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How does GameStop sell anything digital? Why would someone go through them instead of Sony, Nintendo, Steam, or Microsoft store?
by 7thaccount 6y ago
How does GameStop sell anything digital? Why would someone go through them instead of Sony, Nintendo, Steam, or Microsoft store?
- freeone3000 6y agoThey don't operate a storefront (in the digital sense). Retail copies of games contain codes for one of the above store in lieu of physical media. You're buying a code from GameStop, with the code delivered digitally -- and sometimes this is cheaper than buying it directly.
- bigtunacan 6y agoGameStop is still the largest console retailer and they recently reached an revenue sharing deal with Microsoft on the Xbox Series X where GameStop gets a cut of digital purchases on any Xbox Series X that was purchased from a GameStop.
- jliptzin 6y agoWhy would Microsoft agree to such a deal? Is it really so hard to take Xbox orders online and ship directly to the customer?
- Karunamon 6y agoGamestop has a significant retail presence, Microsoft has none. It's quite tempting to just go to the local shopping center, pick up a system and a handful of games (with a decent return policy that's more reasonable than the one at big box stores) rather than ordering it online and waiting for it to arrive.
- lgats 6y agoI suppose gamestop would then take the position of trying to sell Xbox consoles instead of PlayStation. They can even offer discounts based on their future expected earnings from the digital purchases on the console.
- LanceH 6y agoThe overlap between people using cash on a daily basis and people who play games is pretty big. Think of all the people getting tipped in cash, or with horrible credit, or just kids. Gamestop is where they go to get a digital code for cash.
- chrischen 6y agoThese are pretty prevalent in Walmart, CVS, et al.