These are slowly KILLING my Business…here’s why
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This Game store can't handle much more of this. Something has got to change!
Retro Ricks GamePoint Address:
2585 Donaghey Avenue, Suite 111
Conway, AR 72032
INSTAGRAM: @retro__rick
/ retro__rick
FACEBOOK: @RetroRick
/ retrorick1
#GameStore #Games #VideoGames
New games are like rotisserie chickens at Costco. They may be a loss, but bring more sales on other items.
Couldn’t have said it better lol
your right but that sales tactic isn't usually feesable in a small business
sucks when chicken is undercooked.. that like a underused game lol.
Not the same. If I'm spending 60 bucks on a new gsme, I'm probably not buying anything else at least 75 percent of the time.
Does that make 1:00 pm on a Sunday the new midnight release?
This is why GameStop pushes used games so hard. Because the profit margin on brand new games is slim. They might make $5 off a brand new game. But $25-30 off a used copy of that same game.
The problem is they sell used for a only a couple bucks less. it never entices me to get a used game to save 4 bucks.
And now everything is "digital"ized... You can buy the same digital games for like 1-3$ now a days, without having to "hoard" tons of stuff.. I hate hoarding, I still have all my old game stuff, consoles, dusty, i love my minimalist lifestyle. Psychical games are very niche now a days, for the hipsters, boomers, retail flippers, etc, for those select minorities. I get most my pc games around 3$-10$, and humble subscription 8 games = 12$... Physical games are nice and all but eh, can be a pain and a chore to deal with sometimes, as consoles do die and harder to replace.
Dealing with anything of physical nature.. profit margins are extremely slim in my opinion, if its media, games, "food"/retail stores. All the big money is in software/digital goods.
@@AndreJHowarddepends on what systems you buy for. New system used games are too expensive but they have sales often where you can get a ton of old gen games for less than $10. Talking PS3, Xbox one and 360, Wii and Wii U
Ironically, used games were new at some point, so they kinda depend on each other. You can't have something used until it's new first, LoL
@jasontoutges7270 right back at ya, ironically gamestop display copies are sold as new despite being open 🤣
As another store owner. The only poistive is that you will get trade ins for new games. Then make your money on the resell of the trade ins.
I speak to a LOT of retro game store owners here in the UK. They said that new games are only worth owning because people trade retro to buy new games. That’s how the 💰 is made.
It’s a shame, like you say, the prices drop considerably. I personally wouldn’t buy new games at launch. I’d wait a few months
Love your channel Gemma!
Yeah me too
At my local resale game store, when I preorder new stuff they always tell me that they cannot guarantee the game will be available on release day which I am fine with because I rather support them than the "big box" stores. If you continue selling new games just be clear and upfront to customers on that situation. Heck I heard even the bigger stores aren't even having the new games on release day sometimes.
That sounds weird. I only had that happen once at target, and generally preorder when they got a sale for $10-$30 off, at $25-$30 if I buy 2. Some places have preorder bonuses but they generally follow through with the game and extras (like walmart cards for mario wonder).
What's the point of pre-ordering?
@@BobbyHo2022that is YOUR mindset & keep it to yourself hommie 🤡
@@BobbyHo2022with some games or accessories GameStop will only get them in the local store if you preorder them. It wasn't always that way but these days they have less and less games.
Starfox in a sears display stand, I thought to myself "it will never get better than this" The intro BLEW me away!
You were right! haha
64 was rad
I ran a chain of over a dozen game store across 5 states for well over 20 years. New games was just something we had to deal with. We were in major shopping centers next to Walmart and Target. We had midnight sales events. It's just what we did.
The issue we eventually ran into was people stopped coming to midnight releases. Digital sales killed the need to have every new game in stock. But we kept making sure we had the latest titles available for trade. I left the business in early 2023 because we had downsized to our last 2 stores that got relocated to downtown locations. The remaining guys are trying to reopen a 3rd location in an old spot, but I don't know how well it all will work out since new and used games aren't selling for Xbox Series X or PS5 all that well.
At E3 in 2019, after I walked out of meetings, I knew then that would be my last E3. I saw no point in returning. The industry was already upside down. The writing was on the wall then that all these companies wanted was a big hit that's an ongoing game like Fortnite. Digital is now king cause they make all the money, and the store fronts like myself were being phased out.
