Author Topic: Reggie Joins GameStop Board of Directors  (Read 26711 times)

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Offline Kairon

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Reggie Joins GameStop Board of Directors
« on: March 09, 2020, 06:14:56 PM »
My trade-ins are ready?!?!?

https://twitter.com/Reggie/status/1237118761460625409

But seriously, can GameStop still be saved? I feel like we're all waiting for the other shoe to drop and for them to go bankrupt or start massive store closings. It'd probably take a MASSIVE overhaul of the company, not just a little course correction, to even have a shot at righting that ship.

GameStop's pricing, policies, and service are all so unfriendly to the customer, I think any effort they make will be doomed if they don't address the core issue that they are, to consumers, flat-out uncompetitive versus other retailers. They'd have to start there, and maybe in addition to a cultural change Reggie could find ways to help their supply line by making GameStop a better and more useful partner for game makers/publishers.
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Offline Ian Sane

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Re: Reggie Joins GameStop Board of Directors
« Reply #1 on: March 09, 2020, 06:24:55 PM »
GameStop's traditional model was based on selling used games with a big markup.  As the videogame industry moves more towards digital distribution then there are less physical copies to trade in.  I feel like they're in a similar boat to what stores based around CD sales were like 15 years ago.

Physical media is now more of a specialty item for collectors so that's the audience that Gamestop has to switch towards.  But Gamestop has been after the opposite of collectors - it was for people that bought a game, beat it, and traded it in.  There is a scene for retro gaming that focuses on the time frame where physical media was all there was but I feel like the Gamestop name is poisoned with that target audience.  And I don't think that is something that can be sustained as a nation-wide chain store.  There's a reason those stores are small business holes in the wall (and I don't mean that as an insult).

Offline Adrock

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Re: Reggie Joins GameStop Board of Directors
« Reply #2 on: March 09, 2020, 06:29:14 PM »
But seriously, can GameStop still be saved?
No.

This will be easiest paycheck Reggie Fils-Aime ever collects. It won’t affect his resume at all if when GameStop closes shop.

Offline Kairon

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Re: Reggie Joins GameStop Board of Directors
« Reply #3 on: March 09, 2020, 06:58:32 PM »
Dang, you both make good points T-T
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Offline UncleBob

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Re: Reggie Joins GameStop Board of Directors
« Reply #4 on: March 10, 2020, 02:33:21 AM »
GameStop can be saved, but not as a (video) gaming focused store.

It will take some major closures/relocations, some heavy trimming to the fat that is their structure, and a major overhaul of their entire business model from start to finish.

Video games will become a smaller part of their business.  Like, 10% less each year or something.  I just made that percentage up.  Meanwhile, they need to combine their existing "geek/nerd/gamer" "collectable" merch strategy with Hot Topic and TRU.
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Offline nickmitch

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Re: Reggie Joins GameStop Board of Directors
« Reply #5 on: March 14, 2020, 08:22:50 PM »
Weirdly enough, if they're gonna sell knickknacks and collectibles they may actually need bigger store fronts, if fewer stores.  An overhaul may see them moving locations within malls they already exist in.

But Kudos to Reggie for the gig.  A BoD is the perfect retirement job.
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Offline ThePerm

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Re: Reggie Joins GameStop Board of Directors
« Reply #6 on: March 21, 2020, 04:29:15 PM »
On one hand I think gamestop is doomed.

On the other hand I'd like to see Reggie turn that **** around.
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Offline Kairon

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Re: Reggie Joins GameStop Board of Directors
« Reply #7 on: March 22, 2020, 08:04:05 PM »
Hmmm... nope. With Coronavirus and this latest hullabaloo where they insisted they were essential it's even harder now to see if there's any way for Reggie to save them instead of just guiding them to the best way to declare bankruptcy.
Carmine Red, Associate Editor

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Offline ThePerm

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Re: Reggie Joins GameStop Board of Directors
« Reply #8 on: March 23, 2020, 05:03:46 AM »
but if Reggie goes on a quest for unicorn farts he can sell that on ebay and save the company.
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Offline broodwars

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Re: Reggie Joins GameStop Board of Directors
« Reply #9 on: March 27, 2020, 05:07:36 PM »
Announced in today's Earnings Call: GameStop is set to close 300 more stores over the coming year.

https://www.ign.com/articles/gamestop-set-to-close-300-more-stores-this-year

Honestly, they probably need to close about 1/3 - 1/2 their stores at this point if they want to survive to restructure. Right now, they have over 5,500 (according to the article).
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Offline GK

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Re: Reggie Joins GameStop Board of Directors
« Reply #10 on: March 29, 2020, 10:14:16 AM »
I want to see Reggie somehow pull this off. But on the otherhand Radioshack couldn't pull it off & they had a wider crowd than GameStop...

