What's with the the industry push on reserving games?

[sirhansirhan]

At about 7 PM tonight I was going up to a friend's who lives about 45 minutes away from me, and was going to pick up Cooking Mama along the way. I assumed I'd be able to drop by a Game Crazy and pick it up and be on my way, except that when I got there they didn't have any. I asked the guy working there if they were sold out, and he said that it was a reserve-only game, and that the store didn't have any reserves on it, so they didn't and never will get any copies. He went on to tell me that the Mega Man game that came out today was also reserve only, and that five or so people had come in that day looking for it and he had to turn them away with the same reason he gave me. I didn't say anything, but surely I screwed up my face in an expression of confusion re: this system, and then he went on with the kicker: "I don't feel sorry for any of those people--if you want a game, put $5 down on it; it isn't that complicated." At this point I just left.

Now really, I know the guy I was talking to was probably getting paid less than $7 an hour and could give a fuck about the company he works for, but isn't there something wrong with the system if a specialty store turns away at least six people (five for Mega Man and me for Cooking Mama) in one day (and these are just the ones that that one guy knew of) who are looking for the exact items that that specialty store is supposed to sell? I reserve stuff a lot of the time, but I don't always want to, for fear I'll change my mind or not have any money when the game comes out.

For the record, I hit three other stores on the way to that friend's house, and none of them had it, and when I arrived I called about ten more, and the only one that had any said that they were all reserved (although a handful of the stores I called said that they were expecting some to come in tomorrow). Why is the video game industry the only market like this? Imagine if DVDs, books, CDs, whatever were nowhere to be found if you didn't put $5 down on them in advance of their release? (Also, a potentially interesting side note is that I did reserve a copy of Rule of Rose at a far away GameStop I didn't make it to tonight, and of the four stores I physically went in, none of them had that game, either, so I guess it's a good thing I reserved it.)

[sayin999]

This happend with mgs3 subsidince and mega man x collection as well. It seems that stores have had an issue with overstocking games. So any title thats expected to sell ok at frist or possibly dont get that many copies, will usally secure on reserves. So unless its a title thats greatly anticipated then your pretty much going to have to pre order. Though in most casses after a month or so the game is stocked regularly.

[Trebuken]

GameCrazy is not long for this world. After closing a ton of stores last year they seem to have set a pace that will get the rest of their stores closed soon enough.

Walmart and EB get more traffic and can afford to have more extra copies (the busier stores even more so). They do walk the line though. When I bought Valkyrie Profile for the PSP they only got three copies...one was my prorder.

It's all about keeping costs down by not producing, distributing, too many copies. Reserving is the new thing I think. Reserve it; you do not have to buy it. If you want you can cancel it and put your reserve money on another game (at least at EB/Gamestop).
The stores really don't have trouble with this it seems. I do it often since the reviews are not released until the title hits the streets...

Later,
Trebuken

[Captain Wrong]

Reserving the game implies a certain level of sales right off the bat. No one wants to take chances on left over inventory (example, Funco must have ordered a ton of Stuntman for PS2 as it wasn't but months after that dropped that they were selling new copies as used for less than $20.)

Reason #498579 I don't frequent brick and mortar stores anymore.

[NE146]

It's too bad really. I liked going into stores and looking at what's new for the snes, genesis, tg-16, Lynx, GB, etc. They were just all out there for you to peruse and buy.

But these days it just seems like there is too much product that they don't regularly "stock" anymore. And you feel it too.. how many friggin games are out there for the major consoles. I'll answer that.. A LOT. Maybe it's another pre-crash glut :P

[Imstarryeyed]

My feeling here is that this is all part of the looming downsizing/crash of the videogame industry many are feeling.

The margins on new games is so tiny now that many stores in an effort to save money just do not get games in any high numbers unless it is some Madden or other high sell game.

I am opening a small retail retro video game store in the next few months and am I not going to sell any new games as it is very difficult to get the game if you are not a Best Buy, Wal Mart or Toys R Us and the margins are very tiny.