Back during the PS2 days with new games, the margin was the same as they are now. But we had no digital store fronts, so each store we had was making well over $100,000 a month with ease. Times have changed, and I wouldn't want to open a gaming store again right now to save my life. I'm glad I finally wised up and left the business.
Hopefully, you continue to see success. It's going to be a rough ride for gaming stores here on out.
Love that you have covered this. I own an LGS up in Northern Michigan that has been in operation for over 15 years. We deal with the exact problems consistently to the point I barely order new games these days, and when I do, I mostly only get Nintendo games because it's the only safe bet. I have a distributor that gets them to me overnight now with free shipping, and most of their Nintendo titles are significantly lower in pricing that I can make actual profit off of them. I can easily give you the information of the distributor if you would like. Otherwise, thanks again for bringing this topic up!
Super Mario World, Mario 64, Goldeneye, Pokemon Blue, Command and Conquer Tiberian Sun, Halo 2, Diablo 2, and World Of Warcraft
what a youngster, for us old farts it was mary o 3
@@Cheeseshredder Mario 3? I played and beat that but never owned an original NES. At 36, I appreciate the youngster part though, haha.
Sheeesh, good list. I'd have to add Resident Evil to scar me as a child. Also Pokemon Red instead of Blue.
@@phresh9361 Haha, Definitely add Resident Evil. I Remember watching my friend blaze through those first few games and feeling like I was watching an awesome movie.
@Sapp726 , You're speaking my language. Though, I'd switch Tiberian Sun with Red Alert: C&C, Super Mario World with Ocarina of Time, and WoW with Banjo Kazooie.
...34 here, so maybe one of them "youngsters." 😉😋
Banjo Kazooie - August 10th 1998 was a great birthday gift that changed my life forever.
That break down of costs for modern games just blew my mind. I wasn't expecting you to get like £20 or USD equivilant profit per unit, but potentially LOSING money on every copy when you include shipping costs? That or settling for a few bucks profit just isn't enough to sustain a business.
Btw your store looks AMAZING. I can only DREAM of having a place like that near me in the UK, seeing all those NES controllers and game guides just fills me with joy. I would likely drop my credit card on the desk and just hit my credit limit immediately lol.
*Friend of mine owns a retro gaming store & right off the bat he refused to stock brand new games, this store was pssed down as his parents owned it & they went near bankrupt because they insisted on stocking brand new games, but they were so expensive to buy even in bulk as it was a mom & pop operation, so they sold it to their son & are now retired. The store would have closed down if he hadn't gone 100% retro. Now business is thriving as he got rid of all the so called new games in sales & even gets recent games traded in & can sell them at a decent price to make some money back.*
Games that changed my life. Sonic Adventure 1 & 2 on dreamcast and Resident Evil 2 on ps1
Resident evil 2 would be number 2 for me right after zelda link to the past!
This channel is so much fun--I love all the behind the scenes stuff! I hope your new supplier gets you those games on time. Those margins are super slim, but I get it... it brings people into the store and hopefully they will buy other things too that you'll make more money off of.
Also, those were some nice 3 pointers guys! I'm a big basketball fan (play and watch), and I think it would be fun to see some of you guys play some pickup ball with other TH-camrs at a convention or something (I know some of Riff's squad plays, and Billy from the Game Chasers recently said Melvor used to be good at bball--maybe Caleb plays too?) Maybe put some old vidja games on the line for the winners? ^_^
For New Games I either want it day 1 or I’ll wait for a sale. So this puts you in a bind if you can’t get it day 1 then I’ll end up waiting for a good sale which would make you loose money.
Are midnight launches still a thing? I remember in the UK years ago people would go to Game (UKs version of GameStop) at midnight to get their pre orders. I know people can now just download but for people who love physical copies ‘a launch event’ might be an amazing thing to do to create a ‘destination’. You could have a lock in or open the doors a little early to allow for browsing/gaming.
Book shops in the UK are struggling - in the era of books being downloaded more than ever, the book shops that aren’t closing are the ones that do ‘events’. 😊
I remember going to the cinema for a midnight launch once, the atmosphere was completely different to a normal showing! Xx
Nope. Midnight launches have been dead for a couple of years now.
