I've been reading on various gaming forums, and it seems a huge number of people are angry at Gamestop/EB Games for opening the cases of new games and storing the disc behind the counter. When they go to purchase the game, the employee puts it in a new case and seals it. I've personally had this happen many times, and it never occurred to me that this could be an issue.

Does anyone here have a problem with this? Unless I'm missing something, it seems like completely unjustified nerd rage.

I've read a few different articles about this, there's some legitimate complaints to be had. There's a few different ways this happens:


1. Most brand new games you purchase at Gamestop are shipped sealed and never been opened sitting behind the counter or in the backroom in a box.

2. The game was stripped and used as a display case, this is the most common way to get a resealed game. It has been previously opened but the disc and manual has been put away so that at a later date the copy can still be sold as new when they don't need a whole rack of the specific game on the shelf. This is counted as new.

3. The game was purchased and never opened and returned. Because it's never been opened it's still new despite being purchased before.

4. The game was purchased and returned, but it has been opened, played, etc. Because it's been opened it's now a used game and sold at a discounted rate.

5. The game was purchased and resold to gamestop. It's discounted as a used game and resold.

6. A gamestop employee "rents" the game opens and plays the game and returns it to the store. This is then reshrink wrapped and sold as new despite any scratches or damage made to the cd while in the employees possession (this maybe illegal now?)


The argument mostly stems from if an open box should mean you get a discount. Especially since the quality of the product may not be guaranteed on a return when no one inspects the product in question.

There's also the issue of downloadable content codes etc that are often packaged with a game now, these extra slips of paper are often discarded from display case copies sold as new. And in some cases the DLC codes are now "one time use" kind of codes so if your copy has been previously rented by an employee you're shit out of luck.

Posted by Boffo 6. A gamestop employee "rents" the game opens and plays the game and returns it to the store. This is then reshrink wrapped and sold as new despite any scratches or damage made to the cd while in the employees possession (this maybe illegal now?) The argument mostly stems from if an open box should mean you get a discount. Especially since the quality of the product may not be guaranteed on a return when no one inspects the product in question. There's also the issue of downloadable content codes etc that are often packaged with a game now, these extra slips of paper are often discarded from display case copies sold as new. And in some cases the DLC codes are now "one time use" kind of codes so if your copy has been previously rented by an employee you're shit out of luck.

I used to work at gamestop, so i can address issue number 6 better than most. if there is any damage inflicted by an employee, we have to buy the game at the price of new. I know bc my son drew on the manual for a game I borrowed and I had to buy it.

When ever you borrow a game the manager has to sign off on it, then you return the game the manager has to inspect it and make sure it is in good condition, before selling it.

As for the DLC codes, at our store we always put those with the manuals behind the counter. We are also never allowed to use the DLC codes that come with new games. Used games we can, in fact anyone can. If you need a two day live trial code, go through the used games and pick it out. Anything left in the used games you can ask for, and they will usually give them to you. That is how I got the Vault Boy poster from the Fallout 3 DLC disc.

Also for the record, we would only have one or two open copies of games, and they were always the last ones sold. Someone brings up the empty case you give them a factory sealed game. Then you put the display case back up asap.

I only mentioned the last part about damage addressing many of the complaints I've read in articles like these in the comments where people ask gamestop how their disc has been damaged etc when it was brand new only to be told that... oh hey... we may have shrink wrapped that in the back room five minutes ago....... realistically it's more of a store by store issue in regards to quality much like how well your Big Mac is put together when you goto a McDonalds.

More tasty information: http://kotaku.com/...e-could-be-illegal

Posted by Boffo I only mentioned the last part about damage addressing many of the complaints I've read in articles like these in the comments where people ask gamestop how their disc has been damaged etc when it was brand new only to be told that... oh hey... we may have shrink wrapped that in the back room five minutes ago....... realistically it's more of a store by store issue in regards to quality much like how well your Big Mac is put together when you goto a McDonalds. More tasty information: http://kotaku.com/...e-could-be-illegal

Oh yeah I got that. Everything else you said was 100% right. I just know as of last year, when I was working there, no. 6, had been taken care of. It was because of a lawsuit a couple of years ago.

It is a store-by-store basis. Some store managers are more lax about it than others. At my store, you didn't play a new game. Period.
You could check out one used game at a time as long as there were three or more copies.
When new shipments come in, what goes on the shelf is determined by corporate, who sends out periodical planograms mandating how the store shelves should be set up. Gamestops are a variety of sizes--some very big, some tucked into strip mall broom closets. It all depends on the amount of business that that particular store is doing.
Generally, the smaller the store, the smaller the display space, the less games that need to be gutted for the endcaps. Smaller Gamestops will only gut two copies of a new game for the shelf. Most of those in malls will gut 4-6. The store where I worked was a very high-volume store. For the biggest titles, we sometimes gutted as many as 12 copies.
Remember, though, the big triple-A titles are going to have the most shelf space, therefore the most guts, but the inventory on those titles are also the biggest.