New Generation Game Blowouts

[jaybird]

I don't know if anyone has noticed, but there's a strange trend going on. In the last two weeks I've gotten the following new, shrinkwrapped games:

Best Buy:
Rogue Squadron (GC) - $19.99
Home Run King (GC) - $9.99
Beach Spikers (GC) - $9.99
Tony Hawk 3 (GC) - $9.99

Sam's Wholesale:
NFL Hitz 2003 (Xbox) - $19.99

Hastings Entertainment:
Burnout (Xbox) - $13.25
Genma Onimusha (Xbox) - $7.50
Mad Dash (Xbox) - $5.00
Gunvalyrie (Xbox) - $8.75 (actually, they're paying me $1.25 to buy the game because it came with a $10 mail-in rebate)

The Hastings had a slew of new GC games at $7.50 as well. I also saw the new Metroid for GameBoy Advance for $14 at Sam's along with plenty of other new titles for all systems as low as $9.99.

So what's going on? Is there too much competition on the market? Too many quality games getting left behind & forgotten for the likes of blockbusters such as Grand Theft Auto?

I've never seen new generation stuff get marked down like this. I mean, occassionally you'd catch one or two suck games on clearance, but nothing like what I'm coming across.

Whatever the case, it's a good for the gamers right now. :)

[Raedon]

the "shrinkwrapped" games at Hastings are former renters that they re-shrinkwrap. The hastings in my area is trying to stop selling new games all together. No one buys games that cost $5 more then the Best Buy just a block away. Hastings was cool back in the early 90's but at the time I actually bought music. and no i don't pirate music, I've just stopped being interested in the music comming out, it's boring.

[Lexicon]

The hastings in my area has ones theyve reshrinked wrap that are former rentals that they price at $35-40 then a seperate section of new games that are like $7.50 - $15.

I picked up
Extermination PS2 $7.50 (also comes with a $10 mail in rebate)
Gun Valkyrie XBOX $8.75 ($10 mail in rebate)
Universal Studios GCN $10
Batman Vengeance GCN $5
Nightcaster XBOX $5
Motocross Maniacs GBA $5

All new and sealed.
Some also could if they felt like it take those exterminations and gun valkyries in to a walmart to swap them and tell them that you lost your receipt. and then that same walmart could give $30 in credit for each, that could be used towards more games. that could happen......

[asharru]

In this last week, thanks to threads in this very forum, I've purchased,

From EBWorld.com(took four days to arrive):
Die Hard: Vendetta 19.99
Smuggler's Run: Warzones 19.99
SpyHunter 19.99


From BestBuy.com Same Day Instore Pickup:
Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader 19.99
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 9.99


I love when I get three semi-new good games for about the same price of one current crappy game.

[Nature Boy]

I've noticed games getting blown out for awhile now. And not at rental stores - at major chains like EB, Wal-Mart, and Future Shop. I bought a brand new WWE Wrestlemania X-8 (GC) for $20 the other day.

I chalk it up to competition on the one hand and the age of the game in the other. Kind of like the Greatest Hits program except they just sell their games cheaply without the godawful green/red markings all over it.

The nice part about the current generation is that nobody tries to pass them off as collectors items, so they price them (used for sure, sometimes new) to sell them. Not to what people think it's 'worth' or what it sells for on eBay.

[Six Switch]

I have too gotten a bunch of new games for under $20.

I got these from EB:
Hunter-GC $10
Mad maestrio-ps2 $10
Deus ex-ps2 $13
WWF just bring it-ps2 $5 :o
Yanya Cabaulista city skater,with skateboard hook up thing-ps2 $15
and Serious sam-xbox-410

All that for about the price of one new game.Mmmmmmm :D

[jaybird]

the "shrinkwrapped" games at Hastings are former renters that they re-shrinkwrap.

Nope, they're brand new games. They have a stack of price stickers on them where you can see how they've come down on the price. $49.99...$29.99...$17.50...$5.00. They also have that white sticker on the side that seals the game.

Forgot to mention earlier finding Metal Gear Substance (Xbox) for $19.99 at EB Games. Yet another great game marked down...

[WiseSalesman]

I'd just like to take the opportunity to thank jaybird RIGHT NOW for the tip. My friend and I just picked up Beach Spikers.....pretty good game. Thanks again.

[retrogmr]

Does anyone who was around in the mid 80's notice a disturbing parallel here? The first crash started when there were too many crappy games and too many platforms on the market.

