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UK Retailer GAME is dead | Brera's Lament

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J

J Tourettes

Banned
backdrifter said:
According to my receipt, Condemned 2 brought in a cool £4.40. Not bad considering CEX give £1.60!
Click to expand...

Finally got around to trading in my games today. 36 games, mostly old tat but the newest was Battlefield 3 and Batman Arkham City. the newest after that was CoD MW2 and then a pretty big gap in terms of age.

I got £290.41, well worth it.
 
C

Coppertracks

Member
Damn, maybe I should get trading in. Do they still accept PS2 games? (I know they're not in the offer, but I do have a pile to get rid of)

I wish there was a way to check trade-in prices before I took stuff to them.
 
J

J Tourettes

Banned
Coppertracks said:
Damn, maybe I should get trading in. Do they still accept PS2 games? (I know they're not in the offer, but I do have a pile to get rid of)

I wish there was a way to check trade-in prices before I took stuff to them.
Click to expand...

Not sure. At least they're extending the offer, was due to finish today but the manager at Stratford Westfield said it's carrying on for another couple of weeks as it's been so popular. He was a really nice guy too.
 
G

Gazzawa

Member
Bradach said:
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.
Click to expand...

Fuck Game. I would have laughed and threw the card at him shurikan style.
Been a couple of weeks and GAME in ireland is still dead
feels good man
 
P

PaulLFC

Member
JoeTheBlow said:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-05-01-when-some-of-game-died-an-insiders-account

Pretty dull, to be honest.

My experience in GameStation last week, first time since the collapse, was a surprise.
No pre-order hassle, and a pretty large selection of PC games that had popped up out of nowhere. Been years since i've seen anything more than Sims packs on a shelf or 2.
Click to expand...
Quite a big selection of PC games in the Lord Street store as well, although no Ridge Racer - apparently they still haven't received a delivery for Ridge Racer on any platform yet.

It was nice to see at least some retro games being sold again, with quite a few PS1 and Dreamcast games, and a few Megadrive games as well.

Shame the prices are still RRP though - Mortal Kombat Vita was £39.99 - walked 2 doors down the street to Grainger Games and it was £30.
 
L

LordAlu

Member
JoeTheBlow said:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-05-01-when-some-of-game-died-an-insiders-account

Pretty dull, to be honest.

My experience in GameStation last week, first time since the collapse, was a surprise.
No pre-order hassle, and a pretty large selection of PC games that had popped up out of nowhere. Been years since i've seen anything more than Sims packs on a shelf or 2.
Click to expand...
I saw this in my local GAME yesterday:

equestriad2001.jpg


Equestriad 2001 for PC. Brand new. £19.99. :lol
 
A

Azure Phoenix

Member
LordAlu said:
I saw this in my local GAME yesterday:

equestriad2001.jpg


Equestriad 2001 for PC. Brand new. £19.99. :lol
Click to expand...

I'm not surprised, I've seen some strange stuff arriving recently - like anti-virus programs from 2006 and such. And because they were never discounted on the system years ago they probably never will be.
 
Audioboxer

Audioboxer

Member
I was in Game today, have been waiting weeks after numerous visits of being told "new stock coming soon/we've just agreed deals with publisher x". They finally had Kingdoms of Amalur for the PS3 in stock for... wait for it... £42.99.

I also noticed FIFA 12 was back up at £42.99.

No new vita releases (been asking for disgaea 3 for a week or two).

Cherry on top was when I went to the till to get £20 worth of PSN vouchers (as above NOTHING worth spending my trade in credit on) I asked if I could pre-order two copies of Diablo 3 for me and the girl - Guy said I have no idea if you can and then silence... like a minute later I said well can you check? It's only like one of the biggest releases of this month.

Basically all the same stock as weeks ago, just a huge load of overpriced used games as before the administration. See you in administration round 2 Game.
 
Turnstyle

Turnstyle

Member
I went to a Gamestation at the weekend (Welwyn, where the local Game has closed), first time I've been in one since the administration.

