Is the End Near For GameStop?
If Paul Revere was still alive, he'd ride through the streets in a Mustang yelling, "The consoles are coming! The consoles are coming!" In his absence, some websites are calling attention to rumors that next generation consoles, and in particular Microsoft's Xbox 720, won't play nice with used games, effectively killing off GameStop and putting a dent into other outfits that sell pre-owned titles.
If Microsoft and Sony were to be so brazen as to refuse to allow pre-owned games to work on their respective consoles, it would surely be bad news for GameStop, but even worse for Gamefly, which is essentially a Netflix-like service for gamers (games-by-mail).
Image Source: Flickr (dicoplio)
"If the next generation of consoles lock out used games, I think more gamers will move to the PC," concludes Goozer Nation, the latest website to play the 'what if' scenario.
Our opinion on the matter is that the used game business will continue to thrive, at least until we finally ditch physical media and are living totally in the cloud. In the meantime, as we've stated before, Microsoft would be best served by stomping out these rumors, putting gamers' minds at ease while not revealing anything confidential about its next generation console. Unless, of course, the rumors are true, in which case the real injuries won't be to GameStop or Gamefly, but to Microsoft for shooting itself in the foot, don't you think?
If Microsoft and Sony were to be so brazen as to refuse to allow pre-owned games to work on their respective consoles, it would surely be bad news for GameStop, but even worse for Gamefly, which is essentially a Netflix-like service for gamers (games-by-mail).
Image Source: Flickr (dicoplio)
"If the next generation of consoles lock out used games, I think more gamers will move to the PC," concludes Goozer Nation, the latest website to play the 'what if' scenario.
Our opinion on the matter is that the used game business will continue to thrive, at least until we finally ditch physical media and are living totally in the cloud. In the meantime, as we've stated before, Microsoft would be best served by stomping out these rumors, putting gamers' minds at ease while not revealing anything confidential about its next generation console. Unless, of course, the rumors are true, in which case the real injuries won't be to GameStop or Gamefly, but to Microsoft for shooting itself in the foot, don't you think?
