I noticed that a local Best Buy seems to be stocking some older PC games now. Not OLD titles, but def older than the previous norm of having only the most recent releases. For example, the store that I visited yesterday had a boxed copy of Space Empires V (released in 2006) for $9.99. There were several other $10 titles packaged in the small boxes common before DVD-style cases became the norm, too.

Then I noticed that a local Wal-Mart is selling several collections of adventure and mystery games (four to six games per pack). These types of collections have been sold in the past, of course, but it seems as if there are a lot more of them now than before.

Perhaps Best Buy simply cleared some of its older stock out of a warehouse, perhaps the state of the economy is reducing new game sales and motivating companies to offer cheaper alternatives, etc, but the thought did cross my mind: I wonder if GOG is having an effect on the market?

Or maybe it's just an odd wrinkle in the space-time continuum in the local area. ;-)

Notice any trends in your area?

At Auchan, huge hypermarket at the mall closest to me they have a section with games. There's a bin with older games from 5 to 10 euros. For reference I got Mafia and NeverWinter Nights from there last time. I also saw Deus Ex 1 & 2, Hitman 1, 2 and I think 3 also, and a lot of other older games.

@Aningan:

Too bad there's not an Auchan store near me. Sounds like a treasure trove. ;-)

Around here, it can be tough to find a game that wasn't released in the last few years unless it was very popular. What struck me as most odd yesterday was that the older games that I saw were *not* in a bargain bin. Instead, they were on the shelves next to the new releases. Not sure what it means, or if it means anything. Here's hoping, tho. :-)

I don't go to Best Buy often but I did notice they had a lot of semi-old games in small little DVD boxes the last time I was there. Some kind of on the cheap re-release program from certain publishers. It's not really a new idea, been happening for a long time, but it does seems somewhat more organized than usual.

Speaking of what's on local shelves, I just wanted to start a topic on similar observations...

I just came home from grocery shopping; while I had been there, I took a look at the gaming section and noticed that at least 3/4 of shelfspace was dedicated to PC games... and half of the console remainder was for PS2. Good thing I have the Internet, because otherwise I would've never noticed that PC gaming was on decline ;P.
It's not just small places either - I wandered through MediaMarkt many a time and was shocked to see an entire SINGLE ROW (out of 6 or 8) of console games. While there may be a tiny bit more of them today, their number is still dwarfed by the insane amount of space PC games get.

Then again - they need the space to sell DLC, right ;) ?
No, I'm not kidding. Back here "Downloadable Content" is not as downloadable as you'd expect...

Oh - and old games, as a rule of thumb, always take at least as much space as console games (or up to twice as much). It's been this way for years now...

The Sold-Out series make up the bulk of video game stores' PC sections in the UK, basically re-releases of old games. Some cool ones though, like Broken Sword 1, 2 + 3 pack, some old LucasArts adventure games at one point and some Bullfrog games.

Oddly enough, office supply stores in my town often carry reissued titles that aren't available at Best Buy or Target, such as Syberia 1+2, Tomb Raider Legend, and Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory.

The Best Buy stores near me have been doing that for a while. They always used to be in jewel cases though. They were packaged especially for best buy, and for whatever reason were usually a little ways away from the rest of the PC games. They upgraded to the small boxes not too terrible long ago.

Are these just the jewel case only releases which have been available at Walmart and Target forever or are they packaged differently?

Those Sold out boxes often wander over to Denmark too. I'm not too fond of them though. Mainly because the software for install or such is not too happy with newer systems.

for instance I have a jewel case version of Thief 2 and a Sold out edition of the same. The Jewel case version is just easier to get working whereas the SO one seems to come with a host of it's own problems, among them even getting the launcher to work to let me install the game. It's kinda sad.

The ones at my Best Buy were not the normal Walmart/Target jewel cases. They used to run this deal where if you bought one in the store, you could go online and get another free one as a digital download. This was specific the the versions at Best Buy. I never bought one, so I don't know how that worked.

*This is just going off memory. I wouldn't trust my memory if I were you

The local Wal-Mart across the border from me has these. I've also seen some Ubisoft games in "Eco-packaging", which means a crappy cardboard jewel case. They've had these for years. I've seen these in Tennessee, too.

To clarify:

The ones at Best Buy are packaged in neither jewel cases nor CD-sized boxes. The games are packaged in the style of game boxes roughly the size of a DVD but twice as thick in one dimension. Space Empires V is labeled copyright 2006 and does not appear to be a reissue. I'm aware of the bargain section of games in jewel cases and CD-sized boxes. The games that I mentioned are shelved with the new release games.

The ones at Wal-Mart are collections (reissues) in DVD cases.

I'd like to think that companies are deciding that its worth shelf space to offer surplus copies of older titles or reissue collections of older titles. Don't know, tho: It might just be a fluke.