Best Buy's Gamers Club Unlocked program gets the axe

Best Buy Gamers Club Unlocked

It’s a sad day for video game bargain hunters, as Best Buy has ended its Gamers Club Unlocked program in all of its US stores. The news comes via a leaked email surfaced by Wario64 on Twitter, an account known for countless video game deal scoops.

Gamers Club Unlocked entered the world costing $99 for a year membership before getting chopped down to $29 in March 2015, The Verge reports, offering 20% off the price of new games and more favorable trade-in values.

The shutdown includes all facets of the program from free to paid memberships, and Best Buy will not enroll any new members. Existing members will enjoy the benefits of the program for the remainder of their subscription, and no subscriptions will be renewed. Best Buy has yet to confirm the email leak or the closure.

As The Verge points out, it’s likely that this program was harming the company’s bottom line, as members could quickly and easily make good on their $30 investment – perhaps too easily.

Of course, a business’s goal is to make money, so there you have it. It’s still sad nevertheless, but only reinforces the fact that online retail is increasingly where it’s at when it comes to savings on games.

Joe Osborne

Joe Osborne is the Senior Technology Editor at Insider Inc. His role is to leads the technology coverage team for the Business Insider Shopping team, facilitating expert reviews, comprehensive buying guides, snap deals news and more. Previously, Joe was TechRadar's US computing editor, leading reviews of everything from gaming PCs to internal components and accessories. In his spare time, Joe is a renowned Dungeons and Dragons dungeon master – and arguably the nicest man in tech.