Leveling Down

Gamestop.com’s various promotion codes allow it to compete better online with Amazon.com

About 8 months ago, I mentioned how Amazon had successfully stolen me away from Gamestop. With all of the various deals Amazon had running in its favor, I went the way of Amazon for most of my game buying in 2009. But this year, it looks like Gamestop has probably lost a lot of customers to Amazon and is turning up the heat. (Don’t you just love competition?) Let’s explore what they’ve begun implementing to pull gamers back to their store.

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I know the economy is bad and all, but the discounted games this weekend were ridiculous! Everywhere I turned, there was a game calling my name. I ended up picking up Left 4 Dead 2 from Amazon for $35, but other than that I managed to stay strong. There were, however, tons of deals I skipped out on that I almost pulled the trigger on:

Assassin’s Creed $10
Dragon Age: Origins $35
DJ Hero $95 (with $40 Amazon Credit)
FIFA 10 $35
Guitar Hero 5 $30
Guitar Hero: Metallica $25
Marvel Ultimate Alliance: 2 $30
Resident Evil 5 $20

FYI, some of those deals are still out there as I am writing this. Is it me, or were there not these kinds of deals last year? For some reason, all the big retailers are slashing their prices in an attempt to move units – maybe they’re not meeting their sales projections or something. What’s even better is that Amazon is matching all of these deals. Now, if I see a deal at Best Buy or Walmart, I know I don’t need to make a trip because Amazon will match the deal within a day or two. When the big boys are competing, it can only be good for the consumer. What a great time to be a gamer!

Anyway, the reason I managed to resist all these games is because I’ve been playing Assassin’s Creed 2 non-stop all weekend. They’ve added some “challenge” levels that I find completely addicting. Between that and wanting to prestige in Modern Warfare 2, I didn’t really need to get in on those deals. Plus, if they’re going to offer all those deals now, I can be confident that they’ll be there again in the future.

Let the madness continue!

So Halo 3: ODST, was “dropped” at my door at 12:39 PM Tuesday. This is my second release date delivery (free for Amazon Prime members) and frankly I’m pretty impressed. Now, espion4ge and I are by no means being paid by Amazon despite professions of love in the past, though if anyone affiliated with Amazon is reading this, please feel free to pay us!

Anyway, a timeline of my Halo 3: ODST release day experience (9/22):

12:00 Midnight – I am freaking out because Amazon still hasn’t sent me a delivery confirmation, but I breathe easy when I see that for release date deliveries sometimes the tracking information comes out late.

2:37 AM – Amazon sends me a shipping confirmation (btw, this was bought entirely with funds from Amazon trade-ins)

7:03 AM – Amazon sends three e-mails filled with promotional credit ($15 for video games, $5 for MP3s)

8:46 AM – I check my e-mail and receive the previous e-mails

10:45 AM – UPS leaves package at my front door

1:30 PM – Package received. Happiness ensues.

Meanwhile, while all this was going on, Amazon dropped the price for ODST to $51.99. Was I going to be cheated out of nine dollars? Well this is what happened yesterday (9/23):

4:18 AM – Amazon sends me a promotional code for Sgt. Johnson in Firefight (pre-order bonus)

10:24 AM – Amazon sends an e-mail saying I will receive $9.00 due to their “pre-order price guarantee”

12:25 PM – My gift card account is credited with $9.00.

Talk about customer service!

I never thought this would happen, but Amazon has succeeded in pulling me away from Gamestop to become my primary video game supplier. Just look at this list of pre-orders I have!

With no tax in my state, release date delivery on practically any big game (thanks to Amazon Prime), a 10% discount on all video game purchases (ECA membership), $10-$15 gift certificates for several big games releasing this Fall, and various trade-in promotions such as 50% off any game, Amazon has converted me. What kills me is that I have hundreds of dollars in Gamestop credit, but why buy any of these titles new for $64 at Gamestop when I can get them for 1/3 less on Amazon?

The tricky part now is that I’m trying to convert my Gamestop credit to Amazon credit, and this involves buying used games from Gamestop with my credit and trading those same games into Amazon so I get credit there. I’m hoping for a chance when Gamestop runs a B2G1 free sale or 20-25% off coupon on all used games, and Amazon is running something like +50% trade-in credit so I can actually even make some money when I transfer my credit.

But as you can see, it looks like my gaming for the rest of the year is set. Now I just need to figure out what to do with Alpha Protocol, Dragon Age Origins, and Left 4 Dead 2. Will they be bought this year, or bumped back to next year?

Just when I thought I was done buying music games altogether (especially anything in the Guitar Hero franchise), Amazon and Activision have to both offer concurrent deals that are making me reconsider my stance.

Guitar Hero 5 for $60 is far too expensive considering how many music games I already own. But now Amazon is giving away a $10 gift card with pre-orders of the game, and ECA membership (10% off on all video game purchases at Amazon) make this net out to $44. This is also not to mention Amazon giving a free $5 credit for MP3 downloads off their site as well with this pre-order.

In addition to the Amazon deals, Activision is giving away Guitar Hero Van Halen free with the purchase of Guitar Hero 5. While I don’t really care much for Van Halen, the soundtrack has plenty of contemporary guest bands that I’m digging such as Foo Fighters, Weezer, Blink-182, Jimmy Eat World, The Offspring, Third Eye Blind, and Fountains of Wayne.

So in the end, if you buy this Guitar Hero 5 off Amazon, you’re basically paying under $50 (or $40, in some cases) for Guitar Hero 5 and Guitar Hero Van Halen. Part of me suspects that Activision is running this promotion because they suspect Guitar Hero Van Halen won’t sell well, and I guess that makes sense considering the music game genre is oversaturated by this point. Ugh maybe I have to pre-order this after all. With all these $10 gift cards, Amazon is quickly becoming the main vendor that I’m pre-ordering all my games from this Fall season!