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UK Retailer GAME is dead | Brera's Lament

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LordAlu

Member
Yeah, absolutely no duplicates and the staff have the right to refuse if they feel you are trying to abuse the offer.

Also that promo copy won't (or at least shouldn't) be accepted.
If they're doing their jobs correctly, they shouldn't take anything in that trades for more than it sells. For example if you brought in FIFA 07, 08 and 09 which may trade at 50p each and sell for 99p, they shouldn't give you the promotion price, as that would make the trade value of each game £2.83 and they'd make a loss.

That's if they're doing their job correctly.
 
If they're doing their jobs correctly, they shouldn't take anything in that trades for more than it sells. For example if you brought in FIFA 07, 08 and 09 which may trade at 50p each and sell for 99p, they shouldn't give you the promotion price, as that would make the trade value of each game £2.83 and they'd make a loss.

That's if they're doing their job correctly.

Actually the old football games have all gone up to £4.99 each, everything is price slightly higher than the promo price. Whether anyone will buy it at that price or not is another matter.
 
NOOOOOOOOOOOO.gif

I swear I've seen promo stuff in their second hand racks before?

They sell promo stuff, but it trades in for about 50p and sells for £1.99. Due to the low sales price, it doesn't qualify for the promotional offer. I bought promo copies of Halo Reach, Gears of War 1 & 2 and PGR4 all for £1.99 each during my time with the company. CEX trade promo copies in at high prices, but they're also sold at higher prices (I saw the same promo copy of Gears 1 & 2 in CEX for £20.)
 

Turnstyle

Member
They sell promo stuff, but it trades in for about 50p and sells for £1.99. Due to the low sales price, it doesn't qualify for the promotional offer. I bought promo copies of Halo Reach, Gears of War 1 & 2 and PGR4 all for £1.99 each during my time with the company. CEX trade promo copies in at high prices, but they're also sold at higher prices (I saw the same promo copy of Gears 1 & 2 in CEX for £20.)

Yeah, I went to CEX in the end. They took my promo, no problem.
 
One of my PS3 games is a promo...do they take these? It's in a case with a full colour sleeve, but there's no instruction manual, and the disc has promo written on it. I THINK I've seen them selling these before, but not 100%...
This is the bigger problem from my experiences.

As for no cases games you occasionally see for sale. Am I right in thinking someone trades a system, in testing it eject is hit and the disc is kept? Or is the owner told, look find the case and we'll give you more?
 
This is the bigger problem from my experiences.

As for no cases games you occasionally see for sale. Am I right in thinking someone trades a system, in testing it eject is hit and the disc is kept? Or is the owner told, look find the case and we'll give you more?

I used to just say the second thing. "You must have forgotten this... if you can find the case we'll trade it." More times than not they'd have the case with them ready to trade but it'd be empty. I've also had customers who leave the wrong games in the wrong cases, it turns into a game of snap. Can be a nightmare.
 

Audioboxer

Member
Can game trade in cards be used in Gamestation?

If the answer to that is no, will Game pricematch Gamestation retail? Want a Logitech GT5 steering wheel, Gamestation sell for £89.99, Game, £129.99.
 

Moobabe

Member
Audίoboxer;36993083 said:
Can game trade in cards be used in Gamestation?

If the answer to that is no, will Game pricematch Gamestation retail? Want a Logitech GT5 steering wheel, Gamestation sell for £89.99, Game, £129.99.

The answer is no on both counts unfortunately - you might get lucky depending on the store manager though.
 

dc89

Member
That's ridiculous!

Also what did I see on Twitter about EA games being back on the shelves at GAME this week? Is it true?

Oh and we need a thread name change.
 

winstano

Member
That's ridiculous!

Also what did I see on Twitter about EA games being back on the shelves at GAME this week? Is it true?

Oh and we need a thread name change.

Yeah, they've been saying they're getting stock of ME3 in, and I think they're having some sort of ME related competition today as well.
 

Moobabe

Member
Audίoboxer;36993140 said:
1st part, okay I guess... But not matching when it's the same company :/ I'll try!

They will price match on pre-owned products, that's policy. But as I said - ask the SM and hope he understands - chances are he won't put through a £40 price match on the til though, since that'll flag to head office and he'll have to explain the size of the discount.
 
Audίoboxer;36993083 said:
Can game trade in cards be used in Gamestation?

If the answer to that is no, will Game pricematch Gamestation retail? Want a Logitech GT5 steering wheel, Gamestation sell for £89.99, Game, £129.99.

Seeing as many towns that used to have both are now left with one or the other you'd think they'd let you use each others trade in cards
 
Audίoboxer;36993083 said:
Can game trade in cards be used in Gamestation?