Actually my GameStop which is actually the highest selling GameStop in the nation I mean I don't work there anything but they still do midnight releases they're not at midnight anymore they're actually at 9:00 p.m. which is way better but they only do it if they have enough pre-orders for a specific game so it has to be something humongous like I remember going to it for Red Dead Redemption 2 stuff like that
@@jordanhilton1815 that's nice. Yeah all releases at least in the Portland Metro area GameStops don't do that anymore. People don't pre order like they used to
Midnight launches were (& are?) SO amazing, ESPECIALLY for very hyped games. One of my favorites was for Halo Reach. It was at my local Gamestop, located in a strip mall (USA version of "retail park"). I went by to pay off my pre-order early that afternoon, and people were already setting up LAN parties with earlier Halo games....in front of the store, from the hatches of their vehicles, with their own equipment... Gamestop merely allowed their electricity to be used. Needless to say, I spent the rest of that day in attendance; T'was epic. 💯
...Oh, and cinema midnight releases are/were great, too! I've gone on too long now to say anything else about those. 😉
Final Fantasy VII OG changed my life forever! Still my favorite game of all time!
Not my favorite but it’s up there on my favorites
Same answer
Is it possible you could explain to me how it changed your life?
@@nebjaminsusej151 sure! I played it for the first time during the peak of Covid when I was very depressed and didn’t realize it. Basically long story short FF7, along with some other things, helped me feel again and has changed me as a person! Thanks for asking!
Do you prefer the original or remake? I have both but I've only played the remake so far
I work at a locally owned video game store and we had a similar issue with new games. The distributor went bankrupt and we haven’t really made an effort to find another. As far as customer satisfaction we are right across the road from GameStop so we usually recommend them to go there for new games and they have been good and recommend customers to us for old games.
My cousins dad pre-ordered Zelda 2 from "Nintendo Bergslagen" office outside Gothenburg. 1988 was the year and we sat up playing until midnight. Remember how he translated all the text for us and that the first Cave in the desert was totally pitch black, the hair stood up on my arms. Not to forget the first palace," Parapa Palace " with the menacing soundtrack.Scary as hell! Next life-changing moment was playing Resident Evil 1 on PS1 1996. Also with my cousin. I'm born 1979 and my cousin 1980. He's no longer with us, rest in peace John!
I’ve heard other stores to have the same issue. For new games maybe you should just do pre orders only for new games and maybe just buy new games for the stuff you know will sell.
But then he won’t have something to cry about for the camera
@@JoseLopez-yx4et you being funny or generally hating?
Valid
On the pre order part
@@JoseLopez-yx4etbut shut up man retro Rick is amazing
about new games - you should still have new games in the store. for the new customers who just see a game store while driving by on the street. for the uncles and aunts who want to make their nephews and nieces happy with a new Nintendo game.
I think you should go the Double Jump Route for new games. They have pre-orders up, then only buy like 4 or so more then the pre-order. That way you have the New games, while also doing the preorders
New games create a price ceiling, healthy eco system is important for healthy consumption
Vigilante 8 on the PS1 is what got me more in to gaming. I had always played games but was never a "gamer" until I got that one xmas. I was hooked from then on
Surprisingly... Donkey Kong Country Returns Tropical Freeze changed my life! It brought me back to modern gaming, after seeing the commercial for it, I went out and bought a Wii U (lol). I shortly after bought an Xbox One and it was all uphill from there. Before that I ONLY played retro
Windwaker changed it all. I was so confused and pissed when I would get stuck. Then so lit and satisfied when I’d get through and onto the next part. Definitely changed the pace for me.
We stopped selling consoles and games in our store exactly for this... we couldnt compete enough with the big platforms and online. We'd buy something and 2 weeks later Amazon would have a sale on it for way under out cost price. So we only keep a few controllers and accessories now 😕
I remember playing the demo of “ATV Off-road Fury” on PS2 when it first released at EB games in the mall and thinking to myself “This is the pinnacle of video game technology…”
For me E.T. and Superman 64. Changed me man!!! Classics.
Too bad the rest of the copies of E.T. are buried at a rubbish dump in New Mexico.
