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January 22, 2016 In Opinion

Amazon Deals Another Blow to GameStop (and Best Buy)

Back in March of 2015, I wrote about switching from GameStop to Best Buy for new game purchases, because of Best Buy’s newly-discounted Gamer Rewards program. The big hook for Best Buy was offering a 20% discount on new games, something that GameStop does not do.

A little over a week ago, Amazon gut punched GameStop again (and kicked Best Buy’s legs out from under it) when they announced that Prime Subscribers will now get 20% off of pre-orders and newly-released games to go along with their already free two-day shipping. The term “newly-released” in this case means up to two weeks after the initial release date.

So, how does this stack up to GameStop and Best Buy? Well, as I wrote about before, GameStop still gives you a print magazine subscription for your $15 a year, and Best Buy offers reward certificates that can be used for anything they sell. Both also give you extra value for used game trade-ins.

Looking at Amazon’s trade-in program, it looks like they actually give you slightly more value than GameStop, although GameStop gives more if you are using the credit to buy more games. For example, Amazon will give you $20.54 for Star Wars Battlefront, while GameStop would give you $19.66 cash, or $24.20 if you used it toward another game. Add to that the discount you get on used games, and GameStop can provide more value for those trading in games to buy more games.

But really, the main questions you should be asking yourself are if you buy new games and you are already a Prime Subscriber. Because if the answer to those two questions is yes, this is a no-brainier.

I am a Prime subscriber and for me, this move by Amazon actually hurts Best Buy more. I already had stopped buying new games at GameStop. Now I can get the 20% discount and free two-day shipping on my new games. So, Amazon will become the place for me to buy new, and GameStop will continue to be my used game option.

At some point, I think GameStop is going to have to bite the bullet and offer discounts on new releases. They’ve tried to diversify, getting into retro games and pushing more geek culture merchandise, but I don’t think that will be the solution in the long term.

March 10, 2015 In Opinion

GameStop PowerUp Rewards Vs. Best Buy’s Gamers Club Unlocked

In mid-February, My GameStop PowerUp Rewards Pro subscription expired, and like I do every year, I went back and forth about renewing. Over the past few years, I’ve been buying less games overall, which means less used games, which means I haven’t been getting as much of a return on my PowerUp Rewards investment. Now that said, I do still enjoy Game Informer magazine, and I would argue that a $15 a year subscription fee for a print magazine is well worth it. And I saved a little over $100 for the year, so the subscription fee was made back and then some.

So I was leaning toward renewing again when I saw that Best Buy was having a sale on its Gamers Club Unlocked (GCU) membership, knocking the price down from $99 to $30 for a two-year membership (a change it has now made permanent). I still buy a lot of stuff from Best Buy, so I decided to sign up for GCU, and see if it it held more or less value for me over the next year.

For your reference, here’s a quick breakdown of the core benefits of both of these plans:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, both of these plans offer an additional 10% in trade-in credit, and 10% off of used games. To me, there are two major differences. GameStop is offering a print magazine with your membership, while Best Buy does not (they no longer put out @Gamer magazine as of May 2014, I believe). BUT, Best Buy gives a 20% discount on new games to GCU Members, while GameStop does not offer a discount on new games. That discount takes the price of a new game down to about $48 (plus tax) instead of $60. After taxes a new game is about $51 with GCU (instead of $63). On top of that, GCU often offers additional reward like $10 Best Buy reward certificates for pre-ordering games. And those rewards stack.This past week, I pre-ordered Battlefield: Hardline, got the bonus DLC (which GameStop also offers) and a $10 Rewards Certificate, which can be used on anything. Plus the Rewards points which are doubles for new games purchases). My total was $51.

Another big difference with Best Buy Rewards is that you can use the certificates for more than just games–they’re basically gift certificates to Best Buy.

If you’re considering one  of these rewards programs over the other, I think you’d have to decide whether the GameStop’s print magazine or Best Buy’s 20% discount on new games is more valuable to you. I feel like the Best Buy GCU membership is a better fit for me right now. Time will tell if it ends up being more of a value to me than the PowerUp Rewards subscription.

Of course, you could always spend $45 and get both of them, which is still less than the cost of one new game.