Curious Jeff: DS Games At Retail

My Best Buy doesn't even put games on the shelves! They just have random carts (like book carts at the library, not shopping carts) with games stacked on them. It's like they just roll out the games from the back and are to lazy to move them to a shelf. It takes 10 min. to find the game you're looking for, or realize they don't have it. Also, I went there the other day to pick up Alan Wake and the new copy was less expensive than the used one.  

There is no good place to buy games if you don't have a credit card.

I find that all of the shelves at my BestBuy look shabby and in need of some attention. EB Games on the other hand has a pretty good wall of DS games, with enough room for multiple copies of new games to be displayed and a pretty substantial backlog of older DS games lining the shelf. Almost on par with the Wii section there.

I was in a few Targets recently trying to pick up a clearance-priced copy of Mass Effect 2, with no success, and I didn't notice anything too out of the ordinary with their video games, aside from the fact that they all ditched the giant glass cabinets in favor of individually locked cubby-holes displaying the game held within. The DS section was pretty barren, with barely any titles I would be remotely interested in, but that's par for the course.
 
I was also in a Kmart a few months ago trying to take advantage of one of their crazy buy one, get one brand new game plus a $30 credit deals, which also didn't work out because they claimed to not honor deals that are posted online, even though Kmartgamer.com said all stores would. Their games section was a mess, with a couple different clearance bins littered with crap dating back to the GBA. 
 
I don't know how it is by you guys, but I've learned to positively hate doing my game shopping at big-box retail stores. It's always a pain trying to find someone to get the game you want out of whatever secure case it's in, the prices take way longer to drop than they do at Gamestop or on Amazon, the sections aren't well organized, and the staff doesn't know anything about games to begin with. Anytime I hear about an awesome sale at Walmart or Best Buy, it's usually gone by the time I get there. Unless you have something else you need to buy, I don't understand why people go to those places to buy all their games. 
 
For a few years I've bought almost all my games on Amazon, and haven't paid full price for the vast majority of them, even on release day. I still like to check Gamestop for heavily-discounted gems among the racks of box-less PS2 games and weird DS titles, which usually pays off. Getting Jet Set Radio Future for 99 cents was awesome. You can't do that at the big-box stores anymore. While they may charge way too much for recently-released used games, Gamestop is still the best physical store for timely pre-order pickups and a selection of hard-to-find older games. 
 
As for the state of the DS, there are still plenty of games coming out that I want to play like Ghost Trick and Radiant Historia. I already have a 3DS on pre-order, but if Zelda isn't a launch title then it looks like I'll be using it to finish up my DS library.

You are correct on your thoughts, Jeff.  I only have a single game on my want list for the DS and I also consider Japanese imports too.  I think it's pretty obvious that all signs are point towards 3DS at the expense of the current DS hardware.

Mine has nothing.

For the record, in reference to your caption about buying from Amazon: like your story, this obviously varies from person to person, but I preordered it with next-day shipping from Amazon so I could get it as soon as it came out. Fast-forward to now, where I'm still waiting for it to arrive and it's been supposedly "out for delivery" in my town for the last 3 days.

The retailers I usually shop at in Australia (JB Hi-fi and EB Games) have very neat and well organised DS sections.

I dunno what the other stores around me look like, but the one I work in - the DS games are mostly crap shovelware, and not very well organized... although we do keep all of them cased/wrapped somehow.  I would be much happier if we didn't so much of the god-awful shovelware though.

I went looking for a copy of Picross in my local MD Best Buy last weekend.  The DS section was a couple of shelves of unorganized boxes, most marked with discount stickers.

The Best Buy where I live is awesome.  Always clean and in order and most important, up to date.

Sounds like that DS section is still doing better than most PSP sections. The best thing Sony ever did for the PSP was to go download, and I doubt the DS or even the 3DS will take that route. New Zealand's Best Buy equivalent is pretty similar to yours. The thing with Ghost Trick is that it isn't a blockbuster. Some non-game-specific retailers around here didn't even stock games like Vanquish.

That's weird, last I heard the 3DS was still going to be able to play DS games so there'd be no reason to drop support of newly released DS titles until a fair while into the 3DS's lifespan.

