Video Game Shopping In The 2000's Was Different

[@SpawnWave]

Apologies for the reupload, noticed some weird audio stuff watching it back here on KZbin in the back half of the video and after processing again it seems to be fixed.

[@caesarh21]

Thought I was going crazy for a sec

[@TonyTynebridge]

I forgive you John, just this once

[@Ricky21240]

Wasn’t sure what went wrong liking the video? Glad you fixed the issue.

[@gibbysg8143]

All good dude. Been subscribed since about 20k or so and thankful for your channel, happy holidays ❤

[@jacobcordell2882]

I doubt that you're going to read every comment but if you see this I just wanted to let you know thank you for all the hard work that you put into this channel!!!

[@al1395-y3d]

Reminder that ToysRUs was profitable and if left alone it would had carried on like BestBuy but it was bought by Private Equity who took loans against ToysRUs to pay themselves and then bankrupted the company because ToysRUs was unable to pay the loans that were taken to enriched the new ownership lol

[@BatLB]

Reminder that if you are bought by private equity, you probably didnt do too hot.

[@Monokai]

​@@BatLBit's almost like the company changed drastically without Lazarus as CEO or chairman, causing the acquisition to happen after it's declined to Walmart as the biggest retailer among other things. The company wasn't the same thing as it was in its hayday and it's new owners basically couldn't give a shit to run it properly. Toys R Us only sold for 6.6 billion (inflation: 10.6 today) which is insane compared to other things that have sold in recent years.

[@avalanche1990]

Also a reminder: While the US store of Toys R Us shut down, the Canadian operation is still going strong oddly enough. I still go to them on occasion around birthdays/ christmas for my younger nieces

[@evermillcreek]

In the UK we have Smyths Toys, which is the best possible replacement anyone could want! Awesome deals too

[@RobertMichaelWalker]

Profitable companies arent susceptible to buy outs... lol. They failed to pivot when Best Buy made their move and it costed them dearly.

[@rovingmauler7410]

One of the saddest things with inflation is that inflation doesn't take into account wages. Inflation far outpaced wages in that time. Everything costs more now but we all make less when compared to inflation. We are negative from 2006.

[@savaget2058]

Thank you, I was about to type this up. Not to mention groceries were dirt cheap back then by comparison. So even if gaming was a bit more expensive, at least the cost of living was relatively low.

[@davidlisteresq]

Speak for yourself. Inflation has gone up 50% but my wages are 100% more than I was earning in 2006. If you are still earning the same money as you were back in 2006 then that sounds like a you problem. Ask for raises, if you don't get them, move to other companies. Go where the money is. Also, the minimum wage where I live increased from £5.35 to £11.44 in that same time period, so even if you only work a minimum wage job, your wages have still doubled since then.

[@rovingmauler7410]

@davidlisteresq I'm obviously speaking in general terms. My wages have more than tripled since then. Inflation and wages aren't about your personal wages. What I'm saying is, if you were living in a better time your wages would be twice as much as they are now.

[@isunlloaoll]

Don’t worry. The billionaires picked up the slack and multiplied their net worth in the past 2 decades. All the while our people continue to vote in the interests of these billionaires. Truly a wonderful future we’ve been heading towards.

[@SnowyTaco]

My last real black friday at midnight was 2016 at Gamestop. I got the white new 3ds mario edition or the one with mario engravings on it for $99. That was a good day

[@Ares78]

Yeah it's no longer an event when every day of November is black Friday. Online shopping may be easier but it takes away the enjoyment. Some of my best memories are of getting up early no matter how cold or warm and stand in line with others anticipating the excitement of the store opening. Chatting with other people in line. It was a great experience that sadly has been mostly lost to time

[@dapperfan44]

The problem isn't the frequency, it's that the discounts ain't worth a damn.

[@cbgg1585]

Tbf, a deal is a deal. A makeup on a pig is still a pig. Say what you want about Black Friday, there are legitimately always cheap games to pick up. As long as there are deals to be had, they can call it whatever they want, be it it an “event” or “sales”.

