Games shelf life

MooseJam

I don't understand why games have a shelflife, it seems to be maybe 8 months and then they are gone, or if they are lucky they will appear for a few more months on the cheap white label, whats the story with that, surely there are new gamers coming into stream all the time and good games should be constant sellers, like books for instance, books aren't in store for a short period and disappear, once published you can buy them any time you like. There's loads of games I'd buy but can't anymore and have to look out for people selling on the like of adverts.
The only reason I can think of is shelf space, all the games shops are reasonably small so I guess they just can't stock them all and have to phase out oldies in favour of new releases.
The solution to this then is for a new games shop to open with a huge floor space, this is a major gap in the marketplace and whoever fills it would make lots of money ! just had to get that off my mind.

Smellyirishman

Book technology doesn't really advance though does it? So a book that was released 10 years ago, is just as readable today. A 10year old game though? Unless you're Starcraft/Diablo/Total Annihilation, then nobody wants to know about you and even at that, only a game like Starcraft is really in demand 10 years on.

The same reason cars have shelf lifes; bigger better versions are coming out all the time and it doesn't make business sense to support something that nobody wants. (unless you can twist it and get people to buy your 20 year old games AGAIN without need any need for physical bricks and mortar shops RE: Virtual Console)

Of course, with the age of digital distribution, games should be available indefinitely (within reason).

Also; if you think that's bad, over here in the states I have yet to see a SINGLE shelf for PC games in any of the games stores I have been in. Given the business logic though, it's understandable.

Branoic

If you were a new gamer would you prefer to play Civilisation 1 or Civilisation 4? Wolfenstein 3D or Half Life 2?

There's no comparison with the book industry. Games have a shelf life because of the advances in technology and demands of the buying public. If you came to gaming late in life and wanted to see what older games were like, you can still get a lot of them floating around the internet if you really wanted, or indeed released as collections as with the recent C&C The First Decade or the Civ box set.

MooseJam

yea I see what you are saying with the advances in technology and I guess thats one of the reasons, though even newish games aren't stocked anymore, I don't think you can pick up doom 3 or halflife 2 anymore for example, I'm just peeved cause game don't stock serious sam the second encounter anymore, I lost my copy

Smellyirishman

MooseJam wrote:

doom 3

It sucked.

MooseJam wrote:

halflife 2

It's most definitely still available. Online through steam or retailers and almost definitely in some ol' brick and mortars.

MooseJam wrote:

I'm just peeved cause game don't stock serious sam the second encounter anymore, I lost my copy

It's not perfect, but that was just looking at Play.

I know it's not a retail shop, but the games are still available, welcome to the future buddy.

dan_y

not all games have no shelf life. just bad ones. like with movies. try fallout

MooseJam

Smellyirishman wrote:

It sucked.


It's most definitely still available. Online through steam or retailers and almost definitely in some ol' brick and mortars.



It's not perfect, but that was just looking at Play.

I know it's not a retail shop, but the games are still available, welcome to the future buddy.

cheers dude, why didn't I think of that

johnny_ultimate

It is indeed difficult to get some games soon after they were released. If you went looking for some of the more obscure early 2006 releases, youd probably have an extremely hard time finding them. Its an annoyance when you can't find games 2 or 3 years after they are released, and this has effected me numerous times.

o1s1n

Smellyirishman wrote:

Also; if you think that's bad, over here in the states I have yet to see a SINGLE shelf for PC games in any of the games stores I have been in. Given the business logic though, it's understandable.

Eh? I was in New York a little while ago and every Gamestop had a decent PC section. Much better than anything I've seen over here. One had half its basement floor dedicated to it.

You're just looking in the wrong places!

Smellyirishman

o1s1n wrote:

You're just looking in the wrong places!

Probably, I have mostly been in their smaller outskirt stores, but normally in Ireland stores of this size would have a PC shelf, but not here so far. I'm sure the bigger NYC stores have a shelf alright.

MOH

MooseJam wrote:

cheers dude, why didn't I think of that

From GBP 3.99 on amazon.co.uk

Sarky

No shop in Galway will get Deus Ex in for me.

But a friend of mine promised to give me his copy.

MooseJam

MOH wrote:

From GBP 3.99 on amazon.co.uk

thx i picked up the second encounter for £1.37 + Postage & Packing:£3.94, can't do much better than that

TheAlmightyArse

Try going into Gamestop and getting a copy of Kirby Power Paintbrush, Phoenix Wright 2, Meteos, Trauma Centre or Castlevania. Some of the DS' best games, but you can't buy them on the high street. Why not? Gamestop have an excellent trade-in deal, whereby you can trade across almost any two old games for any new one; but when I went to do so, they had absolutely nothing in stock that I wanted. To reiterate: Gamestop, a major retailer specialising in video games, stocked no games for an immensly popular games system that I was more interested in than my old, well-worn copies of Sonic and Brain Training. If it wasn't less than a month old or a dodgy licence, it wasn't there.

The technology argument holds no water. The above example is for a single system. And besides, most people who buy games actually aren't so fickle that they drop a game as soon as something shinier comes out. Just look at the continuing popularity of the PS2 over the PS3, or the huge sales of second-hand games and budget re-releases of old games on PC.

So why do retailers do their best to hide "old" titles? Is it so you and I are forced to buy now, because we mightn't get a chance later? Is it a way of limiting choice to make sure we buy new iterations instead of similar and vastly cheaper earlier ones? Regardles, it doesn't happen online, and it's ever more reason not to bother popping in and having a browse in bricks and mortar shops. The cretins.

cedomination

TheAlmightyArse wrote:

Try going into Gamestop and getting a copy of Kirby Power Paintbrush, Phoenix Wright 2, Meteos, Trauma Centre or Castlevania. Some of the DS' best games, but you can't buy them on the high street. Why not? Gamestop have an excellent trade-in deal, whereby you can trade across almost any two old games for any new one; but when I went to do so, they had absolutely nothing in stock that I wanted. To reiterate: Gamestop, a major retailer specialising in video games, stocked no games for an immensly popular games system that I was more interested in than my old, well-worn copies of Sonic and Brain Training. If it wasn't less than a month old or a dodgy licence, it wasn't there.

I have seen all those in my local gamestop,they were probably just sold out.