So right now I am in Austin, TX and I go down to the mall to pick up Doom 3. I go into Gamestop and the guy’s like, “Did you preorder?” and I say no. So he starts launching into this spiel about how only preorder customers can get it today, and maybe I can get on a waiting list in case a pre-order drops out or something. So I just leave the store because there is an EB in the same mall directly above it. On my way out he shouts after me “Hey, it’s Doom, baby!” in some kind of weird “I am trying to be way too cool, and trying to justify why we don’t have this game for you” way that gives me the creeps.
So I go to the EB and it’s the same story. They won’t sell me one, because they only have exactly enough for the preorders, and maybe if I come back the next day at 4pm I can get a copy.
So I mentally tell them to fuck off, and I drive across town to Best Buy, which has a huge surplus of them. I buy that and a headphone adapter, $70 that either of the other stores could have had but didn’t.
So I had deja vu after this was all over. During the past couple of years, this has happened to me for every high-profile title that I wanted to buy on the first day. And it just seems weird and wrong to me. Like, all the time, they have this huge shortage of games, but somehow the next day more of them will trickle in? It just smells like total bullshit to me. Especially since other stores that don’t specialize in games tend to have tons of copies. (I didn’t stop by CompUSA, but I am willing to bet they had lots of Doom 3 also).
My theory is that these game stores have adopted an unofficial policy wherein they simply will not sell you a hot game in the first day or few unless you preorder it. Because preorders are probably pretty lucrative for them, and so they need to ensure that the preorders are justified – what’s the point in going through preorder hassle if 90% of the time you could have just bought a copy normally? So, I think they are attempting to develop a false impression of scarcity, in order to bolster this weird pre-order revenue stream.
I’m not saying this necessarily happens at the individual-store level… I would believe that a new shipment of games actually shows up the next day from some Gamestop central office. What I don’t believe is that they are trickling in from the distributor… I think said Gamestop central offices are holding onto them intentionally to create a shortage. Modern retail distribution is very efficient, and it operates in big batches wherever it can. The idea that they’d send repeated truckloads of small shipments out day after day is ludicrous.
I can see why they’d care so much about preorders – a preorder is money that is definitely going to you and not a competitor; it builds brand loyalty; it’s an interest-free loan; it helps you data mine; and some percentage of pre-ordered games will of course never get claimed, which is pure profit. But at the same time, I have to wonder if all that is really worth them going through this trouble.
The idea of such a game distribution conspiracy might seem silly. But seriously. Am I expected to believe that these places that specialize in selling games – this is what they focus on directly – are somehow, every single time, for years, unable to secure a surplus of a hot game at launch, while generic we-sell-a-bunch-of-crap stores can get all they want? It just smells like bullshit.
If it’s not actually manipulation, the only alternative seems to be incompletence. But they’re too organized to be incompetent – they always have that follow-up shipment coming, and they can always tell me when it is. I dunno.
Either way, I guess what it comes down to is that I hate stores like Gamestop and EB, and it’s getting to the point where I’d rather have a highly visible frontal tooth pulled than go there again.
I so wish someone like Valve would get something like Steam right so that these fuckers get buried in the ground where they belong.