On the other hand, there will now be hundreds of shops around the country without a franchise. Many will simply close outright, but I wonder how many will simply go it alone? Return of the independent games retailer?
I work in GAME and have done for the past 2 years, its a great place to work part-time while juggling studies and the like. I used to pop to GAME before working there quite often when I had to go to town with the family. On one occasion I went to town to pick up a delivery from the post office, I had missed the delivery for my water blocks. Popped in to GAME briefly and the guy behind the counter saw the EK logo and knew it was a water cooling component, we got talking about PC gaming, overclocking etc and I ended up spending an hour there, he offered me a job, I took it and been with GAME ever since. This was in Woolwich, I then moved stores to Bexleyheath and we have a great team, admittedly not every member of staff knows everything about every format (we get no formal training in products, its from personal experience and what we read and pick up). So you cant really have a go at the staff for not knowing everything. I myself have loads of regular customers who I know on first name basis, they don't necessarily buy something every time they come in, but its just a nice and friendly place to work, well, in my store anyway. It will be a shame if GAME goes under, I don't agree with the strategies they have employed the last few months. The prices are usually quiet high, but on new releases, a few weeks after launch they go on Deal of the Week. e.g. Skyrim, £40 on launch, then £45, then on Deal of the Week 4 weeks after launch, it was £25, this was a few weeks before Christmas, all the big titles go on Deal of the week eventually. Trade-In's are not really worth it in my opinion, the price you get usually isn't great, unless there is a promo i.e. trade in "xxxxxx" towards "xxxxxx" and pay £5, they were really popular. Sorry about the rambling long post
That's not really a fair point when you consider how much choice there is available online from e-tailers to digital distribution platforms compared to when most of us first experienced buying a game. Also the idea that it will make the largest creative industry in the UK in terms of revenue a niche is just ridiculous.
**** Game all there games are over priced, your lucky to find PC games its basicaly a chain store for console and they ask you for at least 3 types of ID when handing in old games lol. And the people they higher generaly no nothing about games. **** Game. They deserve to go bust. **** the high street in general to be honest, noobs.
Well, what can I say, a well written informative article that really drives the points home. I don't have as much time for games as I used to, what once would have caught my eye and driven me to make a purchase now gets looked at with disdain for being another sequel or the same as a previous game with different graphics and setting. I don't mind things being tied to a specific genre but give us something fresh, new and enticing. It would indeed be sad to see the Game group go as I still prefer to buy my games in a box from a store and to be able to hold a real tangible product. Even Deus Ex:HR was bought from a game store and to get home and realise I still had to connect to steam to be able to play it was both annoying and frustrating as it delayed me being able to simply jump straight in to the game itself. Back when Mass Effect 2 was coming close to launch I bought ME1 through Steam due to its age and discounted price but still went on to purchase ME2 from Game. If Game is still around then I will be doing the same for ME3 in about a weeks time tho to have to connect it to Origin just to play it is a disappointment. I like the principal of digital distribution and having the option to download the game but to be tied to any one platform like steam or origin is just wrong. Given the choice of buying a game that doesn't require either will always be a preferred choice than downloading it through either platform and being tied to it.
Much like everything. The demise of Game corp was inevitable. If anything it'll be good as it'll make room for a new player in retail to set up or maybe even local stores to re emerge. The Game way of doing things hasnt changed for over a decade and the market around them is a totally different beast. If anything im surprised they managed to last this long.
i can assure it is the case on certain products tesco and asda sell Maybe not certain games but the biggest releases are sold at huge losses and certain big books where also Harry potter final book was sold instore at £7.99 Bloomberry themselves came out and said asda paid £9.99 per book so £2 hit per book sold if thats not a loss leader what is lol final fantasy 13 x2 was instore at asda on release where i lived for £25 the cheapest you could buy it for from squareenix was £30 for (10k + orders ) you never brought alcohol in asda tesco 24cans for £7 before christmas theres no way on this planet they are getting it for less than that. fifa12 is another game that was sold at a loss list is endless do i care game may go bankrupt not really, They dont even sell pc games in the 2 around my way so i dont go in
I agree generally they have been good on the seconhand pc games for me but I did a while ago get one that was scratched, the scratch was quite small but annoyingly was right were a set up file was located as the game would not install. In their defence they did fix it for me by putting it in the Disc polisher and were very apologetic. But I do have a friend who bought a game which came with quite a lot of paperwork and unbeknown to him and the sales person one important bit was missing. No dramas though as he just downloaded it from a slightly dubious website. Didn't stop him buying from them again.
who said they were overpriced anyway? most of my ps3 games are pre-owned and from game or grainger and both have some great prices, plus good sales on new stuff too (got BF3 pc for £25 from them a few weeks after launch). would hardly say staff were useless either, always been friendly and helpful - maybe you have a crap local store but the article seems a little biased toward "only kids and grannies would shop there" i for one would be sorry to see them go, supermarkets only stock a handful of titles and tescos pre-owned prices are a bad joke (often more than new prices let alone online) plus as you point out lack of a specialist national retailer would leave things once again in the feckless sweaty palms of the big supermarket chains.
I was horrified to read the email I got from them advising my pre-order (placed last June) was cancelled. I mean, yeah they've told me, but had I not bagged a pre-order from somewhere else pretty sharpish, I'd have been out of luck. Is that really fair to me having had it pre-ordered for so long? It has been a long time since I bought anything from a GAME store but I quite often used GAME online to buy new released and special editions. I got reward points plus Nectar points, free delivery often on or even the day before release and the price was often the same or not much more than the competition. I think this current problem is worse because they've eaten up all of the pre-existing competition before exploding. I used order loads from Gameplay.co.uk and they were owned by GAME group since like 2004. Then I realised that they'd undercut the GAME price a bit but often didn't have the item in stock which never made sense given the stuff was shipped from the same warehouse. Given that GAME swallowed the UK version of EB (or vice versa and used the GAME moniker) and subsequently Gamestation it has always surprised me that the competition commission permitted the purchase. They have essentially gained the monopoly on a market that is clearly not worth having the monopoly on (the high street) and now, if they vanish, it will create a massive void. No one company should be allowed to have had that monopoly in the first place because this is exactly the kind of thing that happens if the bubble bursts. It creates a massive storm of problems that will affect the lives of thousands of people and have an impact on the industry of brick and mortar game sales.
It seems EA and Ubisoft have pulled out from supplying Game with their games. Since Game wanted a buy now pay later deal with them, seems people don't think they can pay it back. Totalbiscuit actually talks about it in todays Mailbox episode. He has also worked for Game so gives his opinion on them and the situation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_G-df84Zow&feature=g-all&context=G22d811dFAAAAAAAADAA Since someone had their ME3 pre-orders cancelled by Game and are due refunds since EA aren't supplying them no more.
Your sentence is a little hard to understand, but to be clear are you saying that Asda bought their copies of the game from Square Enix for £30? Or are you saying that Asda was selling copies to customers for £25 while Square Enix was selling copies to customers for £30? The latter does not necessarily mean that Asda are selling the game at a loss as they could have purchased their copies at less than £25 per. It's a little hard to believe the former because this guy: Is known to know what he's talking about when it comes to games sales and supply and says otherwise. While he specifically says Tesco I'd assume that Asda is included.
I stopped buying games from game when they seemed to think that PC gamers only really like boring simulators. I saw 'Forklift Truck Simulator' in there the other day.
In Oxford, they recently shut the GameStation, leaving just the Game (20 metres down the street). In Milton Keynes, there's a Game, 200m away there's a GameStation, and 30m from that there's another Game. Having said that, whenever I've been there, all three of them have been full.
