News GAME to close 100 UK stores, CEO resigns

Well my other half bought me Just Cause 2 (as a gift) from my local GAME store and she paid £34.99 for it (£10 more than it is on their website online!) but I got some satisfaction out of it knowing that yet another store might not get shut down!

As for HMV, some of their PC prices AND console prices are VERY high, in many cases just as high as GAME stores! So to say "I usually go to HMV" means nothing........

 

So when the British Medical Association asked the big supermarkets to stop loss leading on Alcohol promotions, and the supermarkets said no, that wasn't loss leading? Why would the supermarkets say "no" rather than "we don't loss lead"?

So when all the supermarkets were selling the latest Fifa at £19.99, they weren't loss leading?

You really must have your head screwed on wrong if you think the big supermarkets don't loss lead, because everyone knows they do.

EDIT: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7131198.stm - hmm, funny because the government thinks they loss lead, and again Tesco don't deny it. But supermarkets don't sell anything below cost according to you, right?

 

Below is a price comparison taken on Modern Warfare 2 today, just now. Not much in it these days.

I just don't trust the comment from the supermarkets "We don't loss lead" on release day.

Amazon (Online)

MW2 - PS3 £39.00
MW2 - XBOX £27.98

Asda (Online)

MW2 - PS3 £39.00
MW2 - XBOX £42.71
MW2 - XBOX £54.99 (WTF?) - Two listings, can I buy the one at RRP please.

GAME (Online)

MW2 - PS3 £37.99 (out of stock)
MW2 - XBOX £27.98
MW2 - XBOX £27.98 (with Gamerpics)

HVM (Online)

Mw2 - PS3 £39.98
MW2 - XBOX £44.99

The Hut

MW2 - PS3 £34.93
MW2 - XBOX £34.93

Morrisons

Gave up trying to get prices, there website isn't that user friendly.

Play (Online)

MW2 - PS3 £39.99
MW2 - XBOX £39.99

Sainsbury's (Online)

MW2 - PS3 £39.99
MW2 - XBOX360 £39.99

Tesco (Online)

MW2 - PS3 £42.80
MW2 - XBOX 360 Discontinued (WTF?)

Zazzi (Online)

MW2 - PS3 £39.95
MW2 - PS3 £54.99 (WTF?) - Two listings AGAIN!!
MW2 - XBOX £37.95
MW2 - XBOX £54.99 (WTF?) - Two listings AGAIN!!

 

It would be great if it went like that leveller, everyone (devs, pubs, gamers & cag's) win .

I never liked the fact game opens sealed games, put the disc in the manual & bung them into draws & charge as much as legally possible for new games, good chance you will buy a new game from them & it could be scratched, you keep it in mint condition other than the scratch they gave it which devalues it for me & believe they should be classed as 2nd hand games, if I'm buying a new game I want it sealed (not tampered with) & competitively priced else there is no way I would buy from them.

Games online store is fine though, all games have been sealed as they should be, I have had many pre-orders a couple of days before release, never later than. Play on the other hand is garbage with pre-orders because they are not based on mainland uk so deliverys take longer & often miss release dates.

And anyway, all high street game stores seem to have an abysmal pc section these days that can make you feel like an oddball nerd lol, it's all about the consoles.

It would be great to buy straight from the publishers at much lower prices, but looking at ea's dd site they are overcharging, should be much cheaper because there are no other overheads, so it's steam or similar & online retailers Cheesecake .

 

Tbh I get most new releases from supermarkets as they are 10-20 pound less.

Pc games are just not there in game and that's it's problem

I don't buy many console games. Prefer to rent from
boomerang, complete send back repeat. Last game I brought was new final fantasy limited edition

 

What has how supermarkets sell alcohol got to do with whether or not they loss lead on games? I think it was fairly obvious that fev was talking about the situation only with regards to how games are sold, not what other departments get upto or whether they loss lead the products they are responsible for.

 

When I used to work for Game, several years ago now and I believe this has nothing to do with digital distribution, PC game sales make up a tiny fraction of games in store sales, they have been steadily dropping the PC for years, effectively only selling new releases.

When Martin Long took over as CEO in Feb 04, the whole ethos of the company changed to being about maximum margins. They removed the lowest price guarantee from the price stickers, and the posters around the store. The policy still exists but there's no advertising for it. They also removed the 10 returns policy because they believed it was cutting into profits, what they failed to realise is that this was the only reason a lot of people shopped at Game, fair enough some people abused the system, but the majority didn't.

