News GAME Group looks for a buyer

Head to Game.co.uk and get it done, so much the better as you can empty the card on a single order and not worry about batches of x00 points at a time. Just got The Social Network Blu Ray for less than a fiver and cleared my card, though the only good Blu Rays left in stock for a good price were Fight Club, Social Network and .REC 2, the latter being £5.49 at Amazon anyway.

[EDIT] Dunno why I was being so open-minded just then, the management are either stupid or there's something in it for them to let the firm die, who leaves it until two weeks before rent day to try and rescue an entire shop chain?

 

There is NO point to buy games anymore, the reality is streaming, you order online, not physical stuff anymore. Only very FEW still likes the old method, but trust me, it will disappear. They were TOO SLOW to react to this new reality. Now they lose almost $1m pounds in a day.

 

No, nothing in it for them - just stupid. I feel desperately sorry for all the vast numbers of people about to lose their jobs, but the way their senior management have behaved in recent years amounts to little more than corporate suicide. Not just leaving looking for a saviour until almost the dying minute, but other decisions too:

Buying GameStation's 200+ stores in 2007. Yes, because massively expanding your high-street presence when almost everyone else was cutting theirs back was really sensible. The arriving recession wasn't their fault, but the timing seriously compounded the stupidity of that decision. Also, a huge number of those stores they bought were located close to their existing stores - effectively putting them into competition with themselves.

The argument with EA, stopping EA games being sold in their stores - management should REALLY have found a way to avoid that.

I just had a look at their online store to see it there were any bargains to be had - I searched through the £0.01-£9.99 section. Scrolling through hundreds and hundreds of games 'out of stock' to find the few that were available - probably at a ratio of about 8-1. 8 out of stock to 1 in stock. If it's out of stock, why not remove it from the webpage? Listing hundreds and hundreds of products that I can't buy, while making me search for the rare few that I can - how is that good business? I got bored and gave up after a half dozen pages - as I suspect most people would.

Just demonstrates that corporate negligence isn't confined to banks...

 

As for the people suggesting that all retail should just die and switch to online downloads - no thanks. For a start, the infrastructure just isn't there nationally to cope with it. Sure, it's great if you live in a city centre and have fibre, but millions of people are still stuck with ADSL - often right at the low end of what it can produce as well.

You don't have to live in North Wales or the Scottish Highlands to have bad internet service either, there are plenty of places on the outskirts of towns and cities that may as well be in John O' Groats for all the service they can get.

 

Proably see a company come in and take over once the company goes into adminstation, would likely see half the stores go and a good % of the staff as well.

Game maybe able to survive though it will be much smaller then before, im really suprised the company has not decreased its store amount sooner.

 

to be honest i think this is sad news

 

True but services like amazon.co.uk will more than cover for a loss of most of the high street and still allow you to get physical media.

 

Sure, for you lucky ******* with a fast enough internet connection. I have a 700Kbps connection. Steam and other download services are not practical for me. Interesting fact, on my phone standing in my back garden i get ~850Kbps download speed on 3G, faster than my landline connection. Screw you BT and your point blank refusal to upgrade the lines in the last 5 years.

 

That's thankfully true, but as Farting Bob just pointed out, that's not what people like Gradius were talking about - a form of: "I'm all right Jack, stuff everyone else".

If Game hadn't left it so ridiculously late then there could have been a number of options available to potential buyers - there's a good chance the business could have survived in some reduced form, and that other options may have been available for the rest of the stores and staff. As it is, it's almost impossible for other companies to put together a studied game plan and carry out the required due diligence in time. It's a self inflicted catastrophe due to corporate negligence. If I were a large shareholder I'd be asking serious questions and, potentially, considering personal lawsuits against the board members.

Talking of Amazon, I think the time has probably come for them to start opening high street shops/collection points - so that people can conveniently go and collect the stuff they bought online from their local high street, (as many potential customers find it difficult to use online shopping due to difficulty taking deliveries). This may have been a perfect opportunity for them to do that with a ready-made network already in place and ready to go - but probably not at this short notice.

It's all such an unnecessary waste.

 

I'm a little sick of reading about people wishing game would go under. I used to work for them and I still have a lot of friends who work there. These are the people who are going to come off the worst.