As a former Best Buy employee, I can tell you right now that they could give a shit less about their handheld gaming stuff.  Even when I worked there some time back, Game Boy Advance games were treated like shit all around.  They were also more concerned about having copies of the latest Spongebob game more than Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. 
 
When it comes down to it, retail stores typically don't give a crap about it.  It's the reason why the bargain bins at Wal-Mart and Best Buy are typically filled to the brim with DS and PSP games.

I own a DS and I prefer to look at PS3 games, which are completely meaningless to me, when I'm in EB.

Best Buy has been one of the most unreliable stores for games launches up here in Vancouver. EB seems to be the only story that gets games on time. Best Buy is later in the week, if you're lucky, but the best bet would be to try again the next week. Also, it's damn hard to get some freakin service in a Best Buy. The hounds a Future Shop are pretty annoying when you're just browsing, but having to walk all the damn way across the store to get someone to open up the PSP cabinet almost isn't worth it.

found a copy of Ghost Trick at GameStop after I went to see the Green Hornet tonight.   They already had a used copy for $19.99, as well as NIB for $29.99.  I couldn't decide if this game was worth a purchase or not.  I'm hoping there might be a Quick Look or Review coming soon to fill me in on the details.  Then, maybe I'll head back to the store and get a copy.

@Jeff I'm about halfway through Ghost Trick. If you guys want me to review it for you, I'd be more than happy to do so :)

Best Buy has been a total joke for Capcom DS games as long as I've known the store.  I've gone there week of release for the first three Ace Attourney games to find the same result Jeff did.  If you call them up beforehand to ask if it is in stock, they'll lie and say yes just to get you in.  I'm convinced you can name a fake product and they will claim to stock it, until you show up to claim it, and they'll push some HDMI wires on you instead. 
 
I've learned my lesson and pre-ordered from Amazon this time.   
 
Although the funny thing is, Professor Layton is a huge smash there.  I rolled in on my way home from work last year to see if they had Unwound Future, and was greeted with a full cardboard display for the game.

My local Sears seems to have stopped carrying PS3s and 360s, but still carries a handful of games for the systems and all the Nintendo stuff you would expect to find. One of the reasons I won't buy a nintendo system is because whenever you go to the nintendo section of a store it just reeks of shovelware. Finding a decent game for the Nintendo systems is impossible unless you want a Mario game.

I think for a while, the DS has had the most software retailers are willing to... well.. ignore.  Even the cool, unique stuff, like Ghost Trick, or 999 (haven't found a copy yet.)  It's a shame that a system that has so many real QUALITY software, is drowning from the weight of so much shovelware.  It's not as bad as the Wii, mind you, but the bar of quality of the GOOD games is certainly higher.

The "ransacked" look would mostly be due to the people who generally shop the ds section, Children. so you could realistically alphabetize the section every morning and one kid can ruin your day.

DS is dead. PSP is dead. 
 
And that's the end of that

Can't remember the last time I've seen any DS that didn't have an R4 or pokemon cart in it.  

The DS-section in my local Best Buy is pretty much as you described yours, Jeff. Tons of games out of place and out of order. Lots of random crap on the floor or below the game racks, some of which came from different aisles entirely. A few opened game boxes here and there. The store also just doesn't stock that section as well as any other game section, except maybe the PSP isle. Major recent releases like Golden Sun: Dark Dawn weren't in-store until about a month after its release date. So this totally doesn't surprise me in the least. Still, it's a little sad for a platform with as massive a user-base as the DS'.

This reminds me of my difficulty finding Ace Attorney games.

EB Games in Australia doesn't stock any games that are worth playing that are not a year old or more.

I work at a GAME store and we have a listing but never ever got any stock. I didn't think anyone did

Don't look and don't care about electronic store selections in my town. I can buy Picross 3D or Kirby's Epic Yarn at my local drug store if I want, along with any colour DSi or a red Wii. And yes I absolutely care about playing Picross, Layton, Ghost Trick, not to mention Birth By Sleep, Persona 3, the next Hero 30 Second, and finishing up both Prinnys.  Last week I went from 96% to 97% mission completion in Crisis Core, playing on my TV. Nice break from my holiday S-ranking.
 