[@JAmitch-qi7jz]

What you're missing can be had without black Friday deals lol

[@dennisveneman9469]

😂strange point of view​@@cbgg1585

[@kennypowers1945]

@@cbgg1585those sales suck tho and no one wants saints row discounted 🤣

[@jtscorecrystal]

Not only do i feel old but the lack of a time machine is giving me fomo for stuff i already lived through 😂😂

[@CStrachanCreative]

Nothing like a late night nostalgia hit courtesy of the one and only Spawn Wave.

[@BeanieKing]

Spawn wave... AND an episode of Gamers Nexus' Tech Reaper?! Almost makes the Sunday before a normal work week bearable. 😎

[@ozkuz4321]

SPAWN DADDY

[@Zrorro]

Man having work at GameStop since 2009 this takes me back. Back then we used to have a ton of copies of games when stuff came out. We used to have extra bundles in our back room at the location I used to work at back then. There are so many used games back then that we couldn't fit them all in the drawers and also I had to keep some in the back room too. Nowadays I can pretty much keep everything in the front because we don't have nearly as many copies of things as we used to back then. Doing inventory back then was super annoying because there was so many games but nowadays it's easy in comparison. It's certainly was a different time back then when you couldn't buy stuff digitally.

[@MikeJAk49]

I love when people that didn't live during the '90s and 2000s or don't remember it all that much and say that's just nostalgia talking. When you show them movies, games, cost of living and food being better Not just nostalgia with proof all you get is a Reeeeee.

[@Kingston_Guy]

Toys R us is still in Canada come on up and relive your childhood plus your American money goes 30% further or something like that

[@GenerationZ313]

Unfortunately, they no longer sell video games these days. In fact they've actually been clearing their inventory of games over the last several years but even with the discount I couldn't bring myself to buy anything since I have a lot of the game through other means.

[@gamebit9063]

That would have been my only reason to visit Canada now. Oh well!

[@kennypowers1945]

This is when sales were SALES. Now it’s $5 off a $70 game and $475 for new console bundles. Not worth it anymore

[@AustinT97]

This was a fun trip down memory lane. I hope you do another one of these videos in the future. I still have memories of my mom buying our state newspaper on Thanksgiving and going through the different sales magazines and circling the different things I wanted.

[@vizcachu]

We sold the experience for the convenience. Thats modern gaming for you, a convenient bunch of nothing.

[@allen7585]

Exactly. I’d meet cool people in line for a preorder or release. We all were so excited and chat about the game. Today everything and everybody is just bland.

[@batmanbud2]

It's for this exact reason why I despise the PC as a gaming platform. You'll never get the same experience as on a console, even for Switch games.

[@sonicslm4844]

My best memories of game shopping is in Chesterfield, in England, back in the 1990's. We had a huge game shop called Electronics Boutique......the shop was basically split between Sega and Nintendo and had cool posters on the wall, neon signs, games everywhere........trade in was huge. It was such a cool time to be a kid. Of all the things I miss in this digital age, the biggest loss for me is Box art. Sega and Nintendo games just looked and felt like a complete product that you would nurse, obsess over and in my case, draw pictures using the manuals etc.........man nostalgia is a high.

[@diddlez2]

I worked at Best Buy from 2006 to 2008. You could buy a PS3 from the store and sell it in the parking lot the same day for $1200.

[@diddlez2]

And I sold multiple Wii's for $1000

[@infasis]

My brother and his wife went and both bought one, then sold one, and it basically covered the cost of the one they kept. People hate scalping now, but a lot of normal gamers used to do things like that where they'd sit outside all night or find multiple stores, so they could sell one in able to afford their own.

[@RobIn-ky4uz]

Proto Scalpers existed

[@XxZannexX]

@@infasis I don’t think anyone has a problem with your example. The problem people have now is when dozens and dozens are bought by an individual or small group to explicitly resell all of them. This is a business model they’re running which is the reason no one likes them.

[@PokyBallinBabo]

BTW, why are they called "scalpers"? 😮

[@CHEFPKR]

I worked at Gamestop during black Friday 2004. It was such a wild time having mom's trying to buy GameStation X for their kid.

