Found this article on Kotaku a while ago. It's huge so I'll just post the link and a few snippets of it:
EXPOSED! The Ugly Truth of Pre-Ordering Pushing: Part OneFirstly, you should know that my last year at EB was the year the merger had already finalized and the company was changing. Some employees weren't happy with the direction of the company and became vocal about their concerns, in response EB/GameStop tweaked the employee policy forbidding employees the freedom to discuss any company issues they had in public or online. According to the new policy, if an employee posted any messages regarding the company as an employee on a message board you could be fired for stating your personal opinion.
Pre-ordering is a beast that monkey's created which is never necessary due to big box retailers. Sure, employees will threaten that you won't be able to find that copy of Disgaea in their stores if you don't preorder… and it's true at EB Games, but go across the street and within three Best Buy's you'll have your hands on a copy. But you might ask, EB/GameStop are huge companies aren't they? Well, they are and apparently they aren't aware of it.
Disclaimer: The following information describes the process in Canada. EB Canada is totally separate from EB USA. Same company, totally different buying staff and power… but I believe it's more of the same.
UNDERSTANDING INVENTORY
EB Canada will only buy product from a publisher if they fall into categories…
1. The title is from a long standing series with respectable sales numbers to equal great product (ie. Madden)
2. The title history also shows a strong trade/used game sales ratio.
3. The company was forced to purchase a specific amount of one title in order to obtain a specific quantity of another of the publishers titles that fall into the first two points. (ie. In order for EB Canada to get a specific number of units of BEST SELLER GAME X, PUBLISHER X forced the buyers to purchase a specific amount of lower-tier titles from their upcoming library to increase their GAME X shipments.)
4. The buyers are convinced by the marketing team of a publisher that they should invest in a title from their distributor.
To prove the points above, Tony Hawk's American Wasteland was one of EB Canada's major focuses in 2004 and every store was shipped a ridiculous amount of inventory based on the success of the franchise, regardless of the fact that the series was on a major down slope with it's fans (based on the reception of the changes made since Tony Hawk's Underground).
The main point is that the buyers at EB Games Canada don't know or understand the industry at all. They overbuy based on the name of the game and what previous iterations have sold. So, by that mentality… if they have so many units coming in from a distributor why should you be forced into preordering?
A very interesting article for many reasons. Most people don't realize that EB Canada is somewhat of a separate entity. Half the time buying games in Canada is by importing them from the states. Dozens of games I personally have had interest in every year either never got sold here, didn't receive pre-order bonus's or special editions, or only 1 copy for like a 300 mile radius.
Very strange because some items that I know Americans have had trouble finding are practically overflowing. We've never had a DS shortage here, in fact we had so many they were stacking them by the case. Even when the Lite came out you could walk in within a couple of days of it's release and find one. Even stranger you could still buy SNES, Genesis and Dreamcast games new up to a couple of years ago depending on the game. All because of this over-saturation of stock, not to mention half of the games I see on rarity lists are a dime a dozen.
The problem is whether your in the US or Canada, you can never fully predict what will be hard to find and what you can buy somewhere else cheaper. A game you expect to be high in demand may only get 2 copies per store i.e. GHII or such while sometimes an obscure franchise who's name you can't pronounce get's 20. Fifteen of which end up in the bargain bin within 2 weeks.
I mean really, what kind of retailer would think that nobody would buy the CE edition of Splinter Cell for the 360? or Star Trek for the DS/PSP? Well apparently EB Canada is one of them. With a population 10 times our size no wonder you have so many different retailers for video games in the US. You need that many to combine together so you can find what your looking for. Game shopping must be a multistage process whether your price-shopping or not. Like buying bread at one market and milk from another because one doesn't sell both.
I know retail space is a factor as well. With so many systems out there each square foot of the store has to be measured out according to what's selling and what isn't. I read somewhere that a new trend of "roaming stock" is popular these days. They keep the stock on trucks because it's cheaper than maintaining a warehouse. Of course that also means delays and limited space which no doubt lends a helping hand to their being choosier about what titles they decide to sell.
Gamestop/EB may be wary of digital distribution and how it threatens their bottom line but they sure aren't showing how the brick and mortar way is any bit more convenient, cheaper or have better variety. Ironic that games are a bigger industry now than ever and yet fewer retailers are around to sell them than there were 10 years ago.
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