We’ve known for a few months now that GameStop has been planning to upgrade the Edge card program into a fleshed-out rewards program, but it has only been in a testing phase in a few areas within Ohio, Tennessee, and Missouri until now. I was told by some clerks at the local GameStop that they would be switching people over to the PowerUp Rewards program tonight during the midnight launch of Madden NFL 11, which I can confirm when I just received my own card after paying off the Madden NFL 11 pre-order to possibly be the first customer to do so at this location. The question I still have is whether this will be launching across the nation or if this is still a limited expansion of the program in a few more parts of the country, though picking the night of the Madden NFL 11 launch here in Canton, Ohio makes it seem like this may be a bigger thing despite my research confirming nothing.

Scouring as much of the internet as I could stand, I didn’t see much discussion between anybody that has shopped at GameStop recently that heard of the PowerUp Rewards switch, so maybe I’ve stumbled upon the “No Homers” club for PowerUp Rewards. Despite picking a big launch to roll these Edge cards over to PowerUp Rewards cards, there are no press releases from GameStop, no signs of the program’s existence on GameStop.com, and the lack of discussion on the number of forums I would look to for word on Madden or GameStop discussions, so I’m forced to believe that it’s a local expansion here in the home of the Pro Football Hall of Fame to take advantage of the Madden NFL 11 launch. If you’d like a bit more information about the card, the website, and what comes with this new program, just keep reading past the jump for more details and impressions of PowerUp Rewards.

When I got my PowerUp Rewards card, it came in a nice gift card-style sleeve that not only gives you information about the program, but also points you to the PowerUpRewards.com website that you need to visit to activate your new account on the website. It’s a simple process besides having to tell the GameStop clerk your potentially embarrassing personal email to at least activate the card first, which is followed up by an email soon after. The main PowerUp Rewards card also comes with a smaller card for your keychain so you don’t need to keep the main card on you at all times, which may be good for those that can’t just stick the card in their wallet when they drive or are driven over to the store.

Once you activate the account, you are prompted to do two things to fill out your profile for 250 points each to start your new life in search of GameStop points. The first step is to fill out your profile, which for me was already partially filled in from the activation at the register to link my in-store account with the website account. That, in itself, is great for me since I’ve had a few accounts linked to my name from bad GameStop clerks in the past that just created new accounts for trade-ins rather than put the effort into finding my current account, so this should simplify those types of issues. They do offer to send you information via text messaging, phone calls, and emails along with an option as to how often you get those notices, which is at least a nice way to limit that stuff if they do follow through with it. The profile concluded with a fairly long survey asking me how much I play games a week and which consoles I own to more in-depth questions asking how much I spend on games and how much of that was for used games that seemed like a cheap ploy for.

The second part of filling out your profile is to fill up your Games Library with your collection of currently owned, recently owned, and wish list games so they can probably advertise all sorts of trade-in deals to you. The surprise is that there are XBLA, PSN, and other digital games on there, which may be a sign that the XBL and PSN in-store kiosks could be coming in the future since these games can’t be sold at GameStop. The only benefit I would want to get me to keep my collection up to date would be if I could see the trade-in values for every game I own so I don’t have to guess or bring the games into the store first. The one nice thing it does offer is that it’ll keep track of current reservations, so you can at least have a record of what you have reserved that you need to pick up.

The big reason you’re still reading this is probably because you want to know what perks you’re getting for rolling over your Edge account to a PowerUp Rewards account. The first thing I’ll mention is that there is a free version of the card that doesn’t offer the bonuses and discounts but just lets you earn points from your purchases and participate in the special events and giveaways that GameStop will have. If you currently have an Edge card, it’s free to upgrade to the Pro card that offers the same pre-owned discount, trade-in bonus, and a year’s subscription to Game Informer. Beyond that, you also get a bonus for renewing your membership after the year ends, a Buy 2, Get 1 Free introductory deal, and a 10% point bonus for your purchases. How you get these points and what you spend them on is the other interesting part of this rewards program.

The points are the highlight feature of the rewards program since you get points for every purchase that can be spent on the many rewards they offer. You get 10 points for every dollar you spend on new games and consoles, 20 points for every dollar spent on pre-owned games, consoles, and accessories, and 20 points per dollar for every game or console you trade in. It’s not a surprise that GameStop favors buying used games and trading games in, so I’ll do the math for you to decide how much more you get for buying used games.

Using a recent example, buying Crackdown 2 new would get you 600 points for the $59.99 that it costs right now and buying it used for $54.99 would get you 1,100 points, nearly double the points for buying the used version that offers a bigger profit for GameStop. The FAQ says that you don’t get points for the few extra dollars that sales tax adds on, so you may just get 590 points and 1,080 points for those purchases instead because of that extra $0.99 not technically counting as a whole dollar. The extra 10% for the Pro card can at least help make up for that, though people with the free card are pretty much screwed over.

Since I’ve covered the amount of points you can get for purchases, it’s time to find out what you can spend those points on. Looking at the rewards catalog, there are nearly 50 items there already to spend the points you probably won’t have right away. I already had 750 points for filling out the profile with 250 points coming with the activation, so I’m not close to getting anything substantial right now.

The cheapest item in there is 1,000 points to get a Game Play Guarantee warranty coupon for the future purchase of a game under $10, which is something that I believe costs about $3 to get in store to make this one of the least desirable things they offer. As you move up the chain you get to some interesting bits of schwag for 3,000 points for a Call of Duty Dog Tag or a Mario Keychain, 4,000 points for some of those $5 PS3 Real Triggers, and up to 5,500 points for a 2010 FIFA World Cup mini soccer ball. That’s just the small stuff that still requires a decent amount of dough to earn those points for things that are basically cheap fodder for the counter or pre-order bonuses.

As I look up the list to the higher point items, I see a number of cheap GameStop branded items and other trinkets before I start seeing a Wii Nunchuk controller for 16,000 points, the Microsoft wired headset at 15,000 points, the Sony PS3 Blu-ray remote at 17,800 points, and up to the holy grail of an official black wireless Microsoft Xbox 360 controller at 35,000 points and an Xbox 360-branded Turtle Beach X11 Headset at 38,500 points. You can do the math yourself on how much cash these things will require before you realize that it’s cheaper to just buy them yourself if you really want any of this stuff. The best items may just be the coupons for $50 or $25 off one purchase, but I’m not a fan of the pricing being 1,000 times the value of the gift card or coupon to determine the points.

The major issue I have with the list of rewards right now is that there isn’t much in the way of official accessories from Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, as I listed all of the major items I saw with a lot more third-party stuff that fill out the lower tiers of pricing. That’s not to say it couldn’t change as this program grows and takes over the Edge program, but as an early member of this program, I’m not excited to rack up points just yet.

With the Madden NFL 11 launch, everybody that signed up and finished their purchases got double the points they’d normally get, so it would be a good idea if this was a regular deal to get more people to pre-order and then follow it up by purchasing the game at launch. I’d compare this rewards program to the My Coke Rewards program, which offers points for buying coke products that can be redeemed and spent on a lot of items that probably aren’t worth the cost to afford them outside of things like gift cards and coupons. If you have seen your store begin offering PowerUp Rewards cards recently or have some more details on the program’s official launch, feel free to post below and share your impressions of the program. If you still have questions, feel free to ask in the comments or check out the FAQ that should be able to answer some of your general questions.

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About This Author: Chris Selogy

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