PUBLISHERS FUME AS GAMESTOP CONTINUES TO SELL NOT FOR RESALE GAMES

April 3 2009

Grapevine, TX – Used games have never been a favourite of publishers and developers and the fact that one of the leading retailers in the world does primarily that has long put the industry in a tight spot. Debates have raged for years about Gamestop (and its subsidiary EB Games) and their used game program, with one side arguing about the harm it does to publisher revenue, and the other side arguing that it allows the company to stay in business which in turn showcases their releases. Now though, a new wrinkle has formed in the name of ‘Not for Resale’.

Traditionally companies label titles released as a part of bundles as ‘Not for Resale’, meaning that the games are not meant to be resold in any manner. Gamestop though has always traded in those titles and despite larger and larger labels, has continued the practice, raising the ire of many in the industry. Those titles generally make it store shelves with the label fully intact, a move many see as a brazen spit in the face of not only publishers, but also of the people who make the labels themselves.

“There’s a complex set of issues here. Games and hardware have very low margin and that makes it difficult for specialty stores to survive on selling exclusively new product. Companies like Gamestop provide a platform for developers to showcase games to a hardcore crowd that would not necessarily be served by say a Wal-Mart and therein lies the conflict,” said Scrape TV Gaming analyst Graeme Hawthorne. “People want Gamestop to survive but don’t want them to make money off their games which leaves the company in a conundrum. Equally, the addition of special labelling indicating they very much do not want this piece traded is being flouted by Gamestop and is for the most part very disrespectful. Aside from the cost of printing new sleeves, designers have to actually go in and Photoshop that logo creatively and it is being totally ignored.”

Gamestop officials had no comment on their trade-in policy nor did they comment on their relationship with publishers.

“For the most part the two sides have a mutual understanding. Every now and then an independent developer will get upset and make a comment that frankly most people agree with, but they are generally shuffled into videogame oblivion. Further to that though, the companies have designated certain copies of their games off limits and Gamestop should respect that but clearly they do not,” continued Hawthorne. “That may be in part due to the collective reading ability of your average Gamestop employee, or it may in fact be due to something far more sinister, a desire to make money from something that no one has made money from.”

‘Not for Resale’ games are generally given away as incentive to make another purchase such as a piece of hardware. Publishers and developers see no revenue from those sales but both traders and Gamestop do which has apparently upset some.

“You aren’t going to see a major company come out publicly and criticize Gamestop but you know they are all thinking the same thing. Aside from the fact that they make no money off the initial sale, they go to great expense and effort to label these games separately,” continued Hawthorne. “what happens to those people if companies like
Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo decide to just abandon the whole process of labelling their games and allowing Gamestop and others to freely trade them? There would be a whole raft of designers left without work and the last thing we need in this economy is more people being laid off. Photoshopping logos onto existing artwork isn’t like making the little metal things that hold an eraser onto a pencil. Those people have spent thousands of dollars going to school to learn how to do that and if things change those people will be thrown out on the street.”

We attempted to contact the people who put those logos on game covers but couldn’t find a phone number, indicating that the companies may have already made a change.

Douglas Havermore, Games Correspondent

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