The people who caused this problem, upper management, will just waltz into another roles elsewhere... the actual shop workers though...

 

It's not just download speeds that are the problem - with streaming you are completely at the mercy of the supplier. If they terminate your account or go bust, then all the money you spent with them goes up in smoke. Physical discs (or DRM-free downloads, such as those offered by GOG) don't have this problem.

We've seen this before with DRMed music services - customers losing out following the closure of the likes of Virgin Digital and Yahoo Music. Don't be too quick to volunteer as the next victim.

 

Agreed -- It's not a good thing. I live in a relatively remote area and Game is just about the only retail store I know of within 25 miles that sells games, period.

A lot of titles are overpriced but conversely I've seen premium titles cheaper (at least online) from Game than on Steam.

That said, has anyone else felt that the online Game store has felt like an oddly barren throwback from 2004 for quite some time? I can't quite put my finger on it -- maybe it's the odd Wii peripherals and plush versions of Wario that they sell.

 

I mean Im all for increasing your retail presence on the high street but having 3 game stores and 2 gamestation stores within the approx. 1 square mile, as it is in Glasgow, is bloody stupid.

I will certainly miss Game and Gamestation as I have many memories of buying the games from there and they often provide a welcome reprieve from when I get dragged around shops by my mother and sister.

They also provide a convenience. Although I often buy online, a lot of games and peripherals I buy I would buy in store. I mean if im in town I will usually drop in and browse the charts and 2nd hand section for some interesting games but also for being able to see the hardware so you can tell if you can actually use it and that it is comfortable to use.

I would much prefer to have the physical disk mainly as collateral eg. if my computer breaks and I can't remember my steam password (because it is on auto login) im screwed for a while. What if my computer gets and the games get stolen, physical media is always covered under house contents insurance. The data is not. ie. If a hard drive is stolen and a game is stolen you can get a replacement for both but if you cannot prove what is on the hard drive you cannot get the data back (ie a downloaded game).

This however is just my personal preference and I will likely continue to use amazon more than steam and origin.

 

Why not? Things will take a bit longer but you'll still be able to download games. What does that equate to? 3.5hrs per Gig? If you're in a real hurry you can order a physical copy.

Trouble is everyone is so used to things happening instantly that even moderate delays seem to take an age.

I remember when I first started to rip my CD collection, you know how long it took? 1Hr! Per 3min track! And that was only to 120Kbps MP2!

Game going under is going to put some people out of work. In the same way that a lot of local fishmongers, greengrocers, butchers, coopers and black smiths went out of work when the retail model / buying habits and technology changed.

A lot of people prefer buying digital copies (I do), and people are spending more and more on mobile and casual gaming - a model that isn't compatible with retail chains.

Dedicated gaming retail stores have been dying a death for a few years now. Their days are numbered.

I'd love to see some stats of bit-tech members here and tot up how much you've spent online (Steam, Play, Amazon, App store etc) compared to how much you've spent in retail. I'd wager that online sales have had the edge for a while.

For me, I think I haven't bought a physical copy of a game in over four years. Last one was probably GTA IV.

 

That's most of the reason why they're in this mess. GAME can't afford to drop their prices down to competive prices! I stopped buying there a year or 2 ago.

 

Over priced gaming and not enough investment online good riddance game didn't adapt and now they will die nobody will be dumb enough to buy the company since th eonly interesting part of it is the online section and anyone can create a website themselves with little cost so game is dead in the water i just feel sorry for the poor employees just going to add more strain to our economy.

 

Spose i had better spend my reward points.

 

Bottom line: I honestly don't care. They have the smallest PC section that is not even worth going in for to have a look. They can't even compete online so there really is no need for them.

If they cannot compete, bye bye. It's just the way capitalism works.

 

I think they could quite easily cut the number of stores in half by getting rid of all the Gamestation outlets. It seems like most towns/cities have both a Game and Gamestation, which is pointless tbh. Never been in a Gamestation once ever since it got taken over by Game due to zero PC games being present in any stores I've been in.

 

My local Game/Game Station didnt stock Mass Effect 3 for launch lol

But they had key chains!!!

They can pretty much **** off and die.