Bioshock, dead space and half life 2 are games that made me look at games differently. Those games had such an impact on my life.
Pong did it for me.
I don't think you can completely remove all new games from your store as you will for sure lose newcomers/parents/uncles, etc that drive by the store to pick up a new title someone in their family wants. A percentage of those folks could easily turn into regulars and even buy some older used titles down the line or just pass on the stores name through word of mouth. If someone comes in and you don't have what they're looking for more than likely they will just quickly leave the store without even looking around. What I would suggest is just keeping as little copies of newer games that you think you can get away with. Of course you would have to crunch the numbers for that, but making sure your pre-order folks are always accounted for and then having maybe an extra 10-15 extra copies of each new release just in case is a place to start. Also, for sure trying to find a distributor that isn't going to treat you like you don't matter at all is gonna be a huge boost to this strategy.
Dragon Warrior / Quest / Zelda NES got me into RPGS. Final Fantasy IV hooked me.
Is the store called Brand New Rick's Game Point? No? There you go.
There’s that and only certain games will still retain value (mario); others even new will tank in price like sports games.
It isn't called Used Rick's Game Point either so 🤷
Link to the past, hearing and visually seeing the rain blew my mind as a kid.
As an older person who grew up before the internet. From a consumer perspective I want to see stores continue to carry products. New physical media is going away everywhere. You are not going to own anything in the future, everything's going to be subscription based if you want to do anything and your not going to have any other options. I still go inside stores as much as I can because I can see whats happening. From a business perspective I can certainly see your point and at the end of the day you have to do what is right for you. I didn't realize margins were so crap on new games. I hate to see it happen but I understand it. Only thing I can say is still offer new games but you have to order in advance and put up the cash or at least half. You have a nice store, I would check it out if I was in the area. Wishing you all the best! P.S. Original Resident Evil on the PS1 Was the game that blew me out the water and made me realize what the future held for games.
When it comes to new games you don't use ebay to determine the price unless the game is out of print in stores. Until then you have to use what OTHER STORES sell them for ie: gamestop, best buy, ect.
New/Sealed pricing is fine on eBay, since that's usually suppliers dumping their stock.
Sonic Frontiers is still $59.99 new at GameStop, $44.99 used.
But it's about $30-35 new, free 3-5 day shipping, on eBay from a few sellers.
The question is, does Rick feel comfortable having "new" titles at MSRP for years (the Nintendo curse) when he knows they go for less.
For instance, Kirby and the Forgotten Land, a Nintendo first party game (so therefore will never have a price drop ever) is $59.99 just like the day it came out 2 years ago.
GameStop, Walmart, Target, Best Buy, etc. still all have it in stock for $59.99.
But it's not $59.99. There's a supplier on eBay with 769 copies sold who has it for $45.99 (with quantity discount, and top rated plus free returns lol).
The point is, the games are toxic inventory. He's trying to justify buying at 95% face value just for the games to either 1. sit on the shelf unsold for years at MRSP, or 2. lose money as the games drop in market value.
Have to? You can sell whatever you want for however much you want, there's no rule for your nonsense.
Zombies Ate My Neighbors is that game for me.
And its still better then games nowadays tbh
SNES games. That period had the best games
Thats cuz back then games were made with quality unlike nowadays
Happy to see how well you guys are doing now (besides all the issues with the new games) after all those headaches with your main channel getting hacked. You are a good person Rick and that comes through in your videos. I am rooting for you to keep succeeding and if I ever make it to Arkansas I will drop in. It may be a while though because I live in China.
As much as I enjoy watching the trade ins. Getting the behind the scenes into running a game store is so interesting. Never even considered that you have to pay a distributor full price for a new game to get it on your shelves.
Honestly you probably could go without stocking the new games. You'll always have those individuals that beat a new release in a weekend and immediately trade it in. So its not like you still wouldn't have "newer" games on the shelf.
I would forget day #1 purchases from distributors... make a list of the ones you want, then have an employee go thru the list online, trying to buy them once a month at 'reasonable' prices, might be able to get them in your store at near or half price. Just buy a couple of each... don't focus on the new product/games.
Seems they want to get rid of new physical media. The option is there but they're slowing bleeding the retailers.
