Same here, Soul Calibur V shipped out at 6PM though. According to their twitter they've got people working into the evening, so there's a chance it may still ship out today. Who knows though. Will be a bit disappointed if it doesn't come on Friday.
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UK Retailer GAME is dead | Brera's Lament
- Thread starter CrunchinJelly
- Start date
- Status
checkeredknight
Member
I've have some similar purchases from my store; the most notable being Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence for £2.99 and the Zelda Collection disc for £1.99. Plus Secret of Mana / Evermore for 99p.
I love retro systems, so if it was up to me we'd still have Saturn / Dreamcast / N64 (etc) stuff! According to my manager though, they just didn't sell, at least in this store. It's been the same for Xbox and Game Cube stuff in our shop and a lot of them get stolen too (since we leave retro stock in the cases, it saves a lot of time.) I just think, the company sees it as "this stock isn't worth much any more, so let's get rid of it." I've sold about 10 PS2 games today alone though. I don't think it's time to cut them out just yet.
CEX, Grainger Games and HMV say "lol, no".
Tesco, Asda, Amazon and Cashies all say "no, don't be a silly billy".
The First Sale Doctrine then tells you to go f*** yourself. The End.
...
If GAME can last until at least the Wii U comes out in the UK in Xmas*, then they'll be safe for another year. Not that I'll be sorry to see them gone, just hoping that things get better for the poor schmucks who have to work there.
So, is there any truth in the rumour of GAME withholding pay for March? Isn't that a crime?
robotzombie
Member
Do I need to worry about the preorder of the last story I made from them a week or so ago? I preordered online to be shipped to the US...
checkeredknight
Member
May I ask why you feel sorry for them? I absolutely love my job. It's fun to help customers and there are a lot of perks. The pay isn't amazing, but it's minimum wage (like pretty much every other shop job around here.) Plus I work with a fantastic bunch of people, that always helps.
Also, I've heard nothing about holding pay. I'll be damned if they do.
I've have some similar purchases from my store; the most notable being Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence for £2.99 and the Zelda Collection disc for £1.99. Plus Secret of Mana / Evermore for 99p.
I love retro systems, so if it was up to me we'd still have Saturn / Dreamcast / N64 (etc) stuff! According to my manager though, they just didn't sell, at least in this store. It's been the same for Xbox and Game Cube stuff in our shop and a lot of them get stolen too (since we leave retro stock in the cases, it saves a lot of time.) I just think, the company sees it as "this stock isn't worth much any more, so let's get rid of it." I've sold about 10 PS2 games today alone though. I don't think it's time to cut them out just yet.
best bargain i got while working there was a pink Hello Kitty Jap Dreamcast for £25. The Derby branch had a fab retro section and customers (also where I met my wife
).Unfortunately Gamestation only accept PS2 now in terms of older consoles/games. Whilst I agree that it would be nice to see retro games, when we still took Saturn/Megadrive/NES stuff etc, it simply didn't sell, even at £2 a title. People don't seem to expect retro titles, so they don't look/ask for it. Hence the company stopped, although we've decided to still take them at our branch if the customer just wants to get rid of them.
It's out in about 3 weeks, right? I don't think you have anything to worry about. I doubt GAME will close up shop just yet. They have Vita to push just yet, and I bet your copy of The Last Story will have shipped from them a day or two before Vita is officially released over here.
funkystudent
Member
Not sure about over in the UK but I like Game here in Ireland. So much better then gamestop. Better selection of random PC games, They dont ask me to insure what I buy ever single time I buy something and normally cheaper as well. (but I guess cheaper was probably a bad move financially)
Azure Phoenix
Member
Great, this is just the kind of news I wanted to read as soon as I get back from work :/
There certainly isn't much word of this in the stores, the staff have all known about the low stock situation but most of us just assumed the company was hanging on until the new financial year to purchase new stock. Honestly I don't know how this "disappointing" Christmas has come about, our store had queues out the door almost all Christmas and sales were better than ever before.
There certainly isn't much word of this in the stores, the staff have all known about the low stock situation but most of us just assumed the company was hanging on until the new financial year to purchase new stock. Honestly I don't know how this "disappointing" Christmas has come about, our store had queues out the door almost all Christmas and sales were better than ever before.
checkeredknight
Member
We're baffled by the same thing. Talk of cutting hours and receiving little new stock doesn't seem to make sense after the insanely busy Christmas we've had. Plus there's been the annual mad Call of Duty rush, among several other big releases.