Like others, I'm a bit confused as to what their new strategy is.

I didn't stay long, but as far as I can tell it was no different to how they operated before administration. The one game I was interested in was £25. I know I can get it online for £10.

Maybe reducing the number of stores in one area will be enough to keep them profitable, but surely there's only so long customers will put up with paying over the odds compared to buying online?
 
B

BluWacky

Member
Maybe just closing the stores (and presumably some internal restructuring) was all that was needed to start turning a profit.

A bit disappointing, really - from both a consumer perspective (because nothing's changed) and probably for those who were made redundant (as basically everyone else just gets to carry on as before).

I guess they have loads of copies of Mass Effect 3 now, though. That's something? I guess?
 
M

MarshMellow96

Member
Tried order a SCV arcade stick from them for £100 this week. Everything went through and they even took the money out, but it was still unshipped as of this morning.

Called up this morning enquiring about the item and I got told that "it's probably out for delivery, our site is backed up". Just got an email saying that it's been cancelled because the 'back up' allowed me to purchase an item that was out of stock.

I guess they gave me £5 store credit for my troubles, but damn.
 
Audioboxer

Audioboxer

Member
Cheesecakebobby said:
My friend had his Diablo preorder cancelled by Gamestation yesterday. Oh dear.
Click to expand...

No doubt when I go to get my two pre-order copies first thing on Tuesday morning they'll either have no stock, or they'll be priced at £39.99 or something ridiculous. I was told when pre-ordering they don't know what in-store price will be, but it will be more than website apparently.

Obviously would prefer the later (have trade in credit I can't seem to shift on anything worthwhile anyway...).

Does pre-ordering in-store even mean anything these days? (does it even reserve a copy?)
 
E

evanswolves

Member
More store closures happening? the final one in Wolverhampton is closing on Saturday, leaving us with a pretty awful Gamestation, got £72 gift card from when they had he trade in offer, so best go spend it.
Also GAME in Rotherham is closing
 
E

Exterminieren

Banned
evanswolves said:
More store closures happening? the final one in Wolverhampton is closing on Saturday, leaving us with a pretty awful Gamestation, got £72 gift card from when they had he trade in offer, so best go spend it.
Also GAME in Rotherham is closing
Click to expand...

And so video game stores in Wolverhampton finish coughing up blood.

Hopefully there'll be some nice independent shops to step into the breach.
 
E

Exterminieren

Banned
mclem said:
I used to live in Wolverhampton when I was a kid. I assume Software City is *long*-gone? To date it: It was near a Wimpy.
Click to expand...

Well, I've lived in and around Wolverhampton for 18 years, and I've never heard of it. Don't remember us having a Wimpy, either.

Sorry. :p
 
M

MRORANGE

Member
Sorry to bump this thread but I realized GAME's flagship store in London has finally closed down.

The only place on that high street to buy retail games now is HMV.

CNc1y.jpg


with no presence on the UK's busiest shopping street, GAME might as well be gone, the future is in DD and console makers know that.
 
O

Omikaru

Member
MRORANGE said:
Sorry to bump this thread but I realized GAME's flagship store in London has finally closed down.

The only place on that high street to buy retail games now is HMV.

CNc1y.jpg


with no presence on the UK's busiest shopping street, GAME might as well be gone, the future is in DD and console makers know that.
Click to expand...

I'd be sad, but I went into GAME the other day and they were selling Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition for £44.99.

Their near-death experience has taught them nothing, and the sooner they're gone the better. The retail games sector is far better served by Amazon and the supermarkets than a "specialist" who puts upselling on guides and shitty accessories over actually providing a specialist service. Once that penny dropped with the consumer, it was only downhill from then on.
 
R

Rich!

Member
Omikaru said:
I'd be sad, but I went into GAME the other day and they were selling Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition for £44.99.
Click to expand...

Yep. I got it at £27.97 in Tesco and Steam had it for only a bit more.

Why the hell would I go to Game for it when its that price there?
 
