checkeredknight
Member
£34.99 at Game Station. We got Twisted Metal and MGS 3: 3D stock too. More people still interested in the HD collection though.
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UK Retailer GAME is dead | Brera's Lament
- Thread starter CrunchinJelly
- Start date
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£34.99 at Game Station. We got Twisted Metal and MGS 3: 3D stock too. More people still interested in the HD collection though.
thechemist
Member
£34.99 at Game Station. We got Twisted Metal and MGS 3: 3D stock too. More people still interested in the HD collection though.
Thanks!
zomgbbqftw
Banned
Publishers other than Sony, Nintendo and MS are very unlikely to be able to reach a consignment distribution agreement with Game because they don't have hardware to sell that will get punters in.
The other part of that agreement is that Game make very, very little commission profit, almost to a level where it isn't worth it for non hardware items (think 1-2%) so even if they were able to get the big ticket games in, they wouldn't make enough money on them to keep their stores going. The credit agreement they had in place allowed them to make around 5-7% profit and buying bulk with cash in advance allows for up to 10% margins on new games. Game are losing £50m a year with the middle way, just imagine how much they would lose if their margin on new games was suddenly cut from about 6% to just over 1%.
Having a loan agreement from publishers is anything but a win/win for Game. The only way Game win this is to find an investor willing to cover the immediate debts that are about to come due and allow the buying of stock with their cash reserves. Without any outside investment of at least £50, but more like £120m I don't see how Game survive beyond the end of April. GameStop would surely wait until the liquidators move in and buy up decent shop leases on the cheap rather than stick with 600 locations around the country where less than 20% run at a profit.
Developers and publishers are worried about the long term health of gaming in the UK, Gears 2 selling at £1.98 (new or used) is not conducive to any kind of health. People walking out of Game with 10 titles for less than £30 is bad for the industry and very bad for publishers, especially smaller ones who are unable to push their games with huge marketing budgets like EA or Activision. That's the worry, that Game are poisoning the well and commoditising games in the UK just like DVDs and CDs.
CrunchinJelly
formerly cjelly
I'm still struggling to see what this firesale is all about, really.
If it works, they're fucked. They've got no stock to sell. New or pre-owned.
If it doesn't work, they're fucked.
Both outcomes seem to be GAME being fucked.
If it works, they're fucked. They've got no stock to sell. New or pre-owned.
If it doesn't work, they're fucked.
Both outcomes seem to be GAME being fucked.
It's so strange to think that GAME might not exist as a high street retailer in less than a month.
In other news, I went out on the scavenge in Liverpool Clayton Square GAME today, and scored:
Dark Void (PS3) - 99p
Prey (360) - 99p
I then had an epiphany, sold them at my local Cashies for £5, and went to the other GAME in Liverpool One and scored:
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 09 (PS3) - 99p
Beatles Rockband (PS3) - 99p
Need For Speed: Shift (PS3) - £1.99
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days (PS3) - £1.99
Red Steel (Wii) - 99p
Konami Rock Revolution (DS) - 99p
Six games for £8, hoping to turn that into £12 - £15 tomorrow at Cash Converters. Now, chances are I won't get that much for that load of old tat, but the way I see it is, even if I only make a quid profit, it's still a profit, so can't grumble.
I'll give Kane & Lynch 2 a go tonight. Let's see if it even lasts me four hours.
Oh, and the Clayton Square shop had a black DS Lite for £35, but the touchscreen was scuffed (not too badly, just a bit in the center), so I might shop around.
In other news, I went out on the scavenge in Liverpool Clayton Square GAME today, and scored:
Dark Void (PS3) - 99p
Prey (360) - 99p
I then had an epiphany, sold them at my local Cashies for £5, and went to the other GAME in Liverpool One and scored:
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 09 (PS3) - 99p
Beatles Rockband (PS3) - 99p
Need For Speed: Shift (PS3) - £1.99
Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days (PS3) - £1.99
Red Steel (Wii) - 99p
Konami Rock Revolution (DS) - 99p
Six games for £8, hoping to turn that into £12 - £15 tomorrow at Cash Converters. Now, chances are I won't get that much for that load of old tat, but the way I see it is, even if I only make a quid profit, it's still a profit, so can't grumble.
