Best Buy Gamers Club Unlocked Discontinued

[InuYashaCrusade]

Went out to employees today, check out /r/BestBuy for more info...



https://www.reddit.com/r/Bestbuy/com...p_gamers_club/

[Bodyslide]

I just signed back up to get God of War, so mine is good until May 2020. That's just crazy.

[dyne]

Wasn’t a subscription originally $120? I have to wonder if this has anything to do with Amazon and Best Buy partnering to sell tv’s. Maybe a part of the deal was to kill off GCU.

This will for sure put my day 1 purchases to a stop when my membership lapses.

[Petey Parker]

My membership expires on Sept 12th. I'm not happy right now. Elite Plus at Best Buy, largely due to gaming purchases. Doubtful I'll reach it this year now. No real incentive to use Amazon that much more unless I really want something day one (and let's be honest, Amazon will kill the 20% discount as soon as possible) At least I'll be saving money by not buying as many games.

[professorwho]

RIP GCU.

Best Buy, you made a mistake you’ll regret. Now there’s virtually no reason to pick up games from there.

[Joeker]

I bought like 4 or 6 years worth when the glitch happened a few years ago and u could get the membership for $10-$15 i think it was. Mine expires sometime in 2020 if i remember correctly. Hopefully they really do honor it that long.

[Gator66]

I'm good til Dec 2019. I just went online to see if I could sneak a renewal in but no go. Looks like it's done.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Mine is good until August of 2019. If I had known this was going to happen, I would have paid up to extend it probably an additional 4 years.

Originally Posted by Petey Parker

My membership expires on Sept 12th. I'm not happy right now. Elite Plus at Best Buy, largely due to gaming purchases. Doubtful I'll reach it this year now. No real incentive to use Amazon that much more unless I really want something day one (and let's be honest, Amazon will kill the 20% discount as soon as possible) At least I'll be saving money by not buying as many games.

If you know what games you plan to get for the rest of the year, and if they are up for preorder before your membership expires, then by placing a preorder at that time should lock those titles in at the member price.

I don't blame you for being disappointed, but that is a way to get a little more mileage out of what you have left of your membership.

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by professorwho

RIP GCU.

Best Buy, you made a mistake you’ll regret. Now there’s virtually no reason to pick up games from there.

I'm very disappointed by this as well, but I can see why this is happening.

Profit margins for retailers on games and movies isn't really all that high. I have to imagine they were losing money on this. As much as I've enjoyed the savings for the past few years, there was always this essence of "too good to be true" that I couldn't get past. Especially considering that as a rewards and elite plus member, I was racking up points, getting certificates for further discounts, and some games had the preorder bonus of a $10 rewards certificate for preordering some new games, etc.

It was great for my wallet, but I can't imagine that it was great for Best Buy's. If this had been profitable for them, then I think other retailers like Target and Walmart would have followed BB's lead by offering similar deals to compete.

For now, the rewards and elite membership will still be reason for me to shop at Best Buy, though there are rumors of the rewards ending (not sure about elite membership with the free shipping, etc.).

Even if all of that also comes to an end, which yes, will very much disappoint me, I'm not going to boycott Best Buy or anything like that. While it doesn't give me reason to specifically go out of my way to shop there, if the prices there are the same as most other places, then it doesn't give me much of a reason to avoid them either.

Yes, it will mean them losing some business for me just from a standpoint of convenience. While Best Buy isn't terribly far out of my way to go to, there is a Super Target right by where I work. While I occasionally buy a Blu-Ray there for convenience sake, for quite a while almost all of my game purchases and most of my Blu-Ray/DVD purchases have been from Best Buy because of the gamers club, rewards, etc. With that incentive gone, I can see myself going back to grabbing more of these things from Target out of sheer convenience. But that's just because it happens to be more conveniently located for me. Like most consumers, I'm going to weigh the pros and cons of various prices, sales, convenience, etc. to determine what works best for me at any given time. It's been Best Buy for quite a while due to the level of savings. But it does them little good if they are losing money. And with that ending, I'll just probably go back to more of a mix of buying games from various places based on convenience, sales, etc. if no one place is going to almost always have a vastly better deal than the others as is the case with Best Buy now.