Could see them running local tournaments for gift cards/store credit. It might give them a fighting chance. Works for the local 2nd & Charles. I don't consider myself much of a competitive player but even I've competed in a local tournament or two for a gift card. Heck, even won a Super Mario Kart one at said 2nd & Charles.
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Offline Kairon

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Re: Reggie Joins GameStop Board of Directors
« Reply #11 on: March 31, 2020, 06:16:46 PM »
Announced in today's Earnings Call: GameStop is set to close 300 more stores over the coming year.

https://www.ign.com/articles/gamestop-set-to-close-300-more-stores-this-year

Honestly, they probably need to close about 1/3 - 1/2 their stores at this point if they want to survive to restructure. Right now, they have over 5,500 (according to the article).

Dang, only closing 300 out of 5000? I'd be surprised if they didn't still have a lot of underperforming stores past that initial 300. Do they need that many stores, or does each store really only serve that small and local a neighborhood?
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Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Sega and her Mashiro.

Offline ThePerm

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Re: Reggie Joins GameStop Board of Directors
« Reply #12 on: April 01, 2020, 02:26:20 PM »
So there are 50 states, DC, and Puerto Rico. If they were smart they would downsize to metropolitan areas. In Arizona for instance theres 5 areas. You got Phoenix, Tucson, Yuma, Flagstaff. 300 means about 6 per state. You might cut Gamestops from those states with less than a million people. According to google maps there's 16 in the Los Angeles area alone. For a place like Los Angeles it might be more practical to take over an abandoned K-mart and make three big Gamestops and close the others. There are 6 abandoned kmarts in LA. LA is huge horizontally and has a huge enough population to justify more Gamestops, but not 16. There are 20 in the Dallas Texas metro. Might want to do the want to downsize those numbers.
« Last Edit: April 01, 2020, 02:32:10 PM by ThePerm »
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Offline Kairon

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Re: Reggie Joins GameStop Board of Directors
« Reply #13 on: April 01, 2020, 03:57:42 PM »
Are big GameStops effective though? It could be that for some reason GameStop is very reliant on super-local markets, maybe it's because the trade-in business requires a lot of physical co-location? If so, is every store they close a neighborhood whose business they lose?

Like, WHERE exactly IS GameStop making money these days? (And if the answer is Funko Pops and Funko Pops only then their business model might be beyond saving...)
Carmine Red, Associate Editor

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Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;
Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Sega and her Mashiro.

Offline GK

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Re: Reggie Joins GameStop Board of Directors
« Reply #14 on: April 03, 2020, 03:18:21 PM »
Dunno. Can you still get Skullcandy headphones there?
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Offline Stratos

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Re: Reggie Joins GameStop Board of Directors
« Reply #15 on: April 24, 2020, 01:22:05 PM »
Recent episode of Nintendo Voice chat talked about this a bit. They are experimenting with 4 different store models.

One focuses on retro games, another focuses on being a community space for tournaments and gaming leagues, a 3rd is more gift-shop oriented (probably willed with merch for those mall/tourist locations). I forget the 4th, but I think it was a hybrid of the others.

Some of these could be promising, but may be too-little too-late and at a horrible time for retail sales.
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Offline Ian Sane

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Re: Reggie Joins GameStop Board of Directors
« Reply #16 on: April 24, 2020, 05:43:52 PM »
Covid-19 is making me rethink GameStop's potential strategy.  I hate the situation but there is a realistic possibility that the lockdowns from the virus are going to kill off a considerably amount of locally owned retro game stores.  Large corporations will have a better chance of survival.  The failures of those stores will leave a vacuum that GameStop could fill.  Hell, you'll probably have independent game stores that have closed but still have unsold stock they want to liquidate and GameStop could buy that stock.  Remember that this will be a recession due to a pandemic which is a unique situation.  So that doesn't mean the demand for such stores won't still be there as things open back up, it's just that these local stores can't pay their expenses while having a sustained period of diminished revenues.

I can see a near future where large corporations take over the market share for closed small businesses and that totally sucks but it's an opportunity for a corporation like GameStop.  Replace closed local retro game stores with GameStops and sell retro games, instead of Funko crap.

