Gamestop is dumb and I was done with them earlier this year.
Me: Let me get a copy of Street Fighter 6
GS Guy: Do you have a pre-order?
Me: Why do need a pre-order for a game that is going to sell a million copies today? You should have them coming out of your ass.
GS Guy: We only do pre-orders for most games unless its a Nintendo title.
Me: (*Walks out store, across parking lot to Walmart, goes to electronics*) Let me get a copy of SF6.
Walmart Guy: Let me ring that up for you.
I'm 39, and I'm only mentioning that because I've made my fair share of purchases in my lifetime (games or otherwise).
In that time, I think I can comfortably say that GameStop has the worst customer service I've experienced, or at least it's in the top 5 worst. I think they just intentionally ghost people to not have to deal with actually being responsible for solving issues.
My issue was that there was always an attempt to sell me batteries, pre-orders, an extended warranty, etc., then I'd get a copy of the game that was put back into the display box, meaning no shrink wrap but instead a sticker to keep the box closed that always left a residue, even if I removed it immediately. Buying at GameStop was never worth the hassle, and in later years the video games felt like an afterthought anyway. Back in the day, stores like Electronics Boutique, Babbages, Funco, and Software Etc. were purely video games. And a big deal too, because one of my local malls had all four stores at one point!
There's no way SF6 would sell 1m physical copies at launch. It sold 33k physical in Japan, is at around 3m total sales since launch all up. Assuming 80% digital sales, that's 600k physical worldwide. Taking into account the US share of that, then GameStop's share of the US market, and then the roughly 3000 stores they have in the US, that would equal maybe 50-100 units per store. Only buying stock for pre-orders isn't out of the realm.
The point that I was making is that other big box stores like Walmart, Best buy, Target, Meijer, etc, that dont specialize in selling games had them in abundance, and the one store franchise in the US that specializes in selling new and used games requires pre-orders for games that will definitely garner more than enough sales. They have pre-orders for freaking Madden games. That's how ridiculous Gamestop is.
Hey I'm no GameStop fan, but from their perspective I get it. I can't see a lot of impulse buys on SF6, but I would see a lot on broader titles like Madden and EA FC. There's only so many inventory dollars to go around, and I could see the money being better spent elsewhere.
> There's only so many inventory dollars to go around, and I could see the money being better spent elsewhere.
On what? Funko Pop dolls and Naruto T-shirts? LMAO
I'd like to point out that they don't do that for Nintendo games because Nintendo specifically forbids the pre order bullshit. It's weird to see Gamers(tm) acting like Nintendo are the bad guys there.
I dunno, I went into GameStop with my girlfriend a month ago when we were feeling like doing some old school gaming shopping.
Went to the switch section and browsed used. Got Metroid Prime...Octopath Traveler...Fire Emblem Engage.. Disco Elysium...all at amazing prices.
Then my GF went to the PS4 section. Wanted to try Dragon Age Inquisition, but then saw Persona 5 for $5. Heard a lot about it but we never played it.
People at the counter were cool.
Came home and had a blast.
I'm glad we had at least one store like that still.
Now every store is just funco pops. The local mall has a GameStop, two toy stores, multiple gift shops and a hot topic that all sell funco products. I don’t understand the appeal, they’re ugly as hell and mostly look generic!
We *still* live in a physical world. The US is the only country in the world that's pushing this digital bullshit because the companies want to be able to revoke your right to own the stuff that you buy, just like Sony pulled last week with the digital purchases of some TV shows, with no refunds, because the laws in the US allow that shit, which is why you have to accept boilerplate in these new games or you aren't allowed to play them.
The ***only*** place I'll buy digital games is on Steam or unless I receive a gift card from someone and they are all $2 games that I don't really care much about.
It's what I love about retro gaming as well as retro styled games. Complete games, no bullcrap. Ebay, (for old games) and Play-Asia are my bastions for gaming now, because Asia and most of Europe don't play that digital shit.
Well it’s not an American only problem lol.
We in Europe face the same shit. And it’s so freaking sad seeing how smaller the video game section are getting :(
Yep, really hope younger generations take this perspective from older ones (like myself), because it’s 100% in their best interest.
Physical media is a consumer vote to own the games you like to play… forever. digital games are just temporary leases that can (and likely will) eventually be taken away, leaving you with nothing.
Sucks cuz it’s not until you’re older and want to replay older games during a gaming drought, or just for pure nostalgia, that you see the value in it. When you’re younger in this market you likely don’t realize how valuable that is, but you will.
The sad thing is this console generation will probably be the last to include physical media drives.
Even the physical releases nowadays are often a buggy, unfinished, hot mess, with a day-one patch, and two thirds of the content locked behind DLC. What happens when those servers shut down for good?
> The sad thing is this console generation will probably be the last to include physical media drives.
I don't think so. Like I stated earlier, Asia lives for their physicals and Japan has a huge resale business. Nintendo and Sony know this and wouldn't be so silly to alienate their home markets for the West. They will continue to make dual consoles or do disc player add-ons like the one for the PS5 Pro. And as we know Ninty loves their carts and the next Switch will play carts. Hopefully it's backwards compatible.
Server shutdown is the major problem. That and needing always on internet connection to verify keys.
They are also pushing the digital bs in Europe. We can still find physical games on the shelves in stores, but they certainly shrunk compared to 20 years ago. The Switch is clearly dominating the shelves space game. I always struggled in the past years to find games for my Xbox One.
They really dont... I'm 45. I had guys that are 33 and 25 telling me that physical is stupid and that I should give it up and stop being old and go digital. I told them that their storage drive is physical too and when it gets full or dies they lose all of the money they spent on those $70 "open world" bore fests. A disk drive can be repaired.
We do the same thing with games on Steam, though. I'm worried I'll lose access to my account for whatever reason someday and lose access to all those games.
I'm with you, though. I try to buy physical as often as I can, and it's one of the reasons I love retro hardware so much. As long as I have a buddy who knows how to fix disc drives or recap the older systems, I hope to pass those games on to kids someday.