Not that the likes of Sony or Micro$oft are going away like Atari/Mattel/Coleco did, but what's a retailer to do when stock doesn't move? They mark it down.

[jaybird]

I'd just like to take the opportunity to thank jaybird RIGHT NOW for the tip. My friend and I just picked up Beach Spikers.....pretty good game. Thanks again.

Not a problem. Glad to be of service. :)

I think there are some similarities to the 80's crash. There are just too many games out there right now & not enough demand for them.

I think it speaks volumes that I picked up Beach Spikers almost two weeks ago & WiseSalesman was still able to find one on the shelves today. You'd think new games would move like hotcakes at $9.99...

It wouldn't surprise me to see one of the big three go down in the next year. They can't keep giving games away - software is where they make their money. Something's got to give.

[Oobgarm]

I've been seeing the parallels to the "Great Crash" as well. Everyone and their brother is making games now, and a lot of it is budget garbage that is just shoveled out the door to make a quick buck. Just like ye olde VCS.

Software houses that have overly optimistic sales goals on an unestablished title (i.e. Beach Spikers) flood the market with their games, and even some established franchises (i.e. Onimusha 2) just don't sell as well as planned. Those are tolerable actions.

But then you've got companies putting out drivel like Pulse Racer (http://gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/25079.asp) and GoDai (http://gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/5353.asp), knowing full well that their product sucks. That's what hurts the industry and could lead to problems down the road.

That said, I don't think that anything drastic is going to happen. Videogames are a tremendously huge and established market these days. The crap will probably become collectible eventually, and software publishers that publish the crap will die off. All three major players have enough money to throw out there to keep it going, regardless of burgeoning sales. Hell, M$ has been doing it since they launched their system. LOL .

A second market crash is a scary propsition, though... X_x

[Daniel Thomas]

I don't think anyone should worry about another videogame crash. True, there are far more titles available than anyone can buy, but that's the nature of the market, especially when the games industry is pulling in record numbers.

The problem, of course, is that the top-selling games are almost exclusively sports games and brand-name franchises. Mortal Kombat 5 sells a million copies because, well, it's "Mortal Kombat." Most videogame consumers are casual gamers who just pick up a few games here and there. It's damn near impossible for something new and original to break through the pack. Ico, anyone?

Personally, I think games are horribly overpriced. If console games were sold at the same price as new DVDs -- $20 to $30 each -- I think we would see a lot more software sold, and a lot more of the money spread around, instead of EA hoarding everything. The catch, of course, is that a new console cycle starts every five years, which keeps the user base relatively small, compared to DVD and CD players.

Oh, well. Food for thought. There are some terrific deals out there!

[FlashStash]

I'd just chalk it up to after-holidays clearance. You see this after every holiday season...older product is cleared out to make room for new product.

I think during the first crash, you had people moving avay from viseo game systems and toward PC's...I don't think anything is coming along to take the place of consoles anytime soon.

FS

[Nature Boy]

Personally, I think games are horribly overpriced. If console games were sold at the same price as new DVDs -- $20 to $30 each -- I think we would see a lot more software sold, and a lot more of the money spread around, instead of EA hoarding everything. The catch, of course, is that a new console cycle starts every five years, which keeps the user base relatively small, compared to DVD and CD players.

I'd imagine it'd be too hard for the developers and publishers to make their money back quick enough if games were half the price. Don't forget that by the time a big release movie gets to DVD they've already made a pile of money in theatres.

[YoshiM]

I see where Retro is coming from with the Crash similarities. I was rather young when the crash happened (in fact, I really didn't know about a crash until later). I did find it odd that I was seeing clearance stickers on new games at the stores I went to (and I was about seven at the time) but didn't care as I could afford to buy a game with gift money from time to time.

I don't know if one of the three are going to bow out. I think retailers are probably going to slim their inventory though and try and get games that are going to be the "big thing". They'll always have most of the space devoted to PS2 as it's the majority winner and XBox and GC will be battling it out for who gets the number 2 spot (and the more shelf space). Historically in the last 15 or so years there's always been two consoles that survived and battled each other while every other console withered and died. Like NES vs. SMS (Atari 7800: dead), SNES vs. Genesis (TG-16: Dead in US anyway), N64 Vs. PSX (Saturn: dead). Note I could be wrong in the parings, but you pretty much get my drift, right?

The future....hard to predict it is.