Best Buy, Circuit City, Amazon.com, Frys, Micro Center, any electronics reatailer really, hundreds of websites all sell video games. Gamestop in no way has a monopoly.... just because they are taking over "game stores" they still have to try and outbest the big dogs.
First of all, a company does not need 100% share to be a monopoly, a substantial lead that detracts from competition is enough. However, Gamestop may own a large portion of the video game store market, but nearly every department store sells similar products, as does plenty of other electronic stores. The market share of gamestop does not in any way detract from competition, which is why no action will be taken against them. And monopolies are not completely illegal in the US. Nearly every utility company is given a monopoly by the government because it is just overall more efficient to do so.
Gamestop only hurts gamers that are willing to be raped by the unfair trade values and huge markup on used games. Most adults buy new and shop at Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Toys R Us, Target, wherever. Gamestop capitalizes on kids because they don't have disposable income and have to trade in games to get new ones when their parents either won't buy them or can't afford to. The last time I traded in a game was probably in 1999, but atthat time I had a $10 an hour job and was just starting to have real bills.
I feel sorry for kids who get raped by Gamestop. When I was a kid I got raped by a local chain called Video Game Exchange. They had a lot of stores in Wisconsin, but Gamestop came in and put them out. LOL! So over the last few years I have used ebay to get my old 8and 16 bit games back. Anything from Saturn, PS1, N64 onward I have not had to trade in on thanks to getting older and having more money. Who says being in your 20's is bad?
Other than Gamestop/EB, how many video game specific stores are there? I know there are some, but I would imagine that most vendors that carry video games aren't dedicated to video games alone. Besides, doesn't the gaming industry determine the price of its games. I mean, how often can you buy a brand new 360 game for less than $60? (not including occasional sales like Gamestop ran on Timeshift or how Wal Mart sells thing for pennies cheaper than the general market.) It's not like when Mass Effect went on sale that there were major price wars. I don't know...just some of my thoughts.
A manager of a gamestop the other day told me that gamestop now owns like 70% of the video game market. They have basically bought everyone else out. I thought the govt said that was illegal because you can basically rip off whoever you want because they have no other options......?! How can gamestop own that much of the market, and getting bigger, and nobody say anything?Spinbrett
Microsoft owns like 90% of the operating systems market.. whats your point?
A manager of a gamestop the other day told me that gamestop now owns like 70% of the video game market. They have basically bought everyone else out. I thought the govt said that was illegal because you can basically rip off whoever you want because they have no other options......?! How can gamestop own that much of the market, and getting bigger, and nobody say anything?Spinbrett
Gamespot owns the specialty stores, that is the video game only stores. Stores like Best Buy, Wal-Mart, etc, still sell a significant number of video games.
And you don't have to own 100% to have a monopoly either.
[QUOTE="Ket87"]Microsoft tried merging with Apple in the 90's this was during the period when they were getting sued for being a monopoly. They couldn't do it so instead of just absorbing Apple they are partners now. Apple still makes macs with their own OS but they also make Macs with windows. And macs have windows programs on them now too. And Apple products like itunes/ipod/iphone work with windows OS, windows even comes bundled with the itunes program. Yet in the commercials they "compete" against each other. Because even if you buy windows you are supporting mac in some way big or small and vice versa if you buy a mac you are supporting windows. They avoided the monopoly suit by just partnering to improve revenue instead of just boldy taking over the market. teebeenz
#1 MS never planned to merge with apple. #2 MS paid money into apple to keep them a float thus giving MS leverage with the DOJ #3 There are no Windows applications on MacOS
Seems like you are splitting hairs on #3. There are Microsoft applications that run on Macs, just like there are Apple applications that run on Windows. Heck people run Windows and or Dual Boot Windows on Mac hardware.
End of the day the two companies are more tied at the hip than they were 5 years ago.
I read in this month's XBOX Magazine that the used game market is becoming more profitable to video game retailers than new titles are. According to the article, retailers like Game Stop that trade used games for store credit turn around and sell those games at a marked up value,making the games nearly pure profit for them when sold. And what's worse, the publishers and developers of that game see none of that resale money. The only money they make is off of new titles that they sell to retailers. So if you want to see more years of great games like the awesome year that 2007 was, spend the extra money and buy new games.The companies that come up with such great games as Mass Effect, Call of Duty 4 and BioShock deserve our support.Axxe428
well said...*applauds*
there are many better options than ever buying a game from gamestop
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