It could be worth contacting them. Say you're in a town that had its GAME closed down and now you can only get to Gamestation, and see what they say. It's a pretty legitimate reason to ask for the balance to be transferred between stores.
 

Moobabe

Member
It could be worth contacting them. Say you're in a town that had its GAME closed down and now you can only get to Gamestation, and see what they say. It's a pretty legitimate reason to ask for the balance to be transferred between stores.

Even then it's not something they can do in store - you'd have to contact head office.
 
The fact that the list in the op has 3 shops in Belfast that are being closed, and I know of at least one more that's not there, I think, shows everything that was wrong with the company.

Hopefully they do manage to come back. I agree that At least on main stream game retailer is needed, and since Game bought out, or drove out everybody else, they might as well keep chucking along.
 

HuntTheMusic

Neo Member
Things were close to back to normal in my local GAME today. I was taking massive advantage of their 'Trade 3 games and get an extra £10 credit' offer.

They had new sealed stock of all current EA games and they were all priced at £29.99. That included ME3, Fifa Street, Tiger Woods 13 and SSX.

Also noticed that all new EA stock had dark blue signage which the manager said will be used on all their new stock from now. This is apparently to differentiate from the remaining stock that was taken on from the buyout.

He also said they were relaunching all their hardware bundles on Friday to be better priced as the buyout has allowed them to increase margins on new hardware stock.
 
Went to check out the (closed) Gamestation store in Bolton town center today. Me and my friend were reading the message they left on the shutters when a guy from Love Film walked up to us (they had a little van / stall thing set up.) He was asking where we bought our games from now and I replied "No-where at the moment. I've just lost my job at Gamestation and moved up here only yesterday. I haven't had time to buy games." He spoke a little about the situation with GAME (pretty much acting like he knew everything) and then tried to get us subscribed. We refused when he said "Come over with me to the van and we'll get you signed up." Felt pretty bad he's poaching old GS customers. Don't really blame them for it, just seems a little bit of a dick move.
 
Things were close to back to normal in my local GAME today. I was taking massive advantage of their 'Trade 3 games and get an extra £10 credit' offer.

They had new sealed stock of all current EA games and they were all priced at £29.99. That included ME3, Fifa Street, Tiger Woods 13 and SSX.

Also noticed that all new EA stock had dark blue signage which the manager said will be used on all their new stock from now. This is apparently to differentiate from the remaining stock that was taken on from the buyout.

He also said they were relaunching all their hardware bundles on Friday to be better priced as the buyout has allowed them to increase margins on new hardware stock.

That's not surprising. The final word was that just before it collapsed, GAME received all hardware on consignment distribution with margins sitting at an average of 1.3%, other retailers have margins of 4-5%, while the biggest buyers who pay cash upfront to distributors and manufacturers enjoy margins of up to 8%.

As I was saying before they entered administration, there is definitely value in the company, or at least the UK games retail market, it's just that GAME were so badly mismanaged for so many years which made administration an inevitability.
 

123rl

Member
Went to check out the (closed) Gamestation store in Bolton town center today. Me and my friend were reading the message they left on the shutters when a guy from Love Film walked up to us (they had a little van / stall thing set up.) He was asking where we bought our games from now and I replied "No-where at the moment. I've just lost my job at Gamestation and moved up here only yesterday. I haven't had time to buy games." He spoke a little about the situation with GAME (pretty much acting like he knew everything) and then tried to get us subscribed. We refused when he said "Come over with me to the van and we'll get you signed up." Felt pretty bad he's poaching old GS customers. Don't really blame them for it, just seems a little bit of a dick move.

What an asshole. It's Bolton though where everyone is an asshole. You'll get used to the asshole:normal person ratio
 
What an asshole. It's Bolton though where everyone is an asshole. You'll get used to the asshole:normal person ratio

Don't worry, I studied here for a good few years too. I'm used to it. :p

GAME seemed quite spacious. There was a lot more empty space than what I remember. The sales assistant seemed to be the only person on the shop floor. IIRC, back when I was at University there were always a good two or three of them hanging around even on week days.
 

Audioboxer

Member
So far it seems my local game stores are simply going to carry on like before - Same shitty prices on new AND used titles.

Are Game actually planning on changing anything from the way they operated before?

Still can't get over them wanting to charge £3 for a reward card, especially when it's always been free at GS. Shitty moves like that must of been what contributed to the stores going belly up.
 

PaulLFC

Member
Audίoboxer;37002628 said:
So far it seems my local game stores are simply going to carry on like before - Same shitty prices on new AND used titles.

Are Game actually planning on changing anything from the way they operated before?