[@roach5606]

No you didnt

[@jimc.3563]

More videos like this please!

[@joltzyclayton8674]

Went to target at 6am on black Friday and it was literally me and the employees. I saw maybe 3 customers and I was there till at least 9:30am. I'm 45 and have never seen anything like it.

[@DiegoRodriguez-cs1ow]

All the sales started early people caught on the people that used to be in line is now constantly checking on their phones

[@100Stratusfiedx]

I think it definitely depends on the location. The mall I went to was in a high tourist location and the other was an outlet

[@Mookie12911]

Most of it has moved to online shopping. The deals were hitting websites the first week of November

[@Nerm176]

People that complain about $70 games don’t realize that we’re lucky they’re only $70 lol

[@pwnomega4562]

That's why I buy games only when they're on sale, unless I know for sure they're gonna be a banger lol I think the only games I've payed full price for have been Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, and Armored core 6

[@Nerm176]

@ well yeah, duh Most ppl should

[@jessekoepp3928]

Considering how awful, buggy, unfinished, and half baked so many "AAA" games are in the modern era, *THEY* are lucky there are as many eager beavers that there are. Those people are dwindling by the way and every year they get smaller, cause even the dimmest of bulbs are realizing they can't count on a game being quality by name recognition alone anymore. You got the relationship between customers and studios completely backwards. We exist without them perfectly fine, they sink without us. Only 1/3 of games bought on Steam are paid for at full price, not because gamers can't/won't pay full price, but because they simply (often times) aren't worth it. I think in the last 5 years, I've bought *maybe* 4-5 games full price, only because I *knew* they were bangers and I wanted to support the developers. The rest can go eat dirt and kick rocks: cough Bioware, cough Blizzard, cough EA, cough Ubislop, cough Microsoft, cough Soyny.

[@M_CFV]

@@jessekoepp3928 i bought elden ring on series x, ps5 and pc full price. No regrets 👍

[@GeneralChaos93]

Wow 15$ for Chibi Robo is crazy imagine buying a few copies of those.. Even used it goes for 200$ and up

[@cbgg1585]

Yeah, and imagine buying Bitcoin at $8 in 2011… Bitcoin recently cracked 100k… Hindsight: 20/20

[@KnightFire_Metal]

Wish I had a time machine. I slept on that and Path of Radiance.

[@GenerationZ313]

​@KnightFire_Metal I remember seeing Path of Radiance at a thrift store over 10 years ago for ~$5. Unfortunately, the case was empty. As for its sequel Radiant Dawn, I saw a copy at EB Games Canada for $14.99 but I didn't have the money to get it immediately and somebody else bought it instead.

[@kennypowers1945]

@@cbgg1585man I wish, I remember looking at bitcoin in 2018 and I thought it being 1400 was too high lol

[@evermillcreek]

I would play every single copy of those Chibi Robos 😋

[@rileydunevent7831]

Greatest Black Friday was 2017 and 2018 where GameStop literally gave you a free 360. Started my 360 modding addiction

[@hangingon]

A free 360? How do I not remember anything about that? Was it some loophole

[@rileydunevent7831]

@ literally you bought it and then you submitted a rebate and they send you a visa gift card for the 69.99. So I guess you had to pay taxes but basically free.

[@emanhero6311]

This Black Friday was the first time I didn't walk into any store to buy games. It was all Steam and Amazon. It's crazy how time changes things.

[@ghost-type]

This Black Friday has been the worst I've ever experienced. Sales were pretty much what you would normally see, with very few exceptions.

[@RunicSigils]

Yeah, I can't say I've paid attention to most sales in general, but from what I've seen, this year made me just think "the government removing tax for a while gives more of a discount". You might as well just wait until the middle of December here.

[@enthused7591]

The fact that you can find good condition used DS Lites STILL today for $35-$45 says a lot about how underrated and slept on it is. When I learned a couple years ago that the DS Lite still had a GBA cartridge reader in it, I went on Ebay and bought a couple dozen of them for under $45 each. Just such a wildly underrated system, and it'll definitely be a $100 handheld again one day like the GBA SP.

