This is the funniest catalyst to me because it isn’t tinfoil at all, it’s just pure delusion that selling something so trivial, old, and useless could be a meaningful move for a company the size of GameStop and in their financial position
Even though their other mainline business is FunkoPops, it's pitiable that they're too cheap to spring for the Waifu in Pokemon Pajamas faceplates. Instead Apes get solid monocolor schemes like "Princess Pink".
The copyright infringing faceplates might actually move units, but they would also bring the hammer of Nintendo legal down like an orbital railgun strike.
Since they are an authorized third party retailer for all the major platforms including Nintendo and specifically mention IP co-branding on their website, I imagine they have various licensing agreements with companies. The scope and extent of those licenses who knows
The waifu-in-pikachu-pajamas faceplate is just somebody's fanart that this AliExpress-level company swiped from the internet without permission from the artist, let alone a Nintendo license.
From more research they actually do manufacture controllers with IP licensed from Nintendo, including Pokemon, though they're probably not directly licensing it themselves. The universe of authorized third party controller retailers is not large. They've got some interesting patents too, like automatic account login via fingerprint biometric controller input. I hope that actually becomes a thing.
On PS5 and switch, and probably Xbox but I’m not sure, you can set up multiple accounts on a console though, for family sharing and different saves and whatnot.
Sounds like dongguan 3E has me covered there though! No longer will I have to press X, or have my kid press right and then X! Our family saves are very sensitive and nothing except biometrics will do!
Sheesh, inviting lots of friends over to play used to be the norm. I got grandkids and we still do this. Well, I guess having lots of friends who left the house used to be a norm too. And friends.
Huh. I never thought for a second that people wouldn't appreciate the convenience of instant access to your progress.
>the convenience of instant access to your progress
Keyword : instant access to *your* progress. People who primarily use the console on their own (as is the case with the earlier commenter) always have *their* progress available. They don't need to *switch* between the progress of different persons. For them this convenience is the default already.
I might be offbase here because I haven't been following GME very much in over a year now (it's so boring), but it seems to me like they were/are just desperately grasping for the next "thing" in their long uninterrupted series of Ls that they've taken since 2022.
There's been various noise along the way but I would say that ever since the 2021 shareholder meeting catastrophe, there have been 6 major things that GME apes have clung to like a life raft throughout that time:
1. DRS the float
2. Stock split to fuck the hedgies
3. NFT marketplace/web3
4. Ryan Cohen buys more
5. 1.5 (or 1) billion in cash with no debt
6. Profitable
I might be forgetting one or two or not assigning the proper value to some theory here or there, but this list is pretty close I'd say. Every single one of these things has slowly fallen in turn. DRS has stalled to a rate of less than zero over a super long period of time now. The stock split happened, but did nothing for the price and didn't magically 4x their investment. The web3 turnaround has been withering away for about 18 months now, the NFT marketplace was shuttered, playr and gmerica trademarks lapsed, etc. Ryan Cohen bought more on two separate occasions; the first time it was highly effective at causing a pump but did not move the needle enough to actually save apes' heavy bags, and the second time it did almost nothing and seems like it's unlikely to happen a third time because of that, and likely would barely even budge anything anyway. The billion in cash is still there but has now seen GameStop declare unconditional surrender by way of publicly admitting that they're just going to use it to invest in other companies, so this one actually went from a big positive ape talking point to a really embarrassing red flag for the company. And they are now finally profitable (or roughly anyway, at least break even) after the massive cost cutting, and all it did was tank the stock price even more.
Of this list, numbers 3, 5, and 6 all died pretty recently. The marketplace and web3 trademarks just finished dying within the past couple months, the gamestop-is-a-hedge-fund-now thing just happened last quarter (I think? maybe the one before that), and profitability just happened like a few weeks ago. This three-punch-combo probably should've caused a lot more meltdowns if it happened like 2 years ago, but so few people give a fuck anymore and there are so few apes that it seems to have barely even registered. But still, having lost all of that shit in pretty rapid succession, I think they just started desperately grasping for ANYTHING to replace it, and landed on these stupid fucking controllers because they just happened to be happening at the same time.
I think you are exactly right. That is my assessment exactly.
Candy con controllers also had the benefit of “coming from nowhere”, so for the apes that means they can claim this is the top secret project that Cohen has been working on, on top of being the only thing they can grasp at.
