It’s time writers should read more traditional literature to create strong storylines. Not silly, mindless violent cinematic video-games.

1.) While I agree that there’s no sense in sabotaging a sure thing, with these blockbuster releases, stores already take it upon themselves to try to lure customers through their doors rather than their competition’s. Especially during the holiday shopping season, they’ll use the big titles as loss leaders to drive customers into the store to hopefully do the rest of their shopping.

“Event” games have massive printing runs, and wouldn’t it be tragic if there were product languishing on the shelves. The retailers would curse their corporate buyers for being fooled with promises that game sales were almost assured. That’s why sometimes it’s better to move product than to make profit.

Midnight release parties are for established fans. I don’t think the prospect of standing in line late at night is going to attract additional buyers who didn’t already intend on buying the game. But sometimes the event results in friends being dragged along, especially if there’s festivities. That would be a prime opportunity to give that tag-along friend an incentive to also buy the product with a promotional discount, essentially a social networked snowball effect.

2.) Those are great reasons for the smart consumer, but the smart consumer is already an outlier. Just look at the GS regulars who always come in ready to trade in their day one purchases within a week or two. They’ve effectively paid a $30 rental fee. They come in often enough that I’m sure the clerks have lectured them on the benefits of buying used (the return period); or maybe they’re such “whales” (to use casino terms), that it’d be a bad business move to ruin a good source of games/income.

I’m sure you’ve also seen how often people turn down the $5 discounted used copy in lieu of the new one. Unlike in my scenario where the difference is about a buck or less, this is a 8-10% difference, and still they prefer to pay the premium. The proud American consumer attaches a stigma to used goods, even though these games are but a delivery medium for the same 1s and 0s. Aside from scratches, there’s no other meaningful wear and tear like a car. (The value of the condition of the package and manual vary by customer.)

3.) I’m ashamed I forgot about the most tried and true loyalty benefit: the coupon. In businesses that depend on volume, repeat customers are always preferred over one-timers. Applying savings to future sales benefits the retailer in several ways.

• Obligates customer to come back at a future date
• Only “lose” money in the future if the customer follows through with a purchase.
• Customer almost certain to have to spend more than coupon/gift card amount.

Just like you said, this can lead to a cycle of returning to the store. I know there was a period I’d be at Express every week because of a continuous series of Friends & Family coupons, dollar/percentage off, and buy $xx get $xx for later promotions.

1) What about games that you KNOW are going to sell well the first week of release (basically anything with a “launch party”). For instance, a Final Fantasy title will move the same amount of units if its priced at $50 or $60. Why should retailers take the hit?

2) If a new game and a used game are the same price, I will always buy the used game for several reasons:
a) With my EDGE card and more coupons, I can probably knock the price lower
b) Used games come with a 7-day return-for-any-reason period (this is good if I’m buying a game I’m not sure I’m going to like)
c) Used games also come with a 30-day bring-it-out-and-exchange-it period. If the new game fails, I’m stuck.

A better idea might be that if you buy or preorder a game, you get a $10 gift-card. Because then it’s “like” get $10 off, and then you’re forcing the customer to come back in and spend MORE money. It’s an endless cycle. Kohl’s does this a lot, and I think it works well.