Report: GameStop To Share In Digital Revenues For Every Xbox It Sells

It’s amazing how the digital monetisation works.

If anyone can save gamestop it's Xbox..

That's actually kind of disturbing. That means the hardware ID is tracked by retailer.....and that's tracked permanently with your account with resellers getting slice of the permanent pie? XBox following the cell phone model of reseller royalties is actually kind of off-putting.

I see it as a desperate grasp to hold retail for hardware and service in a digital future. But the idea that your console is forever tracked against every purchase you buy based on the serial number that was tied to your purchase location should be a bit worrisome in general. We're following the mobile business model here....

We're moving towards consoles with "activation fees."

@NEStalgia I agree, worrying trend and hope it doesn't go much further than a basic partnership.

@Carck They have your hardware SN linked to your account, of course, that's part of DRM inherently and the point of "Home/Primary XBox."

But tying it to a retailer scanned at POS and including them in the revenue stream, including sharing your entire purchase history/buyer profile with the store, and contributing kickback to the store with every purchase forever simply because you bought the machine in their store? That's cell phone store model...and naturally evil. The partnership seemed like a good idea at first, but the idea of "if we push the hardware on you we get royalties from everything you buy forever" as part of the sales model is shady stuff. Makes me almost appreciate Sony's sales model. Almost.....

@Carck A prepaid card/prepaid gift card is activated at the POS, but, at least to consumer's knowledge, that's never translated to a 2-way data exchange connecting the retailer of the card with the user's purchase history or kickbacks. We can't say for sure how any of these relationships work, but generally the space for gift cards and the like is a flat fee on the initial price of the purchase (since it's prepaid, future actual purchases don't matter.) Maybe Live Gold/PSN/eShop cards have had this kind of per-transaction tie in before, but that seems extraordinarily unlikely.

Only cell phones have (all purchases, including those unrelated to the transaction at the store) getting kickbacks and data exchange. (To consumer knowledge, anyway.)

This seems particularly possible because MS is also entwining with the POS and online systems of the retailer. On the surface, MS contracting themselves for the POS and online operations isn't concerning on its own - they have a whole host of such services and products in their enterprise portfolio, they even run PSN now. But mixing their own product promotion, sales, order support for a key retailer, and adding that to end to end customer tracking and profit sharing....... That's a little too all encompassing. (And I'm glad I didn't buy my SX at GS!)

Maybe Sony and Nintendo are quietly doing similar things. But I'd almost think not. Sony and Nintendo are pushing physical hard. Retailers have less to worry about selling their stuff than MS's that's pushing digital. I could see a profit share on the sub - if the sub is activated with that retailer. But the idea of all MSStore purchases being linked to the retailer - or even DLC purchased for a physical game bought at a different retailer, tethers consumers to support one retailer for years on end. And share their info with them.

Not gonna lie. Kind of makes me glad the guy at my Gamestop gave away the Series X pre-order stickers to his friends. I'd rather order through Amazon than give Gamestop revenue for the life of my console.

Is GameStop still in trouble?

@NEStalgia It's impossible that it works like you're saying at least in EU (no GameStop in UK) because of the data protection law, unless you sign a contract and specifically agree to share your data.

Besides, you are getting worried about a rumour, the article says "Assuming it's true...". 🙄

@BlueOcean I don't think requiring a contract would make it impossible, unless contracts over there work differently than here. Since MS is the one collecting and sharing the data, you'd "sign" that contract by clicking OK on the AUP and Terms logging in to your XBox. If it has a clause in page 1323 that you're "agreeing to share information including purchases and activity on THE SERVICE and other information with partners directly or indirectly associated with THE SERVICE PROVIDER including distribution and sales channel entities."

Bang-o, you've inked the deal!

And just because GS is desperate enough to do it, doesn't mean GAME and the like isn't, as well, though this has more to do with a dead but still walking retailer and MS's shuttered MS stores in the US. But beyond that, It's GameStop, I'd find it harder to believe it isn't true.

@NEStalgia When did Reggie try to destroy GameStop? I missed that.

@BlueOcean He's on the board. Sometime in the past year. So much for "retirement"