News GAME Group closes 277 stores

Here Here.

I still remember a few years ago, the publishers were saying that they would be switching to the DVD box style and I laughed at a quote from some box packing union rep saying they would resist changes.
I see the resistance went well then.

 

Although not necessarily connected to America, I find this closing much more worrying just because of the amount of jobs that are being lost. On the other hand, the reason why the big boxes went out of phase was the sheer cost of it. Yes a 200+ Page manual was awesome (and frankly still is, CIV II anyone? Or hell, just any RTS' manual) but it was also extremely expensive. And especially given that printing costs are so much more now.

We could always make PDFs but with the rising commercialization of video games, we won't ever really see the return of the big boxes for video games. Admittedly I do miss my epic game manuals, tech trees, and just extra content (remember the Warcraft 3 manual? That thing had LORE amongst many other things inside it). But then again, they also do sell books.

While I would LOVE to have an epic return to the game boxes with just crap tons of content with the game, sadly I don't see it ever coming back. What I'd prefer however are games that are incredibly immersive.

 

I didn't even realise there was another GAME store! Then again, I refuse to shop at the other one since the manager was being rather a tool towards me... Gotham Games and CEX seem much better to me.

 

They've got rid of 2 in Crawley which is probably a good thing. Never understood why we had 3 within 50 metres of each other. I'm glad they kept gamestation though, although it's sad they're out of a job, the staff in both the games were useless.

 

Gotham games gamestion and game are all rip offs the only good thing about gotham games is you can sometimes pick up some rare stuff otherwise the pawnshop on the high street is better nearly every ps2 title for £1 and every console and accessory in history pretty much

 

OK.... So they have closed my local Game in Cirencester. However in Worcester both the Game and Gamestation are safe?
I can also see that Swindon has had 2 of the 3 Game branded stores close. I'd love to know their logic behind the choice in store closures. Personally I'd have made sure that all towns/cities where there are multiple outlets in close proximity to each other were closed to ensure that thier was less competition for the remaining store and that it would mean a chance of keeping a presence in other places with just a single store.

 

It probably has more to do with which sites have really low rent? I have no idea what they are currently doing or have been doing for the last 5 years really!

 

I feel bad for them although I must admit that the last few years I've done a full 360 and nearly only buy second hand from them (although quite a lot).

I'd be interested to see what publishers think on the move. At the end of the day retail space for your product is a form of advertising. Without it, those smaller market share titles will have a bigger uphill struggle.

Yes there is still HMV and supermarkets but dedicated games retails are one of the few places on the high street for people like parents not in the know to get advise for kids games etc....instead they'll be reading on-line reviews and passing up on smaller titles they might of bought on first impressions..

So what's the REAL cost of losing GAME (well not entirely)? I'm sure we'll find out...

Also I did used to think it was really annoying when they had large disparities in their pricing between their website and shops. I think a lot of people thought that.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17575500

Looks like Game will be sticking around after all.

 

Be interesting to see what they do with their remaining stores, proably see more go and maybe some return but likely to be further losses.

 

when they had 3 stores in teh same area in crawley - and 2 in a town like eastbourne , then theres a big problem - they had to shut most of them tbh

 

It's a shame about the job losses and the way the staff were treated in the end.
A lot of games have the instructions on disc now Gareth, just to save a few pence. It's nice to have them but I don't know anyone that reads them!