Quite often you are required to buy a case of games (anywhere from 25 - 100) to make a minimum order for a game, at ~$37 your cost you had better push real hard to sell at $45 to make back any profit. If you cannot sell in the tiny window you have you are sunk, because trade ins, Wal Marts, and other big companies will start to move their product to the bargin bin before you know it.

The industry is simply moving so fast now that even game retail companies are having a hard time turning a profit on new games, thus this strange preorder only model.

[Dangerboy]

Reserves help set the bar for what should be shipped.

Usually "walk in" copies total 1/2 the of the preorder.

In other words, we get 10 pre-orders, we'll get 5 walk in copies.

Reserving allows the company to truly know what they need to ship.

It prevents companies, like the old EB's disasterous Halo 2 / Doom 3 game and guide craze. When you're still sitting on double-digits worth of old 'new' stock on games that aren't really selling anymore, it's a huge loss. Heck, we still have over 40 copies of Oblivion just chilling, and they were all launch day product.

Worse, this trend will continue even more through out the next year as all companies are bracing their financies for the PS3 / Wii hardware launch day game allocations.

If you know you want a game, just reserve it and do you, your fellow gamer, and the store a favor. Reserving really does help everyone.

Jason

[Half Japanese]

I'd say it's a bad analogy to compare Music, DVDs and Books to Games. Reason being is that music, DVDs and books can all be returned to the vendor for a credit back, whereas I think you're pretty much (as a retailer) stuck with the games. Of course, no publisher in their right mind wants this to change, since any blockbusters they release that end up bombing are pretty much off of their hands once the stores buy into the hype.

I agree that it's a shitty system, but if you want things to change, it's probably only going to happen if the whole distribution model for games changes and publishers start allowing the turds that don't sell to be returned. Unfortunately with that will come far less stock at your favorite retailer, since no one wants to sit on a bunch of crap that isn't selling. Working at a record store, there are tons of CDs and DVDs I would love to have us stock, but at the same time I realize why we don't stock them (at least not anymore): they don't sell.

With the prices of online rentals being pretty cheap these days, coupled with the fact that the people at cheapassgamer would punch a baby in the face to save $5 on a game, I'd say the brick & mortars are in for a hell of a ride over the next few years.

[Nature Boy]

I wonder if it has to do with cash flow as well as guaging how many copies to order.

GMT Games, a board game publisher, does the preorder thing for just those reasons. When you preorder a game you don't actually pay a dime until they start *making* the game, but by saying you're interested in a game you let them know that the money is there so making the game is worth it, and they give you a 15% or 30% discount on the game as a reward.

(According to their website, making a game and then not selling a lot of copies of it can be devastating if it happens too frequently, especially to a small publisher such as themselves).

I see video game preorders providing the same sorts of information. Here are the games people are most interested in, and here's some extra cash we can use to buy 'em with. Plus having slow moving inventory that ties up *that* much cash could be equally as devastating when it comes time to pay the bills.

I personally *hate* preorders of any kind unless they come with a cool freebie, like the Zelda disc with my Wind Waker preorder, or the 30% discount like GMT offers. If the industry thinks I'm gonna preorder because they want to force me to, they've got another thing coming!

[DonMarco]

The number of preorders an employee and stores get per week is also one of the numbers the higher-ups look at. Stores with less reserves are either not approaching customers about it or barely functioning as human beings.

I can't say this is the policy for all game stores. Or any (if you catch my drift).

Preorders also help lock in customers in general. If Timmy has $5 already down for Mega Man ZX, he'll return there to buy it, instead of picking it up at another game store or a larger department store.

[DonMarco]

The number of preorders an employee and stores get per week is also one of the numbers the higher-ups look at. Stores with less reserves are either not approaching customers about it or doesn't care abot the store's numbers.

I can't say this is the policy for all game stores. Or any (if you catch my drift).

Preorders also help lock in customers in general. If Timmy has $5 already down for Mega Man ZX, he'll return there to buy it, instead of picking it up at another game store or a larger department store.

