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Fake Pokémon Cartridge Spotted At GameStop Raises Concerns Among Retro Gamers (www.retronews.com)

submitted 3 months ago by Kain1 to c/retrogaming

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A Reddit post in the GameBoy subreddit caught some eyes. It showed a fake yellow Game Boy Pokémon cartridge displayed at a GameStop. The post received many comments, pointing out the poor quality of this bootleg Pokémon game.

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[–] MeatsOfRage 76 points 3 months ago (4 children)

This has sparked concern, especially with GameStop launching new Retro GameStops across North America, where retro game authenticity should be a priority.

Lol, it's Game Stop not the Library of Congress. These are minimum wage employees they're not trained in repro carts

[–] [email protected] 40 points 3 months ago

I'm not blaming employees here, but if GS is specifically marketing older games, they should be taking measures to ensure authenticity. Not that I think anyone should trust GS at this point. Still good to hold them accountable.

[–] RightHandOfIkaros 19 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

That doesn't make it okay for them to be selling counterfeits.

Especially selling the counterfeit for $50 USD.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

If they're cheap and common games, I don't think it's a big deal to have fakes mixed in if it doesn't bother the buyer either.

Now for more rare stuff, it matters more. Feels like mtg cards, where a certain threshold it should be graded for authenticity and condition

[–] pivot_root 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Video game grading is a massive scam. Karl Jobst did a series of videos on it, and it's basically price rigging and speculation investments for profit.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

Oh huh, that's interesting. I'll definitely have to check that out

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

No one is going to be making a fake Madden 99 cart for the gbc, it's always going to be the heavy hitters like pokemon or atlus games. Idk how they prevent fakes on both ends tbh, from taking in fakes to selling them as well. But if they're going to sell them they better be responsible about it.

In any case, isn't it illegal for them to not ensure they're legit? Selling counterfeits is definitely illegal

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Idk where to draw the line with it being illegal for them to sell real copies. Like, what if it's a really good fake? Are they gonna send out each and every game? They can't spend $20 making sure a $10 game is legit.

No clue what to do about it honestly

[–] finitebanjo 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I think the employees would have a database of titles to ascertain value, so they are basically trained in this field.

[–] finkrat 1 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I would argue that the employees may be negligent in the need to verify with the database due to being overworked minimum wage part timers who are just looking to "get the job done" and not care about mistakes made.

The presence of a database also does not mean they are explicitly taught to say "you need to use this database to verify, here is how to query it and ensure it looks right"

GameStop could probably address this partially with hyper-focused UI walking them through a review but then employees are just going to hit "next next next" just to get it done

I think this idea is cursed and a bad idea for GameStop to implement because this is inevitable and we are going to see this over and over again. This was already a recurring joke at some locations selling older games, esp. Pokemon, prior to GameStop formalizing the "Retro" branding