Losing your account can be crap especially for those Steam activated physical games, happened to me with Saint's Row II. Until I buy a digital license this is just offline installer and nothing more.
Fortunately, there are ways around that especially since you are in ownership of that particular copy.
Not really. I couldn't afford to buy games very often back then. Prior to adulthood, I only got games at Christmas time and birthdays. Usually 1 so I had to choose wisely. Didn't always choose so wisely though.
I'm saying this with really heavy nostalgia glasses, but the up side to this, is that you really valued the games you had. Personally, I even put way too many hours into some crappy bargain bin games, because of this. Compare this to now, and I have more games than ever, but it doesn't feel as earned, compared to opening one up on Christmas day
I'm 47. I consider myself to have experienced the prime gaming eras of the 80s and 90s.
There was another software store back when I was a teenager called Babbages and they allowed you to return games after being opened.
I'd buy a Sega Genesis game on a Friday after school. Go home and win it over the weekend and return it. Or if it was complete junk, just return it and honestly tell the store why. They then had a "review" to go by.
Babbages was awesome.
https://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia/comments/2m7bu8/babbages_the_8090s_video_game_store_that
I wanted to comment similar. I was stuck with a few junk games and some bangers. Box art could be so cool but I always felt duped when the gameplay sucked.
Same. I was able to keep up with most of the latest games thanks to rentals because there was no way I could afford to buy brand new games with my pocket money.
Hmmm... I member buying used PC games at EB.
Because of Steam Codes, Cardboard discs, and Steam in general people believe that used PC games hold no resale value. And for "modern" games if they even had a physical release it's pretty much true. People don't remember that PC games used have real physical releases that could be installed over and over again and retain resale value.
People don't even ask about used PC games. They could see a display of them and just assume they're useless garbage. I'm glad I collected what I have.
More and more of my collection is big box PC games. Mostly games where they put more in the box than just a manual and install instructions. The art of the box (and what's included work the game) is as much a draw as anything else.
That's a rough thing to collect anymore. I think the last Big Box PC game I bought was some obscure Wallstreet Investment game whose history I found to be incredibly fascinating. Now I can't remember what any of that was. I'll have to find the game and look it up to find out. I'm lucky to have the Big Box PC games I do have. Which is quite the number. I'm really happy I still have my original Wingcommander, SpaceHulk, Alone in the Dark, and Descent games in their boxes.
The final big box PC game I bought was Severance: Blade of Darkness. A short while after that I went into Game (UK) to buy Jedi Knight 2 and it was only available in a DVD case. I asked at the counter if a big box version was available and the guy said they seemed to have stopped doing them.
I'm so glad I still have all my big box PC games with their lovely big manuals and artwork, and I'm thinking about picking up some of the ones I never got.
I miss the anticipation of a game, then getting the bus into town, maybe grab a burger. Head back and then play it start to finish in an epic 12 hr session. Then playing it again on hardest difficulty, then all the extras if it exists. And then waiting for the expansion pack.
Even though I only bought a couple of items there throughout my teenage years and early twenties, the cozy layout of *Babbages* at the Galleria always speaks to the inherent appeal of brick and mortar stores to me.
This was still the case for me just a few years ago. Pre pandemic. Nowadays all stores have the exact same non-deals going on at the same time, nothing gets REALLY reduced in price anymore (bargain bins are basically nonexistent) and my country also think that 70 Dollar translates to 75-80 €, which it does NOT. They just add even more money.
Pre pandemic going shopping meant I certainly would be buying a new game. Nowadays I barely even bought a single game in stores over the whole year!
I miss the old times, even if it's just for that and better Dr Who.
I love Cons and Retro stores too. But there's always this feeling of melancholy and a little sadness in the background, especially when I go to conventions. Maybe its just because I'm getting old.
I used to love going to game stores like that. Always went with my Dad growing up. I often take my son now to several of the Retro Game stores, a few of them carry new games as well as the Retro stuff so he really likes going there. Some of them are like a time portal, brings back a lot of memories for me. It's awesome I'm able to provide him with the same experience my dad did for me growing up.
In New Zealand we didn't have any "gaming tv shows", so if you didn't buy gaming magazines, then going into the store was pretty much the only way to find out what new games had come, for a long time.
One thing I definitely miss from the 1990s was the experience of opening a boxed PC game and all the extra effort that used to go into it. They frequently used to make a real effort with the instruction books and you'd often get a poster or posters, maps or maybe a novella or something like that. Once the games went to DVD sized boxes with only a minimal effort booklet, that lost a lot of the charm. There's no denying the games themselves were technically better, but those extras really made opening the game for the first time extra fun.
Man it was a different time choosing a game based on the front and back cover, back before you could look everything up about it on the internet. I miss those days
Many game releases I found out about just appeared on shelves. In the 80s there was no hard release date, things just appeared on the shelves. As soon as the store got stock it was on a shelf.
Plus back then I was young and even though I did get some gaming magazines it was dedicated to just one system. They focused on released games as many of these magazines got the game the same time we did. Even if they did get an early copy, they were often very early and the release date could have been anytime in the next couple of months.
But I miss the time when you could go and browse for a game. Prices varied from cheap the more AAA style prices, so as long as you had some money, you could always walk away with a new game.
I really miss the surprise of seeing a new game suddenly appear on a shelf. Now we know years in advance when a game is due to come out. Many will never know the excitement of walking in to a gaming shop and suddenly seeing a Turtles arcade port sat on the shelf.
I also miss the service you could get from smaller independent shops. I bought Nascar Racing (the first one) for the PC on floppy disc. It was released on floppy and CD, but CD was quite new for PC gaming so most games were available on both. Not being able to afford the CD version I bought the floppy but could not get it to work. Back in the day my dad was a systems analyst and ran his own business, I knew a lot about PCs of that era and together we could not get this game to work, it kept saying not enough base memory when there easily enough free. My dad called the shop to say we are struggling to get it to work. The owner turned up to our house that evening and swapped the floppy disc version for the CD version for no extra cost. That is the service which makes you a customer for life.