[@philipberlanda]

Keep in mind that video games weren't as popular 20 years ago as they are now. Also because of digital copies they don't have to make as many copies. So there will be less deals because they arnt as desperate to sell more copies. A game is more likely to sell out or go on sale a couple months after release if the game doesn't do well.

[@lutherheggs451]

Who is they? You do know that retail stores buy the goods from the company and can then set the price to whatever they want right? Sony, MS and Nintendo have nothing to do with what stores sell games for MSRP is manufacturer SUGGESTED retail price, once they've bought them they can price it as they want.... The "deals" aren't there because of corporate greed, retail stores aren't willing to make deals like they used to.

[@kennypowers1945]

@@lutherheggs451yes so cooperate green by the retail stores lol. Also if the stores are buying games at MSRP ($70) they can’t really afford to lower them without taking a hit anymore due to their greed of paying the CEOs more

[@timelymirror7826]

?

[@wasakawakawaka2028]

Black Friday aside, I used to like to go into the stores and pick some great games up out of theirs bargain bins, great games that came out a year previously and were sold for $60 and now coups pick up a handful of games for about that much. Now? Nothing.. no bargain bins. All online digital crap that you can’t be replay a few years down the road.

[@GenerationZ313]

I miss the bargin bins for video games. I mean they still have dedicated shelf for the cheaper games in some Walmart here in Canada but most of the time all the games are locked behind a glass case and they don't put up the price tags for them so I would have to go ask an employee to get it.

[@the_realJAMES]

Black Friday nowadays is a two month long event! My best pickup this year was an $80 Atari VCS All in bundle from walmart!

[@MemoryHunts]

Wow this hit hard. I miss the good ole Black Friday feeling, especially for video games and those midnight releases.

[@capnbananabeard2869]

My BIGGEST gaming regret...not jumping on the Gameboy Micro when Gamestop marked it down to 20 bucks since no one was buying it!

[@knuclear200x]

I do kind of miss lining up late at night.

[@albertbernal7434]

Same

[@REZIVORsince93]

Me too

[@DiegoRodriguez-cs1ow]

It was still cool now everything is stale

[@bryanbahantka6969]

I remember egm in the middle to late 90s listing import advertisements in the back. This was around the end of the Saturn and beginning of DBZ on cartoon network.

[@KenKaniff-dw4jw]

Shut up

[@Fidelis1776]

Chips & Bits!!! I used them to order the Saturn ram cart and a ton of games C.O.D. (cash on delivery) to my summer job so my parents wouldn't find out I had bought a bunch of games.

[@Tjoeb123]

5:34 Ah, physical PC games. I even forgot Sonic Heroes got a PC version here in the US. Those were the days...

[@GenerationZ313]

It's such a shame Sonic Heroes and quite a few other games in the franchise such as Sonic Riders never got released on Steam.

[@timelymirror7826]

Indeed

[@ogre706]

One of the biggest differences between shopping now and in 2006 is that back then people didn't complain about videogames costing $90, where as a $70 title today is almost a scandal.

[@achroous2]

That wind waker for 9.99 in 06 was about the same as silver. Wind Waker(CIB) outperformed silver and inflation very well. Gotta love stonks.

[@SonGokuSann]

I miss shopping at toys r Us and Funcoland

[@infasis]

I grew up doing all our shopping in this area with an awesome mall, Best Buy, Toys R Us, Funcoland, Half Price Books, and a bunch of other awesome stuff, all in this little area, and it's literally all gone now. There's not much reason to go there anymore, but when I do it's downright depressing. (Now it's basically low income housing, prepaid cellphone stores, fast food restaurants, liquor stores, etc)

[@PrinsessePeach]

I bought my first Xbox 360 Arcade in 2008 for 100$ with a possibility to buy a renewed 20 GB HDD for 20$. I got a lot of good deals this year.

