For the last year most of us have seen considerable negativity surrounding Elon Musk purchasing Twitter / X for a ridiculous valuation.
We’re talking billions more than it was worth. We haven’t shared any of those articles here at PGM, because we aren’t about social media deals gone bad, but have discussed when social media intersects with games, see: Joy is Still There – How To Find Fun on the Internet
You also must have seen at least some articles elsewhere ranting about how Twitter/X is terrible for doing business, it’s difficult to make money using Twitter and/or advertisers like Disney are pulling out because Musk gave them the middle finger.
But Twitter/X isn’t bad for every business.
Here’s a really good interview with Mark a videogame business owner (Dynamo Collectibles) operating in Florida that has been using Twitter/X successfully to generate $250,000/year and $75,000 profit buying and selling videogames, systems, Pokemon cards and more. He’s parlayed it into a physical store that, according to the owner anyway, is doing “good.”
I put “good” in double quotes, because these results haven’t come without sacrifices, read on.
You can watch this excellent interview with Mark embedded below and feel the contagious energy and passion from this owner-operator about games. Not so much playing them, because he literally has no time to do so, he can’t live what we embrace and promote here: play games more, because his life is consumed with buying and selling more games.
Every day.
If you’re limited on time, watch at least the last 10 minutes of the video where Mark is asked: if you should start your own videogame store in 2024? His answer is quick, brutally honest and to the negative.
Mark also addresses the whole notion of physical media “dying” due to digital which we covered extensively here: OPINION: Sony reminds us that the illusion of “owning” Digital Movies and TV Series are lessons in Hollywood Thievery.
Tangentially related, yesterday there are fresh rumors that Microsoft could be focusing on bringing more of their exclusives to the PS5.
A new multi-platform approach for certain Xbox games is emerging inside Microsoft, we’re told, with the company weighing up which titles will remain exclusive and others that will appear on Switch or PS5 in the future. Indiana Jones appears to be part of this new wave of multi-platform games.
Microsoft weighs launching Indiana Jones on the PS5 – The Verge
Smash JT is claiming this to be early evidence that Microsoft is conceding to Sony in the console war and mostly giving up on physical media. Sure, this could be the usual YouTuber hype and clickbait, or maybe there’s some fire near this smoke?
JT’s over-exuberance aside, it paints a contrast to this story’s business owner Mark, that is all-in on physical media. How all in? Keep reading.
Back to Mark’s video, he seemingly has no employees, works 70 hours a week, 7 days a week and primarily takes only major holidays off (Christmas, Thanksgiving). He sacrifices attending moments with his family for the business. It’s a level of dedication that few people can sustain in any kind of work/life balance.
Mark paints a very dark picture of what life is like on the other side of owning a physical game store in 2024, but I found his marketing, particularly using Twitter/X refreshing and different. He hasn’t done things the way others would do — and it’s worked.
This is not a business I could see owning simply based on the total lack of work-life balance required but did own operate a different type of business and used similar marketing (not Twitter or social media). We used channels others didn’t use much for promotion and marketing. It really does work, but you have to put in the time, and when you stop putting in the time, the results stop coming in.
Mark is in his late 30s and he will burn out on this grind at some point. I hope it’s later rather than sooner, but you can’t work that much forever.
Remember, when you read about somewhere or something being bad for business, that might be an opportunity for others that look past it. Here’s to hoping that Mark finds some more balance in his work-life situation and still keeps his business flowing and growing.
Let’s finish on what Mark discussed at the end of his video interview: the idea that physical media is “dead.” Sure, he’s biased and it’s obvious that if it does die, so does his business, but physical media will not die. Heck, vinyl is making a comeback of sorts in the era of Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple and so on. There will always be at the very least a collector aspect to games and massive digital collections are only impressive online. Nobody can see, appreciate or touch those games offline.
Despite any obvious biases, I think Mark is closer to what we can expect to see for many years to come with physical games. Sure, maybe new games mostly or maybe even completely go away in favor of digital-only, but maybe there are re-releases or companies that specialize in making physical version with artwork of games. Niche, as it might become, physical games aren’t “dead.” Am not even sure that they are dying … maybe just moving closer to death, but with some aura of invincibility being their artistic and historical worth.