GameStopthe former Mecca for gaming enthusiasts, has finally pulled the plug in Germany. The online store is shut down, the lights are out, and the last "PS5 Pro for 10 euros" promotion remains just a bittersweet memory. But hey, at least there were still a few "blatant deals" at the end that were hard to beat in terms of absurdity.
GameStop was a kind of love-hate relationship
A brief review: Once upon a time, there was a place where you traded games on disc like stamps - only with less appreciation. You'd walk into the store, be immediately greeted by an over-motivated employee trying to sell you the same PowerUp Rewards deal for the tenth time, and walk out with a used game that was more expensive than a new one on Amazon. Pure nostalgia!
But how did it get this far? It started slowly: customers discovered that games could also be bought digitally without having to fight their way through dusty shelves. Then came the sales promotions. Those legendary deals where you could get hold of a PS5 for 399 euros - but only if you handed in 100 used PS3 games and a blood sample at the same time. Who doesn't remember the "blatant offers" where a game "only" cost 5 euros after being sold for the price of a small car for 50 years?
The redemptive coup de grace
The final straw, however, was the online store. Now officially shut down, it remains a digital ghost shipwreck on the internet. The last big action was to clear out the warehouses - with deals so sensational that some customers thought they had landed in the wrong decade. The fairly new PS5 Pulse Elite Headset for 60 euros, but only available in 4 stores. Check! Old FIFA versions that even the flea market no longer wanted? Check. Game controller with a broken cable? Double check. Just like GameStop!
But before we make fun of the ending, we must remember the golden rule of gaming: when a controller falls, it always falls on the joystick. GameStop has fallen, and what remains are the memes and a touch of melancholy.
Farewell, GameStop Germany. Your end was just as chaotic as your existence. We will miss you - well, not really. However, the real finale is yet to come - namely when the last speck of dust has been swept out of the very last store, which should happen punctually on January 31. And the employees? At last they can devote themselves to a truly honorable task - like dusting other dying retail chains.
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