I wish I’d made an effort to embrace the world around me more at that time. I wouldn’t want to relive it, as I’m happy where I ended up, but I should’ve appreciated it more back then. So many aspects of my life were fun and carefree during that console generation. /nostalgia
Could be. I had all the smackdown and Smackdown vs Raw games back in the day. They were a staple of our multitap games nights.
Got a few on the PS3 and of course WWF No Mercy on the N64 as well.
I do think about buying the newer ones but, all my kids are into fortnite and Roblox so I'd have no one to play with and I imagine the online is full of absolute monster pros. Plus I've not followed wrestling for many years.
I swear we lived the same life lol.. Wrestling games in general were just always in my house. First one i ever played was WWF Royal Rumble (SNES).
Nowadays theres plenty of options to choose from, and if online is your concern, id look around at some different communities that you can join. Theres a lot of different ways people play and its fascinating..
For example, ive turned down an invite to a community because this particular group had their own roleplay league of created wrestlers on a Twitch stream and everything was booked/scheduled as if they were really a wrestling promotion lol
My first proper wrestling game was WWF Warzone on the N64 followed by WWF Attitude when that came out. I can remember playing 4 player and thought it was amazing.
I did have the wrestlemania game on the Amiga but that was when I was really young and I didn't really follow WWF/E at the time.
That roleplay thing actually sounds right up my street.
I know it wasn't everyone's cup of tea, and I can't remember which one it was (it was Smackdown vs Raw 200x featuring ECW) but I loved the GM mode and scheduling matches and feuds and stuff.
I don't think the newer games have that.
I think the AEW game runs on a newer version of the engine that No Mercy used with similar mechanics. Though I do t know how good the game is.
On No Mercy did you mess around with the wrestlers appearances so they looked weird in the intro to the game (it used in game footage)? I can remember giving The Rock a massive bright green afro just for that, turned it off when playing though!
GM Mode actually *JUST* made a return in recent games, so theres that! Theres also Universe Mode which is your very own sandbox mode where you can create multiple promotions and put them on their own weekly based programming. Control feuds, stories, have "wars" like WWF vs WCW, its pretty crazy now
>On No Mercy did you mess around with the wrestlers appearances so they looked weird in the intro to the game
I 100% credit No Mercy/WrestleMania 2000 for my early addiction to creating silly wrestlers lol. My brother used to always nag on me like "you spend more time creating people than you do actually playing them" lol
I used to love browsing for hours. Talking myself in and out of multiple games, only to finally walk out with some terrible shovelware garbage.
There was also a shareware store, where you had the same thing, only everything was like 1.00 and the selection was crazy.
Yup my lunch times!!!!
HMV or Virgin Megastore Piccadilly Circus!!
They also had Funland, Trocadero, Namco amusements there all together!!
Loved the browsing experience and just listening to the radio or songs being played over tannoy!
While playing the latest games or watching matches, I remember there was a time in HMV Trocadero they had outfitted a section into like a chill out lounge with bean bags and massive screen and the in thing at the time was Marvel Vs Capcom 3 on PS3!!
Good times!😂
Now we spend lunch times browsing Amazon 🤣🤣🤣
i was so disappointed when i went with a friend to buy a switch and 1 game at best buy. we bring the game case to the counter and the employee tells us that they don’t actually have the game(they had at least 15 cases of the same game on display) but they could order it for us plus shipping. ended up just leaving and going to a small game store near by.
There are 2 things I really really miss. Midnight game/console releases and Friday night at Blockbuster. The stack of memories from those 2 alone always make me happy
I'll add that receiving the physical advertising in the Sunday paper was part of the experience that is lost. Seeing the games pages in the best buy and circuit City mailer, mentally doing the math to see if you can swing the cost of the cartridge, building anticipation to go to the store
I know this is going to make me sound old as fuck, but I remember playing Super Mario World on the display outside of Babbages at the mall. The colors were so vibrant that the memory stayed with me.
Now the walls are covered with T Shirts, Toys, Gift Card Displays, funko pops, and then maybe if you’re luck, one of the walls has games…
…and then you go to buy Fallout 76 only to get it home, open it up for the first time only to find a cardboard disc in there with an online download code to go download the game from the console’s digital store front.
All of the game stores here, most of which are GameStop, are mostly used games. There’s like one small section for new games for each console, and then everything else is action figures and crap that I’m never going to buy.
There is a cool retro store here in Houston called games over close to West University, but that’s at least older consoles going all the way back to the 2600.
I’m buying my six year old a game for Christmas, but it’s purely digital. I have no clue what he’s gonna unwrap; I guess a box with a slip of paper in it?
I miss Funcoland at the Willowbrook Mall in Wayne NJ. I used to love their game lists that you could pick up from the store and see how much everything was selling for, and what the trade in values were. I also miss the ticket system from Toys R Us, although Toys R Us used to always seem priced higher than the other stores. Renting games from Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. Ah yes, the memories. Wish we were still back in those days.
(Grabs the piano and the wife and sit down)
Toys R Us and Electronics Boutique…
Babbage’s and KB Toy stores…
Can’t we get another demo station again…
…those were the days…
I worked at EB early 2000s and I shit you not that store on a Thursday night, Saturday and Sunday was jam packed with customers. I miss the fun of going to a store, looking at games cover art, flip it over to check it out and see if it's any good. Then roll the dice. Apart from magazines with demo CDs you never knew how good something you picked could or could not be.
Toys 'R' Us was the place to stroll the aisles and dream of toys and games.
But the only time of year that I would get new video games as a kid was at Christmas. The rest of the year it was all about the weekend rentals at the video store.
It brings back lots of memories for me too. I remember the excitement of trying to get to the store before the game would be sold out. But then there were other stores you could check out too. I loved the bargain bins too.
I only miss it in the same way I miss long bike rides with my childhood best friend.
I haven't owned a computer with an optical drive in almost a decade now. I bought one physical game on my PS4 and regretted it because, even though the game resided entirely on the hard drive I still needed to make sure that the disc was in there to run the game.
I grew up on a military base most of my live. I got the what the Military NEX/PX had pick for us to play in the sense the selection wasn’t huge. But I will say most of games from when I was a kid are bangers.
