Yeah, it's £45 in our local tesco and £40 in Sainsburys, same as GAME/Gamestation. CeX do it used for £38, same again. This is the high street in general.
-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
UK Retailer GAME is dead | Brera's Lament
- Thread starter CrunchinJelly
- Start date
- Status
Diablohead
Member
hm same, everywhere else in my town gave up on games about 2 years ago.
I kind of miss @jakata when it was open, they would sell DC games a week early
was so good playing MSR a week before my friends.zomgbbqftw
Banned
What changed your mind?!? Especially over the weekend when news about their financial position is pretty scant.
I'm not saying it's a bad decision, it's a good one, but just wonder why such a sudden change of heart, from all of those gifs to selling so fast.
Psychotext
Member
Sure, but in reality it's not like they're not going to learn otherwise. Little Timmy is still going to want his CoD and his FIFA and the supermarkets will step up their promotional efforts if Game goes. That people don't know of the existence of sites like Amazon and Play though... that would surprise me.
Right now, and for good reason, Game is the monopoly in terms of mindshare on the high street. It wasn't always that way though.
Pie and Beans
Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
Learn to love online shopping, peoples, and forgo maybe that launch day buzz every now again with a little postage patience.
Went into Game, gutted of all deals. Filled with vultures picking off anything left. Fifa pre-owned everywhere. Saw Uncharted Vita on the site was £34.99 and so was tempted to pick it up instore today. Except its £44.99 in the shop instead. GEWD JAWB.
Went into Game, gutted of all deals. Filled with vultures picking off anything left. Fifa pre-owned everywhere. Saw Uncharted Vita on the site was £34.99 and so was tempted to pick it up instore today. Except its £44.99 in the shop instead. GEWD JAWB.
CrunchinJelly
formerly cjelly
Bucket-o-roadkill
Member
Im going to use everyones 'favourite' game COD as an example, in recent years all local stores here (so thats GAME, Gamestation and an ASDA supermarket) have opened at midnight to sell them to little Jimmy who must have it a.s.a.p. GAME and Gamestation sell it at 44.99 and lots a people queue to get it. ASDA sells it at 37.99 and OUTRAGEOUS amounts of people queue to get it. Without this competition ASDA can sell it for whatever the fuck they want.
I understand what you're trying to say, GAME aren't the only game retailer in the UK, but in some towns they actually ARE the only game retailer other than supermarkets. Good luck buying COD online and getting that delievered to your door for a midnight launch. Saying that 'absolutely nothing' will change here is a pretty naive statement.
BibiMaghoo
Member
Not in town. The tesco is a couple of miles from the city. I do not drive.
Thats quite a long walk for my video game shopping now, or a bus.
Psychotext
Member
Ah, I guess it makes sense that you would find it harder to get to the out of town center shops without a car. I was wondering how where you lived was big enough to have so many VG stores but no Tescos etc.
You do realise that Asda, Tesco and Sainsbury's are in pretty brutal competition right? Even if they're not going up against game on major releases, they'll be going up against each other.
Hell, even Morrisons was providing a lot of the competition on the last big game releases.
Edit... and sure, they wont fight on the prices of the smaller games, but then Game didn't exactly discount niche titles either. At least not initially.
That 3 grand was almost exclusively pre-owned games.
Bucket-o-roadkill
Member
As I said in my post, there is literally only an ASDA here locally in terms of supermarkets which sell games.. So they can literally sell it for whatever the fuck they want.
Just been weighing up what you said about these sorts of sales being predictable behaviour for businesses closing up.
Reminded me when I was made redundant from a shop job whilst at uni.
Our store became a clearance store, then tr discounts became more pronanounced. There was lack of communication from hq and we found out we were being made redundant off teletext!!!
The writing is on the wall, even if they make 6 million, they'll have no stock! New or pre owned!
killer_clank
Member
Picked up Halo ODST for £2 today. Bought so many games over the past week
MrNyarlathotep
Banned
As I said in my post, there is literally only an ASDA here locally in terms of supermarkets which sell games.. So they can literally sell it for whatever the fuck they want.
They'll still price compete with other supermarkets, because they're a franchised chain, and their prices are determined by head office.
The major difference with Game not being around, is that next time there is a supermarket price war on a title, consumers will stand a chance of getting the goods at the advertised price without Game employees swooping and buying the whole stock up to sell as preowned.
Just been weighing up what you said about these sorts of sales being predictable behaviour for businesses closing up.
Reminded me when I was made redundant from a shop job whilst at uni.
Our store became a clearance store, then tr discounts became more pronanounced. There was lack of communication from hq and we found out we were being made redundant off teletext!!!
