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News UK Game sales fell 18 percent over Christmas

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by CardJoe, 12 Jan 2010.

  1. Unknownsock

    Unknownsock What's a Dremel?

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    Another reason to hate them is that they've almost bought out all competition in the UK..Rarely find decent retail deals now..
     
  2. DbD

    DbD Minimodder

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    Steam Cheesecake, unless available significantly cheaper elsewhere I always use steam for new games. The steam sales also work with me - pick up an older game cheap on steam > buying it second hand off ebay.
     
  3. FIBRE+

    FIBRE+ Minimodder

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    Does that not suggest the obvious to them, that their prices are too high for new games.

    All the games I bought over christmass were from either Amazon or Steam, it was cheaper and I didn't have to put up with crowds of rabid christmass shopers.
     
  4. MacWalka

    MacWalka What's a Dremel?

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    There's actually a game swap shop in Falkirk near where I work. They have some great deals if you want to sell an old game or get a pre-owned one. They beat anything any other shop does. They gurantee that a like for like game will be cheaper to buy and will get you more money if you sell to them than GAME, HMV, GameStation or Blockbuster.

    They don't sell ANY brand new games though, its only for buying pre-owned or selling your old games.
     
  5. freedom810

    freedom810 Minimodder

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    GAME is messed up, me and my friend popped in to have a look today. Found a preowned game (gtaiv) for £19.99 and it was the same price brand new! I dared my mate to ask why and the guy walked away from him and mumbled 'its how the trade in prices are set..' who would be stupid enough to buy a preowned for the same as a new? :confused:
     
  6. bobwya

    bobwya Custom PC Migrant

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    The Steam Sale cleaned me out so I had no money to spend in Amazon.:D

    What self-respecting PC gamer is going to go into Game anyway...
     
  7. Jaguar_Infinity

    Jaguar_Infinity Just some guy

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    one that wants a giggle? that's all i seem to end up doing when i go in there. Sometimes it's nice to have a look around and see if any titles catch your eye but I won't buy it instore.

    I buy via Steam, amazon, play or zavvi - the price difference between these sites and game/gamestation is just too great to justify anything else imo. Even if you don't have amazon prime it's often cheaper to pay for the game with next day delivery and get a hard copy than it is to get it from game. Steam is even faster and you don't have to worry about loosing or damaging a disc.
     
  8. Ficky Pucker

    Ficky Pucker I

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    i bought 2 games from "game" in last 5 years, you can get a lot better prices buying online (play.com, shopto.net, amazon or steam)
     
  9. eddtox

    eddtox Homo Interneticus

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    Glad to see that the decrease isn't blamed on piracy, at least. I like game but only for pre-owned stuff. I haven't played any game released in the last 2-3 years though, so meh.
     
  10. Combatus

    Combatus Bit-tech Modding + hardware reviews Lover of bit-tech Super Moderator

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    I bought loads of stuff on Steam over Christmas, mainly in their brilliant sales. GAME might be suffering but I reckon Steam raked in a nice little bundle of cash since it started its sales before Christmas
     
  11. MonkeyTurnip

    MonkeyTurnip What's a Dremel?

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    how many Game shops are there in your town? in Southampton there is 4, all with in 5 mins walk of each other. getting rid of 2 of these will massivly save overheads. this is ontop of 1 gamestation 1 bigish cex, toy r us etc

    plus as said their prices are well to high,
     
  12. puck

    puck What's a Dremel?

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    Prices! Prices! Prices!

    The supermarkets were selling MW2 at a loss, at around £6 per SKU if you believe reports. How do you compete with that? If yet another retailer goes do you really think the supermarkets will continue to offer throat cutting prices on prime titles? When you have ALL the market you can charge what you want!
     
  13. teamtd11

    teamtd11 *Custom User Title*

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    i spent all my money on games off steam over Christmas, even gifting to 4 other friends too. digital is the future, just wish our isp's would see that!
     
  14. D-Cyph3r

    D-Cyph3r Gay for Yunosuke

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    GAME are god damn awful nowadays anyways. Rude, unhelpful, patronising staff, barely any (or none at all) PC games and prices are significantly higher than the supermarkets and etailers.

    My 2 local GAME stores are practically dominated by 360 and DS sections, with 1 having the tiny piece of shelf space that used to hold PC games now taken up by CD's. With digital distribution taking off more and supermarkets destroying them in the pricing department I honestly cant see GAME being around to see 2020...
     
  15. puck

    puck What's a Dremel?

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    Who would that be then? I wouldn't call Gamestation ALL the competition.
     
  16. whisperwolf

    whisperwolf What's a Dremel?

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    No but the complaint that supermarket prices are killing GAME is amusing considering its was GAME's prices that drove a lot of independent stores out of business.

    The trouble with the supermarkets is that they mostly only stock the top 10. I like to browse the older games, I mostly reside 6 months to a year behind the new release curve so that the price drops considerably. Unfortunately where GAME and Gamestation used to do a variety of games, the stores near me now mostly do the top 20, and the rest is preowned. I can buy them online at that time for less than their preowned prices.

    And what's GAME's solution to this problem, lets sell the top 10 cd's at RRP. their must be a market now that Woolworths and Zavvi have closed. hmmm i wonder which places are selling the top 10 cheaply too,
     
  17. puck

    puck What's a Dremel?

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    I don't remember a HUGE price war in the days gone by, or GAME/EB/Gamestation selling at a loss. Perhaps ones memory dulls with age?

    I do remember plenty of indie game shops in the larger towns around me for a long time after EB/Game/Gamestation started trading. Not so much now the supermarkets have moved in on the specialists. I can't think of any left near me, that goes for news agents/iron mongers/green grocers/bakers/office licenses/petrol stations too. See a pattern here folks?

    The debate about digital downloads is an interesting one. Sure, I haven't bought a PC from a bricks and mortar retailer for ages now but the console debate is a different one. My PS3 and XBOX360 do not have terabytes of disk space so it would be impractical to download everything, nor would I want to buy everything from one online retailer dictated to me by Microsoft or Sony.

    I would naturally as a consumer demand a choice but does selling at a loss on release day actually leave me with one?
     
  18. smc8788

    smc8788 Multimodder

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    I know they sell them at a loss, but GAME were still more expensive than all other retailers. It wouldn't make any difference if GAME were to disappear completely because they're not competitive on prices - other retailers can't charge above the MSRP for them, which is all GAME do anyway.
     
  19. puck

    puck What's a Dremel?

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    Hmmm. Not sure they do? The RRP on MW2 PS3 is £54.99 not £44.99.

    GAME.co.uk - £44.99 - http://www.game.co.uk/Games/PlayStation-3/Call-of-Duty-Modern-Warfare-2-/~r339835/

    HMV.com - £44.99 - http://hmv.com/hmvweb/displayProductDetails.do?ctx=280;0;-1;-1;-1&sku=915443

    Both high street retailers.

    PLAY.com - £44.99 - http://www.play.com/Games/PlayStation3/4-/8771812/Call-Of-Duty-Modern-Warfare-2/Product.html

    AMAZON.co.uk - £39.88 - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Call-Duty-M..._2?ie=UTF8&s=videogames&qid=1263336822&sr=1-2

    Both online retailers.

    The differnence is not so wide now is it? So amazon are a whole £5 cheeper, not suprising with their buying power.

    People loosing their jobs will always make a difference, just look around you next time you step outside the door.
     
  20. Tangster

    Tangster Butt-kicking for goodness!

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    Meh, I'm happy, I got Star Wars:Knights of the Old Republic(which has become difficult to get a box copy of now), World In Conflict and Mirror's Edge for £10 last november.
     
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