Best Buy GCU is being Discontinued?

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Does anybody know if I went into a Best Buy location tonight would I be able to extend my GCU membership?

 
jrr6415sun said:
i never really understood how they were making money on it anyway. 20% off is probably a good amount of their profit. They were probably trying to make it up in volume and as a loss leader to accessories and getting people in the store but their numbers probably showed it didn't give enough benefit.
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I never had GCU, so correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't they also give you $10 certificates when pre-ordering certain games? I would wonder how they could manage to offer 20% off sale prices, when they consistently had the best deals.

People are being a bit entitled here. When you consider Best Buy matches or beats other retailer's prices most of the time even before considering GCU, it's ridiculous to say you'd never shop there again. Amazon can't even keep games in stock. Walmart never has any good deals. Gamestop is good for used game deals, but their new discounts tend to suck.

 
So, weirdest thing. I went to Best Buy today at around 2pm. Picked up State of Decay 2 Ultimate Edition for $40 with my GCU. I opened up the app now and it doesnt show my gamers club unlocked price anywhere. They cut it that quick?
 
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ShadowAssassin said:
Mine expires like the last week of 2020, so I'm good for 2 and a half years. Wish I could have renewed for longer, but I didn't originally because I didn't even know if Best Buy would be around after that.
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Chances are your sub is going to outlive physical games.

vanlandw said:
Does anybody know if I went into a Best Buy location tonight would I be able to extend my GCU membership?
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It's deleted from the system, so no.

 
Not happy about this at all. My membership is good until Christmas this year but I wish I could have thrown another $30 at them but I have a feeling they are going to kill all memberships at the end of the year. I was just there last night too, could have renewed. RIP.
 
Welp, I won't be buying anything from Best Buy anymore, just like before GCU. Not even non-video game stuff. Screw them. This sucks. I've spent upwards of $2500 there in the last two years with GCU mostly on video games but I've given them business for computers, TVs, and other stuff too because I appreciated them so much for doing GCU. They can die a slow death now for all I'm concerned. 

 
I received an email a couple weeks ago informing me that my membership expires on 5/26/18. Picked up BP and Rick and Morty on Tuesday and forgot to renew. Crap
 
Vulcan2422 said:
So, weirdest thing. I went to Best Buy today at around 2pm. Picked up State of Decay 2 Ultimate Edition for $40 with my GCU. I opened up the app now and it doesnt show my gamers club unlocked price anywhere. They cut it that quick?
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Just tried the website proper, discount still shows up for me.
 
NeoMonk said:
Amazon will follow suit, don't you worry about that. The only reason why they even did it was to compete, now they don't have to.
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Indeed. I'm mostly digital these days but I don't trust Nintendo I still get those games on cart.

Dark times ahead.

 
I also have it til 2020. I hope they buy out my subscription. I usually wait for game prices to get below the 20% discount anyway.

 
Welp, I should still have time to pre-order Red Dead Redemption 2, Smash Bros, Tomb Raider, and maybe the new Halo if there is one this year.

RIP GCU, you were the real MVP



I am more sad about GCU dropping than Toys R Us going out of business.

 
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Chuck Stank said:
Lol, physical games aren’t going away, like ever.
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Ever?

Digital sales are already over 50% for most AAA games.

PC and (lol) Phone is obviously digital only, at least PC 99% of the time.

Sony and MS will make bigger digtal pushes next gen.

Don't forget all the switch games coming out requiring a download. If Nintendo were ever to cut off servers (which they have done with Wii, and one day they will with the Switch) good luck playing that game you "own".

 
One chain reaction this is going to do is increase the quality of pre-order bonuses. Cancelling GCU will significantly reduce the number of games sold at launch, so to give incentive, it's likely the pre-order bonuses will be higher quality. May mean more steelbooks, for those who want to find a silver lining in all this.

As long as they don't pull any snakey bullshit, like offer really important DLC as a pre-order only exclusive.

 
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If we lose all 20% on Amazon too I will only be buying niche games and the very, very seldomly AAA games. Sad indeed.

 
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Flock to the Best Buy forums and bitch people! Maybe they’ll reconsider seeing how gamers will leave in droves.
 
I'm just here for the meltdowns.

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SacCityGamer said:
Welp, I won't be buying anything from Best Buy anymore, just like before GCU. Not even non-video game stuff. Screw them. This sucks. I've spent upwards of $2500 there in the last two years with GCU mostly on video games but I've given them business for computers, TVs, and other stuff too because I appreciated them so much for doing GCU. They can die a slow death now for all I'm concerned.
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That's the stuff!

 
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David Hibiki said:
Ever?
Digital sales are already over 50% for most AAA games.
PC and (lol) Phone is obviously digital only, at least PC 99% of the time.
Sony and MS will make bigger digtal pushes next gen.
Don't forget all the switch games coming out requiring a download. If Nintendo were ever to cut off servers (which they have done with Wii, and one day they will with the Switch) good luck playing that game you "own".
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You have sources for all of this?
 
Sigh....I was thinking of re-newing my GCU earlier this month too. Mine ends in October, so I gotta pre-order everything.

And I was going to hit best buy elite plus this year too.
 
Poor Ubisoft. No one will ever pre-order their games ever again lol. Just wait until their typical 50% price drop in 4 months.