The writing is on the wall, even if they make 6 million, they'll have no stock! New or pre owned!
Bucket-o-roadkill
Member
Anyone had a look on Gameplay's site lately? Lol ouch..
glaringradio
Member
As I said in my post, there is literally only an ASDA here locally in terms of supermarkets which sell games.. So they can literally sell it for whatever the fuck they want.
No they can sell it for whatever head office tells them to sell it for. ASDA are a huge chain that enjoys having price stability throughout all it's stores. If it sells at £37.99 at every other ASDA, it'll be that price at yours too.
Little Old Man
Member
Strong agreement here. There seems to be a buzz around supermarkets selling games, but I can't say I'm feeling the love. I have two huge Tesco stores, an Asda, and two Morrisons stores near to me. Tesco doesn't stock much more than top 40, a few preowned titles, accessories/hardware. All overpriced. Asda has slightly better selection and prices, in line with what you'd expect to pay. Morrisons is the best in terms of deals, though it's hit and miss what they have in. Seems unless you scour HotUKDeals all the time, or take up a release day offer for a AAA title, you might as well just head online, as they're not much better over what is on offer from Game/GS.
That happened a couple of weeks back
Bucket-o-roadkill
Member
We shall see
glaringradio
Member
You do realise that ASDA doesn't give a fuck about GAME? Hell, ASDA probably don't even give a fuck about video games, but they'll damn well sure stock them if it means getting more people in as regular customers to buy their complete weekly shop there.
ASDA/Sainsburys/Tescos don't like price disparity amongst their stores. If you see online that ASDA is selling a game for £29.99 nationwide, yet for some reason it isn't that price in your local store (which it will be, this is a completely unrealistic situation) all you do is tell them to call another store and they'll find out what price it should be. There are of course exceptions, specific regional/local deals do occur, but these are a rare case.
Also, if there's nowhere to get a game at a midnight launch, well, there's nowhere to get a game at a midnight launch... What impact will that have on anything?
So, today in Dambrosi's Scavenger Hunt:
I actually managed to get £18 for it! Score!
So, after that, I decided to try my luck again, went back to the Clayton Square GAME and got:
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 09 (PS3) - 99p
FIFA 11 (PS3) - 99p
FIFA 10 (PS3) - 49p
Tiger Woods 07 (360) - 48p
Band Hero Solus (360) - 99p
and another PS3 game I can't remember right now - 99p
6 games for less than a fiver. Went and sold them on at the local Cash Generators for...wait for it...£15. That's more than 200% profit! Double score!
So, after all was done, I went back to the Clayton Square GAME and got myself a little reward for all my hard work - a steelbook copy of Vanquish for PS3. For £2.98.
Who said being a vulture can't be fun?
I actually managed to get £18 for it! Score!
So, after that, I decided to try my luck again, went back to the Clayton Square GAME and got:
WWE Smackdown vs Raw 09 (PS3) - 99p
FIFA 11 (PS3) - 99p
FIFA 10 (PS3) - 49p
Tiger Woods 07 (360) - 48p
Band Hero Solus (360) - 99p
and another PS3 game I can't remember right now - 99p
6 games for less than a fiver. Went and sold them on at the local Cash Generators for...wait for it...£15. That's more than 200% profit! Double score!
So, after all was done, I went back to the Clayton Square GAME and got myself a little reward for all my hard work - a steelbook copy of Vanquish for PS3. For £2.98.
Who said being a vulture can't be fun?
But when you have the one by John Lewis trying to trick consumers into buying preowned games as 'new' they are bound to go down.
Starwolf_UK
Member
Cash converters are absolutely insane for offering you that much for those games but sounds like you should send this tip to GAME HQ.
Maybe the Gamestation was employee that was trying to waste my time signing up for a reward card was right...
According to our morning bulletin, the prices went up (slightly) as they were so popular; they were selling out, and the increase was to try to help stock levels on those titles.
Cosmonaut X
Member
Seconded.
You occasionally get some good deals in supermarkets at launch, or when they're trying to shift old stock, but otherwise the selection is limited and the prices are high.
Online is where it's at for bargains and more reasonable pricing on big titles in the UK, with supermarkets for the odd deal.
J Tourettes
Banned
And they sell new 3DS games for £29.99 in store.
show me your skeleton
Member
how do publishers feel about supermarkets and their aggressive pricing? do they care at all? can't be much different than the situation with online stores i guess, though i thought i read something negative regarding their loss-leading ways...
All I'm doing is responding to the question that was asked - that was what came through on the morning bulletin. Simple as.
toythatkills
Member
"Please note that any preorders you have with us that are released before the 30th of April 2012 are totally safe, and will be despatched to you as normal..."