I love the games available on handhelds. I own NA and JP versions of PSP and DS hardware. And I'm not going to let a dumb ass thing like brick and mortar retailers influence my purchasing or playing decisions. We should be past this by now. I love having a physical box for a lot of my games, but I love it even more when it shows up in my mailbox.

The DS had a good run, but I honestly cannot wait for the 3DS and its subsequent models. After Golden Sun and Ace Attorney Investigations 2 I'll sit back and wait for the discounts.

Reminds me of when I couldn't find Blur anywhere. A UK developed game published by Activision and it just wasn't in stores and employees hadn't heard of it (In the UK). Kind of disappointing that aisles are practically filled with Call of Dutys and Halos and some fantastic games get practically no representation, if they are there at all.

My local Best Buy has a decent selection of up-to-date DS games. As well as a 'healthy' bargain bin. Though, to be honest, to hell with all that jazz. I get my DS games, and physical games in general, through Amazon nowadays. It's impossible to find things that came out a few months ago in a store, and it has been that way for handheld games FOREVER. The exception being a system failure; I remember seeing Neo Geo Pocket Colors like CRAZY at Gamestop - bundled with games - after they officially dropped support for that system (still kicking myself for not picking one of those up). 
 
The internet mans. It's the reason for the season.

As an update, I hit my local Wal-mart today and they also did not have any stock for Ghost Trick anywhere at all.

The thing I hate most about DS games is that they never go on sale in retail stores where I live. The best deals you'll find are 20 bucks for some random shovelware titles. Thus, I don't own a DS.

Yay an editorial! Giant Bomb does not have enough of these. On topic I don't have a DS but my brother does and there does seem to be some difficulty getting the games he wants at retail outlets.

The Store I work in often forgets to take out new DS games when they come out.  We had Golden Sun for a month and I never saw it behind the glass. No, it's not Kmart.

Best Buy and all other big box electronic retailers are a waste of time to visit. Come to think of it, all physical retail is terrible. That is why I buy as much as I can online. If Amazon sold more groceries, I'd buy those online too.

" If Amazon sold more groceries, I'd buy those online too. "

Seems that the DS is still going strong but I do agree that most retail stores are probably more than tired of the endless horde of shovelware that nortoriously afixes itself to anything that is now labeled for Nintendo. I think if Nintendo clamps down on the developers putting out the shovelware to put out better games or doesn't do business with them then things might be better. Retail stores are in the business to sell the games, but shovelware has a habit of not selling after a while to where it ends up in the clearance bins more than anything else.

" @mr_shoeless said:

" If Amazon sold more groceries, I'd buy those online too. "

YES "

Have you noticed the majority of DS games that are you being made on a daily basis? Petz, Cooking Mama etc. It's those types of games that someone in Best Buy though tit was a good idea to stock to the brim with. They need some new marketing and supply consultants.

We had a few copies in my Gamestop, Jeff. You should have let me know...
:O

Best Buy is terrible.  Luckily I have a Fry's nearby that is freakin' awesome.  Go to Fry's.

This sounds eerily similar to the GBA->DS transition.
Well, I hope we get an yggdra union (or hopefully something better) out of it.

I pre-ordered Ghost Trick Phantom Detective in October. So i had no problem getting it :P it arrived in my mailbox yesterday but i haven't opened it yet. Need to finish Professor Layton and the Lost Future first. I never want to play a new game before iv'e finished my old games for some reason.
 
I got the european version since im Swedish so. The European boxart is better than the American boxart imo :P but who cares. It's the same game. And im so f'ing eager to play it.
 
Also pre-ordered a 3DS because it will be pretty epic imo.
 
www.webhallen.com > ALL
 
they only ship in Sweden tho :/ best prices ever.

To be honest i don't buy games in stores all that much any more even dedicated gaming ones so can't really say how things are for the DS in them, i prefer online where i can shop around and find the best deal, I managed to get my copy of ghost trick in the UK online from shopto with out a problem.