So Wifee & I were in Naptown over the weekend, and there was a Gamestop nearby. Having looked online for one, I found that all the retailers are pulling the “You have to get these other crap games I’m foisting upon you if you want this system” bullshit, which really chaps my nuts.
Out of curiousity, I thought I’d pop into the brick & mortar to see if they were pulling the same crap there, and surprisingly enough, they weren’t. On the way into the store, however, I spotted this license plate and had to grab a quick snap of it w/ my Treo. She & I looked at each other & knew immediately that it *had* to be an employee of Gamestop, though the close-proximity to a Circuit City meant it was possible that it was one of them, too. Either way, we both chuckled and went about our business, and I got my DS Lite reserved.
Sunday’s the big day, but I’m not done bitching about bundling. I totally get why retailers want to bundle games, as they markup on the console hardware is *very* slender, but it REALLY bothers me. The idea is that they assure themselves that they’ll get some software sales along w/ the console, and w/ an online store, consumers are given the freedom to pick their competitor w/o as much as having to get off their butts.
Having said that, as a long-time online consumer, I also know that if a site goes out of their way to make it really simple to get my software and the console all at the same time, on the same site, in the same shopping cart, I’ll do that, as long as the prices are right. Why bother going to another site, entering my password, navigating to the item I want and choosing my shipping options twice if I can do it all at the same time? If I ran a game store’s site, I’d have all of the choices right next to the hardware (most of them do this) in a pleasing, well-organized, uncluttered list. This way, you put all the choices right at the consumer’s fingertips. Using AJAX would even FURTHER the buying process by actually letting people drag & drop items into a graphical representation of their shopping cart!
In a physical store, however, the likelihood of people getting both hardware & software at the same time is very high, so it made perfect sense to me that the local one I went to wasn’t bundling, but that’s not always the case. In the case of the Xbox launch, you absolutely COULD NOT get a console at a store w/o getting the bundle. This was a systematic, organized push by Microsoft to force more titles at the same time of the console purchase. As a result, I waited it out. Screw that.
When the Xbox 360 launched, Microsoft went a little easier on the bundling, but the idea had taken root, and Best Buy reneged on their advertised offers that people had camped out overnight to take advantage of. The backlash came fast & frenzied, and they eventually had to apologize. They essentially pulled the most heinous bait & switch I’ve heard of in a LONG time. What further irritates me about this particular transgression against consumers is that Best Buy does this ALL THE TIME! I’ve gone in plenty of times to find that the advertised item in their flyer is already out of stock because they had “limited quantities”. Having spoken to former BB employees, they’ve told me that the quantities are sometimes as low as three actual units for sale. I don’t know about you, but that’s f’ing piss poor. If you’re a car dealer, three VINs makes sense: you’re not likely to sell all three by 1 hour after opening time. If you’re advertising a $200 hard drive, on the other hand, I call shenanigans!
So retailers: please, please, PLEASE, for the love of all that’s (un)holy…. PLEASE stop bundling consoles at launch. You can’t POSSIBLY hope to know what mix of games I’m going to want, so STOP FUCKING DOING IT.
Breda
MacDork
Hols