Since the Xbox 360 market officially closed earlier this week, everyone has been mourning its demise and reminiscing about the console that introduced them to lifelong friends and their favorite games. Leave it to GameStop to show up to the party with only minor gripes.
The video game retailer-turned-meme-stock moonshot used the July 29 shutdown to issue a warning to digital games. “We know people are wishing they’d bought a physical copy right now,” the company said. I have written On Twitter (via Fugitive“Buy the real thing.” It was an obvious point conveyed in a nonsensical way by the worst communicators.
First, the Xbox 360 Marketplace has stopped selling new digital games, although you can still re-download games you already own. Second, mass adoption of launch-day digital releases didn’t really take off until the Xbox One era, when Microsoft first proposed DRM, which effectively ended disc sharing and GameStop’s then-profitable used-game business. Finally, most Xbox 360 games can be purchased digitally on the Xbox One and Series X/S through Microsoft’s backward compatibility program. Owners and fans nostalgic for the Xbox 360 era have pointed out these and other points.
“I sold it all to you.” I have written betrayed one person: “They don’t even sell physical games in stores anymore, just junk they call ‘collectibles’ items.” Fight back Another. Third Party It pointed out The platform has hundreds of digital-only indie games and other releases, but no way to purchase a physical version. Twitter user Joe Kassabian To put it more succinctly:“GameStop’s dominance of the market and subsequent tarnished reputation by ruthlessly defrauding its customers likely had a lot to do with it becoming the stock market meme for NFT schemes selling Funko Pops,” he wrote.
GameStop is currently in the midst of its own death throes, thanks to an illogical stock price fueled in part by a cult of personality surrounding its current CEO, despite the company having billions of dollars in cash. Elon Musk Cosplaystore chain employees Being pressured and fired The company has failed to pivot its core business to something more sustainable than warranties and action figures. It’s striking how many people, from customers to employees, love games but hate GameStop at the same time.
As a testament to how badly the chain has failed at selling physical games, curating retro games, and pre-ordering special editions, smaller indie and mom-and-pop stores have popped up to fill the void. You can still buy Xbox 360 games at GameStop, but you’ll probably get a better deal elsewhere.
