Uk gaming shops are well gone now, i use to collect loads of collectors edition sets to have when gamestation use to be open, just turned up a day or two after went live and always got what i wanted, now everytime i go online they always sold out, doesnt help there is only game in uk that seems to get all collectors editions
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(UK) GAME and PlayStation are complicit with scalpers and it's infuriating now.
- Thread starter FF:Enhanced_Reality
- Start date
Don't talk to me about GAME, I'm still angry that they bought Gamestation, then proceeded to close them down. I used to love going in that dingy little shop. Got a few decent games on their pre owned multi buys as well.
We used to have a Grainger in our town, but since they closed down the nearest thing GAME has to competition is cex.
We used to have a Grainger in our town, but since they closed down the nearest thing GAME has to competition is cex.
Putonahappyface
Gold Member
When I preordered my PS5 and picked it up instore on release, Game were allocating one console per address so they're trying. It's been a bit of a tradition for me to preorder consoles and pick them up at launch, I actually feel like an excited child at Christmas.
Torrent of Pork
Banned
I can understand companies wanting their consoles actually sold to the people who are going to be using them, as they make no money if inventory is being hoarded by scalpers.
Collectors editions where they're actually turning a profit though? Why would they care?
Collectors editions where they're actually turning a profit though? Why would they care?
Bragr
Banned
It's good for some circumstances like if you need high carb, but pasta and bread are a problem, it's carb bomb meals that are causing people to overeat by not even knowing it. It's a signficant reason for the overweight lazy population of the western world.
Back in the day they ate like shit, got sick, and died early. Sure bread helped feed people because of its simplicity, but at some point, human zoos were normal too.
And the original topic here was nothing to do with bread, it's just the scalper idiot thought it was and now we are talking about bread.
cireza
Member
Back in the day people did not eat something because it was their favorite food, but rather because it was this or starving. But enough off topic indeed.
SmokedMeat
Gamer™
I was at GameStop the other week, and the employee asked if I was interested in a PS5. I have a friend who wants one for her son, so I asked if I had to get a bunch of bullshit bundled with it?
Yep.
Honestly screw these retailers that also force you to buy a bunch of shit you don’t want, just to get the item you do. I’m not paying $800 for a PS5.
Yep.
Honestly screw these retailers that also force you to buy a bunch of shit you don’t want, just to get the item you do. I’m not paying $800 for a PS5.
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ShadowkillXNA
Member
I'm a pretty big collector of games and have been for a long time. But a sizeable problem with the market in the UK at least, is the lack of game retailers. Sure, the super markets do stock select titles and you have a plethora of online shops to choose from, but that doesn't really matter when a certain retailer, for those outside the UK this is a company called literally, GAME, get all the collectors editions in the UK as exclusives. Thus when they run out of stock, you can't get them anywhere else anyway.
This never used to be a problem and I don't know what's changed as much because the rules haven't changed. The day pre-orders go live, gamers got a fair chance at ordering their desired edition or item and they still had regular stock for a reasonable time period. Now? Not so much. Now the item sells out in less than 5 minutes and if you're extremely lucky, you get one.
It's gradually been getting worse over the years, I'd probably say much more since about 2018 that I personally noticed it with Yakuza 6 and God of War (2018) where it sold out in less than an hour. In fact, it got that bad that I went into my local branch of GAME for 10:20am for the Death Stranding edition and it had gone. My local branch was allocated 5 copies. And staff members had ordered 3 of them. Luckily, the store manager who knew I was a long time customer actually gave me his order as he was only going to give his away as a present for his brother who loved Kojima games if he didn't like the game.
So God of War Ragnarok pre-orders went live today right? 10:00am was the advertised time. Except, I logged on and was ready for 10:00am and GAME had already made the game go live. So I put the Jotnar edition in my basket and went to pay. It shows the price on the website but doesn't allow me to complete the order. At 10:03am, the Jotnar edition was sold out.
Okay, bad luck I guess? Pretty big title in terms of expectation right? So I try to collectors edition. At 10:10am (because this was the quickest I could get to it with the website being so slow) the collectors edition was sold out.