F

F#A#Oo

Banned
It's good that GAME don't exist. You can't expect to survive if you over price yourself. I remember when the Wii first came out they were selling Wii games for £45.

Once the supermarkets got competitive in the gaming sector their fate was sealed. The supermarkets though have slightly declined on competing with one another though in the last year or two. Fifa used to go for £25 for 24-48 hours at launch now they make you buy a chart game or you have to spend £30/£60 in-store to get a game for £25-£30.

In a way that's price fixing. lol
 
H

HuntTheMusic

Neo Member
Omikaru said:
I'd be sad, but I went into GAME the other day and they were selling Dark Souls: Prepare to Die Edition for £44.99.

Their near-death experience has taught them nothing, and the sooner they're gone the better. The retail games sector is far better served by Amazon and the supermarkets than a "specialist" who puts upselling on guides and shitty accessories over actually providing a specialist service. Once that penny dropped with the consumer, it was only downhill from then on.
Click to expand...

They will do fine because we are not the target market anymore. The problem they had before was having too many outlets after the Gamestation takeover and multiples in one town or city. They are down to less than half those units since the takeover. They will continue to sell to the uninformed parents and lazy gamers both casual and hardcore that see them as their principle purchasing option.

Thats also the reason that they have opted to keep the Game brand rather than Gamestation. This practice of selling high to lower footfall will technically serve them better financial than cutting their margins in the effort to trade against online stores and supermarkets and upping the number of purchasers.

Sad but true.
 
M

MRORANGE

Member
Suairyu said:
The future may well be DD, but with Britain's infrastructure and download caps, that future is a long way off.
Click to expand...

Most carriers offer a unlimited option with fair usage policy, I've just downloaded over 250gb last month, had no problems whatsoever.

Even 3 offers unlimited 3G
 
F

F#A#Oo

Banned
MRORANGE said:
Most carriers offer a unlimited option with fair usage policy, I've just downloaded over 250gb last month, had no problems whatsoever.

Even 3 offers unlimited 3G
Click to expand...

Infrastructure is poor though. Only Virgin offer anything that can be considered decent. There needs to be some serious investment in fibre optic cabling.
 
C

Clay Davis

Member
F#A#Oo said:
Infrastructure is poor though. Only Virgin offer anything that can be considered decent. There needs to be some serious investment in fibre optic cabling.
Click to expand...

what is decent? I get 17mb from bt and they recently told me that I can upgrade to something called infinity for the same price but triple my speeds. I consider anything over 10mb to be great, to have nearly 60mb is just insane to me.
 
F

F#A#Oo

Banned
Clay Davis said:
what is decent? I get 17mb from bt and they recently told me that I can upgrade to something called infinity for the same price but triple my speeds. I consider anything over 10mb to be great, to have nearly 60mb is just insane to me.
Click to expand...

I have 30mb and between streaming on netflix, live sports, torrents, gaming live on console it doesn't really stand up too well when everyone in my household is doing something Internet related all at once.
 
B

Brera

Banned
I think you are all wrong.

GAME isn't going anywhere. Just look at the Wii-U pre-orders. As long as they can last another 18 months, the buxx will roll in.

Not that I care that much.... I don't shop there!
 
D

disco

Member
MRORANGE said:
Sorry to bump this thread but I realized GAME's flagship store in London has finally closed down.

The only place on that high street to buy retail games now is HMV.

CNc1y.jpg


with no presence on the UK's busiest shopping street, GAME might as well be gone, the future is in DD and console makers know that.
Click to expand...

I noticed this the other day. About HMV being the only place on Oxford Street is not technically true; you can buy videogames at Dixons, Argos and Selfridges. Though I get where you're coming from. There is a cool place by Goodge Street that I used to buy my DS imports from a few years back. A cool CEX in Rathbone Place which is also pretty close too.
 