I'll give Kane & Lynch 2 a go tonight. Let's see if it even lasts me four hours.
Oh, and the Clayton Square shop had a black DS Lite for £35, but the touchscreen was scuffed (not too badly, just a bit in the center), so I might shop around.
Gamestation on Lord Street had quite a few preowned consoles, I think they had some DS Lites, I know for sure they had a DSi and a 3DS today. Plenty of others too, including a red Wii, various 360s, PS3s and PSPs.
320gig PS3 for £150 was tempting as my brother needs to replace his which has just broke, but I'm not sure what would happen to the warranty if Game go bust, I'm assuming it would be cancelled which would make it a bit of a risk to buy any console from them now.
The rumor is that if GAME cannot produce £6 million in cash in two weeks, they're out of business no matter what. So they're just trying to keep the doors open.
The conspiracy theory is that it's the current executives trying to squeeze as much money as possible out of the company before paying themselves cash bonuses and bailing, as the company goes into administration.
guys stop buying those cheap games D:
Starwolf_UK
Member
Would be interested to see what happens next, I mean one look at a CV of "I was CEO of GAME. Did nothing to prevent the tide but did manage to bankrupt the company with my bonus".
Please insert credit
Error...credit denied.
GAME over, return of Gamestop
I'm going to have to make that now
Comet themselves are getting out of videogames. Their remaining stock has been bogof for a few months now. I think there might be a few scraps of meat left. I wonder if a possible GAME concession expansion would be why.
If they have any sense, not until Game have gone into administration and they can pick and choose which stores they keep. Buying 600 stores now with huge leases they have to pay the bills on for years would be a stupid move and is probably one of the main reasons Game is in so much trouble.
Oh, if only I had the cash for a new PS3; though my JP 60gig from launch is still going strong, I fear for its long-term future
I guess I'll just have to treat it nice.
My brother's was a launch UK 60gig, packed in a couple of weeks agoOh, if only I had the cash for a new PS3; though my JP 60gig from launch is still going strong, I fear for its long-term future
I guess I'll just have to treat it nice.
HuntTheMusic
Neo Member
The conspiracy theory is in no way realistic. If directors of a Company in the UK pay themselves as a preference to other creditors within two years of an appointment of an administrator, the administrator has a responsibility to creditors to take action over that preference. Any administrator would simply issue proceedings against the directors for immediate repayment and if unpaid would begin bankruptcy proceedings.
On a more game related note I picked up Forza 3 Ultimate Collection for £1.97 with an unused DLC code, Space Marine for £1.97, Fallout New Vegas for £4.97 and Hawx for £1.97 all from Gamestation.
Just doing my bit to boost that share price!
My brother's was a launch UK 60gig, packed in a couple of weeks ago
Sorry to hear that. Please give him my condolences
I'd say to wait until the last minute, see if the price hits sub-£99 and strike.
As for me, I just hope there's still some scraps left for me when I get my money next week.
My brother's was a launch UK 60gig, packed in a couple of weeks ago
My launch day 60GB is still going strong, nearly 5 years since release. Good times.
Even with the jet engine fans
Starwolf_UK
Member
I just remembered I have reward card credit...but not enough to use in-store...
Online is pretty bare. I suppose I could do something like buy Disaster: Day of Crisis, trade into CeX, thereby paying for the bus journey to get to CeX...but not to get back home
So employees, is the fire sale a Woolworths style situation of queues out the door or was it more like the previous fire sale at Christmas.
Online is pretty bare. I suppose I could do something like buy Disaster: Day of Crisis, trade into CeX, thereby paying for the bus journey to get to CeX...but not to get back home
I'll hold onto it until I go to that location...
So employees, is the fire sale a Woolworths style situation of queues out the door or was it more like the previous fire sale at Christmas.
J Tourettes
Banned
Like the Christmas sale but not as good as it's only secondhand stuff.
