Shopping For Games At Target = Teh Weirdness
So yesterday evening, whilst wandering through a Target store near my friend's house, I was told about the game Overlord. Since it was a relatively new title, I figured I'd go and see if the game was for sale. When we sauntered over to the gaming section, we found that it wasn't in the 360 case, but the thing was so barren that I went and asked the clerk if they had any copies in the back. He went to look and was gone for about five minutes, so the two of us amused ourselves by looking at the really barren PS3 selection. It was weird, let me tell you: there were only about seven or eight games actually stocked, and a lot of slots were designated for upcoming titles like Stranglehold and Heavenly Sword... neither of which is due out for at least a few weeks.
The clerk returned to tell me that Overlord isn't being sold in any of Target's stores; it's only available online, which got a raised eyebrow from both me ad my friend. When I asked if he knew why, the guy told me it could've been any number of reasons, but it could be due to the game's "mature themes." I didn't say anything, but I'm pretty sure that isn't the reason, since far more adult games are still being sold in the stores.
So, yeah, the shopping experience was super-weird, but it's the first time I've gone shopping for games at Target in a couple of years. Has anyone else encountered strangeness like this?
Boy of Tomorrow
Posted to Miscellany, Video Games on 11 August 2007
· Comments (6)
Other stuff like this: heavenly sword, overlord, ps3, saint's row, strange selection, stranglehold, target, video games, weirdness, xbox 360
oh yeah. target's super-weird. just do an online search for final fantasy and you'll see what i mean - when ff1 came out for the psp i went to target first because i had a gift card, but it wasn't there. looking online, i see that both of the psp final fantasies are available online, but not in stores (this throws the 'mature themes' argument right out the window, since i've seen gta and mgs for the psp in target stores). in addition, if you scroll down a bit more, you'll find that ff6 for the gba is available in stores, but not online.
huh?
Yes, Target is VERY strange when it comes to video games. As a Team Lead of that department for Target I have a hard time understanding how they work the video games. I have no good answer either, it's not due to matrure rated content, and they are very specific on what titles are to appear in exactly what spot in the case- strange. We are even to remove titles from these shelves and put them in the back, which I dont' like doing and try to have as many titles displayed as possible. As for the FF thing- we have both titles in my store currently, so who knows how it all works.
I went to chez Target last week with some mad money and wanted to buy a Wii game. If I couldn't find anything interesting to me (like Wario Ware, Mercury Meltdown since I didn't know it got pushed back and made a budget title, or Trauma Center) I was just gonna pick up RE4 as a birthday present for my brother.
Not only did they not have any of those titles, but all they had was a few launch-window titles (Red Steel, Elebits, that golf thing, and a couple others) and licensed cartoon stuff. Oh yeah, and Mario Party 8, in case that doesn't count as licensed cartoon stuff. The Wii section was about 80-90% empty. I ended up buying a classic controller and points card, and went over to EB Games to pick up RE4. I assumed the case was empty because they were going to get a bunch of new games on Tuesday, but as of Wednesday, still exactly the same.
Kinda painful to say, but I wish I'd gone to Wal-Mart in the first place. Shopping there later revealed both Trauma Center and RE4 in their Wii case. Wal-mart at least knows enough not to waste display space for weeks at a time.
Sounds to me like Target is selling shelf-space.
Yeah, I was at Target yesterday looking at the games section. The cases were all about half empy. The PSP section had less than half the shelves filled. Same for Wii, 360, and PS3 shelves. It was really weird since there are a lot of games out, but it appeard that Target just didn't restock, or is trying to phase out selling games in the store. It's just...odd.
It also seems to be something about Overlord. I went to a couple of Gamestops and Targets both and never saw it on a shelf. I finally asked at another Gamestop and they did have it--but not on the shelf, only behind the counter. The result of this? I decided to wait on this title, figuring it won't sell well and will drop in price quickly....