GameStop’s Failures are the FGC’s Loss

A Young Omegal Frugal

In the early 2000s after a young Omega Frugal survived Y2K, he’d take his paycheck from a hard days work of collecting baskets in the parking lot from the local grocery store over to the local Funcoland. Yung Frugal took his hard-earned money to buy multiple games – something like RE2 for the Nintendo 64 and Soul Calibur for the Dreamcast. Once on his way to buy his latest game with the highest scores in Dreamcast Magazine, he struck up a conversation with a new hire. Then a MvC2 challenge was thrown down. That employee said “bring your stick and lets fire up some MvC2”.

Reminiscing, my team of Hayato, Gambit, and Psylocke barely managed to survive those sets, but it was in a sense my first taste of some semblance of a local. That’s how I want to remember GameStop (electronic boutique, Babbage, Funcoland) as they are on their deathbed. Instead, I’m left thinking about how GameStop’s failures are a loss to the fighting game community.

Power to the Profits

GameStop’s stock is rumored to sink below $5 dollars and they are cashing out due to their shortsightedness. They’re a company always looking at short term profit. From collecting cell phones to becoming a weeaboo Hot Topic, for the last 10 years, they never had a true identity. GameStop once had the tag line, “Where Gamer’s Live”, but that was lip service. Profits were king, and profit now makes them look like a pauper. The company had numerous options to pivot into a vintage game seller, a game developer, or even stay the course (if they possessed passionate corporate employees). The biggest opportunity missed was to not venture into the FGC.

Too little too late?



In the context of locals, the advent of home consoles fidelity and online play contributed to the death of arcades. However, a giant factor that prevented many games and players from achieving greatness was lag. Lag, along with a disjointed community, proves too difficult when trying to reach those new heights of skill. There was a reason to go in-person. Imagine a regular, in-person community within a business that was designed to feed itself back into that system. This was completely lost, though: the switch from Funcoland to Gamestop meant no more demo games, giving way to the death of a community.

Twatch, Tweeter? Those are just fads

GameStop was in a position to capitalize immensely. Think of EVO moment 37, Twitch, and Street Fighter 4. Together, they gave an amazing resurgence to the FGC. Failing to identify these trends, they lost ground to the boon of locals reemerging and vibrant scene replete with pure fukkery. GameStop’s failures in this show that they were oblivious.



Location-wise, they are in the perfect areas: high foot traffic strip-malls in metro and suburban areas. Multiple demographics have a local to talk tech and compete, all while being broadcast on Twitch. If GameStop been more observant, tournaments could have been hosted, small pools. They could’ve grown into weekend events, driving more foot traffic to stores, thereby more purchases. GameStop could’ve partnered with Red Bull and fighting game developers, making them the preeminent spot for FGC tournaments.

:The Possibilities

GameStop’s Failures



It’s a shame to see what GameStop has become: existing only as a passionless corporation shilling the mantra, “Where Gamers Live”. It’s sad, because Gamestop fails to live it at the corporate level. Looking at what could’ve been, it’s hard to reconcile the company now with some of my favorite memories of the early 2000s. While the loss to the FGC is real, I encourage you to continue to be a part of the FGC by creating and supporting locals on FGseen.

If you have any favorite moments from Funcoland to GameStop, let us know in the comments.

January 19, 2020

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