I wouldn't be surprised if it was EA. I've been in 4 different Game stores today and in each one Fifa 11 was a popular game for people to be buying, in one of them I overheard a staff member saying it was all anyone seemed to buying.
EA can't be happy about people buying copies of Fifa 11 for £2 and playing that instead of the newer one.
Luckily they have the online passes to recoup those losses.
zomgbbqftw
Banned
If the directors were paid as businesses (as many are) and Game owe those "corporations" the money as per the contract signed they can be paid out the day before Game goes bankrupt.
Starwolf_UK
Member
Well two things. Firstly the online pass and secondly the plug will probably be pulled on the server in 6 months time (is Fifa 10 even still playable?). You might then say "what about offline?" which I say "what about those people playing their copy of Fifa 09" but also is there any evidence the people deciding to give Fifa 11 a punt for 98p were going to buy Fifa 12 in the first place?
Azure Phoenix
Member
Eh, I wouldn't. The only thing putting a smile on my face at the moment is serving everyone buying cheap copies of Fifa, feels like a bit of payback for EA contributing to this mess.
BlazingDarkness
Member
How was the reception from those going in store for ME3 today?
Maybe the sales helped distract them :lol
Maybe the sales helped distract them :lol
HuntTheMusic
Neo Member
Just so were clear it make no difference. Preference action can be taken against any creditor director or shareholder as per the request of the administrator and or subsequent liquidator. How the 'corporations' as you put it are paid is completely meaningless a preference action can be pursued irrespective of contractual agreement if it is proven to prejudice creditors as a whole.
I saw a few people ask during the 5 minutes I was there today. They did ask if the person pre-ordered, saying that only people that pre-ordered could get it. No mention of them not stocking it (no surprise).
One guy asked if they had it at GAME, then I saw him in Gamestation asking again, I felt a bit bad for him, but he seemed to know something was up.
Psychotext
Member
Not nearly as shortsighted as the Game management has proven themselves to be.
But then who pays for the store leases and salaries of the employees in the mean time? Not to mention the existing debt repayments?
Wickerbasket
Member
You sold your stock yet Brera or still hoping for some kind of phoenix to rise from the ashes?
We had just two people ask about it all day. We told them we didn't have any but they could try the local supermarkets (we have like 3 within a 10 minute walk) or failing that online, and they both seemed happy enough about it.
I went into GAME Sheffield again today.
I don't know how long GAME intend on being around at this point, but however long that is I don't know if they'll have the stock to see it out. They were relatively fine for 360 games, but DS games were going quickly and they were almost out of used PS3 games entirely. I'm talking literally down to a couple of copies of PES 09, Smackdown vs Raw 07, Haze, that sort of thing. The sort of stuff I can't imagine many will buy however they price it. The shelves were starting to look really bare today and that's before the weekends trading.
I don't know how long GAME intend on being around at this point, but however long that is I don't know if they'll have the stock to see it out. They were relatively fine for 360 games, but DS games were going quickly and they were almost out of used PS3 games entirely. I'm talking literally down to a couple of copies of PES 09, Smackdown vs Raw 07, Haze, that sort of thing. The sort of stuff I can't imagine many will buy however they price it. The shelves were starting to look really bare today and that's before the weekends trading.
The problem the stores have (if they're anything like ours) is they have SO much pre-owned stock sitting upstairs that people don't buy. I bought Exit DS for 48p simply because no-one would buy it at the normal 5 quid price. That's why there's so much shit on sale at the moment (among other reasons.)
Do GAME have limits on how much of certain stock they'll accept from trade in's? My local independent store will quite happily refuse to accept games for trade if they have piles of them or know they won't ever sell them, and I'm sure GAME used to do this (although that was years back). Do they anymore? I wonder how many copies of stuff like 5 year old annual sports franchises are kicking around in circulation that absolutely nobody will buy?
To be honest I would assume every GAME store has more stock in than is on the shelf at any one time, but my local store was looking really barren. I've been in every day for the last 3 days this week and they've visibly not been replenishing stock either. It's not like they're replacing what's out there.