Can't wait to meet you this weekend! Always a great time at Midwest.
Goldeneye, mortal kombat on sega, and turtles arcade at the bowling alley. All my first memories of not ever wanting to stop playing
Well a company like mine does distribution and we don’t drop prices at least!
THANK YOU! New game margins suck so much and it's hard for games stores. No wonder why so many shut down!
You need to adopt the model that some comic book stores use. Pre-orders for new and poach surrounding larger chains for 1-5 copies for the shelf. You have to continue to carry new, just do it on your terms.
Dragon's Lair definitely changed my life. A fully animated game in the 80s was amazing to me!
The original “Resident Evil” on ps1 totally changed my life. Became my all time favorite game series.
Lunar Silver Star Story and MGS 1 changed my life. Introduced me to game genres I never knew existed.
WWF ROYAL RUMBLE was monumental to me. I remember waiting anxiously for it to come out and saving up my money to buy it.
Damn! I wanna go visit your store!!! 😍
Maybe one day I’ll take a road trip from tx
I would love to just walk in this store. Its like an amusement park.
New games/systems are just loss leaders in retail terms. Got to have them to drive traffic but they don't directly help the bottom line. As a former GameStop manager I can tell you we focused a ton of effort on used games, add-ons and upsells. People expect new games day one from GameStop. Missing a launch was a total disaster. In Retro Ricks situation I would focus on setting the proper expectations when customers want to pre-order a new product. Say something like this. "Hey Mr. X, we appreciate your loyalty and supporting this amazing store, but there is a chance we don't get this title on launch day one. Here is a piece of mech on the house for your understanding."
my first real big WOW moment with video games, is from Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. When you fire the arrow at the hanging bucket, and the bucket hangs differently because of the weight of the arrow. man that blew my mind
As a mom and pop gamestore, we just can't justify selling new games and making $3-$5 on them.
GoldenEye in Paintball Mode was the coolest thing I thought existed when I started gaming
The game that changed my life was the Sly cooper series it's such an amazing series with the music and combat my favorite game franchise of all time
The original resident evil. I had never experienced fear and anxiety from a video game. Movies? Yes. From a video game? No. The fixed camera angles and general claustrophobia of that game was such a game changer.
Cant remember the last time I bought a new game from a store, always online these days due to price. When I worked in a game store we didn’t make any profit on new stuff either and that was 15 years ago! We were always told to “push the pre-owned!” 😂
I remember how much money I lost on new games... I was using a distributor called Navarre, and it was like $0.30 profit at street prices (which were what everyone sold at, so like game "retail" was $69.95 but everyone sold them at $59.95 and they cost me $59.65) and for computer games they old sold opening week it seemed, then you had to discount them 20%+ to ever hope to sell. I kept thinking well maybe it would bring traffic in to buy other products, nope. People just always upset I couldn't beat Best Buy/Game Stop prices and thought I was ripping them off.
Even worse is hardware. Not only did Sony and Microsoft not make them available through distribution for over a year from the release date(catering to online scalpers and the big box stores), they charged around $585.00 plus shipping of at least $10 for the $599.99 PS5 console , so if a small retailer sold a PS5 for $599.99 and the customer used a credit card ($600 x 3.5% = $21 in bank processing fees); the end result was the small retailer losing around $16. In order to break even.The small retailer would have to sell 3 $60 games with it!! Long ago there were some decent margins with hardware; however when Walmart and BestBuy made their strong pushes to gain more market share; they destroyed the margins on both hardware and software. The last game system in which the small retailer was able to make an acceptable 20% on hardware sales was the 3DO system. I had 18 game stores in the Philadelphia area back in the early 90s thought to 2003 when I sold the chain to EB Games. What the manufacturers did was take those margins and give them to the major retailers via advertising money. That is how they avoiding getting in trouble for giving kickbacks. These perks were never given to smaller retailers. Also, the big chains received price protection for everything that received price drops. Unlike the smaller retailer that lost the discounted $$$; the larger retailer was given a credit for every single dollar discounted. Not only do the larger chains get the games at least 1 day earlier; they get free stuff to give away for preorders, price protections, and millions in advertising. I remember in 2003 when I worked for the company which purchased my company; their gross sales were over 2 billion dollars the previous year, net margin was around 65 million on those sales, and advertising money ( AKA kickbacks) received was in the area of 64 million dollars. Kind of sad that the small guy working his but off made peanuts for doing the right thing for the business and knowing the product extremely well, and companies that whore every product they touch such as Walmart, Target, BestBuy, etc get all the perks and also the margins that were supposed to go to the smaller retailer via those illegal kickbacks which were renamed to avoid government intervention.. Obviously they knew exactly what was going on, but money talks, and the little guy never wins.