That's a pretty ambitious claim.
glaringradio
Member
Exactly. Prices will not increase anywhere. Supermarkets have a price war amongst supermarkets, no supermarket has ever competed with GAME or GameStation. CEX will continue to exist because their main competition is Cash Converters (and other stores like it) and they are doing very well in that regard.
So GAME basically went down because of:
- bad management
- not being able to beat online stores & supermarkets on price
- buying pre-owned games and selling them more than the rrp of a new copy
- getting dibs on dlc packs for games which would have cost them to get exclusiveness
- being too dependent on COD, Pro Evolution an other major franchises to sell well
- missing out by not stocking games which steam does and other niche services
- hoping that a new generation of consoles would fix the problem
- opening stores everywhere (like two in one street) although granted they stopped doing this a year or two ago
- having Brera as a stockholder
- bad management
- not being able to beat online stores & supermarkets on price
- buying pre-owned games and selling them more than the rrp of a new copy
- getting dibs on dlc packs for games which would have cost them to get exclusiveness
- being too dependent on COD, Pro Evolution an other major franchises to sell well
- missing out by not stocking games which steam does and other niche services
- hoping that a new generation of consoles would fix the problem
- opening stores everywhere (like two in one street) although granted they stopped doing this a year or two ago
- having Brera as a stockholder
Starwolf_UK
Member
I don't think there were ever were cases of them opening stores next to each other, rather inheriting them. As places with two GAME stores are hangers-on from the EB Games-GAME fusion a decade ago which they never bothered to shut down as *shrugs* "makes profit, we said we wouldn't, the rent lease still has time left and it costs money to fire people". Buying Gamestation literally doubled this pink elephant but thats a separate brand identity that slowly got eroded into GAME with worse lighting...
But yes over expansion leading to running/maintenance costs getting too high is the result.
But yes over expansion leading to running/maintenance costs getting too high is the result.
A few years ago, in Angel they decided it was a god idea to open a game inside Borders, even though there was a store just two minutes away . Granted Borders was in the gutter, so GAME maybe though it was a good place to keep extra stock I guess.
Pie and Beans
Look for me on the local news, I'll be the guy arrested for trying to burn down a Nintendo exec's house.
Mm, I remember the Games in Borders. So at the very height of this hubris on the high street you had the original Game store, the EB store that became a Game, a Game in Borders, and then a Gamestation basically a Game by another name after the conversion process.
Gee I wonder where they fucked up.
Gee I wonder where they fucked up.
I remember when they did that, completely bonkers. It was only open for a short time before borders went under.
J Tourettes
Banned
You Londoners should try and make it to the London-gaf meet up: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=463240
There absolutely were. Portsmouth had a Game in the high street (along with a Gamestation) and a Game that was an ex EB inside the shopping centre (1 minute walk from Game A to Game B). They closed the ex EB and relocated it 50 yards down the shopping centre. Idiots.
Edit
Just reread your post, there's no way those two (three including Gamestation) stores made enough profit to justify closing and reopening one of them. And if they did that I'm willing to bet they were opening stores that were too close to each other.
JennyTablina
Member
Remember the 3DS launch price war? GAME stuck to the high price they were initially asking for the 3DS, while smaller retailers and supermarkets started chopping the cost right out of the gate. All the supermarkets were trying to price match the likes of Amazon and ShopTo, not GAME who sat on their laurels and declared that people would pay their price (and some did for the sake of a "midnight launch")
Tesco and ASDA also danced to the same tune for Vita, with both offering deals that were as close to Amazon's as they were willing to get. I don't think GAME announced their "competitive" Vita Bundle till people showed up to claim their systems. I think this says a lot about who the Supermarkets have been paying attention to. IMO if Game was the one other retailers were listening to, you wouldn't have seen the price cuts and deals both systems got. The major difference between Supermarkets and GAME: is that Multimedia is just an addition to the main attraction (the groceries ect.) - so Tesco, Asda ect can actually afford to treat it like a loss leader when they need to. Plus cheaper game prices mean punters come in, buy a game - and hopefully decide to do their weekly shop at the store, or even just grab some munchies for their gaming night.
That won't change with the loss of GAME, if anything - it *might* encourage the supermarkets to focus a bit harder on their video game selections. That's a big if though, even the likes of Tesco cut back their efforts on video games and DVD's a while back (Tesco Bar Hill used to have a HUGE media section, these days it's relegated to a corner of the store in favour of technology and home appliances which I assume they make more money on) - I think the loss of Woolworths had a lot to do with that, as I believe their distribution leg was used by the supermarkets till they went into bankruptcy. So now everyone is a bit skittish about having lots of DVD's/Games in stock at any one time
I mean lets put it this way, during my wander around Cambridge on Thursday, the only one crowing about victory over GAME and Gamestation in stocking Mass Effect 3 was Blockbuster Video of all people (with hastilly written-in-word-and-printed additions to their advertising) - a company which itself has been teetering on the brink for a while.