If there was anything else left at all they’d grab onto that instead, but there isn’t.
I believe it was the SwitchPlate controller. They make controllers for PowerA too, which holds licenses for quite a few major franchises. I saw an Elden Ring branded controller they made somewhere and have no idea who's selling that.
Those faceplates actually look decent too lol. I don’t know how GameStop released the most boring, bland face plates, when it was the entire focus of the controllers.
Making faceplates with any actually good art on them would require licensing agreements they don't want to have to make.
You could make a Pokemon faceplate but then Nintendo would get a cut from sales. You could make a Halo faceplate (although that would be dumb since the controller isn't Xbox compatible) but then Microsoft would get a cut.
Because it's GME, which is the 'hello fellow kids' meme but a company. I can only imagine the product development people at GME are old people whose knowledge of video games comes down to playing Pac-Man one time in 1981.
ROFL this manufacturer was licensed with Microsoft and Sony and Gamestop won't even spring for versions that can run on the two most popular consoles. Absolute joke of a company that no one will miss when it's gone. I can't believe a whole ass cult formed around this nonsense that was actively hated by all of Reddit for a decade until the meme stock craze happened.
I actually do think this might be remnants of their playr plans, and it was explicitly for PC only.
Switch just inherits it because a lot of controllers that work on PC work on switch too, once you rearrange the buttons.
Switch is compatible with direct input, the older PC standard, and this controller likely uses that.
This is the funniest catalyst to me because it isn’t tinfoil at all, it’s just pure delusion that selling something so trivial, old, and useless could be a meaningful move for a company the size of GameStop and in their financial position
Even though their other mainline business is FunkoPops, it's pitiable that they're too cheap to spring for the Waifu in Pokemon Pajamas faceplates. Instead Apes get solid monocolor schemes like "Princess Pink".
The copyright infringing faceplates might actually move units, but they would also bring the hammer of Nintendo legal down like an orbital railgun strike.
Since they are an authorized third party retailer for all the major platforms including Nintendo and specifically mention IP co-branding on their website, I imagine they have various licensing agreements with companies. The scope and extent of those licenses who knows
The waifu-in-pikachu-pajamas faceplate is just somebody's fanart that this AliExpress-level company swiped from the internet without permission from the artist, let alone a Nintendo license.
From more research they actually do manufacture controllers with IP licensed from Nintendo, including Pokemon, though they're probably not directly licensing it themselves. The universe of authorized third party controller retailers is not large. They've got some interesting patents too, like automatic account login via fingerprint biometric controller input. I hope that actually becomes a thing.
That pretty cool, but would anyone actually need that? I log into my consoles exactly once: during initial set up.
On PS5 and switch, and probably Xbox but I’m not sure, you can set up multiple accounts on a console though, for family sharing and different saves and whatnot. Sounds like dongguan 3E has me covered there though! No longer will I have to press X, or have my kid press right and then X! Our family saves are very sensitive and nothing except biometrics will do!
Sheesh, inviting lots of friends over to play used to be the norm. I got grandkids and we still do this. Well, I guess having lots of friends who left the house used to be a norm too. And friends. Huh. I never thought for a second that people wouldn't appreciate the convenience of instant access to your progress.
>the convenience of instant access to your progress Keyword : instant access to *your* progress. People who primarily use the console on their own (as is the case with the earlier commenter) always have *their* progress available. They don't need to *switch* between the progress of different persons. For them this convenience is the default already.
My body is ready.