[Jackattack]

It has been a while since I've been in a gaming store for anything other to look around, and I was completely unaware of this occurrence . It seems that any game I want some store has it, but on the other hand I've purchased so few new games recently I wouldn't actually know.

However it is good to have this in mind the next time I will be wanting a game not so main stream and actually make sure they are going to have it or at least pre order it.

[kainemaxwell]

Reminds me a bit of when 50 Cent Bulletproof came out at my store. We got in at least 30+ copies and sold very few if any and the used copies are less then $15 now.

But yeah, reserves do make stores money, implies the customer will be giving more and perhaps buying something else besides the item they reserved.

[NE146]

However it is good to have this in mind the next time I will be wanting a game not so main stream and actually make sure they are going to have it or at least pre order it.

Or just order it online.. that seems to work great for me these days.

[Griking]

The number of preorders an employee and stores get per week is also one of the numbers the higher-ups look at. Stores with less reserves are either not approaching customers about it or barely functioning as human beings.

I can't say this is the policy for all game stores. Or any (if you catch my drift).

Preorders also help lock in customers in general. If Timmy has $5 already down for Mega Man ZX, he'll return there to buy it, instead of picking it up at another game store or a larger department store.

Why would a store push pre-orders so hard when they make much better margin on used copies?

[staxx]

I never did like the pre-order way of buying games. When an employee trys to tell me to pre-order say Madden 07 and I know that the story is going to get crazy amounts of the game, why bother. Now for the obscure titles or less popular titles sure I can see some reasoning in preordering the game. As for the freebie stuff, well from my past experience in EB or Gamestop, I did preorder a game because I wanted the free item. When I picked up the game they say oh we are sorry, we don't have enough of the free item to go around ??? WTF !!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thus these days, I buy pretty much 95% of my new games from Frys, Best Buys, Circuit City or Toys R Us. I don't want to deal with the preorder thing and an employee pushing a sale on me (I used to work in a Video Game Store so I know what some of the employees are trying to pull on me).

[smork]

When I am in the US I just buy from Fry's. I don't really care about the retailer's margins, or what's best for the store, or how they manage their stock, or what they are pushing -- i just want to buy a game and be done with it. It's so rare that I buy anything new new anyway, I might as well get what I want without much fuss.

Fry's is great 'coz they stock everything. Pretty much guaranteed to find what I want there. If some other stores didn't open all their new copies to remove the discs when they display them on the shelves I might be more inclined to buy from them.

I don't like preorders on principle. If I am going to preorder something I'll just preorder online and have it shipped to my doorstep -- no fuss.

[djbeatmongrel]

Preorders are the best way to ensure that stores get obscure titles. plain and simple. most of the people i work with are collectors or atleast are into the weirder end of the gaming spectrum so once anything interesting pops up (like rule of rose) we make sure we preorder it so we get more copies.

with rule of rose i bet we would have had maybe 2-3 copies if we didnt have any preorders but as a result of just 2 orders we ended up with 5 copies.

unfortunatley recently our company wasnt taking preorders for cooking mama when our store easily could have gotten around 10-15 reserves (thats including employees). as a result of no reserves we only got 4 copies that were sold in one day.

really i suggest just preorder the obscure and the niche. if theres a major release you want at launch i would suggest preorder to ensure that day but if you are fine with waiting for about a week, dont bother preordering.

[Push Upstairs]

Or just order it online.. that seems to work great for me these days.

(Pre-breakup) Amazon/Toys R Us really came through for me with "Outrun: Coast 2 Coast".

Bless them.

[Nature Boy]

Preordering Madden just *kills* me. Even if it's the "Hall of Fame" edition or whatever they call their collectors edition, it's not like you can't find the biggest selling game of the year *everywhere*

The argument for preordering obscure titles is interesting but I'm still not doing it unless I get something out of it. I'm more than willing to 'risk' not getting a title - it's not like I don't have several hundred other games I can occupy my time with if I fail