Tesco and ASDA also danced to the same tune for Vita, with both offering deals that were as close to Amazon's as they were willing to get. I don't think GAME announced their "competitive" Vita Bundle till people showed up to claim their systems. I think this says a lot about who the Supermarkets have been paying attention to. IMO if Game was the one other retailers were listening to, you wouldn't have seen the price cuts and deals both systems got. The major difference between Supermarkets and GAME: is that Multimedia is just an addition to the main attraction (the groceries ect.) - so Tesco, Asda ect can actually afford to treat it like a loss leader when they need to. Plus cheaper game prices mean punters come in, buy a game - and hopefully decide to do their weekly shop at the store, or even just grab some munchies for their gaming night.
That won't change with the loss of GAME, if anything - it *might* encourage the supermarkets to focus a bit harder on their video game selections. That's a big if though, even the likes of Tesco cut back their efforts on video games and DVD's a while back (Tesco Bar Hill used to have a HUGE media section, these days it's relegated to a corner of the store in favour of technology and home appliances which I assume they make more money on) - I think the loss of Woolworths had a lot to do with that, as I believe their distribution leg was used by the supermarkets till they went into bankruptcy. So now everyone is a bit skittish about having lots of DVD's/Games in stock at any one time
I mean lets put it this way, during my wander around Cambridge on Thursday, the only one crowing about victory over GAME and Gamestation in stocking Mass Effect 3 was Blockbuster Video of all people (with hastilly written-in-word-and-printed additions to their advertising) - a company which itself has been teetering on the brink for a while.
HotHamWater
Member
This was precisely what happened in Bournemouth. There was a Game store around 50 feet from a Gamestation store, and on the other side of the area there was a Game store in a Borders. What a stupid company.
Sad that so many folks are going to lose there jobs over this, but I'll be happy to see Game go.
I'd like to add my 'game had too many stores in one place'
In my city there is a Game Station, 150 meters away in the mall there is a Game, 400 meters from that there's another Game and until recently there was another Game 50 meters away from that one in another Mall. So there was 4 of their stores in a 400m2 area.
Just ridiculous.
I see HMV picking up the gaming slack for some parents and brick and mortar shopping 'gamers'. Supermarkets going strong for new releases, and online picking up a bit more business. And Cex taking over the preowned market.
In my city there is a Game Station, 150 meters away in the mall there is a Game, 400 meters from that there's another Game and until recently there was another Game 50 meters away from that one in another Mall. So there was 4 of their stores in a 400m2 area.
Just ridiculous.
I see HMV picking up the gaming slack for some parents and brick and mortar shopping 'gamers'. Supermarkets going strong for new releases, and online picking up a bit more business. And Cex taking over the preowned market.
Resistance100
Member
While GAME stayed at the RRP for the console, they still managed to account for half the total Vita sales in the UK on launch day.
I don't believe pricing is the reason for GAME's demise as they were able to compete with the likes of amazon & shopto via their website(s). It's more to do with the high street suffering anyway and with the game industry dropping last year chucked into the mix as well the results weren't going to be brilliant.
The way the business has been handled at the top is ultimatly to blame in my eyes
JennyTablina
Member
I'll give them that one I suppose.
I'm pretty sure GAME's problems go far beyond overpricing, I was only making the point that in the grand scheme of things, I don't think GAME's continued existence or demise really matters a jot in how the Supermarket's or Online retailers manage their pricing. Someone will always look to be the cheapest to get consumers buying.
If they don't - then consumers need to vote with their feet, which the gaming consumer tends to do anyway. Few games end up in stores at full RRP - with exception for particularly huge titles where Joe Super Casual will happily pay £44 for their annual dose of CoD
Cambridge-GAF represent!
I actually can't remember the last time I went into a GAME or Gamestation and actually bought something. The last time I bought a console game was last month with FFXIII-2 and MGS HD, and I got those at ASDA as their prices were so good (Amazon were price matching them). PC games of course it's pretty much pointless to try getting those in stores, you're lucky to see a couple of shelves filled with The Sims 3 expansion packs and budget Bus Simulator/Bulldozer Simulator/Lorry Driving Simulator games that nobody wants.
I did go and look in Cambridge's GAME and Gamestation on Friday afternoon, but didn't see anything that took my fancy. Guess everyone's already picked out the good stuff.
- Status