So I went across the road at work to go and pre-order the Jotnar edition and they told me that they weren't getting the collectors or Jotnar edition for pre-order in store.
I can't pin exactly how early they went live, but some users say 9:56am and some say they got an order in at 9:48am. Either way, they didn't go live at 10:00am and they gave scalpers plenty of change to do their thing. For those, who care, check out the prices on eBay people are listing their orders for. Jotnar Edition is £600 and Collectors edition is £400.
But the truth is far more simple than this. The truth, I believe is that Sony and GAME don't give a shit. GAME is a failing company that had it's market share eaten away by supermarkets and online retailers because they failed to adapt to the shift to online shopping quick enough. The change to digital games has hurt them even more and in attempt to survive this, they're moving all their branches into Sports Direct (so no additional housing costs) and they've started selling merchandise, toys, collectible card games and Warhammer etc. For Sony, they obviously want to sell these items but at the same time digital games makes them more money. I get it. So why care right? So far it seems like Sony have left it to the companies to regulate themselves, but this can't be trusted. GAME have repeatedly stated they will do their best to deter scalping but in reality they've done fuck all. Please don't think too badly of me, but I work for a local Cash Converters store and over the past year we've seen customers with up to 40 PS5 and XBOX Series X consoles trying to sell them for a profit that they bought from GAME via their website or other retailers when the limit imposed by Sony was one per customer. So for GAME, it's a guaranteed sale. Brilliant.
For me, it's disappointment and despair yet again. GAME have made no solid effort to deter this. Everyone involved in the chain are going to make profit so they don't give a fuck and I'm sat here thinking what's the point.
Now I just want Sony to take complete control over the situation and allow me to only order directly from them. I suppose that's the best way to deter this shit from being a continuous problem.
Internet forums really do an amazing job of attracting the biggest crybabies walking the face of the earth don't they.
Ivan
Member
They do care A LOT. A console sale without someone who will buy games and subscribe to services for years is nothing.
chigstoke
Member
Our local CEX is fucking horrendous.
Anytime I've been in while up town milling around, it stinks horrid of BO and booze.
Add to that the quite frankly mad pricing on some items, it's an absolute disaster.
Multiple small and local owned game shops near me have closed down. Great places to go but online stores have killed them off.
I can't see it being long till Mike Ashley is shutting GAME down either. They're already shoving them into shitty Sports Direct shops.
Captain Toad
Banned
Scalping will always be inevitable. It's supply and demand. When demand is higher than supply, prices WILL raise one way or the other.
You can refuse to not buy from scalpers out of principle, but it ultimately doesn't matter, because basic economics will guarantee they'll always be around.
You can refuse to not buy from scalpers out of principle, but it ultimately doesn't matter, because basic economics will guarantee they'll always be around.
Captain Toad
Banned
Every console bought from scalpers will end up in the hands of someone wanting to play it. And seeing as they go to the ones willing to pay the most for it, they're also the ones most likely to spend more on games.
jm89
Member
I swear every cex i've been too feels like anything you touch would be sticky.
prinz_valium
Member
Those editions are a rip-offs anyways. So I see no issue at all, if another party want's to be part of that rip-off, too
Our GAME has been inside the local Sports Direct for a couple of years now leaving both locations of where the stores used to be vacant. I've not even been in there since they moved.
Our CEX reeks as well, they do have some decent prices on DVDs and Blu Rays though. I do remember looking to buy a couple of DS games not too long ago and the price they were charging made me sick up a little bit. I don't know who is willing to pay nearly 50 quid for Pokémon Black, but they've got more money than sense.
PharaoTutAnchAmun
Member
So you think that scalpers buy consoles and put them in the attick and let them collect dust? Dude, scalpers want to sell them and make money, thats what scalpers do.
And as long as people buy consoles ore any other stuff from scalpers they wil keep doing what they do.
Retailers dont care about that. A sale is a sale. And when you see that gamers are buying games more and more digital in the online shops from consoles and retailers dont get a dime from subscribing to services from Sony ore Xbox. the retailshops dont get any money from digital game sales and services.
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