C

Clay Davis

Member
F#A#Oo said:
I have 30mb and between streaming on netflix, live sports, torrents, gaming live on console it doesn't really stand up too well when everyone in my household is doing something Internet related all at once.
Click to expand...

that makes more sense. it's just me using my connection so 17mb is more than adequate for my needs but it's not for everyone.
 
s_mirage

s_mirage

Member
F#A#Oo said:
Infrastructure is poor though. Only Virgin offer anything that can be considered decent. There needs to be some serious investment in fibre optic cabling.
Click to expand...

Well, I get a nice ~70Mb from BT so Virgin isn't the only thing that be considered decent. There is a lot of infrastructure investment going on, but it takes time to deploy upgraded services everywhere seeing as it can only be done by BT or the cable companies.
 
M

mrklaw

MrArseFace
F#A#Oo said:
It's good that GAME don't exist. You can't expect to survive if you over price yourself. I remember when the Wii first came out they were selling Wii games for £45.

Once the supermarkets got competitive in the gaming sector their fate was sealed. The supermarkets though have slightly declined on competing with one another though in the last year or two. Fifa used to go for £25 for 24-48 hours at launch now they make you buy a chart game or you have to spend £30/£60 in-store to get a game for £25-£30.

In a way that's price fixing. lol
Click to expand...


So, it's good that game are fucked,because supermarkets were much cheaper...except that now game has been fucked,the supermarkets aren't so cheap anymore...
 
S

Shotgun Kiss

Member
HuntTheMusic said:
They will do fine because we are not the target market anymore. The problem they had before was having too many outlets after the Gamestation takeover and multiples in one town or city. They are down to less than half those units since the takeover. They will continue to sell to the uninformed parents and lazy gamers both casual and hardcore that see them as their principle purchasing option.

Thats also the reason that they have opted to keep the Game brand rather than Gamestation. This practice of selling high to lower footfall will technically serve them better financial than cutting their margins in the effort to trade against online stores and supermarkets and upping the number of purchasers.

Sad but true.
Click to expand...

There aren't as many uninformed parents left as you think. It's not just the hardcore gamers who have realised they can get games cheaper elsewhere. Having so many stores wouldn't have been a problem if they were as busy as they used to be.

GAME's target market hasn't changed at all; it was always the clueless parent who has no idea what they're buying, or it's value. But they're still chasing that same target market, even though more and more people are aware that they can get games for cheaper at a supermarket or on the internet.

The market has changed, and GAME refuses to adapt accordingly. They simply won't acknowledge that they no longer have a monopoly, and that consumers have better options out there. That mentality will kill them.

Unless they drastically change things, I give GAME Group five years tops.
 
V

Visualante2

Member
Brera said:
I think you are all wrong.

GAME isn't going anywhere. Just look at the Wii-U pre-orders. As long as they can last another 18 months, the buxx will roll in.

Not that I care that much.... I don't shop there!
Click to expand...
I'll laugh if people lose their pre-order deposits because GAME couldn't last through Christmas, just like Woolworths. Not like the public didn't have fair warning of the troubles GAME was facing
 
F

F#A#Oo

Banned
s_mirage said:
And why does that matter if the speeds are comparable? Copper cable is capable of carrying rather large amounts of data over the short runs from the cabinet.
Click to expand...

It's not comparable...fiber allows for infinitely more bandwidth and capacity...these two things alone are the reason why there isn't consistency in speeds...

Anyways my point is if DD is to have a future in the UK we need to be able to download not mb's but gb's...I struggle to download gig's from Steam, PSN and Live already sometimes it takes half a day...and I'm getting a Wii U and Nintendo are planning to sell whole games on their Network...and I would like to take advantage of that service without having to tell others in my household to stop sucking up bandwidth... :p

I mean even 4g is only arriving now in the UK mobile market this year...that's embarrassing...
 
D

Delusibeta

Banned
F#A#Oo said:
I mean even 4g is only arriving now in the UK mobile market this year...that's embarrassing...
Click to expand...
Isn't 4G only arriving in the US this year? It's a case of the UK's internet infrastructure is infinitely better than the US's by virtue of nobody having any download caps so you can download GBs.
 
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