LinkedIn – The world’s largest video game retailer is shutting down nearly 200 of its 5,700 stores worldwide. Like so many other consumers across multiple different categories of retail, gamers have increasingly turned to buying games online. GameStop’s CEO said this is only the beginning and they expect a “much larger tranche of closures over the coming 12 to 24 months.”

It’s not a gigantic leap to say that our generation more than any other has taken the most metaphorical kicks to our nostalgia’s dicks. We came up during a truly unique time in that we saw the crossover in landlines to cell phones, in newspapers to the internet, in mail and inner-office memos to email, and from brick and mortar stores to online shopping. We have strong, lucid memories from both eras and thus feel a tug at the heart strings when we read something like this. It just kinda sucks. We don’t know why, as I doubt many reading this, including our EIC, have been in a GameStop in the past 5-10 years (Editor’s note: I have), but it does indeed suck.

To be honest I’m surprised GameStop took this long to fall. One because entertainment as a whole went almost entirely only/off-hard copy faster than most other industries. “Remember Blockbuster?” is asked with almost the same morbid respect and mourning that “Remember the Alamo” is stated by so many Texans. Secondly, gaming as a sub-industry has really taken off in the internet age. I never went beyond Madden and a couple of versions of Medal Of Honor, but in this day and age it is apparently perfectly acceptable to be a complete and utter nerd and try and make your living growing bed sores while buying and playing video games online. So it is kind of shocking a brick and mortar gaming store is just now deciding to call it quits.

It’s fair to wonder which staple of our upbringing is next to fall as digital entertainment and lifestyles become more and more of the norm. It is also fair to wonder if that fall also coincides with a visit from a belligerent transexual  thus making such occurrences the new grim reaper for the previous generation of consumerism. Either way, expect more and more of the things we know and love to fall by the wayside while dipshits from youtube become millionaires.

I apologize for the turn for the cynical.

-Joey B