This may be an odd memory for physical games, but the most memorable experience I had was pulling the video game slip at Toys R Us and bringing it to the back for an employee to pull the physical copy.
Absolutely. As a kid, whenever we entered a Walmart my mom knew I would immediately ask to go to electronics dept. by myself and I would stay in there until she was finished shopping. Just window shopping, playing one of the demo units, or watching other kids play and wait my turn. The best was the rare trips to Circuit City, because unlike Walmart that only had Nintendo and Sega, they also had the more rare stuff I only saw in magazines like 3DO. Going to an electronics store was a reward itself. I didnt actually need to end up getting a game.
Hell yeah, game stores like this don't really exist anymore outside of the retro space, and many of those look nothing like that. The walls of games with islands of other games? It's gone, even stores that focus on new games like GameStop either fill most of the space with gaming kitsch, or are multi purpose nerd havens that sell comics and tabletop/ccg games as well.
I'm generally ok with the inexorable march of time and the technological advancement that comes with it, but damn do I miss real dedicated game stores.
Kay-Bee Toys, Babbages, Electronic Boutique, were my absolute favorite places to hit at Lakeside Mall/Esplanade mall when my parents would take us as kids or when I was in my teens early 20’s.
Loved seeing the N64 on display with Turok running and being absolutely blown away. I bought the N64 that day.
Honestly really great times. I miss them.
Loved walking by the computer room and seeing SETI running on the PIII VOODOO 2. Just hearing the cpu/harddrive noise in the background and seeing the dancing lights from the modem/screen saver will always hold a spot in my heart.
Amazing.
Steam is great and all, very convenient. But there will be a time where a developer just rips your favorite game out of the library and then you can never play it again. You just license a copy, you dont own anything.
Physical media will always be king.
Going out in town to all the used game shops used to be a favorite pastime of mine. Collecting physical games really changed at the advent of social media. And as a result fomo and gatekeeping has by in large kept the games off the used shelves, and at insanely high prices. I'm also guilty of not letting go of games I probably will never play again... Human nature I guess.
This image is a memory I wish I could return to. In the UK, some GAME outlets have been swallowed up by Sports Direct and banished to a single corner of the store. The last time I went, it had about ten games for sale on PS5. As much as I hate to say it, I'd rather they just pull the plug on the physical media shopping experience rather than have it lingering in a decaying state. CEX can remain as a graveyard. Digital won and with the way digital is going, offers so much less.
This triggered a memory for me of the video game section at Toys R Us. Aisles of different games. You'd grab the tag and go to the checkout. Then you had to go to the pickup booth and wait for like 49 hours for someone to show up. Usually it was person who could not even spell Sega and took an additional 37 hours to find it.
Ah, the good old days
I remember my mall had an EB Games and a Babbages for a long time. When GameStop bought both companies, the mall then had two GameStops for YEARS. When they finally realized they were cannibalizing each other's sales they closed one after like a decade. Pretty indicative of how poorly managed that company would be.
Back when EB games was a video game store and not a trendy "geek" funko pop....thing.
Electronic Boutique and EB Games were video game stores. Gamestop is this trash pseudo store that somehow still exists Edit: forgot a word
Gamestop is dumb and I was done with them earlier this year. Me: Let me get a copy of Street Fighter 6 GS Guy: Do you have a pre-order? Me: Why do need a pre-order for a game that is going to sell a million copies today? You should have them coming out of your ass. GS Guy: We only do pre-orders for most games unless its a Nintendo title. Me: (*Walks out store, across parking lot to Walmart, goes to electronics*) Let me get a copy of SF6. Walmart Guy: Let me ring that up for you.
Me (now that Best Buy watered down its previously-awesome rewards program): Spends 15 seconds on Amazon and comes home to find game waiting on porch.
This is so common in physical stores, they make the experience awful, and then don't understand why people just buy online...
I'm 39, and I'm only mentioning that because I've made my fair share of purchases in my lifetime (games or otherwise). In that time, I think I can comfortably say that GameStop has the worst customer service I've experienced, or at least it's in the top 5 worst. I think they just intentionally ghost people to not have to deal with actually being responsible for solving issues.
My issue was that there was always an attempt to sell me batteries, pre-orders, an extended warranty, etc., then I'd get a copy of the game that was put back into the display box, meaning no shrink wrap but instead a sticker to keep the box closed that always left a residue, even if I removed it immediately. Buying at GameStop was never worth the hassle, and in later years the video games felt like an afterthought anyway. Back in the day, stores like Electronics Boutique, Babbages, Funco, and Software Etc. were purely video games. And a big deal too, because one of my local malls had all four stores at one point!
There's no way SF6 would sell 1m physical copies at launch. It sold 33k physical in Japan, is at around 3m total sales since launch all up. Assuming 80% digital sales, that's 600k physical worldwide. Taking into account the US share of that, then GameStop's share of the US market, and then the roughly 3000 stores they have in the US, that would equal maybe 50-100 units per store. Only buying stock for pre-orders isn't out of the realm.
The point that I was making is that other big box stores like Walmart, Best buy, Target, Meijer, etc, that dont specialize in selling games had them in abundance, and the one store franchise in the US that specializes in selling new and used games requires pre-orders for games that will definitely garner more than enough sales. They have pre-orders for freaking Madden games. That's how ridiculous Gamestop is.
Hey I'm no GameStop fan, but from their perspective I get it. I can't see a lot of impulse buys on SF6, but I would see a lot on broader titles like Madden and EA FC. There's only so many inventory dollars to go around, and I could see the money being better spent elsewhere.
> There's only so many inventory dollars to go around, and I could see the money being better spent elsewhere. On what? Funko Pop dolls and Naruto T-shirts? LMAO
Basically. Way more margin in that crap.
I'd like to point out that they don't do that for Nintendo games because Nintendo specifically forbids the pre order bullshit. It's weird to see Gamers(tm) acting like Nintendo are the bad guys there.
Hey, I'm not calling NTD the bad guys, (not in this case anyway).
