News GAME Group struggles under financial pressure

I'm a mile from Orpington town centre. Bromley only 20mins away on the bus. Have some rep for living nearby.


Ooo it gave you another green dot. Shiny!

 

This really isn't suprising and I really don't care. Game have failed to change with the times just like HMV etc.

 

I went into a Game store last week and couldn't even see the PC section, the time before that is was just a rotating rack. Gamestation is just Sims3, MW 3 and Watching Paint Dry Simulator, with the odd game from 4 or 5 years ago hidden away at the bottom.

The gamestation near me has way too many staff, 1 pestering customers, 1 on the till, 1 stacking shelves and 2 doing nothing but chatting with each other next to the counter. Its the same scene everytime I enter the shop.

 

Wow, you get that much? If only.

 

The last time I was in a Game shop it wasn't just the PC section that was vanishing, the new PS3 and Xbox games had reduced in shelf space too. There's one rack for each console, one rack that just has boxes of whatever game is currently on pre release, the PC sections located somewhere you need a map and compass to find, and the rest of the shop is second hand games. Oh and the occasional cuddly toy. Even worse the prices of the used games are normally more than you can buy them new online. Every once in a while I'll find they have a decent price online, but the shops been dead for me since they took over and ruined Gamestation.

 

I have worked at game for over 4 years in total. If you go in there LOOKING for console-playing staff, you are going to find them. If you actually ASK if any of the staff have any PC gaming experience, they will fetch that person. I have worked at many stores, and each one had at least 1 or 2 people who would say PC games are their primary or secondary format.

The staff are told what to push. PC is not a priority. They are given figures to hit and the only way staff can hit those targets is by pushing consoles or preowned - neither are related to PC games.

Blame the higher up for poor management, NOT the staff. It is people like you who make PC gamers appear elitist.

 

You still work there? Can I be pest and ask if you know of the likelihood that Game will be honouring their pre-orders over the next few months? News like this will have people dropping their pre-orders and rushing to another source. And that in turn will do much damage to Game. It could be worth mentioning to the higher up's that we (consumers) need some reassurance.

I will be keeping my pre-order as Game has never let me down yet, which is probably amazing to some of you as it seems to regularly get slagged off.

 

My local Game ain't so bad it's got 4 sections of 3 for £10 and 2 for £15 older games 4 sections fon new games I get most of my games from there cos the prices are usually the same or bit less then from steam and I only have a 3GB download limit a month so I wouldn't be able to download a full game anyway

 

Haven't bought from Game since Gamestation hit Britian, and hardly use Gamestation as I buy from amazon and play.com much more frequently.

 

Bit of a shame people might loose jobs and another UK company going under, but I won't miss it.

I think the last game I bought from there was in the 90s. It's too expensive, too console orientated and other than getting a new release on the day it has no real appeal for me. I would imagine profits peak around every COD release, maybe the sales last time weren't good enough.

Big chains like should be asking what customers and staff want rather than a bunch of non gamers sitting in an office looking at facts and figures.

 

4ft wide racking section is more than we have here.

 

We have a similar problem with PC selection in the states. A store chain named GameStop has also relegated their PC selection to either a small wall section or stand-alone shelf on the floor. Even larger store chains such as Walmart and BestBuy have seriously scaled back their PC game selections. The only reason I went to GameStop lately was looking for Skyrim on the release day since BestBuy had already sold out. Apparently, I managed to grab GameStop's last unreserved copy. Otherwise, I just don't go there anymore since I don't currently own any modern console or handheld.

 

I remember a year ago when I said PC gaming is getting less and less. Now Apple is also bringing a console out so lets see what they do and how it affects PC gaming. I'd be lost without PC gaming

 

No, I no longer work for the company Fizzban. Left due to the hoops upper management (ie above store level) made everyone jump through. Also, my current job is much better.

I don't see why they will not honour any order currently placed. Go into your store and ask to speak to the manager or deputy manager saying you are concerned. They will give you all the information they can. I cannot say with absolute certainty it will be truthful as all managers are different - if they are told they cannot tell you something because they will face discplinary then you cannot hold it against them. However, if you are friendly with the staff the chances are they are going to be truthful. Being a **** will get you NOWHERE in retail - most of the time the staff are only following protocols that higher ups up in place, who are only too happy to reverse the action lower managers make to make themselves the hero.

 

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I'm not ever a **** for no reason, so no worries there. I may pop in my local next time I'm around and see what they have to say.

A bit OT but I could never work in retail. There is only so many arseholes a person can take in one day, and retail offers you a lot of them.

 

In Glasgow there are 3 Game stores in the city centre (one of which is in Hamleys) and 2 Gamestations..

I always got the impression that most Game staff were all about sales while Gamestation were gamers.. which means that even though I know they're the same company I always go into Gamestation instead.

Whenever I went into Game they were always "Buy ALL the things and warranties!", while Gamestation were very much into talking about what they were playing at the time and being pretty honest if they thought it sucked or having real enthusiasm if they really enjoyed it.


Then again, maybe it was all a ploy to corner both the Why-Would-Video-Games-Have-Age-Ratings-I-Bought-GTA4-For-My-8yr-Old* and Hey-You're-A-Gamer-Too-Here-Take-All-My-Money(and-love?) markets.





*True story.. ..granted from the same woman I had to advise to stop telling people her kids could get them any music for free, just ask. "My kids would never do anything illegal!"

 

Game's pricing structure is interesting to say the least. I just looked at the prices online for Skyrim and found you can buy the boxed version for £29.99 or download for £39.99. I thought downloads were supposed to be cheaper?

No wonder they're going out of business.

 

I think this is similar to do with the pricing for books though. I read an article (found it through twitter so can't locate it right now) about this.

EDIT:
Here's a better explanation than below:
Why Some E-Books Cost More Than the Hardcover


The example they used was Amazon.
Amazon sold physical copies of books at much less than they themselves were paying for them, so were making a loss on books. The profit from the rest of their business meant that this wasn't an issue and allowed them to be far cheaper than everyone else.

When they started selling the Kindle, they continued this with ebooks. However, the publishers started getting worried that they were helping devalue books (much, I suppose, like the used game market making people reluctant to pay £45/$60 for a game) and changed their terms of conditions, meaning that instead of Amazon being a retailer and setting the price Amazon wanted for ebooks, the publishers set the price and Amazon was just the middle-man.

Something about the difference between digital distribution and physical stock as to why it only affect ebooks and not physical copies.



Granted, how this works with Steam sales I don't know

 

Die game die and im not speaking german. It ceased to be relevant when they hired monkeys and failed to acknowledge that you could anything they had for cheaper from everywhere else. The fact that rage on release was £32 yet they had second hand copies for £35. Ive no sympathy for this dinosaur of last gen console age. They could of embraced the future of downloads yet instead insulted everyone. Its the story of the high street really, if they actually offered a service such as trying things instore, decent staff that knew things even gaming events where you could feel part of a community, id be more willing to pay their prices. They offered nothing now I cant wait to piss on their corpse.

 

The last time I went into a Gamestation (Manchester Arndale) the few PC games they had were on a shelf *behind* the sales counter. i.e. you couldn't even touch them....

....which is why it was the last time I went into Gamestation.