My local game store has a partnership with Limited Run. So they will carry those new games.
I usually buy other retro games while I'm in the store.
When I go to a local game stores, my first thoughts are used games. It’s always nice to see new games but it’s not my driving factor me to go out to a local shop and buy them. This doesn’t mean that I don’t do it at all. I’m not a business owner, but for pre-orders I wonder if it’s possible to buy the games at the major retailers and sell it with matching price at the shop and write off something to get some profit. It seems like when you hold games for a long time, the price continues to drop, it might be better to grab the bag early for a more controlled risk. Just a thought.
I briefly looked at selling electronics through my TH-cam channel.. Distributor pricing was sometimes higher than retail Amazon prices. Crazy.
The Monkey Island series, in general, helped define my idea of comedy.
The video game that changed my life was Majora's Mask and Earthbound. They will forever be my favorites.
Local retro store here does pre-orders ONLY. So they know they will make money, there is no holding stock that depreciates.
Stock doesn't arrive on day one? They go in to EBGames, buy as many copies as they need to fulfil the orders. When the order arrives, they take them all back to EBGames for full refund under their 14 day returns policy. Easy.
Contra III: The Alien Wars is my all-time favorite gaming experience since it came out in the early 90's - watched my brother and his friend play it back then and forever became attached to it and all of gaming as a hobby going forward.
I use to work at the bestbuy there in conway for many many years and we hardly ever got the smaller titles, collector editions or games that came with a free item with the purchase (like steel books, key chains, plushies etc...) sometimes. The big titles we always got plenty in but the smaller ones we were lucky if we got in 1 or 2 . was also this way with the movies
Hi Rick! I came here for the bitcoin advice, but I'm staying for this Retro Life! Lol... see what I did there?
Three points:
1. Your answer to the problem with selling new games is right in front of you. Bundle those games with something else from your store. You can offer what other big box stores can't... the old with the new. For example, if you sold a new Final Fantasy game, you could include an older Final Fantasy Game, maybe a Final Fantasy toy, etc. This way you can up the price of the item and make sure it sells and also move inventory. That is what I would do.
2. Ultima: Exodus for the NES is what changed my life. It's the very first game I bought right after getting a NES for my 9th birthday. Changed my life. Before I played that game, I never came inside the house until evening, when it was time for dinner. After I got sucked into this game world (which at 9 years old, even with Ultima's archaic graphics and frustrating gameplay, I was imagining myself quite easily in this entire new form of child's play), I never would leave my room... except to eat dinner lol.
3. Question - Do you have like baskets or carts at the front of your store? I didn't see any. I imagine if I came into your store, I would need at least a basket to put all the items I want to buy in your store. Just wondering about it.
Anyway, keep it up Rick. Your channel is something I watch every single day. Much respect to you!
new games only on a preorder basis. if anyone cancels, charge a restocking fee to cover any up front loss
Also remember, "Big Chain" stores can take losses and work with smaller margins. Small business don't stand a chance when it comes to new games or electronics. Dont waste your time.
New games are similar to tobacco sales at gas stations. The gas station isn't making any money on the tobacco, but it brings customers into the store to purchase the higher net margin products. A necessary evil, unfortunately 😢
I remember I spent the weekend at a friend's house for his birthday and his dad rented us a PS1 and Road Rash 3D. That was my first real experience with a 3d game and being able to just drive around it's semi-open world was amazing at the time. The jump from Sega Genesis music to the vocal cd quality music was such a change too, I will never forget it.