[@90sbuickguy84]

The HDMI port on the white Xbox 360 is actually in the back underneath the AV port I have that same Xbox 360 still you’re thinking of the launch edition of the Xbox 360 that came out before this one launch auditions did not have HDMI ports only the AV port

[@Smushbrain69]

The newer versions did but the OG launch version didn’t have an hdmi. I still have one and it doesn’t have an hdmi port

[@ParadoxalDream]

The X360 Pro 'launch edition' had a HMDI port, you're talking about the X360 Core, the launch version of the entry level X360 that was eventually replaced by the "Arcade" version that added the HDMI output to the cheaper X360 version. John was specifically talking about the launch Pro so he's wrong.

[@GenerationZ313]

Looking back its incredible how the PS3 price was slashed in half after 3 years especially since the PS5 even with a price cut (nominally) costs more than these consoles on sale back then.

[@blkshp25]

Blu-ray players were so expensive back then the ps3 was by far the best bargain

[@strykah92]

To be fair that’s because the PS3 was infamously expensive to begin with. While I’m not defending the lack of price drops for the PS5, it’s cost of entry is within the norms of modern consoles.

[@JetSetTyler]

Those price cuts would happen after Sony/xbox put out their slim-console revisions with less expensive parts… the final PS3 console looked like a cheap cd player when you compare it to the V1 PS3

[@allen7585]

What sucks nowadays is the lack of community. I’m not a huge shopper but how many times I met really cool people waiting in line for release of products. We would all talk about the game and the experience was just…..fun. I met kids from other schools I would never of met any other way. Or I’d go to the local store and chat with the clerk who always remembered me when I went to pick up a preorder. Weren’t best friends but a nice sense of belonging when not many other gamers/nerdy in my school. Convenience culture has destroyed any sense of community.

[@RyanTheEatingwarrior]

15:15 The PSP Go was awesome still one of my favorite form factor handhelds

[@thewolfdog123]

GameStop was a dumpster fire in the first place just so everybody knows

[@Likwidfox]

My mom was the manager of Software Ect. and Babbage's in the 90s. One Christmas the district manager let her take home the store models for me. A Saturn and a Virtual Boy. Needless to say I traded in my SNES for a PS1.

[@Jimmy-fi4ht]

I remember going to Walmart on Thursday before they had online sales and they'd have some games that were new half us. There would be 100 people standing around a wrapped pallet and they would cut the plastic and it would be a mad dash because the marquee games that you wanted they'd have maybe 2 or 3 copies for sale. It was wild

[@Fidelis1776]

I worked for them at the time.... Those were wild times!

[@tatecheddar]

I remember Toys 'R' Us and I remember it being one of the best places to buy video games in the early 90s. It was the ONLY place I ever went to that had Earthbound on the SNES at the time. I begged my parents for it, but they never bought it.

[@RebornKnight777]

I remember going into a game store back in the early 2000s and always walking out with some game or accessory. Now if I find a game store all I see is are those funny shape figures. No longer do I enjoy game stores. And this mostly because of the digital games trend we’re are on.

[@shanenice5380]

I have a retro store.i go there ones a blue moon.retro games our expensive.gamestop not good anymore

[@legoteenbuilder]

Toys r us is still opened but inside Macys now and have thier own stores internationally

[@niveketihw1897]

Just buying and receiving games, physical games, felt more special back then. We have more access to more things more easily for arguably less money today, but there was something about getting a game disc on the holiday and playing it with your brothers or buds. Some of that may also be that back then the holidays were like a week to two weeks to enjoy and savor, whilenow the holiday is exactly one day and then it's over and back to work.

[@itwsntme]

Man, the memories!! I purchased that 2009 360 Elite bundle. Still have it, games and all. The console is connected for all my non backcompat games, going strong 15 years later. I also own one of those Arcade 360s sealed in box, which I got for $50 Australian after a rebate at the time.

[@turtlefeet7722]

Games also were steady $59 for a very long time. With increasing development costs and bigger games it’s actually amazing how long it kept the $59.