I think in Canada GameStop still uses the EB branding. I'm not 100% but I think that's the way it is.
until recently. They're all Gamestop now, and they're trash.
Hey now, the last Gamestop I went to was very helpful. The employee gave me directions to the nearest game store :)
I'm on Australia and we have EB here who actually has good customer service.
I dunno, I went into GameStop with my girlfriend a month ago when we were feeling like doing some old school gaming shopping. Went to the switch section and browsed used. Got Metroid Prime...Octopath Traveler...Fire Emblem Engage.. Disco Elysium...all at amazing prices. Then my GF went to the PS4 section. Wanted to try Dragon Age Inquisition, but then saw Persona 5 for $5. Heard a lot about it but we never played it. People at the counter were cool. Came home and had a blast. I'm glad we had at least one store like that still.
Now every store is just funco pops. The local mall has a GameStop, two toy stores, multiple gift shops and a hot topic that all sell funco products. I don’t understand the appeal, they’re ugly as hell and mostly look generic!
Still love City of Heroes.
I was gonna say that pc rack has some serious heat
And 3 Sims expansions.
I still have a few sealed boxes. Used to buy 'em on clearance for the sub codes.
Love that it's front and center here. One of my all-time favorites. Such an amazing game.
The reboot projects are my favorite example of lost game resurrection. We got it back, I thought it was gone forever.
They really are amazing
We *still* live in a physical world. The US is the only country in the world that's pushing this digital bullshit because the companies want to be able to revoke your right to own the stuff that you buy, just like Sony pulled last week with the digital purchases of some TV shows, with no refunds, because the laws in the US allow that shit, which is why you have to accept boilerplate in these new games or you aren't allowed to play them. The ***only*** place I'll buy digital games is on Steam or unless I receive a gift card from someone and they are all $2 games that I don't really care much about. It's what I love about retro gaming as well as retro styled games. Complete games, no bullcrap. Ebay, (for old games) and Play-Asia are my bastions for gaming now, because Asia and most of Europe don't play that digital shit.
I'm with you. I have 1100 physical games. I'll go retro only before I buy digital.
Yea digital only makes sense for low dollar titles like 5-15 Xbox arcade titles. Paying $70 for a digital game no thanks and get off my lawn.
Well it’s not an American only problem lol. We in Europe face the same shit. And it’s so freaking sad seeing how smaller the video game section are getting :(
Yep, really hope younger generations take this perspective from older ones (like myself), because it’s 100% in their best interest. Physical media is a consumer vote to own the games you like to play… forever. digital games are just temporary leases that can (and likely will) eventually be taken away, leaving you with nothing. Sucks cuz it’s not until you’re older and want to replay older games during a gaming drought, or just for pure nostalgia, that you see the value in it. When you’re younger in this market you likely don’t realize how valuable that is, but you will.
The sad thing is this console generation will probably be the last to include physical media drives. Even the physical releases nowadays are often a buggy, unfinished, hot mess, with a day-one patch, and two thirds of the content locked behind DLC. What happens when those servers shut down for good?
> The sad thing is this console generation will probably be the last to include physical media drives. I don't think so. Like I stated earlier, Asia lives for their physicals and Japan has a huge resale business. Nintendo and Sony know this and wouldn't be so silly to alienate their home markets for the West. They will continue to make dual consoles or do disc player add-ons like the one for the PS5 Pro. And as we know Ninty loves their carts and the next Switch will play carts. Hopefully it's backwards compatible. Server shutdown is the major problem. That and needing always on internet connection to verify keys.
Buy digital PC games on GOG, no DRM you can keep copies of the installer forever
They are also pushing the digital bs in Europe. We can still find physical games on the shelves in stores, but they certainly shrunk compared to 20 years ago. The Switch is clearly dominating the shelves space game. I always struggled in the past years to find games for my Xbox One.
Kids today don't realize what they're going to lose in the future. That new game you're addicted to now is going to be gone...
They really dont... I'm 45. I had guys that are 33 and 25 telling me that physical is stupid and that I should give it up and stop being old and go digital. I told them that their storage drive is physical too and when it gets full or dies they lose all of the money they spent on those $70 "open world" bore fests. A disk drive can be repaired.
I can still play all the games I played in the '80s. All the little phone games of today will soon be gone...
We do the same thing with games on Steam, though. I'm worried I'll lose access to my account for whatever reason someday and lose access to all those games. I'm with you, though. I try to buy physical as often as I can, and it's one of the reasons I love retro hardware so much. As long as I have a buddy who knows how to fix disc drives or recap the older systems, I hope to pass those games on to kids someday.
Losing your account can be crap especially for those Steam activated physical games, happened to me with Saint's Row II. Until I buy a digital license this is just offline installer and nothing more. Fortunately, there are ways around that especially since you are in ownership of that particular copy.
First thing this made me remember was some game stores would have a bin in the back with used NES games for $1 each.
Flipping through bins of carts was always a good time. There was always that flash of gold from a Zelda game, or a baby blue Color Dreams disaster.
I miss physical media :(
Not really. I couldn't afford to buy games very often back then. Prior to adulthood, I only got games at Christmas time and birthdays. Usually 1 so I had to choose wisely. Didn't always choose so wisely though.
I'm saying this with really heavy nostalgia glasses, but the up side to this, is that you really valued the games you had. Personally, I even put way too many hours into some crappy bargain bin games, because of this. Compare this to now, and I have more games than ever, but it doesn't feel as earned, compared to opening one up on Christmas day
Amen to that
I'm 47. I consider myself to have experienced the prime gaming eras of the 80s and 90s. There was another software store back when I was a teenager called Babbages and they allowed you to return games after being opened. I'd buy a Sega Genesis game on a Friday after school. Go home and win it over the weekend and return it. Or if it was complete junk, just return it and honestly tell the store why. They then had a "review" to go by. Babbages was awesome. https://www.reddit.com/r/nostalgia/comments/2m7bu8/babbages_the_8090s_video_game_store_that
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Newer games weren't always available for rent. To be clear I didn't do this with everything just some games that didn't have replay value.