My first thought would be to ONLY have a very select handful of the new games (games that have a ton of hype) to be a loss leader. I wouldn’t even mess with the distributors if it essentially costs retail once shipping is applied, just go buy them day one from BB, WallyWorld, Target etc. so that you’ve got a handful on the shelf. You’d be mitigating risk and solving the release day stock problem all at once. Ultra focus on pre owned and let the big box stores take those hits on new.
See you Saturday Rick! In Wisconsin from CO for the MGC!
I remember going to the local store on the corner and seeing a crowd of kids around a cabinet. That cabinet was Street Fighter 2. Fighting games were a thing after that.
Super mario rpg. It got me wondering as a little kid in elementary what rpg meant and I asked all my gamer friends in school and no one knew what it stood for. As I got older I finally got my answer and got into the genre from there. Till this day, rpg games are my favorite types of games to play.
One word “Shenmue” I’m still feeling the effects of that game😂
It's always nice to have some new games and I like to support small business. That sucks ya aren't making anything on them but totally get it brings in customers.
I recommend going strictly used unless someone trades in sealed games. I never go into a local store looking for a new game. I know they rely on used games to stay in business so that's what I'll buy.
That's outrageous to pay that much to a distributor for new games! Honestly if you guys sell more used games than new, then it's not worth it
Loss leaders - if all other stores are saying they don’t carry them… then you’re the only one. Take a small loss (or break even) to get them into the store and then if they get a loyalty card (or points for purchases) they come to only your store for those perks. In essence you’re paying for customers that prefer new games (rather than paying for advertising).
Age of Empires III came with my then new, first laptop. It forever solidified my love of history and definitive edition is still going strong with another DLC pack on the way due late this year. I was also transfixed by the level of detail in Anno 2070 and spent countless hours on it perfecting my city. So many others to rattle off, but those two were game-changers for me way back when.
Metal Gear Solid for PS1
A game that had swearing and when Psycho Mantis moved my controller on the floor !! I will never forget how bad ass all of that was
When I encountered Street Fighter II The World Warrior for the first time at a Liquor Store in Little Saigon in So Cal. Lead me to be a Tournament SF Player in the 90s (and 4th in CA in Super Turbo)
Drop the new new ones and rely on people bringing them in used. Seems like the media market for new new items is slowly dying, IE: Best buy, ETC.
The game that changed my life was Phantasy Star Online on the Dreamcast, I met my husband playing the game online and 23 years later are still happily married
Metal Gear Solid PS1 - Pretty cool how the enemy AI soldiers followed my footprints in the snow.
Duke Nukem : Zero Hour was my life as a child. Time To Kill was amazing as well.
The basketball skit would of been the best time to use NBA Jam soundbites!! Game that changed my life, link to the past! When I beat that game it gave me a feeling that I still chase for till this day!! Haha!
When I go to a retro game store, I’m not looking to buy a new game at retail… if you get orders on time with this new distributor, by all means take preorders, but I wouldn’t order many (if any) beyond what has been preordered. If it’s not a first-party Nintendo Game, you’re basically guaranteed to take a bath, if it’s not sold in the first couple of months or so.
Sonic and knuckles. The fact you could plug a cart into a cart as a kid was crazy
Same brother I remember walking into my cousins house while he was playing Mario 64 on Christmas of 96’. I was blown away by the graphics and immediately sucked in. After that I had to have one.
Mario Kart 64 changed my life. I remember the day i got it so vividly. I must've been 8 or so years old. Miss those days!!
If a local business has a new game that I want, I'm going to prioritize the local business first, even if I could get it cheaper through a Big Box store or Amazon.
Blows my mind that a Canadian distributor is giving you the best deal. After shipping and duties and whatnot. Are there not tons of video game distributors in the USA?
HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED
NEW OR OLD GAMES: you need to make in-store deals when purchasing new games (buy one new game, get 20% off retro game/ controller etc.)
figure out a way to get new walk-ins to explore other areas of the store. deals deals deals.
also, i'm pretty sure you guys have a lot of inventory in the back of your store.. have you guys ever thought about cataloguing it and making like a touch-screen kiosk area where customers can browse items not yet stocked? would be sick
Star Wars Battlefront II on the PS2 was the game that I was overly obsessed with growing up
Only do pre-orders for new games 🤝
Final Fantasy lll SNES (Vl in Japan) was my first Final Fantasy and my all time favorite game.