I fully expect that once this is done, Amazon offering 20% off of preorders of some games for Prime members will end, as it was mainly just their way to compete with the gamers club. There is no reason for them to keep competing against a membership service that will cease to exist.

[Petey Parker]

Originally Posted by Dynamo of Eternia

Mine is good until August of 2019. If I had known this was going to happen, I would have paid up to extend it probably an additional 4 years.




If you know what games you plan to get for the rest of the year, and if they are up for preorder before your membership expires, then by placing a preorder at that time should lock those titles in at the member price.

I don't blame you for being disappointed, but that is a way to get a little more mileage out of what you have left of your membership.

Yeah I plan to to do that and I figure after E3 most games for the rest of the year will already be announced and available for pre-order but it's going to make Christmas a little more expensive for my son and nephews than it has in the past because I won't know everything to get until they make their lists. I already have some games pre-ordered for a while now like Days Gone and Final Fantasy VII Remake so at least I'll get the discount on those whenever they finally come out.

Also Best Buy Canada has cut reward certificates in addition to GCU so I imagine it's only a matter of time before the US follows suit. At that point I'll probably only be buying exclusive steelbooks and nothing else at Best Buy. I definitely will no longer qualify for Elite Plus and I'll be lucky to qualify for Elite at that point so I can kiss my free shipping goodbye and will have to pre-order for store pick-up for everything. I could continue to probably at least get Elite by using my Best Buy Visa outside of Best Buy but I have more incentive to stick with my Amazon card as long as Amazon does 20% off for pre-orders.

[Stray Cat 13]

I'm not sure when my membership expires, but I guess I will go back to buying games at Target when it does.

[Kurri]

well pre-order as much as you can...

[Scarface32]

Originally Posted by Stray Cat 13

I'm not sure when my membership expires, but I guess I will go back to buying games at Target when it does.

Be logged in, then click on your name. You should see it in the drop-down.

[Stray Cat 13]

Originally Posted by Scarface32

Be logged in, then click on your name. You should see it in the drop-down.

[Show spoiler]

Thanks. It looks like I am good until October 24th of this year.

[rexcrk]

I’m good until October 2019.

That’s a bummer... but I imagine they were losing money on it.

I actually mainly got it for LEGO Dimensions stuff a few years ago, and that MORE than paid for my subscriptions haha.

[InuYashaCrusade]

I saw this one coming a mile away. So it begins for Amazon's continued removal of the 20% off video games...

"Amazon: Re-releases And Remasters Are No Longer Eligible For Prime Pre-order Savings"

Example: Crash for the Switch did not receive pre-order discount last week

[BluPat]

Just looked and my husband's subscription lasts until at least December 2019.
This sucks because he buys a lot of games.

[Petey Parker]

Looks like Gamestop is joining the bunch. They are discontinuing the Elite Pro Membership (20% off used/20% extra trade in/Free 2-day shipping). Today is the last day to renew for up to 2 more years. Looks like the option to renew online was already removed but you should be able to renew in store through the end of today (hopefully)

This program was great if you were buying used games, especially for the retro consoles. I've already got more than enough points to renew my Elite Pro membership without even having to pay any actual money.

[Samus Aran]

Crap. My account said my Gamers Club was good through Aug. 9. I tried to place an order tonight on Aug. 8 (but it's Aug. 9 eastern time) and there was no more Gamers Club discount. So it was good through Aug. 8. Oh well.

[Petey Parker]

That sucks. I bought some Lego Dimensions figures for my son the other day in the store and didn't receive the GCU discount. They were on clearance but in the past you still got both. My membership isn't up until September 7th.