[@jessekoepp3928]

Not really, gaming was also growing massively with every year and there were lots of new ways to increase profits that weren't there in years prior. Stop with this "poor game studios and multi-billion dollar publishers, they have it so hard!" narrative, it's horse crap. If you look at how much they charged versus how much it cost to make, the logical conclusion isn't "we had it so good, for so long; It's: "We were initially *really* getting ripped off for a *long* time" (70s/80s). Good studios didn't struggle, good games almost always found their fans, and the industry skyrocketed for *decades* straight, to surpass the music and movie industry *combined* . Boohoo making good games is hard, making practically any quality entertainment is also hard, yet do you also feel sorry for multi millionaire adult pretenders just cause making a (good) movie is difficult? Doubt it.

[@malecus7664]

In the early 2000s in San Antonio we had a Comp USA, Best Buy, and Circuit City all within a 1/2 mile of each other and they price matched so a win for the consumer. Looking back we didn’t know how good we had it. When I finally picked up a GameCube in Jan 2005 from EB Games, it was $50 and all the games were between $10-20 so I snatched up all of the Star Wars, Resident Evil, Metroid, and Zelda games the PS2 did not have. Both are in to good working order to this day.

[@Reezy884]

Back when life was great as a gamer!! This is so nostalgic.

[@Reepicheep-1]

Thanks for doing a price comparison. People don't know or ignore just how cheap everything gaming is these days. Too bad we own nothing.

[@Left4Bill]

$14.99 for those GameCube games is crazy. $9.99 Windwaker, $3.99 Metroid Prime 😍

[@timelymirror7826]

Good times

[@chrisvw352]

I was only involved with a couple black Friday 3amers at GameStop but I do remember buying tons of stuff through out the weekend for my 360.

[@SolidBoss7]

One of my most memorable experiences was randomly walking into a Walmart right when the 360 got announced. There was a display model and I stood and played the CoD2 demo over and over and over again and that day I got the full console and game in my hands was truly a turning point. Prior to that one of my favorite memories was my dad ordering a Japanese PS2 and importing it weeks before it launched in the US. We tried to see if any of the local GameStop’s or EB games had any ps2 games ahead of launch but they didn’t. However, EB at my local mall was so excited we had one that they asked if we’d bring it in and hook it up to the store display. There was a line out the door with people playing our ps2 before it even came out.

[@Tjoeb123]

19:07 I could've sworn this happened with the first Uncharted, not 2. I remember watching IGN's video review and the first thing they said, the first thing they opened the video with: "Buy this game!". Then went on to mention Sony's troubles and how it was such a good game. I think.

[@Madblaster6]

$399 with inflation would be $624 today. I get $500 is a lot for people but in comparison we’re getting amazing deals today. I wish pay adjusted properly with inflation. I think we wouldn’t have as much of an issue.

[@lutherheggs451]

Imbeciles would literally have to stop voting for corrupt trash like Trumpo the clown and the Republikans in general....Republiklans are ALWAYS going to want to lower taxes on billionaires and corporations and are always the ones who vote against any bills that would cut taxes for middle and low class, close loopholes for billionaires and corporations and actually increase wages. Instead brain dead simpletons vote for a convicted felon because he had his name put on stimulus checks and actually say stupid things like "maybe Trumpo will send them more stimulus checks". You think its bad now wait until his tariffs, when he crashes the economy, explodes inflation and consumers get to pay more

[@RobIn-ky4uz]

The issue isn't the increase in prices of goods but rather drop in purchasing power in comparison to 2009.

[@Electro096]

Gosh seeing all these old school Xbox 360, PS2, Xbox, Gamecube, PS3 and Nintendo Wii just makes want to go back man, Gaming was soo much cooler back then. I spent soo many hours in Gamestation in the UK in my local shopping centre.

[@jngx80]

My best black friday deal - picking up Punisher, Matrix path of Neo, and Suikoden V at Circuit City for really cheap/at least under $20. I think it was one of the times where I was up at 6 shopping for door busters. Kept all of them sealed as I was collecting PS2 games and never got around to playing them but sold Suikoden V a couple of years back for about $250. Playing video games in the 2000s was the best for me - in my 20s, having a steady if low income, and time to play and collect video games, visiting cheapassgamer and checking gamestop in the early morning when they restocked items on their website, had so much free time. Now I'm 45 with two young children and looking to sell my PS2 collection as I swear there's not enough time in the day.

