GAME (over?)

[ukaskew]

It's not looking pretty right now...

GAME not stocking Ubisoft Vita launch games

GAME cancels Last Story pre-orders at the last minute...and the Special Edition

Game not stocking Tekken 3DS

GAME to close 35 stores, and they shut Gameplay website

Basically they have no credit insurance, so are having to negotiate new releases with distributors on a game by game basis by the sounds of things. The Last Story announcement came a few hours after the Marketing Director had this to say...

Can you guarantee pre-orders for games that you are currently selling?
Anna-Marie Mason: Absolutely.

Ooops.

 

[AK]

Not looking good..

 

[townlea]

Went to game today after work and most of the shelves were empty.

They had the top 10 PS3 games and then only 7 other PS3 games... 3 weeks ago they had 80-90 other games. Looked at the 360 area of the shop and again very few games available to buy. Sounds like they might be closing down my local then after reading the 35 stores closing down and totaling 60 stores by Dec 2013

 

[Jon.G]

Would explain a few things, I went into one of the Trafford Center stores at weekened and the Pre-owned games section was practically empty.

Rest of the store looked fine. What does this mean for gamestation as they are owned by GAME.

 

[Joe#]

Didn't see this coming to be fair.

Although I can't remember the last time I walked into a shop and bought a game.

 

[Krispwee]

Having Steam on the PC has made sure I would never need to go in to a Game store. Last time I did go in was to check prices on a pre-owned 360. The site sells it for £70, the store wanted £110.

 

[jenic]

Not been in Game for a long time, not bought from them for an even longer time, 2007 I reckon when I bought wiiplay for the extra controller.

I dont know what it's like now but they were always expensive in store for new releases, especially when I can either order online for release day delivery or go to Tesco and pick one up for less money and with free parking right outside.

They sort of had a place in the market for non chart titles but they are so cheap to buy on eBay, forums, and other online retailers there is no need to go to the shop at all.

 

[Turkish]

Can't say I'm overly shocked, they've been very uncompetitive on price for a number of years. Aside from occasional limited period deals on specific titles they are generally a fair bit dearer than their direct competitors and supermarkets.

 

[Don]

The thing which I hated about them was the store in Telford...sales assistant was a prick. (Do you want extended warranty on your Wii?...Nope, its under £200 and can buy a new one if it goes wrong...Oh well, Your loss!)

Manager was even worse...bought the Kinect and wanted the 2 titles for £40 offer...and he told me I was talking 'crap' (exact words)...so got him to scan the 2 items and I was right...so told him he needed to be aware of pricing, etc as the POS displayed that offer and if they weren't willing to give that, the Trading Standards might have something to say.

I hope GAME goes...feel sorry for the decent staff...but they have a few pricks in their stores and their trade in prices are rubbish in the shops. If they were to drop their prices to make themselves more competitive with the supermarkets on new releases, then they might get some sales back...but its probably too little, too late.

Also, when they took over Electroniques Boutique, they never closed those shops down, so ended up in a fair few places with 2 shops and when they also have GameStation shops, then that is 3 * staff and 3 * rent on those places...which is not the best business sense!

 

[iain187]

they didnt have fifa 12 when i went in there the other day i was like wtf but this makes more sense

 

[Gouldy]

Not surprised tbh, they charged over the odds and were never anything special.

 

[Marky_]

Can't say I'm overly shocked, they've been very uncompetitive on price for a number of years. Aside from occasional limited period deals on specific titles they are generally a fair bit dearer than their direct competitors and supermarkets.

Yep. Killed by supermarkets and the internet. Shame really.

 

[Addicted]

Not looking good for any entertainment retail stores to be honest, the only ones that seem to be remotely surviving the recession are the e-tailers!

Looks like HMV & Game will go down this year at least, anyone else suffering?

 

[Tony Hunter]

Every time Iv'e been into one, it's full of pale smelly yoofs.

 

[ukaskew]

I checked a price on their website over Christmas, went to the Bath store and it was £10 more. If Currys and Jessops can offer a reserve and collect service I don't understand how GAME have never managed to even remotely tie their website and stores together...despite stating they would do quite some time ago.

'New' stock has been a joke for quite some time, my local Tesco Extra carry more new games (and they actually keep them sealed), and they've picked up the nasty habit of trying to push other stuff (or a pre-owned alternative) at the till, I hate that.

 

[pastieman]

Tbh the way the game industry has gone I don't know why game didn't just sell up all there stores and just had a few large warehouse's for stock and aimed for Internet sales instead... They would of made more money with less over heads !!!

Look at play.com I still order from them as 9/10 they are cheaper than most places

 

[Scutch]

Mail order is the future and has been for some time. Even the likes of Play and Amazon are struggling to beat the prices of Shopto and the like. Game stands no chance although it is handy being a localised shop as well as a website.

As said above though, prices of new games at the store are crazy.

 

[dk]

been watching Game for a while, the reason they got rid of gameplay is because it was not required, was a cost they didn't need, they already have game and gamestation, both with websites and stores, so they really didn't need another.

I've been in to them to work on their systems, so i know how they work pretty well, and they are a good customer of ours, and we are currently in talks with them, i shouldn't say any more though.

 

[Scutch]

been watching Game for a while, the reason they got rid of gameplay is because it was not required, was a cost they didn't need, they already have game and gamestation, both with websites and stores, so they really didn't need another.

I've been in to them to work on their systems, so i know how they work pretty well, and they are a good customer of ours, and we are currently in talks with them, i shouldn't say any more though.

Why?

