Friday, June 20, 2014

So Two Nintendo Fans Walked Into A Gamestop...


" Nintendo can't give away too many free games. They're in the Red..."

So says guy behind the counter at the Galesburg Illinois Gamestop yesterday.

Let me back up a bit.

My dad and I decided to go to Gamestop to buy Mario Kart 8 and a Tomodachi Life (download code). We entered the store around 1 o'clock.

The store in Galesburg seems pretty Nintendo friendly on the surface. It has a Wii U demo station & a 3DS demo station too. It also has a Nintendo Representative that visits the store. My regular Gamestop in Macomb has NONE OF THAT. So the Galesburg store seems superior...

We waited till the guy at the counter was done with another customer and then went to the counter. Dad asked for Mario Kart 8 and then a Tomodachi Life (download code).

The guy told us that we should have Pre-ordered Mario Kart 8 cause if we had "we would have gotten a Free Nintendo game." I told him we'd get a Free game anyway because Nintendo was giving them away till July 31st.

He told us "no. Nintendo is only giving away a limited amount of them." He told us they couldn't afford to give away too many copies because they were in the Red. He looked at our copy of Mario Kart 8 and said "well, you're lucky. This one still has the code. Look at the number on the side, its a 1. The new ones they are putting out have the number 2". Meaning the new copies have no codes. He was acting like this whole free game thing from Nintendo was a Gamestop Exclusive & a special code was in the copies that would get you a free game...

I knew this was wrong (Nintendo is giving away a free game to everybody, not just Gamestop customers). I wanted to tell him. We started by saying that Nintendo wasn't the only company in trouble. Sony was having issues too and he agreed with us about that. Then the subject changed to the Tomodachi Life code.

Dad asked for a Tomodachi Life download code. He told the guy at the counter we were doing this because Gamestop was charging 39.99 for the retail copy & it was $34 on the Eshop. We had done our research first hand on this. Dad and I had bought two retail copies over our Macomb store for 39.99. We had preordered. The day the game came out, though, I saw it was $34 on the eshop. I knew Gamestop was over charging for the game. My mom wanted a copy of the game, so we decided to get her the download code version. The guy behind the counter tried, at first, to tell us they were the SAME PRICE. $39.99. He also wasn't sure if they still had the download code. We said that the price wasn't right & if we had to buy it on the Eshop itself (no download code) we would. Then, he looked over at the price of the retail version and finally looked on his computer. He realized we were right & got us the download code.

After that, he started talking to us about Nintendo not announcing very many games (for Wii U). I knew that was WRONG because I had watched E3. We told him that was wrong. He showed us the list of Wii U, PS4, and Xbox 1 games on his counter. The PS4 list was long, the Xbox 1 list was long and the Wii U list...was very short. It was, in fact, a list of games coming out THIS YEAR for Wii U.

The games coming out for next year: Yoshi, Kirby, Xenoblade, Zelda Wii U, Splatoon. Those games were NOT listed. Meanwhile, on the PS4 and Xbox 1 lists, the games for next year were listed...

I pointed out that that wasn't all the games that Nintendo had announced on the list but the guy wasn't listening to me. I had no idea if someone had made that list up to make Nintendo look bad on purpose or if someone just hadn't watched Nintendo's E3 and went by whatever was on the computer for Nintendo... (though it really looked like it was on purpose...).

He said he hoped they got Third parties back sooner or later. Personally, I'm so tired of people bringing this up on the internet and got a bit snippy with him. I said the Third parties were idiots. We could care less about them.

Then, the Gamestop guy went on to say, again, how bad Nintendo was doing and said that a Nintendo rep had told him...

I am trying not to laugh as I write this next part...

A Nintendo Rep told him that Nintendo was thinking about putting Old Mario games on the Sony & Microsoft systems. But they hadn't decided if they would or not...

I admit I didn't stop from laughing in the store. I laughed. Yes, I definitely laughed.

We told him Nintendo would never do that. That would be shooting themselves in the foot. He insisted, again, that a Nintendo Rep had told him this...

I moved away from the guy, heading toward the door, and I was laughing.

Any Nintendo fan can tell you that Nintendo will NOT be putting any of their games on Sony or Microsoft systems. They wouldn't even be thinking about it. I had no idea if this guy was trying to pull my leg or if he really believed what he was saying. I doubt a Nintendo rep told him that. Maybe one of the reps from the competition? (if a Nintendo rep had told him that...that Nintendo rep should be fired).

I actually think the Gamestop guy believed what he was saying...but maybe he just thought he'd have fun with the Nintendo fans...

In any case, our purchases were paid for and we left the store. When we were out the door, I turned to my dad and said "Let's NEVER go back there."

Seriously. I mean it. As a Nintendo fan, I thought I'd heard everything. I'd even heard some stuff over at the Macomb Store (like the guy who tried to tell me that Nintendo was going to announce Majora's Mask at E3....yeah...that was true...lol). But never had I run into someone so obviously Anti-Nintendo in person. On the internet, sure, you see it all the time. But in person, most of the time, people at Gamestop act like they care about Nintendo at least. (even though its obvious they don't). I always thought Gamestop was anti-Nintendo...but wow...

This guy in Galesburg kept trying to tell us untrue things left and right. Either he was the most ignorant Gamestop Employee ever OR he was just trying to mess with us because we're Nintendo fans.

I tend to think he was just ignorant. Thats what I want to believe...

Nintendo fans should avoid that store. Save yourself the headache.