks, if the latest rumours are to be believed. With GAME releasing the following statement just moments ago:
'We currently have a supply issue with regards to Mass Effect 3, which means that GAME and Gamestation will not be able to fulfil orders for Mass Effect 3 at this time. We want to give customers as much notice about this as possible and provide them with a range of options ahead of launch.
We appreciate that this is disappointing for our customers, and we apologise sincerely for the inconvenience that this will cause. We value the loyalty of our customers very highly and as a gesture of goodwill we are providing the following:
• Customers who have pre-ordered in store*, will have the opportunity to add £5 worth of Reward points to their card if they visit us from 1st March through to 16th March 2012
• Customers who have placed a deposit for the title* will receive a refund as well as the £5 worth of Reward points between 1st - 16th March 2012
• Customers who have pre-ordered online, will be provided with an online voucher to the value of £5 to be spent on any purchase on our sites
*All customer must be able provide valid proof that they have placed a pre-order or deposit'
According to website Eurogamer things are even worse than they sound, as they claim no EA game beyond SSX will be stocked by GAME. SSX is due out this Friday, so that means no Mass Effect 3 the week after, no FIFA Street, and no Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13.
They also claim that no other Nintendo distributed games will be sold either. We can't confirm that but Nintendo has just sent us a long list of shops that will be selling Mario Party 9 on Friday - and it doesn't include GAME.
Mario Party 9 will be third Nintendo distributed game in a row not to be sold by GAME, after The Last Story and Tekken 3D Prime Edition.
Nintendo and EA have refused to comment on the situation further, although EA has referred us to the same page on their website mentioned by GAME.
The page warns that the Mass Effect 3 N7 Collector's Edition will only be available at Amazon.co.uk, Play.com, Zavvi.com, ShopTo.Net, and Blockbuster. GAME are not listed, even though the Collector's Edition (and the standard ones) are still on GAME's website.
EA are advising customers who have pre-ordered the N7 Collector's Edition to re-order it through one of the above stores. An update about the N7 Warfare Gear in-game weapons pack is promised for later today.
Ever since its credit rating changed at the beginning of the year GAME has had trouble keeping new games in stock. Wii game The Last Story still isn't being stocked by them and they didn't have any of Ubisoft's PS Vita games at launch.
If the problems with Mass Effect 3 aren't resolved very quickly then the future is looking very grim for both GAME and Gamestation.
For those who have pre-ordered on origin - you can cancel it. (I just cancelled my Digital Deluxe and ordered it on amazon.co.uk)
Can talk to an Origin advisor to cancel by clicking Here and filling in the relevant information.
I urge you to look around and make sure that this is accurate before you do that however - I don't want to be the focus of your rage :P
----------
Regarding refunds I found this tidbit
guardian said:
She said that customers who have pre-ordered in store will be able to add £5 worth of reward points to their card between 1 and 16 March. Customers who have paid a deposit will receive a refund as well as the £5 worth of reward points, while customers who have pre-ordered online will get an online voucher for £5.
Play.com, Amazon.co.uk, ShopTo and Zavvi to offer the limited set after GAME fails to secure stock.
Following GAME's admission that it won't be stocking Mass Effect 3 at launch, EA has revealed that the N7 Collector's Edition - previously a GAME exclusive - will now be available at Amazon, Play.com, Zavvi and ShopTo.