 

[Clart]

oooo ITK init.

 

[Silent_Scone]

Always more expensive than the shop next door. Unless it's HMV...Can't remember the last game I bought off the shelf tbh

 

[Philip.]

I used to work for Gamestation, and that's the only thing keeping the company going.
This was obvious a couple years back.

 

[Goodj]

Gamestation had the constant odor of teenage underarm.

Only Games Workshop could compete on stench

 

[Revels]

Manager was even worse...bought the Kinect and wanted the 2 titles for £40 offer...and he told me I was talking 'crap' (exact words)...so got him to scan the 2 items and I was right...so told him he needed to be aware of pricing, etc as the POS displayed that offer and if they weren't willing to give that, the Trading Standards might have something to say.

Makes absolutely no difference what a price says, they don't have to sell it to you even if advertised at 1p. Trading Standards wouldn't do anything. Have a look for 'Invitation to treat'

I hope GAME goes...feel sorry for the decent staff...but they have a few pricks in their stores and their trade in prices are rubbish in the shops. If they were to drop their prices to make themselves more competitive with the supermarkets on new releases, then they might get some sales back...but its probably too little, too late.

The trouble is they can't compete with supermarkets. Games offer a very small profit margin.

Tesco are happy to sell it at a loss because if you're going to Tesco, chances are you're going to do your normal shopping there. You buy beer etc etc. They do it as a loss leader to get people through the door. Game can't do the same because not many people are going to buy extras.

A lot of independent places (And Game got caught doing it once or twice) won't bother ordering from wholesalers. They just wait until release day and then buy loads of copies from a supermarket and re-sell it. Better margins that way.

 

[Goodj]

Revs, the voice of authorative reason.

full agreement

 

[Silent_Scone]

Grey import everything, it's the only way forward \;O/

 

[Sym0n]

No loss if Game goes under in my opinion, they've not made any effort to keep up with the competition from what I've seen. Carrying on charging full retail whilst their own sister company is charging a fair chunk less is just moronic.

 

[ukaskew]

No loss if Game goes under in my opinion, they've not made any effort to keep up with the competition from what I've seen. Carrying on charging full retail whilst their own sister company is charging a fair chunk less is just moronic.

Full retail price might work a bit better if they offered something a bit extra. Specialist stores exist because the knowledge and buying experience can't be replicated in a supermarket or online. In GAMEs case it's actually worse than buying in a supermarket...the games aren't sealed, they try and talk you out of a new purchase to buy pre-owned instead, and the staff advice is driven by whatever products they have to push that week.

Spruce up the stores, add demo pods, let the staff have free reign to talk about games etc, make it worth shopping there. It's why I shop in London Camera Exchange instead of Jessops when I'm buying in-store, even if it's a bit more expensive it's a far more enjoyable experience.

 

[Silent_Scone]

Full retail price might work a bit better if they offered something a bit extra. Specialist stores exist because the knowledge and buying experience can't be replicated in a supermarket or online. In GAMEs case it's actually worse than buying in a supermarket...the games aren't sealed, they try and talk you out of a new purchase to buy pre-owned instead, and the staff advice is driven by whatever products they have to push that week.

Spruce up the stores, add demo pods, let the staff have free reign to talk about games etc, make it worth shopping there. It's why I shop in London Camera Exchange instead of Jessops when I'm buying in-store, even if it's a bit more expensive it's a far more enjoyable experience.

Lol it's a video game retailer not a foot spar. Like everything these days there is a far lesser need for high street outlets unfortunately. Occasionally if something new comes out and I can't be bothered waiting the day or two for it to come through, I'll pop in and get it when I'm in town. I don't think the staff have anything to do with it personally. Gamestation is by far a better outlet IMO and yet they've closed more of these to replace them with GAME ones (at least around here). Having a shop entails massive overheads and even to a company as big as GAME they're feeling the crunch. It'll only be a year or two till the inevitable where they will be completely gone from the high street. It's bleak maybe, but that's how the worlds going.

 

[Darren S]

Shame to see them go - but online retailers and brilliant providers such as Steam have pretty much killed the store visits for me. Years ago, they were a great provider of rare PC titles - ones that you didn't find in a lot of places. But things have moved on since then.

D.

 

[Goodj]

 

[Silent_Scone]

rofl, he was so s**t in that film

 

[Goodj]

Whatever, Bill Paxton is boss! At everything

 

[ncoppen]

Would be sad to see them go, I used to do pre-orders from them as you get a nice amount of reward points and they're generally cheaper than Steam. But after my pre-ordered game (Gears of War 3) got to me 5 days after release I stopped using them because as I'm sure you can imagine, it was very annoying :/

Now days I usually just use either Amazon or Steam for all my gaming needs, especially since I got Amazon Prime

 

[Christopher]

I've used them for years. The loyalty scheme was actually pretty decent.

It'd be a shame if they went under. :dapprove:

LOL @ dk's insider knowledge. Shh.

 

[dk]

Why?

Because it wouldn't be professional, when I work with customers it's often under NDA, they trust us with their systems, and as such I can't talk about some of the stuff I know, especially on an Internet forum.

 

[AK]

Snore.

 

[ukaskew]

Because it wouldn't be professional, when I work with customers it's often under NDA, they trust us with their systems, and as such I can't talk about some of the stuff I know, especially on an Internet forum.

Probably not worth mentioning at all then?

 

[Gouldy]

Game in Barnsley today was busy, full shelves etc inside too.

 

[dk]

Probably not worth mentioning at all then?

Probably not, but I did.