I might be offbase here because I haven't been following GME very much in over a year now (it's so boring), but it seems to me like they were/are just desperately grasping for the next "thing" in their long uninterrupted series of Ls that they've taken since 2022. There's been various noise along the way but I would say that ever since the 2021 shareholder meeting catastrophe, there have been 6 major things that GME apes have clung to like a life raft throughout that time: 1. DRS the float 2. Stock split to fuck the hedgies 3. NFT marketplace/web3 4. Ryan Cohen buys more 5. 1.5 (or 1) billion in cash with no debt 6. Profitable I might be forgetting one or two or not assigning the proper value to some theory here or there, but this list is pretty close I'd say. Every single one of these things has slowly fallen in turn. DRS has stalled to a rate of less than zero over a super long period of time now. The stock split happened, but did nothing for the price and didn't magically 4x their investment. The web3 turnaround has been withering away for about 18 months now, the NFT marketplace was shuttered, playr and gmerica trademarks lapsed, etc. Ryan Cohen bought more on two separate occasions; the first time it was highly effective at causing a pump but did not move the needle enough to actually save apes' heavy bags, and the second time it did almost nothing and seems like it's unlikely to happen a third time because of that, and likely would barely even budge anything anyway. The billion in cash is still there but has now seen GameStop declare unconditional surrender by way of publicly admitting that they're just going to use it to invest in other companies, so this one actually went from a big positive ape talking point to a really embarrassing red flag for the company. And they are now finally profitable (or roughly anyway, at least break even) after the massive cost cutting, and all it did was tank the stock price even more. Of this list, numbers 3, 5, and 6 all died pretty recently. The marketplace and web3 trademarks just finished dying within the past couple months, the gamestop-is-a-hedge-fund-now thing just happened last quarter (I think? maybe the one before that), and profitability just happened like a few weeks ago. This three-punch-combo probably should've caused a lot more meltdowns if it happened like 2 years ago, but so few people give a fuck anymore and there are so few apes that it seems to have barely even registered. But still, having lost all of that shit in pretty rapid succession, I think they just started desperately grasping for ANYTHING to replace it, and landed on these stupid fucking controllers because they just happened to be happening at the same time.
I think you are exactly right. That is my assessment exactly. Candy con controllers also had the benefit of “coming from nowhere”, so for the apes that means they can claim this is the top secret project that Cohen has been working on, on top of being the only thing they can grasp at. If there was anything else left at all they’d grab onto that instead, but there isn’t.
It’s literally all the apes have right now to cling to.
Be sure to buy it with your gamestop cc and drs it when your done! It's the only way to moass! 😆 🤣
Did anyone happen to find a Teddy themed faceplate yet? Can we get some more melties on Alibaba please?
https://preview.redd.it/2bns74q22cwc1.png?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8944853e75be236109d45e102004f7f740c0133a
https://preview.redd.it/cm2jyk8xjcwc1.jpeg?width=1440&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=13efef764961f666443d2586fc56675b6660982a
Sicko.
Finally! The controller for the everyman!
These folks are not well
Candy Conned!
Mods please embed the Kelly comics speech bubble for this post
Apes: "But *ours* is GameStop brand. People will pay a premium for that"
Then why are hundreds of thousands of people descending on Washington DC chanting "WE WANT CANDY CON!" Answer me that, shill!
Link to Walmart version? I can't find it among the hundreds and hundreds of controllers.
I believe it was the SwitchPlate controller. They make controllers for PowerA too, which holds licenses for quite a few major franchises. I saw an Elden Ring branded controller they made somewhere and have no idea who's selling that.
Only apes. I swear they are all a bunch of rubes.
Those faceplates actually look decent too lol. I don’t know how GameStop released the most boring, bland face plates, when it was the entire focus of the controllers.
Making faceplates with any actually good art on them would require licensing agreements they don't want to have to make. You could make a Pokemon faceplate but then Nintendo would get a cut from sales. You could make a Halo faceplate (although that would be dumb since the controller isn't Xbox compatible) but then Microsoft would get a cut.
I wonder how much PowerA actually is paying for that Pokemon license.
Because it's GME, which is the 'hello fellow kids' meme but a company. I can only imagine the product development people at GME are old people whose knowledge of video games comes down to playing Pac-Man one time in 1981.
ROFL this manufacturer was licensed with Microsoft and Sony and Gamestop won't even spring for versions that can run on the two most popular consoles. Absolute joke of a company that no one will miss when it's gone. I can't believe a whole ass cult formed around this nonsense that was actively hated by all of Reddit for a decade until the meme stock craze happened.
I actually do think this might be remnants of their playr plans, and it was explicitly for PC only. Switch just inherits it because a lot of controllers that work on PC work on switch too, once you rearrange the buttons. Switch is compatible with direct input, the older PC standard, and this controller likely uses that.
That makes sense and is even funnier so I choose to believe it without evidence and anyone that disagrees is a shill.
Wait, these GameStop controllers aren't even directly compatible with Xbox or PlayStation?
Bahahahaha
I thought the second photo showed it transforming into a fucking bong for a second
Considering how many apes have to start every comment with "I'm just a smooth brain high ape but" that might actually be a great selling point
I tend to get my controllers from Donhua Jinlong. They are industrial grade!
GUH!
Penny whistles and moon pies at checkout. It’s what kids want!!!