Had my long promised trawl of Dublin city's gaming finest today and..... came away with little sadly
The goal was to try and fine three DS games in particular, preferably new, at a good price. These are Fire Emblem DS, Harvest Moon DS and Yoshi's Island DS.
I had a good look through HMV on Henry St. They had a lot of sealed "pre-owned" games. Was going to pick up a few, none that were really anything all that wonderful, but I was curious and... at €8 - 12 each they were good value, but I decided to hold fire on them as I thought I'd need the cash later. Nothing interesting of note new though, and my three games weren't there.
Next stop was an old workplace of mine near HMV - GameStop. They had a lot of pre-owned and quite a good bit of new, though their prices were very high. They even had a new copy of Polarium for €25 and the case was all yellowing, probably sat there on the shelf since the DS Phat came out all those years ago - idiots!
None of my three games were there, though they did have a couple of copies of that second HM DS game, but it was well over priced
Thats GamesStop for ya in general like....
Had a quick nose into Smyths - loads of games but most were censored kids' crap. Left sharpish...
GAME on Dawson Street - walked in the door of the place and was horrified as there was nobody in the shop! The manageress and a security guy and that was it! Well, I did see one guy lurking down the back after I went in, but really.... I never seen a branch of GAME deserted like that before - I remember the days when all three GAME shops in Dublin were packed the whole time, now they've only one branch left and its deserted... that company may be in trouble....
Perhaps the reason is the huge reliance on pre-owned? I felt that there was far and away more second hand in that shop than new in the DS section. Many people don’t like second hand, so by focusing on it predominantly in this store, and in many others I feel they may be turning punters off. Maybe the publishers aren’t making enough games? Possibly, but they’re not stupid, and maybe GAME aren’t ordering games because they want to focus on the margin-heavy pre-owned sector.. But by doing this they are limiting their new range in a big way. Not good as I say for those of us who like our games mint.
I did find Harvest Moon DS in GAME second hand anyway, for €15. I didn’t buy it as it looked a bit meh. I think I’ll get in new somehow or get one of the Rune Frontiers instead for my farming needs!
Finally games-wise in the city centre I hit HMV and went through everything. Found a sealed Rhapsody for the DS for €11. Tempted I have to say, as I’m a bit of a Nippon Ichi fan boy, but I left it to save the coin for something that I truly wanted. Found a new Harvest Moon DS but it was old as the hills and €35! No chance.
Poked about a bit more and finally found something worth having - Space Invaders Extreme 2, brand new and sealed for €18. Yeah I could have got it cheaper probably but I just wanted something tangible for my afternoon’s efforts, and I really liked the review of it in Edge - think I played a demo of it at one point too - looks like a “real” DS game this….. Can’t wait to play it.
Fucked off out of the city centre and headed home, but not before stopping off at the Dundrum Shopping Centre. Did one GAME concession, HMV and then onto the main GAME outlet. Picked up a new and sealed copy of Advance Wars Dark Conflict for €11 and Big Bang Mini, new but unsealed for €7 - pretty happy with them it has to be said
A long and slightly disappointing tour of the game shops of Dublin, but it was fun I suppose and nice to take a day out of my rather busy life to do something I quite like doing - hunting for games. I did manage to pick up three excellent titles too it has to be said, so its all good
) but I found a copy of Yoshi's Island DS pre-owned in HMV and it was in German. And beaten up to buggery. And €18 