 
David Hibiki said:
Ever?
Digital sales are already over 50% for most AAA games.
PC and (lol) Phone is obviously digital only, at least PC 99% of the time.
Sony and MS will make bigger digtal pushes next gen.
Don't forget all the switch games coming out requiring a download. If Nintendo were ever to cut off servers (which they have done with Wii, and one day they will with the Switch) good luck playing that game you "own".
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I'd love to know where you're getting that 50 percent digital sales number from.

Personally, I don't think physical games are going anywhere. Gamers are a stubborn bunch. Remember when MS tried that always online nonsense? I don't think the industry will stand for it. There will definitely be more games that are digital only, but physical games will still exist.
 
awp said:
Flock to the Best Buy forums and bitch people! Maybe they’ll reconsider seeing how gamers will leave in droves.
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It's highly unlikely they care. This is almost certainly a money loser for them. They likely tried to experiment to see if it would get more gamers in the store to buy other stuff, and eventually reached the conclusion that it wasn't worth the losses GCU was generating.
 
aether23 said:
Can anyone actually confirm if it still works in store or not?
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Miker525 said:
Someone confirmed earlier in the thread it's no longer working in stores. I just texted my old co-workers there too to get some further info if possible.

Incredibly stupid move by BB. If they don't replace it with a new program they're about to lose a shit ton of customers
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I'd like to know the answer to this too. No disrespect to the poster from earlier, but I'm not going to rely on just the word of 1 post. Can anyone else confirm? If I get to a local store, I'll certainly report back with my own results.

 
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fuck. 

it had to end sometime I guess, since BB makes no money off games sold with this, in fact probably even loses money...

 
Chuck Stank said:
You have sources for all of this?
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https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-05-16-ubisofts-operating-income-grows-40-percent-as-digital-takes-50-percent-of-sales Ubisoft's digital revenue is over 50%

http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2017/11/03/activision-blizzard-says-shift-towards-digital-real-good-thing/ Activision says digital sales are increasing 5% per year. It should be at or above 50% this holiday.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/29/16385622/nintendo-wii-shop-channel-january-2019-shut-down-download-games

You won't be able to download Wii games sometime after 2019.

My source is a simple google search. Thanks for playing people.

 
RabbiHick said:
I'd love to know where you're getting that 50 percent digital sales number from.

Personally, I don't think physical games are going anywhere. Gamers are a stubborn bunch. Remember when MS tried that always online nonsense? I don't think the industry will stand for it. There will definitely be more games that are digital only, but physical games will still exist.
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Eh, Idk about that. Almost all of your physical PS4/Xbox One games are buggy, nearly unplayable messes without at least the day 1 patch, and with every game requiring an install anyway, there's almost no incentive anymore unless you are a collector of any sort. I don't want to see them go either, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if this gen is the end of physical games.

 
It's disappointing, but just means that Microcenter, Newegg and Amazon get even more of my business. 

Humble, Valve, GOG and various bundle sites probably will pick up some extra business as well, as if I'm not getting 20% off while new-ish, lots of console purchases just turn into digital purchases waiting to glut my Steam backlog.

 
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Definitely a sad day. My game buying will drop significantly after it expires (in about a year). It's nice never paying more than 48 bucks for a game, and honestly I hardly ever pay more than 35 by the time the credit card 5% rewards and RZ certs are factored in, even on the rare occasion I buy day 1 games.
 
RabbiHick said:
I'd love to know where you're getting that 50 percent digital sales number from.

Personally, I don't think physical games are going anywhere. Gamers are a stubborn bunch. Remember when MS tried that always online nonsense? I don't think the industry will stand for it. There will definitely be more games that are digital only, but physical games will still exist.
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The 50% stat is one I've heard on numerous podcasts like gamescoop and giantbomb. It's also consistent with numbers coming out of EA, Ubi, Activision, and Bethesda - all of whom have reported huge (and year to year rising) revenue from digital sales.

And the fact that consumers seem more than happy to trade convenience for property rights will only hasten the pace.

Now will physical go away entirely? I don't think so and that was never my argument. However, physical games are already clearly a premium item that more and more publishers are going to use as a means to upsell. By next gen, I expect some big games will be physical only through preorders. It's inevitable, and consumers sadly seem to be fine with it.
 
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@BestBuy on twitter has like no interactions on there posts, but its increasing now!

Cheapy is using #saveGCU on Twitter. Lets get it trending.

 
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David Hibiki said:
https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2017-05-16-ubisofts-operating-income-grows-40-percent-as-digital-takes-50-percent-of-sales Ubisoft's digital revenue is over 50%

http://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2017/11/03/activision-blizzard-says-shift-towards-digital-real-good-thing/ Activision says digital sales are increasing 5% per year. It should be at or above 50% this holiday.

https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/29/16385622/nintendo-wii-shop-channel-january-2019-shut-down-download-games

You won't be able to download Wii games sometime after 2019.

My source is a simple google search. Thanks for playing people.
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So your source is from Ubisoft only but you made no mention of that in your original post where you stated “most AAA games.” And you also quoted some guy in an Activision earnings call. Wow, great research buddy!
 
Here's hoping discontinuing this doesn't mean no more $10 rewards, was looking forward to some preorders this fall. Thankfully they reminded me to renew last month.. BB has basically had all my retail purchases for the last few years with this.

 
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