[@DominicanStud101]

The best gaming Black Friday purchase I made was the 1TB PS4 Slim from GameStop in 2017. The console was $100.00 off and they gave you a $50 credit.

[@demarcomendes]

This years Black Friday was amazing for gamers.

[@CoastersandPop]

PS3 in the UK were selling for up to £1200 on eBay in launch week.

[@uncario]

2006 was an interesting time in gaming, I remember the gaming media completely blasting the Wii for not being an HD system, but then it went on to sell like hotcakes for years

[@thelarry383]

$400 from 2006 is $636 today. PS3 launched at $499 starting price btw. people forget about the 20gb model because of the meme.

[@lutherheggs451]

They also pretend that the 60gb was the only BC console when the 20gb literally had all the same guts.

[@M_CFV]

@@lutherheggs451 that's because that one partially emulates ps2

[@cnyle1803]

What an insane video today dude. Epic, i thought it was guna bore me but hooked me Harddd with the nostalgia from these days/years. Great times!

[@1Shayz1]

Honestly the GameStop black Friday sale last year was amazing If you purchased 4 pre-owned games within a certain price tier you would get them for 50% off (four $20 games for $40, four $10 games for $20 etc)

[@PacMaster]

It's crazy to see how things have changed over the last 15 plus years. Being born in 2002 and having grown up in what I think are the two greatest generations of gaming of all time being the 6th and 7th generations. All these were right in the middle of my childhood, boy do I miss the 2000's.

[@GenerationZ313]

Even though I was born around the start of 6th generation of consoles, I didn't get into modern gaming until 2008 and by that point the 6th generation was over and I ended up missing out completely on so many games simply for just being too young to really understand anything.

[@dknight5548]

games were fun back then but if you could pick up a original ps3 and you can play older games that were a classic back then and I never personally have a ps4 or a ps5. The last PlayStation I had was the ps3 so I am thinking about becoming a pc gamer instead.

[@CNo567]

Those times were the best

[@L30N_M]

Shocking to belive i was raised in the peak of gaming along the 2000s. So many games i bought back in tje day for 5 bucks now cost upward of 300 CAD. Love to rmeemebr wwhen times were real good. Also random question, do Americans still have toys r us? Cuz we got like two in my city in Calgary (Canada). And tons of toy stores in every mall and strip you could feasibly go to

[@GenerationZ313]

I actually went to the Mall of America back in September and was shocked to see Toys R Us there.

[@Ivy3nj0yer]

Toys R Us are part of Target stores/Target toy aisles ever since most closed down. Most of the physical Toys R Us locations have been gone for a handful of years now.

[@joes3461]

5:00 People buy new Lego sets and put them away for years down the road and resell them for 2-4+ times the purchase price. This is a real thing btw!

[@zxmoore1]

Wow...2006 to 2009 gaming. What an incredible time. Just a young 22 to 25 year old without a care in the world spending hours of my time playing future classics.

[@ParadoxalDream]

3:39 The original Xbox 360 Pro console did indeed have a HDMI output, it just didn't come with a HDMI cable included in the box. You are thinking of the Xbox 360 Core which did not have a HDMI port and was replaced in 2007 by the X360 Arcade with added HDMI output.

[@EPS5000]

It was worse back then, lots of stuff was out of stock. I had to go without for several items. Now with online shopping, I can always get the stuff I want, no longer limited to just what was in stock at my local stores.

[@kennypowers1945]

Yea but the only difference is there are NO sales lol. Back then I could get tons of games for $60 all together (usually 3-5 new and good games for cheap) now I can only find ONE game for that price. It’s so bad even online that I don’t even bother anymore

[@RodgertheNegotiator]

Great stuff. Great to see that some games were afordable at the time. Gaming is an afordable hobby, which I love.

[@sk84lyfe1211]

I got that ps3 slim bundle with god of war collection and lbp for Christmas in 2009. I made great memories with that console. What a wave of nostalgia to see it again in that second circular

[@zachary_attackery]

Those GameCube games on the front are some of the most valuable GameCube games now

[@doublecomplex4741]

This hit me right in the nostalgia! I was working at Blockbuster right around these sales. 😅

[@BlueSurf77]

I remember walking into a GameStop in February of 2007 and asked if they had any Wii’s in stock and they said they received 3 that morning. More people walked in after that and I assumed they would ask for it and I told them I would take one lol.

