To my understanding, Nintendo actively opposed doing so.
But when Nintendo was “competing” with Sega/Sony, brick and mortar stores had a LOT more power. EBGames/Gamestop could basically do whatever they wanted because moving the Nintendo shelves to be behind the Sony shelves would lead to noticeable sales changes. So it was a lot more common for Toys R Us to run their own sales to move merchandise.
But in the past twenty years or so, Nintendo have actively shitlisted anyone who puts a discount on their games. Amazon famously got shitlisted at least three or four times which led to a lot of weirdness in terms of what “editions” of a given game was available for purchase.
So it was a lot more common for Toys R Us to run their own sales to move merchandise
Ah, I remember that. I used to buy most of my GBA and Sega Gamegear games at Toys R Us, and most games went for $20 or less, and I think I got some deals around $5-10 for older games. This was a long time ago, so I don’t recall specifics, but I do remember Toys R Us being the place to go for video games.
All my physical Switch games (which is most of them) I got used at GameStop because they were all about 50-70% cheaper than buying new or through Nintendo’s store. Even TOTK which I got maybe 3 months or so after release was only $35 used. Games that were even older were mostly $10-20.
Yeah, back in the late 90s, Circuit City exclusively sold PlayStation and didn’t even offer Nintendo products until closer to the GBA / GameCube era.
CompUSA did the same too.
Everyone forgets the old retailers, but one big argument to PlayStation beating the N64 was that the games were cheaper and available in a lot more retailers than Nintendo’s products.
To my understanding, Nintendo actively opposed doing so.
But when Nintendo was “competing” with Sega/Sony, brick and mortar stores had a LOT more power. EBGames/Gamestop could basically do whatever they wanted because moving the Nintendo shelves to be behind the Sony shelves would lead to noticeable sales changes. So it was a lot more common for Toys R Us to run their own sales to move merchandise.
But in the past twenty years or so, Nintendo have actively shitlisted anyone who puts a discount on their games. Amazon famously got shitlisted at least three or four times which led to a lot of weirdness in terms of what “editions” of a given game was available for purchase.
Ah, I remember that. I used to buy most of my GBA and Sega Gamegear games at Toys R Us, and most games went for $20 or less, and I think I got some deals around $5-10 for older games. This was a long time ago, so I don’t recall specifics, but I do remember Toys R Us being the place to go for video games.
All my physical Switch games (which is most of them) I got used at GameStop because they were all about 50-70% cheaper than buying new or through Nintendo’s store. Even TOTK which I got maybe 3 months or so after release was only $35 used. Games that were even older were mostly $10-20.
And gamestop paid the original buyer of that something like 5 dollars so they could sell it back to you at 7x the price.
Utilizing stores like gamestop can be beneficial to a consumer but the entire business model is built on exploiting children and idiots.
Funny fact: the game stores here are so greedy you can find used game for more than the online shop price 🤷
It won’t be so fun when Nintendo shuts down the online shop in 2 years after they drop the Switch 2. Because fuck you that’s why.
Where is here for you? I wanna make sure to avoid it.
France… It’s great besides that haha
Yeah, back in the late 90s, Circuit City exclusively sold PlayStation and didn’t even offer Nintendo products until closer to the GBA / GameCube era.
CompUSA did the same too.
Everyone forgets the old retailers, but one big argument to PlayStation beating the N64 was that the games were cheaper and available in a lot more retailers than Nintendo’s products.