Presell or face certain doom...what?

[Kristev]

With the exception of really wishing to play as Rose SF 4, I am quite content to remain rather out of the video game world. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a prude. It's just that I would rather play old "Maniac mansion", and "Super Mario 3", and "Hoyle classic card games" than waste my precious, limited funding from my hard-earned underpaycheck on keeping up with the latest technologies.

And, to be fair, I got SF 4 on a sale from e-bay and could play it on Steam . . . My blunder to learn my video card refuses to work with it and I need a new one. Oh well, there's next tax time for that.

[lwb]

Now if you could re-download games that you had already paid for (as long as it was on the same machine, or provision was made to "move" that data to a new machine if the old one dies) I could get more on board with that idea.

You can with the PSP. I've bought a few games off the PlayStation Network and can re-download them as long as I tie my PSP to my account. Heck, they let you tie several consoles (3, I think?) at a time to your account and you can put the games on them all at the same time. I think, this is the one thing Sony did right. Of course one right and a bajillion wrongs equals...well...

[Mr Hero]

- We would not have enough copies of hot new games to sell to all the customers who wanted it (we usually get sent 2 extra copies per presell, meaning if a game gets 6 presells, we will be sent 18 copies)

- Customers would get tired of our explanations for not having adequate stock on hand and take their business elsewhere.

This has been my experience with Game Crazy before they went under. I went in looking for 3 separate games. Scribblenauts? Sure I can understand not having a lot lf copies because it's not an established franchise. Kingdom Hearts 258/2 Days? A popular franchise so you'd expect some games. Mario and Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story? A game with Mario? There's no way in HELL that only having enough copies for preorders would be a good idea.

Eventually, I got tired of this, and just took my business to the Best Buy up the road.

So yes, this method works, but if you're running a business, why would you want people getting upset with one of your stores and give money to competition?