Where are the discounted games?

June 29, 2008 5:21 PM

Why does a club similar to BMG or Columbia not exist for PS3 games?

I realize there are online services similar to GameFly and rentals available at BlockBuster and used games at GameStop, but I'm looking for new games to purchase rather than rent. I'm interested in owning more games, but not interested in paying full price for new games.

posted by mcarthey to sports, hobbies, & recreation (10 comments total)

Outside of GameFly's good prices on used PS3 games (got Unreal Tournament III for $17 this week, less a $5 loyalty coupon), you can also find good deals with Amazon's independent used and new sellers.
posted by porn in the woods at 5:42 PM on June 29

The market for PS3 games is smaller than the 70-80s market for recorded music so there's no space for loss leaders. Keep in mind also that the prices through record clubs were so low because the artists typically were paid half (or no) royalties on the copies sold, thus costs were kept down and you could get your 12 CDs for a penny.
posted by rhizome at 5:49 PM on June 29

Besides GameFly, your best bet is probably GameStop or EB Games. I know you said you wanted new games, but honestly, GameStop or EB will take back any game within 30 days if it doesn't work properly due to scratches. I literally had to return three copies of Halo 3 within two days to finally get one that worked, but it was no hassle everytime I had to exchange it. If you get one of their Edge discount cards, you also get 10% off used games and an extra 10% back on games you trade in.

Also, check out forums like CheapAssGamer.com for the best current deals on new games.

That's all I've got. If there's something more, I'd love to know about it too...
posted by joshrholloway at 7:20 PM on June 29

I should say specifically that I meant buying used games from EB or GameStop. I know you probably assumed that, but I didn't say it outright, so I thought I'd clarify just in case.
posted by joshrholloway at 7:21 PM on June 29

I read once that BMG and Columbia House did what they did because they bought the rights to produce the CD's themselves in-house. This isn't gonna happen with bleeding edge console games, and basically the market will bear excessive prices. This would be the reason I own a ps3 and about 4 games.
posted by TomMelee at 8:59 PM on June 29

It probably has a lot to do with wholesale costs for the games...where tapes and CDs could be produced for cheap, there are limited venues for getting legitimate copies of the games and very few (if any) game studios will give a third party permission to manufacture copies of the games.
posted by legotech at 9:47 PM on June 29

The best way to get new, sealed games on the cheap is to just wait for the prices to drop. Today's $60 new title is gonna be $20 in the bargain bin in six months. Of course, some publishers (like Atlus) don't physically print enough games to last that long -- make sure to grab niche titles when they're released if you don't want to end up paying even more on eBay later.
posted by richrad at 5:10 AM on June 30

The equivalent of BMG for video games is Ebay. The BMG bargains get you cruddy music with a few decent singers that were very popular. Ebay gets you cheap games that weren't very good, plus a few decent games that were very popular (but people are now selling off their games).

Remember, BMG pretty much never gets you the best new music cheap. It's all back-catalogs.
posted by explosion at 6:34 AM on June 30

Gamestop usually has a used copy of most new games within 2-4 weeks. If you can wait that long, it'll save you $5 right away. If you subscribe to Gamestop's weekly email, they regularly have coupons for 25% off used games (week to week it varies system from DS or PS3 or 360). Thus I got Burnout Paradise "like new" three weeks after its release for $40.
posted by yeti at 7:54 AM on June 30

I'm not going to self-link, but the website is in the profile.

As to why it doesn't exist, remember that Columbia House and BMG actually make the CDs themselves. They aren't the same quality masters, some of the inserts/artwork is gone, and the artists don't seem much, if any, of the money.

Plus, how would you do it? I know a lot of people decline the monthly selection, but that's still a key part of it. I imagine that would have to be hard to do for games. My guess would be, that if such a service magically existed, that it would be sending out PS2, Xbox, and GameCube games right now.

For someone that wants to play a lot of games, I'm a fan of buying games, selling them, and reinvesting the proceeds in new games. Of course, I started a business to make this easier, so I'm more conflicted than anyone else on earth on this.
posted by sachinag at 1:41 PM on June 30