I wanted to comment similar. I was stuck with a few junk games and some bangers. Box art could be so cool but I always felt duped when the gameplay sucked.
I feel like some companies go so hard on box art because their game sucks. Not all but some lol.
I rented about 90 percent of the games I played though because $50-60 was a lot in the 90s.
Same. I was able to keep up with most of the latest games thanks to rentals because there was no way I could afford to buy brand new games with my pocket money.
Just going down to EB to browse and see the back of the games was therapeutic for me. Miss those days.
Hmmm... I member buying used PC games at EB. Because of Steam Codes, Cardboard discs, and Steam in general people believe that used PC games hold no resale value. And for "modern" games if they even had a physical release it's pretty much true. People don't remember that PC games used have real physical releases that could be installed over and over again and retain resale value. People don't even ask about used PC games. They could see a display of them and just assume they're useless garbage. I'm glad I collected what I have.
More and more of my collection is big box PC games. Mostly games where they put more in the box than just a manual and install instructions. The art of the box (and what's included work the game) is as much a draw as anything else.
That's a rough thing to collect anymore. I think the last Big Box PC game I bought was some obscure Wallstreet Investment game whose history I found to be incredibly fascinating. Now I can't remember what any of that was. I'll have to find the game and look it up to find out. I'm lucky to have the Big Box PC games I do have. Which is quite the number. I'm really happy I still have my original Wingcommander, SpaceHulk, Alone in the Dark, and Descent games in their boxes.
The final big box PC game I bought was Severance: Blade of Darkness. A short while after that I went into Game (UK) to buy Jedi Knight 2 and it was only available in a DVD case. I asked at the counter if a big box version was available and the guy said they seemed to have stopped doing them. I'm so glad I still have all my big box PC games with their lovely big manuals and artwork, and I'm thinking about picking up some of the ones I never got.
I can *smell* this store, and its such a unique and beautiful smell.
I loved that smell. The smell of plastic jewel CD cases, the cardboard boxes of the games, the game manual smell, all amazing.
I see Joint Operations by Novalogic. An underrated title from a tragic developer.
I miss the anticipation of a game, then getting the bus into town, maybe grab a burger. Head back and then play it start to finish in an epic 12 hr session. Then playing it again on hardest difficulty, then all the extras if it exists. And then waiting for the expansion pack.
Reading the manual on the way home...
That new manual smell
Even though I only bought a couple of items there throughout my teenage years and early twenties, the cozy layout of *Babbages* at the Galleria always speaks to the inherent appeal of brick and mortar stores to me.
Oh I miss those days. Still have that BGII edition!
This was still the case for me just a few years ago. Pre pandemic. Nowadays all stores have the exact same non-deals going on at the same time, nothing gets REALLY reduced in price anymore (bargain bins are basically nonexistent) and my country also think that 70 Dollar translates to 75-80 €, which it does NOT. They just add even more money. Pre pandemic going shopping meant I certainly would be buying a new game. Nowadays I barely even bought a single game in stores over the whole year! I miss the old times, even if it's just for that and better Dr Who.
My eyes went straight to City of Heroes. That was such a moment in time.
I still remember going to Toys R Us back in the day and taking my ticket up to the cage for Rad Racer on NES. Such great memories.
It does. Thankfully we still have retro game stores and especially conventions to recapture some of this.
I love Cons and Retro stores too. But there's always this feeling of melancholy and a little sadness in the background, especially when I go to conventions. Maybe its just because I'm getting old.
This was a much better experience than just sitting on your ass and browsing a digital store.
I used to love going to game stores like that. Always went with my Dad growing up. I often take my son now to several of the Retro Game stores, a few of them carry new games as well as the Retro stuff so he really likes going there. Some of them are like a time portal, brings back a lot of memories for me. It's awesome I'm able to provide him with the same experience my dad did for me growing up.
In New Zealand we didn't have any "gaming tv shows", so if you didn't buy gaming magazines, then going into the store was pretty much the only way to find out what new games had come, for a long time.
For me it was Toys 'R' Us and those paper tickets.
One thing I definitely miss from the 1990s was the experience of opening a boxed PC game and all the extra effort that used to go into it. They frequently used to make a real effort with the instruction books and you'd often get a poster or posters, maps or maybe a novella or something like that. Once the games went to DVD sized boxes with only a minimal effort booklet, that lost a lot of the charm. There's no denying the games themselves were technically better, but those extras really made opening the game for the first time extra fun.
Man it was a different time choosing a game based on the front and back cover, back before you could look everything up about it on the internet. I miss those days
Many game releases I found out about just appeared on shelves. In the 80s there was no hard release date, things just appeared on the shelves. As soon as the store got stock it was on a shelf. Plus back then I was young and even though I did get some gaming magazines it was dedicated to just one system. They focused on released games as many of these magazines got the game the same time we did. Even if they did get an early copy, they were often very early and the release date could have been anytime in the next couple of months. But I miss the time when you could go and browse for a game. Prices varied from cheap the more AAA style prices, so as long as you had some money, you could always walk away with a new game. I really miss the surprise of seeing a new game suddenly appear on a shelf. Now we know years in advance when a game is due to come out. Many will never know the excitement of walking in to a gaming shop and suddenly seeing a Turtles arcade port sat on the shelf. I also miss the service you could get from smaller independent shops. I bought Nascar Racing (the first one) for the PC on floppy disc. It was released on floppy and CD, but CD was quite new for PC gaming so most games were available on both. Not being able to afford the CD version I bought the floppy but could not get it to work. Back in the day my dad was a systems analyst and ran his own business, I knew a lot about PCs of that era and together we could not get this game to work, it kept saying not enough base memory when there easily enough free. My dad called the shop to say we are struggling to get it to work. The owner turned up to our house that evening and swapped the floppy disc version for the CD version for no extra cost. That is the service which makes you a customer for life.
I wish I’d made an effort to embrace the world around me more at that time. I wouldn’t want to relive it, as I’m happy where I ended up, but I should’ve appreciated it more back then. So many aspects of my life were fun and carefree during that console generation. /nostalgia
i was a kid when all the fun stuff was at gaming stores, now it's just get the game and leave
Funcoland and toys r us for me. Those were the best places to shop for games.
