To my understanding, Nintendo actively opposed doing so.
But when Nintendo was “competing” with Sega/Sony, brick and mortar stores had a LOT more power. EBGames/Gamestop could basically do whatever they wanted because moving the Nintendo shelves to be behind the Sony shelves would lead to noticeable sales changes. So it was a lot more common for Toys R Us to run their own sales to move merchandise.
But in the past twenty years or so, Nintendo have actively shitlisted anyone who puts a discount on their games. Amazon famously got shitlisted at least three or four times which led to a lot of weirdness in terms of what “editions” of a given game was available for purchase.
So it was a lot more common for Toys R Us to run their own sales to move merchandise
Ah, I remember that. I used to buy most of my GBA and Sega Gamegear games at Toys R Us, and most games went for $20 or less, and I think I got some deals around $5-10 for older games. This was a long time ago, so I don’t recall specifics, but I do remember Toys R Us being the place to go for video games.
All my physical Switch games (which is most of them) I got used at GameStop because they were all about 50-70% cheaper than buying new or through Nintendo’s store. Even TOTK which I got maybe 3 months or so after release was only $35 used. Games that were even older were mostly $10-20.
To my understanding, Nintendo actively opposed doing so.
But when Nintendo was “competing” with Sega/Sony, brick and mortar stores had a LOT more power. EBGames/Gamestop could basically do whatever they wanted because moving the Nintendo shelves to be behind the Sony shelves would lead to noticeable sales changes. So it was a lot more common for Toys R Us to run their own sales to move merchandise.
But in the past twenty years or so, Nintendo have actively shitlisted anyone who puts a discount on their games. Amazon famously got shitlisted at least three or four times which led to a lot of weirdness in terms of what “editions” of a given game was available for purchase.
Ah, I remember that. I used to buy most of my GBA and Sega Gamegear games at Toys R Us, and most games went for $20 or less, and I think I got some deals around $5-10 for older games. This was a long time ago, so I don’t recall specifics, but I do remember Toys R Us being the place to go for video games.
All my physical Switch games (which is most of them) I got used at GameStop because they were all about 50-70% cheaper than buying new or through Nintendo’s store. Even TOTK which I got maybe 3 months or so after release was only $35 used. Games that were even older were mostly $10-20.
And gamestop paid the original buyer of that something like 5 dollars so they could sell it back to you at 7x the price.
Utilizing stores like gamestop can be beneficial to a consumer but the entire business model is built on exploiting children and idiots.