Still can't get over them wanting to charge £3 for a reward card, especially when it's always been free at GS. Shitty moves like that must of been what contributed to the stores going belly up.
If anything, they've got worse. Went into Gamestation before and it's mostly the same as it ever was, except they've got rid of all their multibuy offers on preowned (2 for £20, 4 for £20 etc), so now games are even more expensive. I saw them trying to sell FIFA 06 Road to World Cup (a 360 launch title) for £4.99 as well
KuGsj.gif


On the plus side though, they seemed to be bringing back some retro stock. They had quite a few PS1 and Dreamcast games, and they had FIFA on the Saturn. Whether that's just them shifting old stock or they're actually going to focus a bit more on retro games now, time will tell.
 
Strange. I never paid for my GAME rewards card. Just filled in the form at the till while the guy swiped it and carried on tallying up whatever the hell it was I was buying at the time.
 
On the plus side though, they seemed to be bringing back some retro stock. They had quite a few PS1 and Dreamcast games, and they had FIFA on the Saturn. Whether that's just them shifting old stock or they're actually going to focus a bit more on retro games now, time will tell.

If you're talking about the Liverpool store it's like 20 copies of Chu Chu Rocket and Actua Soccer, so it's probably the latter.
 

Misfits

Neo Member
traded in a few more of the games i bought during the spring sale, got 109.70 for them. :D

very pleased with my return on the games i bought from game and gamestation, bought uncharted vita, ssx for ps3 and the witcher 2 enhanced edition for 360. i wanted to buy some marketplace credit for psn, but they couldn't get it to go through the register.
 

backdrifter

Neo Member
34 games traded of varying quality (generally old tat that would usually be exchanged for <£3, including a 'bundle' copy of Sega Superstars Tennis that set me back 49p) and I'm left with £308 of credit. £39.99 went straight back to them for The Witcher 2, leaving me a cool £268 left.

Fingers crossed for a reasonably impressive GAME based Vita bundle in the very near future before all this credit burns a horrible little hole in my pocket.
 
34 games traded of varying quality (generally old tat that would usually be exchanged for <£3, including a 'bundle' copy of Sega Superstars Tennis that set me back 49p) and I'm left with £308 of credit. £39.99 went straight back to them for The Witcher 2, leaving me a cool £268 left.

Fingers crossed for a reasonably impressive GAME based Vita bundle in the very near future before all this credit burns a horrible little hole in my pocket.

Inspired by this post, I've dug out thirty games that I'll be trading in tomorrow. Interested to see what I get as it's mostly old shite and also curious to see what I'll get for my 48p Killzone 2.
 

backdrifter

Neo Member
Inspired by this post, I've dug out thirty games that I'll be trading in tomorrow. Interested to see what I get as it's mostly old shite and also curious to see what I'll get for my 48p Killzone 2.

It's well worth the effort. Some of the absolute tosh I brought along included the likes of Rogue Warrior, Advance Wars DS (the one GAME were selling for 98p), Ashes Cricket 2009, Football Manager 2006, Condemned 2, and Just Cause. That lot alone brought in a solid £45(ish) of credit.
 
It's well worth the effort. Some of the absolute tosh I brought along included the likes of Rogue Warrior, Advance Wars DS (the one GAME were selling for 98p), Ashes Cricket 2009, Football Manager 2006, Condemned 2, and Just Cause. That lot alone brought in a solid £45(ish) of credit.

Condened 2 is in my pile, as is Rumble Roses XX
KuGsj.gif
 

Bradach

Member
I was speaking to GameStop here in Dublin yesterday about pre ordering Diablo 3 and he mentioned that I'd get 10% off the preorder if I gave them my GAME reward card! Seems a bit low to me. Like putting the boot in when they're down. After saying that I don't think any GAME stores have reopened in Ireland so it's probably useless to me anyway.
 

Facism

Member
I was speaking to GameStop here in Dublin yesterday about pre ordering Diablo 3 and he mentioned that I'd get 10% off the preorder if I gave them my GAME reward card! Seems a bit low to me. Like putting the boot in when they're down. After saying that I don't think any GAME stores have reopened in Ireland so it's probably useless to me anyway.

should have told him to kiss your axe.
 

TGMIII

Member
34 games traded of varying quality (generally old tat that would usually be exchanged for <£3, including a 'bundle' copy of Sega Superstars Tennis that set me back 49p) and I'm left with £308 of credit. £39.99 went straight back to them for The Witcher 2, leaving me a cool £268 left.

Fingers crossed for a reasonably impressive GAME based Vita bundle in the very near future before all this credit burns a horrible little hole in my pocket.

If it was mostly older games you traded in then that's a pretty good price you got. Tempted to see what I can get for some of my older games now.
 
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