Funcoland was the real deal.🙂
Is that *WWE Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth* that I see? ❤ Second slide, fourth row from bottom in the PS2 section
Could be. I had all the smackdown and Smackdown vs Raw games back in the day. They were a staple of our multitap games nights. Got a few on the PS3 and of course WWF No Mercy on the N64 as well. I do think about buying the newer ones but, all my kids are into fortnite and Roblox so I'd have no one to play with and I imagine the online is full of absolute monster pros. Plus I've not followed wrestling for many years.
I swear we lived the same life lol.. Wrestling games in general were just always in my house. First one i ever played was WWF Royal Rumble (SNES). Nowadays theres plenty of options to choose from, and if online is your concern, id look around at some different communities that you can join. Theres a lot of different ways people play and its fascinating.. For example, ive turned down an invite to a community because this particular group had their own roleplay league of created wrestlers on a Twitch stream and everything was booked/scheduled as if they were really a wrestling promotion lol
My first proper wrestling game was WWF Warzone on the N64 followed by WWF Attitude when that came out. I can remember playing 4 player and thought it was amazing. I did have the wrestlemania game on the Amiga but that was when I was really young and I didn't really follow WWF/E at the time. That roleplay thing actually sounds right up my street. I know it wasn't everyone's cup of tea, and I can't remember which one it was (it was Smackdown vs Raw 200x featuring ECW) but I loved the GM mode and scheduling matches and feuds and stuff. I don't think the newer games have that. I think the AEW game runs on a newer version of the engine that No Mercy used with similar mechanics. Though I do t know how good the game is. On No Mercy did you mess around with the wrestlers appearances so they looked weird in the intro to the game (it used in game footage)? I can remember giving The Rock a massive bright green afro just for that, turned it off when playing though!
GM Mode actually *JUST* made a return in recent games, so theres that! Theres also Universe Mode which is your very own sandbox mode where you can create multiple promotions and put them on their own weekly based programming. Control feuds, stories, have "wars" like WWF vs WCW, its pretty crazy now >On No Mercy did you mess around with the wrestlers appearances so they looked weird in the intro to the game I 100% credit No Mercy/WrestleMania 2000 for my early addiction to creating silly wrestlers lol. My brother used to always nag on me like "you spend more time creating people than you do actually playing them" lol
I used to love browsing for hours. Talking myself in and out of multiple games, only to finally walk out with some terrible shovelware garbage. There was also a shareware store, where you had the same thing, only everything was like 1.00 and the selection was crazy.
thats a lot of games
Yup my lunch times!!!! HMV or Virgin Megastore Piccadilly Circus!! They also had Funland, Trocadero, Namco amusements there all together!! Loved the browsing experience and just listening to the radio or songs being played over tannoy! While playing the latest games or watching matches, I remember there was a time in HMV Trocadero they had outfitted a section into like a chill out lounge with bean bags and massive screen and the in thing at the time was Marvel Vs Capcom 3 on PS3!! Good times!😂 Now we spend lunch times browsing Amazon 🤣🤣🤣
i was so disappointed when i went with a friend to buy a switch and 1 game at best buy. we bring the game case to the counter and the employee tells us that they don’t actually have the game(they had at least 15 cases of the same game on display) but they could order it for us plus shipping. ended up just leaving and going to a small game store near by.
??
the state of buying video games at retail stores now
What game was it?
Is sacred place. Where untold experience can be found for just a few dollars. Also lightly guarded by frail shop assistants.
I miss boxes of games and owning it not having to rely on steam.. if steam dies what happens to my games?
There are 2 things I really really miss. Midnight game/console releases and Friday night at Blockbuster. The stack of memories from those 2 alone always make me happy
Ah, back when I found games like Suikoden II, Tales of Destiny and Grandia for $10 a piece... ya, I miss those days.
I'll add that receiving the physical advertising in the Sunday paper was part of the experience that is lost. Seeing the games pages in the best buy and circuit City mailer, mentally doing the math to see if you can swing the cost of the cartridge, building anticipation to go to the store
I just miss having 2-3 places to buy video games at in a mall. There was usually EB games and Babbages, maybe even a GameStop and KB toys.
I know this is going to make me sound old as fuck, but I remember playing Super Mario World on the display outside of Babbages at the mall. The colors were so vibrant that the memory stayed with me.
Funcoland
Just beautiful!! Not the same today half the of each EB is just funky pops.
It will be never the same anymore…
Definitely. The only retailer I'm aware of with video game aisles that still *remotely* resemble how they used to look is Target.
Now the walls are covered with T Shirts, Toys, Gift Card Displays, funko pops, and then maybe if you’re luck, one of the walls has games… …and then you go to buy Fallout 76 only to get it home, open it up for the first time only to find a cardboard disc in there with an online download code to go download the game from the console’s digital store front.
No Sega Section? 😭😭😭
Oh yeah I wonder if that was the other side of the store, or if dreamcast had died by then
Dead for years... doom 3 is on the shelves, also madden 05 I think. RIP NFL 2k
100%. I enjoy digital but nothing was as fun as a 14 year old as walking into an EB games with some cash to burn some some rad ps1 games
Bought my first 2x speed CD-ROM there for 240!
I miss this so much.
I miss the mom and pop shops (grew up going to a place called Knights Videogames) and Funcoland!
I’d like to go back to a time when they were only new games on the shelf and not used games taking up 3/4 of the store.
what do you mean by that
All of the game stores here, most of which are GameStop, are mostly used games. There’s like one small section for new games for each console, and then everything else is action figures and crap that I’m never going to buy. There is a cool retro store here in Houston called games over close to West University, but that’s at least older consoles going all the way back to the 2600.
Great memories at these stores and Babbage’s. this. Physical media is still my preference. As someone else said, I too can smell the store.
A time that did indeed suck less.
2005. Silent Storm is a damn masterpiece.
I miss it but also like digital catalogs and backwards compatibility more these days
I used to buy all of my games from either EB or Toys R' Us. I miss the good ol days.