Wholesale price was normally £20-£24 for a new release console title, retailing at £39.99, if you take the VAT of that leaves £9-£13 in Gross profit. Now Game are a lot bigger now so probably get a better deal, as would the super markets I imagine. This means there's a broad scope of pricing before its making a loss.

Also I'd like to point out that most of the own brand stuff costs Game less than £1 to make, have shipped from China to the store.

 

x-x

 

I hope they dont close the branch on tottenham court road - they had some fit bird working there last time I bought a game & it would be a shame if a hotty such as her will be thrown back out in the the sea of dispear otherwise known as unemployment

 

Can I just ask a question of the games buyer for Tesco.

You are currently more expensive than GAME on some items online at the moment.

If you can get *SUCH* good deals all the time because of your enormous buying power and great relationships with the publishers.

Why don't you sell games at £25 all the time?

If your margin is sufficient at release day to turn a good profit you could do it ALL the time surely?

 

x-x

 

Isn't the idea to encourage consumers to change their shopping habits, i.e. decrease prices on items enticing consumers to change where they shop (in this case from Game to Tesco), and then slowly increase prices?

 

like a few people have mentioned, where i live there are two different branches of game AND a gamestation, all within a couple of minutes of each other. two of them are almost next door to each other. it's insane.

i'd be a bit disappointed if the gamestation ever closed but i don't think i could care less if both of the game's disappeared. i've had nothing but bad experiences in both of them. not that it matters, i can't remember the last time i didn't buy a game from tesco or off the internet.

 

Too true, Game has been reducing its PC Games section heavily in the stores over the last few years, online they still have quite a lot of PC Games though.

Maybe, but they often sell stuff cheaper on their own website than in stores and a warehouse somewhere in the wilderness is just going to be much cheaper than a retail store in a city center (often they even have multiple in walking distance of each other), profit margins are bound to be higher if they sell more stuff online compared to retail.

 

Good points.

(You could also add second hand books and second hand clothes.)

However, I think games publishers make a big issue out of the second hand and third hand game market because it's so huge.

When a new Honda Civic Type R is first unleashed by the manufacturer onto the road, how many years would you be waiting to see a significant second hand market for these cars?

What about a second hand laptop? It's specs are probably old by the time it is sold on by the owner.

Compare all of those examples to the example of a dedicated enthusiastic gamer who buys a new console game on release day, clocks it within 2 days, gets bored and sells it on to the second hand market. 'Sometimes' you may have the same game sold around 5 times within a few months.

Whether the publishers are right or wrong to make an issue over the 'second hand' games market, ANY publisher will be tempted to look for ways to tap into that enormous market.

 

MW2 - PS3 £39.95
MW2 - PS3 £54.99 (WTF?) - Two listings AGAIN!!
MW2 - XBOX £37.95
MW2 - XBOX £54.99 (WTF?) - Two listings AGAIN!![/QUOTE]

There are two listings each as there are the normal and limited editions.

Anyway, Game bought Gamestation and then decided to do all the half decent deals through Gamestation and hike up all the prices in Game. I'm a console as well as a pc gamer and Game's second hand prices are normally higher than the brand new prices as one of the staff near me in Mansfield said "most people walk straight past the new games and go to the used section thinking they're gonna get a bargain but we have to put the prices up to cope with demand". I have a Game, GameStation, Blockbuster, WH Smiths, Tesco, HMV and three indepentant game stores all within Mansfield town centre, and Game is always £5 -£25 more expensive than the rest. In Gamestation, Bioshock was on their 3 for £30 deal but was being sold at £25 on it's own at Game. I bet they'll be bust inside three years unless they invest in online distribution and Downloads services soon.

 

As a PC gamer:

GAME does not cater for PC games. Less than 5% of the space is for PC games and out of that 99% are old, unpopular or overpriced.

GAME store seems unwelcoming with the bombardment of too many advertisements of "trade-in" and other crap that I care not about.

 

When I can buy a new copy of Pro Evo Soccer, just as an example, on the X-box for £14 from just about anywhere, and compare that to the same game, but second hand and £24 in Game, is it any wonder they're struggling