[@GMThEMaN]

Here in Portugal we have a great deal for Switch consoles. Switch V2 bundle with Nintendo Switch Sports and 12 months of NSO for 199,99€ (instead of the standard 299,99€ just for the console). And another bundle with Nintendo Switch OLED, Super Mario Bros Wonder and 12 months of NSO for 279,99€ (instead of the standard 349,99€ for the console).

[@shawntaylor7442]

I used to do pretty well at Meijer, which is a more midwest region store. Just a few years ago I got my son COD WWII on black friday for like $30-40. Hanging in the wrong place but Meijer honored it. Brand new release at the time 🤙

[@bubbythebrow153]

Wild here in FL we had 0 problems getting a Wii even pawn shops had them. We had 2 in our house on release with no issues.

[@TheBandoBandito]

Finally, I thought I'd never be able to watch this one.

[@Iamstillfly]

I remembered some of the games were selling for $1.. the late 2000s had the greatest deals for video games

[@Mike__P]

Babbages and Electronics Boutique were like hangouts for us. There was no Gamestop.

[@vgtrp]

It's sad to see GameCube games that only cost $30 then, now cost hundreds of dollars.

[@blizmo2]

😎 Nostalgia Wave 🌊

[@tombystander]

8:40 picked up GOW2, Call of duty MW3 (2011), and shadows of mordor for 10 bucks at gamestop this black friday. All 3 were five bucks. Love it

[@Acey8494]

Fun fact about Gamestop in Germany: theyre completely shutting down all of their stores in 2025, Gamestop will only be available via the Website. The era of Gamestop comes now to an end here in the next year.

[@andersross4011]

In Canada, we had Boutique and Future Shop in 2006-09 period. Eventually, Gamestop bought out the EB stores in 2010.

[@GenerationZ313]

I remember I had a future shop gift card which state would usually give to customers whenever they bought extended warranty and in my case my Nintendo DS Lite would often become defective within the extended warranty window. I ended up going to Future Shop but didn't buy anything and was shocked to find out the very next day that all future shop locations were immediately closed without any prior warning. Thankfully I was able to use the gift card at Best Buy but still it's a shame that Future Shop no longer exists.

[@Synes7hesia]

“Here’s the Zune for $250” Me, who spent $200 on the same exact Zune in 2024 to have people ask”What iPod is that?”

[@Waponzi]

I went to GameStop on Black Friday and it was lowkey poppin I kinda “fought” a guy, the employee made us rock paper scissors for the last Elden ring copy for 20 bucks

[@savaget2058]

Seeing the PSP for $249.99 really puts the value proposition of the $299.99 Xbox 360 in focus. That was a steal, HDD or not.

[@matts1978]

Thank you for this

[@mr_m4613]

Uploading a video about black friday 24 years ago on your podcast day is diabolocal lol

[@kennypowers1945]

Why? He’s done it the last few years

[@mr_m4613]

@kennypowers1945 so where's the Saturday podcast then...

[@scherge]

A very nostalgic trip down memory lane. Thanks.

[@joeherrera8826]

Hard to believe that some of these classic games are now like hundreds of dollars. Honestly when I went out for black Friday at 9 am till like 11 there was barely people in the stores.

[@DrValentine59]

Damn the 2006 GameStop still has today prices, I'm kinda relieved it hasn't gotten more expensive it seems

[@MrAtda]

Remember going to toys r us and getting the slip of paper to give to an employee. No paper, no stock, much disappoint.

[@VAULT-TEC_INC.]

When 20GB seemed like you’d never possibly fill it up.

[@jtshett81]

2009, people were still going through the recession

[@lutherheggs451]

Well get ready for round 2 when the clown that imbeciles voted for starts his tariff war and consumers get to pay the price for it...But corporations and billionaires will get their tax cuts back.