Offline NWR_insanolord

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Re: Reggie Joins GameStop Board of Directors
« Reply #17 on: April 24, 2020, 06:52:30 PM »
I think GameStop's biggest competition has been other big corporations, not local stores. People buying games on Amazon or digitally straight from the console manufacturers.
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Offline Ian Sane

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Re: Reggie Joins GameStop Board of Directors
« Reply #18 on: April 24, 2020, 07:25:11 PM »
I think GameStop's biggest competition has been other big corporations, not local stores. People buying games on Amazon or digitally straight from the console manufacturers.

But I'm talking about a different business model.  They're not a retro game store now, they focus only on current systems.  Selling new games (or used games for current systems) in stores is a shrinking business model.  Transitioning to retro gaming, like selling old NES games and such, is a change in approach.  So the local stores aren't their competition now, they're just a similar type of business that Gamestop could probably transition into and they can replace failed stores.  Pre-COVID you bought retro games at a local store and bought probably nothing from GameStop.  Post-COVID you buy retro games at GameStop because the local store went out-of-business and GameStop switched to selling that kind of product.



Offline broodwars

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Re: Reggie Joins GameStop Board of Directors
« Reply #19 on: April 24, 2020, 07:28:56 PM »
I think GameStop's biggest competition has been other big corporations, not local stores. People buying games on Amazon or digitally straight from the console manufacturers.

But I'm talking about a different business model.  They're not a retro game store now, they focus only on current systems.  Selling new games (or used games for current systems) in stores is a shrinking business model.  Transitioning to retro gaming, like selling old NES games and such, is a change in approach.  So the local stores aren't their competition now, they're just a similar type of business that Gamestop could probably transition into and they can replace failed stores.  Pre-COVID you bought retro games at a local store and bought probably nothing from GameStop.  Post-COVID you buy retro games at GameStop because the local store went out-of-business and GameStop switched to selling that kind of product.

This speech comes to mind...


BMM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62kxPyNZF3Q

Gamestop has no future as a retail chain. They need to go strictly online ala Amazon, maybe only using the retail stores as a way to facilitate trade-ins for credit to be used for the online store and as a place where people can pick-up special orders.
« Last Edit: April 24, 2020, 07:32:50 PM by broodwars »
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Offline Kairon

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Re: Reggie Joins GameStop Board of Directors
« Reply #20 on: April 28, 2020, 01:33:53 PM »
Oh wow, I've never heard of that film before and now I want to watch it!
Carmine Red, Associate Editor

A glooming peace this morning with it brings;
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head:
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;
Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Sega and her Mashiro.

Offline broodwars

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Re: Reggie Joins GameStop Board of Directors
« Reply #21 on: April 28, 2020, 03:45:58 PM »
Oh wow, I've never heard of that film before and now I want to watch it!

Other People's Money is a little dry & dull in places, but it's decent enough. Unfortunately, that speech kind of saves the movie.
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Offline Kairon

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Re: Reggie Joins GameStop Board of Directors
« Reply #22 on: May 12, 2020, 12:56:05 PM »
The other day I woke up with the idea that Gamestop should get out of owning their own stores and franchise instead. The individual stores and locations are locally owned, but GameStop corporate is the first-look distributor and national marketer. This way stores become more locally flexible, get a chance to relax their policies and become more customer oriented, while corporate might force each store to guarantee some set amount of sales of certain titles. That is, Gamestop might bargain with EA to remain strategically chummy. Then they turn around to their franchisees and tell them that under the franchising contract they have a certain number of "picked" games they need to sell a year, and now 20 of those in store need to be Madden 202X. The franchisees are obviously not super excited about that, but this IS GameStop after all so no one should be surprised, yet they get flexibility in how to market and sell it. As long as they sell 20 full-priced copies of new Madden 202X, they can do it by running their own trade-in promotions, making their own sales incentives, etc.

In this way franchisees DO take individual location risk, and some amount of committed inventory movement risk, off of corporate, but they gain flexibility, name brand recognition, mass marketing, and buy-in-bulk discounts as a collective. Maybe it's likely that corporate would even handle real estate?

I swear about an hour after waking up with this idea I read an article online with similar tones comparing GameStop to independent comic book stores that had some similar difficulties with the digital transition, but I can't find that article anymore.
Carmine Red, Associate Editor

A glooming peace this morning with it brings;
The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head:
Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things;
Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished:
For never was a story of more woe
Than this of Sega and her Mashiro.