Topic: I had to report my local Gamestop regarding Mario Kart 8.

I was at Gamestop this weekend and I overheard an employee and his manager's conversation which was really appalling...The employee wanted a copy of Mario Kart 8, but they didn't have any more excess copies so the manager says I can give you one of the copies from our pre-orders box and he proceeded to give him a copy of the game. Now I don't know exactly how that works, but doesn't this mean that someone's pre-ordered copy of Mario Kart 8 was given to the employee? Anyways have any of you seen one of your Gamestop locations pull something like this before? I'd like to see just how common this practice is.

...and this, my friends, is why GameStop only recieves like 2 copies of each game on release date. So we thought.

I doubt that someone lost their preorder. Places like Gamestop always have a surplus of preorders for people who didn't preorder and come in on release date to buy the game.

Honestly not sure what reporting will do do you know how many shady tactics Gamestop pulls and gets away with?

This happens quite a bit with people who work at game specialist stores, shouldn't really matter this time though as they probably ordered quite a few copies of MK8.

But the OP said they didn't have any excess copies of MK8?

I used to work in a videogame store - similar to Gamestop - in the UK, and we often created fake pre-orders to ensure we didn't receive bare minimal copies of the game in question from the supplier. Obviously this wasn't needed for huge releases like Call of Duty, but for most small/mid-tier releases, this was common practice.

Furthermore, we seldom ever sold our entire batch of pre-order games because a lot of pre-orders are made as a little add-on to the sale of another product. We'd say something along the lines of "Oh, hey, while you're here, why not pre-order some of the new releases you're interested in? You have no obligation to pick them up", and people would pre-order a few titles just because we asked nicely. Relatively few people came in specifically to pre-order titles. Again, this was another method we employed to ensure we got a decent amount of copies in.

As a result, on average only half or so of pre-ordered games actually got picked up. If they weren't picked up after 2 or 3 days, they'd go on general sale. To be honest, it's very unlikely someone's lost out on a copy due to what you witnessed. I think in my 3 years of game retail I only saw a case of a pre-ordered item being sold resulting in a customer losing out on the game just once.

I think reporting the store for it was a little unnecessary if I'm honest.

In relation to the number of pre-orders, no doubt. But many of those pre-orders may have been made on a whim or fabricated.

Nearly every time I've seen GameStop employees hand out pre-order bonuses, I watch them divvy a few out among themselves. They even gave me a broken figurine once because they all demanded the pristine ones (for a game they hadn't previously known existed).

Actually, this same thing also happened with Elebits and a ripped/mashed box for the plush toy... Once again, Elebits was completely alien to these two idiots, but they absolutely needed the plush toys for themselves, so my future wife got one with a mangled box. Even though I was the only person to pre-order at their store. Anyway, it's still on the shelf in her childhood room, dilapidated box and all...

Then again, this is a retailer that opens new games, allows employees to "research" them, and proceeds to sell them as new. Before GameStop started putting tape on these "new" games, a manager once had the audacity to refuse a return of a game a day or two later because it was opened (by them).

I could populate a whole thread myself about the shady practices I've observed at the GameStops in my area.

If it does not have the proper wrapping it isn't new.

The reason they use that type is so you can tell when it has been opened and resealed.

Wait, people still shop at gaming stores now?

Forgive my apathy, but anyone who does needs to get a grip. This thread is one reason of many why it's just not a thing to do now. Online retailers do not feign expertise or knowledge, nor to they fill their stores with limited copies of X or Y because the manager says so; they don't only showcase AAA games on the homepage or whatever.

Nope. Amazon, GAME Online, or Nintendo UK Store FTW.

@Wonkers Well, the local stores are great for pre-owned and actual knowledge.

There is no reason to go to Game now cdkeys.com does download codes cheaper than them.

So -

Amazon / Cdkeys.com / The Game Collection.

(Nintendo Store is run by The Hut/Zavvi who I have had trouble with before).

Tell that to GameStop. They started doing this probably about five years ago. At first I thought I was getting the last shelf copy or something. I soon realized everyone was getting the same unwrapped cases... Then I was at a friend's house and he pulled out a few unreleased games he took home with him for the weekend from his GS job. As he was tipsily bragging about his job benefits, he dropped one of the discs and it glanced off the edge of his TV stand. Big gash.

There is none in my city that have any knowledge. (Didn't even know what a Wii Component Cable was or a Circle Pad Pro.)

Pre Owned is only worth it when it is at the end of a system (Like the Wii/DS was recently all of it cost basically nothing). Other than that they are the same price as Amazon new for the most part.

Oh yeah, nowadays it's online all the time. Though I do need to vouch for sleuthing Amazon for Target price match opportunities. Best price and instant-grat, all at once.

Toss in an employee discount, Target card discount, accumulated gift cards, or even combine it with another Target offer (Buy 2/1 Free, gift card w/purchase, % off, etc.) and you can really nickel-and-dime the cost of gaming. No wasting your life tracking packages, either.

Truly, I'm of the opinion that there is more misinformation and outright dishonesty being advised at these local stores than actual pertinent, useful information. Rarely have I seen unknowing parents being properly served. How do you think all these kids end up with Assassin's Creed and Call of Duty? I will tell you for a fact that most GameStop employees are not informing or inquiring about age appropriateness, at the very least.

I rarely buy games from the store nowadays unless it is an impulse buy or I can't find it anywhere else. Most of my games I get from Amazon and Gamefly.

and once the Wii U came out, they also stopped selling GameCube games, which was something I really liked about GameStop.

Gamestop only sells the current gen and the previous gen. Which is one reason I dont shop at Gamestop since I tend to buy more games for my older consoles.

Dunno why I even brought up knowledge to be honest. I know my stuff, I am clued up on the whatevers regarding my own game choices, all I need people to do is get me my swag as soon as possible. As if I'm going to go to a store and ask them something only to hear 'Sorry, never heard of it'' or asking the release date of something when they themselves get it off the... internet.

The other part of knowledge I guess is knowing which games people would like to buy and reacting accordingly - and it's this that stores fail at for reasons I and others have stated.

As for Target - UK based fellow here - we don't have such a thing but in your/it's defence, I have to say that the USA does impress me whenever I see some of the special deals that gaming websites the world over publish, from them, Gamestop, Best Buy, Walmart etc. You guys always seem to get interesting things such as the discounts, e/x things and others such as exclusive this or that. Culturally there is still something significant in your country to going to the store and buying there. The best the UK can ever seem to muster is bog-standard pre-ordering with a £10 deposit upfront i.e paying for the privilege of a guaranteed thing that the internet will 99.9% of the time deliver without the extra charge.

Oh yeah as for pre-owned. Lulz. I'd love to find out how many stores in the UK have a copy of 999: 9 hours, 9 persons, 9 doors or Disaster: Day of Crisis for Wii. Whereas I can tip-tappy bosh that s***t into an online retailer and there it is.

Everybody near me seems to like Nintendo... even the GS employees. They even gave me a free Pokemon XY poster when I didn't preorder both, because they had surplus. So @Rukiafan, I highly doubt anybody lost their copy, unless every preordered one is taken and all the instore ones are sold out. :3