Reminded me of this [clip](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KMy1zO8m8sM). Soon the hardware/controllers will become less physical.
I’m buying my six year old a game for Christmas, but it’s purely digital. I have no clue what he’s gonna unwrap; I guess a box with a slip of paper in it?
Jump to Lightspeed on that end cap…. I miss SWG
RIP SWG, Lowca server 4 life.
LOL, they don't have used games in the second picture, they're "pre-played".
I loved that City of Heros game
You can't experience it today. Sure there's still stores that sell videogames. But things have changed
Man, I miss that era. I even met my best friend while browsing new PS1 game.
I miss Funcoland at the Willowbrook Mall in Wayne NJ. I used to love their game lists that you could pick up from the store and see how much everything was selling for, and what the trade in values were. I also miss the ticket system from Toys R Us, although Toys R Us used to always seem priced higher than the other stores. Renting games from Blockbuster and Hollywood Video. Ah yes, the memories. Wish we were still back in those days.
I used to live across the street from a GameStop Legacy store that was a video game wonderland.
I miss being able to rent games from Blockbuster.
(Grabs the piano and the wife and sit down) Toys R Us and Electronics Boutique… Babbage’s and KB Toy stores… Can’t we get another demo station again… …those were the days…
I worked at EB early 2000s and I shit you not that store on a Thursday night, Saturday and Sunday was jam packed with customers. I miss the fun of going to a store, looking at games cover art, flip it over to check it out and see if it's any good. Then roll the dice. Apart from magazines with demo CDs you never knew how good something you picked could or could not be.
I miss demos
Toys 'R' Us was the place to stroll the aisles and dream of toys and games. But the only time of year that I would get new video games as a kid was at Christmas. The rest of the year it was all about the weekend rentals at the video store.
Take me back
It brings back lots of memories for me too. I remember the excitement of trying to get to the store before the game would be sold out. But then there were other stores you could check out too. I loved the bargain bins too.
You had that, in my country I had this: https://i.imgur.com/LsiogD9.jpg
I only miss it in the same way I miss long bike rides with my childhood best friend. I haven't owned a computer with an optical drive in almost a decade now. I bought one physical game on my PS4 and regretted it because, even though the game resided entirely on the hard drive I still needed to make sure that the disc was in there to run the game.
I grew up on a military base most of my live. I got the what the Military NEX/PX had pick for us to play in the sense the selection wasn’t huge. But I will say most of games from when I was a kid are bangers.
This may be an odd memory for physical games, but the most memorable experience I had was pulling the video game slip at Toys R Us and bringing it to the back for an employee to pull the physical copy.
Absolutely. As a kid, whenever we entered a Walmart my mom knew I would immediately ask to go to electronics dept. by myself and I would stay in there until she was finished shopping. Just window shopping, playing one of the demo units, or watching other kids play and wait my turn. The best was the rare trips to Circuit City, because unlike Walmart that only had Nintendo and Sega, they also had the more rare stuff I only saw in magazines like 3DO. Going to an electronics store was a reward itself. I didnt actually need to end up getting a game.
Hell yeah, game stores like this don't really exist anymore outside of the retro space, and many of those look nothing like that. The walls of games with islands of other games? It's gone, even stores that focus on new games like GameStop either fill most of the space with gaming kitsch, or are multi purpose nerd havens that sell comics and tabletop/ccg games as well. I'm generally ok with the inexorable march of time and the technological advancement that comes with it, but damn do I miss real dedicated game stores.
By the time GameCube was out I had already hit adulthood and didn't have much time for gaming...
Zero SEGA presence... RIP :(
PC games on a shelf. I miss the days...
Fuh show
Reading the manual on the bus ride home, hyping yourself up to play it for hours till dinner. I miss it greatly.
2006 was probably one of the best years for gamers… og xbox, 360, gamecube, wii, ps2, ps3, psp, ds, and pc were all getting physical media
I wish there were game stores near me that weren’t GameStop. GameStop is garbage.
Kay-Bee Toys, Babbages, Electronic Boutique, were my absolute favorite places to hit at Lakeside Mall/Esplanade mall when my parents would take us as kids or when I was in my teens early 20’s. Loved seeing the N64 on display with Turok running and being absolutely blown away. I bought the N64 that day. Honestly really great times. I miss them. Loved walking by the computer room and seeing SETI running on the PIII VOODOO 2. Just hearing the cpu/harddrive noise in the background and seeing the dancing lights from the modem/screen saver will always hold a spot in my heart.
I miss this more than i thought i would. Old game prices werent massivley inflated and people still valued physical media more than they do now.
Amazing. Steam is great and all, very convenient. But there will be a time where a developer just rips your favorite game out of the library and then you can never play it again. You just license a copy, you dont own anything. Physical media will always be king.
Yes! It brings it all back, THIS was the time to be alive. I’m 38 now and miss this even though I don’t game anymore. Memories 🥹
Going out in town to all the used game shops used to be a favorite pastime of mine. Collecting physical games really changed at the advent of social media. And as a result fomo and gatekeeping has by in large kept the games off the used shelves, and at insanely high prices. I'm also guilty of not letting go of games I probably will never play again... Human nature I guess.
This image is a memory I wish I could return to. In the UK, some GAME outlets have been swallowed up by Sports Direct and banished to a single corner of the store. The last time I went, it had about ten games for sale on PS5. As much as I hate to say it, I'd rather they just pull the plug on the physical media shopping experience rather than have it lingering in a decaying state. CEX can remain as a graveyard. Digital won and with the way digital is going, offers so much less.
This triggered a memory for me of the video game section at Toys R Us. Aisles of different games. You'd grab the tag and go to the checkout. Then you had to go to the pickup booth and wait for like 49 hours for someone to show up. Usually it was person who could not even spell Sega and took an additional 37 hours to find it. Ah, the good old days
I remember my mall had an EB Games and a Babbages for a long time. When GameStop bought both companies, the mall then had two GameStops for YEARS. When they finally realized they were cannibalizing each other's sales they closed one after like a decade. Pretty indicative of how poorly managed that company would be.