Videogames on sale on release week (1 Viewer)

[Jason Borchers]

What's weird is that Game Boy games are often discounted in the first week. Target, Best Buy, and Circuit City regularly put new games on sale for $25 (retail: $30).

So why is this almost never done for console games?

 

[Jeff Kleist]

Because cartridge games must be finished a minimum of 6 weeks before street date. Plenty of time to change the ads

 

[BrianB]

The GBA market being so depressed probably doesn't help.

 

[Jason Borchers]

The GBA market being so depressed probably doesn't help.

Is it really "depressed"? Everything I've seen indicates GBA sales have been huge.

 

[BrianB]

Is it really "depressed"? Everything I've seen indicates GBA sales have been huge.

If you're not Nintendo, it's depressed. Noone buys titles that are "unlicenced" (ie don't have a well known name attached to them) in any numbers whatsoever regardless of the quality of the title. The only real exceptions are games from Nintendo, and they /usually/ are previously known franchises - I'd say the exceptions are Advance Wars & Golden Sun.

Right now, publishers are NOT doing any sort of non-franchise GBA game. Large well known British GBA specialist, Crawfish, known for a stellar port of Street Fighter Alpha for example, just went bust because they couldn't get deals.