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walkitoutPeople buy games. Those games used to be acquired on physical media. Then they could be acquired on either physical media or via download. Increasingly, only by download, as more modern systems have no mechanism for accepting physical media. As with anything else subject to first-sale rules in the US, there are some benefits associated with purchase via physical media (mostly to do with the ability to recoup some of what you splashed out, via resale)
This is all quite bad for physical games sold in physical stores in malls. Also, online shopping. Also, pandemic.
OK, so the major location for sale / resale of physical games is in trouble. All the other physical media shops (Tower Records, Blockbuster, a whole lot of bookstore, etc.) have already fallen upon hard times, so this is not surprising. But then, some weird thing involving a subreddit called WallStreetBets, some hedgies who had substantial short interest and wooo, presto, crazy town with the GameStop stock price.
Post inauguration, we mostly don’t talk about that other guy anymore, except occasionally to discuss the status of the arrests related to the insurrection, the status of the second impeachment, etc. But news is still all wired up for outrage, so GameStop is the story of the hour, at least on financial media. Specifically, lots of questions about Is This Illegal and If So, How?
The answer to that is hella more simple than people seem to understand. I will explain via hyperbolic, and inflammatory metaphor.
Why do we have laws against murder and a justice system? Because Hatfield-McCoy, Greek edition. And many others. If you let people settle their own issues related to Someone Was Killed, everyone else winds up sucked into the whirlpool of blood and gore. Not Good. We have a justice system.
Why do we have an SEC? Because the stock market was all fun and games until they wiped out our banking system and nearly turned us into a communist country. That’s not funny, so we made some rules to keep the fun and games to a level that did not put the entire system at risk.
A lot of the discussion revolves around, is it fraud? Is it “manipulation”? Does the SEC ever prosecute “manipulation” if there is no fraud? Whatever, it’s not fraud. (Probably. I mean, what do I know?)
The SEC can do something _now_ or they can do something _later_, but gaming stock prices on purpose Does Not Go to Good Places. They will stop it at some point (probably not right now, because GameStop probably is not big enough to be systemically threatening), and the discussion will revolve around how what people are doing is vandalizing the market.
Whatever happens, this is not going to wind up with banning of short selling.
ETA:
Upon further reflection, the earlier they do something, the more likely it will be some form of mandatory disclosure which makes the whole Games a lot less Fun, and a lot of the regulation will take the form of You Are In SEC Timeout Because You Failed to File a Form.
This is all quite bad for physical games sold in physical stores in malls. Also, online shopping. Also, pandemic.
OK, so the major location for sale / resale of physical games is in trouble. All the other physical media shops (Tower Records, Blockbuster, a whole lot of bookstore, etc.) have already fallen upon hard times, so this is not surprising. But then, some weird thing involving a subreddit called WallStreetBets, some hedgies who had substantial short interest and wooo, presto, crazy town with the GameStop stock price.
Post inauguration, we mostly don’t talk about that other guy anymore, except occasionally to discuss the status of the arrests related to the insurrection, the status of the second impeachment, etc. But news is still all wired up for outrage, so GameStop is the story of the hour, at least on financial media. Specifically, lots of questions about Is This Illegal and If So, How?
The answer to that is hella more simple than people seem to understand. I will explain via hyperbolic, and inflammatory metaphor.
Why do we have laws against murder and a justice system? Because Hatfield-McCoy, Greek edition. And many others. If you let people settle their own issues related to Someone Was Killed, everyone else winds up sucked into the whirlpool of blood and gore. Not Good. We have a justice system.
Why do we have an SEC? Because the stock market was all fun and games until they wiped out our banking system and nearly turned us into a communist country. That’s not funny, so we made some rules to keep the fun and games to a level that did not put the entire system at risk.
A lot of the discussion revolves around, is it fraud? Is it “manipulation”? Does the SEC ever prosecute “manipulation” if there is no fraud? Whatever, it’s not fraud. (Probably. I mean, what do I know?)
The SEC can do something _now_ or they can do something _later_, but gaming stock prices on purpose Does Not Go to Good Places. They will stop it at some point (probably not right now, because GameStop probably is not big enough to be systemically threatening), and the discussion will revolve around how what people are doing is vandalizing the market.
Whatever happens, this is not going to wind up with banning of short selling.
ETA:
Upon further reflection, the earlier they do something, the more likely it will be some form of mandatory disclosure which makes the whole Games a lot less Fun, and a lot of the regulation will take the form of You Are In SEC Timeout Because You Failed to File a Form.