They're literally down to about 9 or 10 boxes on a whole shelving unit. The only one of those that I'd personally buy was Killzone 3 (but I won't because I still don't want to pay £7 for it), the rest was old sports games and Haze. It's really bad.
EDIT: Something else strange I noticed was that a rather large section of old PS2 games has appeared in store. I really don't remember them selling PS2 games before all this happened. I wonder if they've just had them in the back for, well, years, and have just chucked them out there as a part of this firesale now?
To be honest I would assume every GAME store has more stock in than is on the shelf at any one time, but my local store was looking really barren. I've been in every day for the last 3 days this week and they've visibly not been replenishing stock either. It's not like they're replacing what's out there.
They're literally down to about 9 or 10 boxes on a whole shelving unit. The only one of those that I'd personally buy was Killzone 3 (but I won't because I still don't want to pay £7 for it), the rest was old sports games and Haze. It's really bad.
EDIT: Something else strange I noticed was that a rather large section of old PS2 games has appeared in store. I really don't remember them selling PS2 games before all this happened. I wonder if they've just had them in the back for, well, years, and have just chucked them out there as a part of this firesale now?
Gamestation sells PS2 - but GAME do accept PS2 games as a trade in and each store probably has a bunch of it lying around upstairs.
And technically no - GAME don't refuse trade ins - but for some things we have mountains of stock of then yeah, we might say no.
The FIFA's fared quite well in my local store. I noticed over the week that almost all of those have been sold (and they did have a lot).
Old copies of PES on the other hand. The one with Ronaldo and Owen on the cover. That image is burned into my skull I've seen it so much this week.
Starwolf_UK
Member
Not as many as you'd think but really...100 copies could get you £10 cash if CeX would accept that many...
We've not had anything like that told to us.
kruis
Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
That well has already been poisoned by the vast number of games that get a 50-60% price cut after just a few weeks. UK consumers have been conditioned to wait for a cheaper price unless it's game they *absolutely* want to own on day one. Only a handful of games don't become instant bombas. Everything else only sells for 18 pounds or less.
Cosmonaut X
Member
Mm - I know that my standard position with games now is that, unless it's a game I absolutely must have at launch (or a Nintendo game, as they rarely drop in price) I do not pay full price (or anything near) as I can typically pick it up within a week or two for a *lot* less.
That said, GAME evacuating their bowels in their death throes and flooding the market with £2 copies of all kinds of games cannot help the situation...
CrunchinJelly
formerly cjelly
I don't think this sale will have much impact on the UK market. Most of what's being sold for a few quid is 3-4 year old tat that's been sitting on shelves over-priced for years.
If they were shifting new releases for literally nothing then there might be some kind of meaningful impact.
If they were shifting new releases for literally nothing then there might be some kind of meaningful impact.
kruis
Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
And that's not a sign of a healthy industry. On the contrary.
Azure Phoenix
Member
Nope, if a store ends up with too much stock it's simply distributed to other stores in the region so stock never gets turned away. As for the PS2 games, stores just sit on them until they've got enough to send out a box full to a Gamestation in the region, chances are due to stock levels being so low the stores that hadn't shipped any off recently have put them out to fill shelves.
If you are on about new Blu-Rays, they were recalled after Christmas.
You're right, but the trend towards cheaper games was already gaining steam here. I don't believe the kinds of deep and engrossing game experiences will ever hit £2 -- most people know these low prices at GAME are exceptional circumstances, and if they don't then they will in a few weeks when the banks slit GAME's throat -- but I'm absolutely conditioned to wait for sub-£20 games. £30 for a game is a big, big purchase decision for me. Three years ago, this was not the case, and I would happily fork out £37.99 on a regular basis.
In short, I think the UK games market is stuck as it is, and publishers had best get used to it. In fact, why not just release their lower-profile games for about £25 at launch? I'm sure games like Syndicate would have done a lot better if they weren't launching at the same price as a big ticket release like ME3. Heck, I might have given it a punt at £25, but now it's bomba'd and I've heard it does everything it can to wank the player off rather than present a challenge, I'm totally not interested in it. That's £25 that EA won't get, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels this way about the game.
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