Starwolf_UK
Member
Buying Gamestation might have been their biggest mistake. It made them over expand too quickly and they probably overpaid for the company as it was at the industries peak.
I have a feeling the death will be protracted like Chips was (employees were dreading what would be derived on a games launch game as it usually wasn't games but rather junk like Star Wars Episode 1 action figures).
I'll do that annoying thing where I quote posts from 10 hours ago...
It is clear they've had cashflow problems for about a year now. How they've responded to this is to deep discount games a few months after released as an adrenaline filled cattle prod (even on some Nintendo published games which have insane wholesale costs). This leads to a void of new stock of those particular titles which is why we see the online screenshot above of having a whole 20 Xbox360 games available to buy as new. No back catalogue. Now a specific example to show how this is digging to get out of a hole.
Xenoblade Chronicles. Overbought copies after launch sell-out (title lost momentum after that but it being a good JRPG has a long tail interest). Let's say they paid £25 per unit wholesale. Over Christmas they sold these for £10 thus losing £15 each sale...but they've got £10 cash now rather than £30 at an unspecificed date in the future (I've read a few whispers of "I wanted Xenoblade but GAME have no copies" in the past week).
Of course GAME stores are only a finite size but it having no back catalogue (rather than random trade ins) seems short sighted and they've been doing it for years.
I have a feeling the death will be protracted like Chips was (employees were dreading what would be derived on a games launch game as it usually wasn't games but rather junk like Star Wars Episode 1 action figures).
I'll do that annoying thing where I quote posts from 10 hours ago...
Apparently the whole high street was like that. Might be something to do with TheHut (Zaaavvii) having the bundle SKU exclusive for far cheaper...
Only took 40 posts. Was there any evidence of this as my fuzzy memory recalls it being, "hmm only affects UK therefore GAME are responsible because I don't like them".
Vitas? Sony will be desperate to get rid of them and have a good launch.
They've said this before. They are trying to downsize to about 500 stores (from 600+) though. Too little too late comes to mind.
The warehouse is a whole lot smaller though. But yes this nails GAMEs real problem...I'll get to this later.Just looking on their website and I didn't realise it was this bad... http://www.game.co.uk/en/games/?att...ttributeValue1=63&attributeName2=Release Date
[/IMG]
Yes, that's right, GAME - supposedly the biggest games retailer in the country - currently has 21 new Xbox 360 games in stock. 21. That's pathetic.
I would love to hear from someone who works in their warehouse.
They did new games and imports in the 90s. Publishers gave them trouble for it in the early 2000s and they responded by giving up both.
Grainger games? Apparently their tactic is cheap rents that have free leases for a while and expand then worry later. Reality might stike them soon too...what stops their southern expansion is rents being too high and also their distribution hub.
Now I'll go into the real problem.
It is clear they've had cashflow problems for about a year now. How they've responded to this is to deep discount games a few months after released as an adrenaline filled cattle prod (even on some Nintendo published games which have insane wholesale costs). This leads to a void of new stock of those particular titles which is why we see the online screenshot above of having a whole 20 Xbox360 games available to buy as new. No back catalogue. Now a specific example to show how this is digging to get out of a hole.
Xenoblade Chronicles. Overbought copies after launch sell-out (title lost momentum after that but it being a good JRPG has a long tail interest). Let's say they paid £25 per unit wholesale. Over Christmas they sold these for £10 thus losing £15 each sale...but they've got £10 cash now rather than £30 at an unspecificed date in the future (I've read a few whispers of "I wanted Xenoblade but GAME have no copies" in the past week).
Of course GAME stores are only a finite size but it having no back catalogue (rather than random trade ins) seems short sighted and they've been doing it for years.
MarshMellow96
Member
What actually happened?
Hm. Not surprising really, but I hope this doesn't fuck up my Vita pre-order.
Hadn't been in GAME for years (same for gamestation, last time I went to a gamestation, I brought starfox/wing pre-owned for the SNES!!), and dear god it was full of crap when I went earlier this week. literally four bays full of shitty shovelware Wii games, and overpriced 360/PS3 ones on the other side.
I do have to say, the guy who demoed me the Vita was incredibly helpful, and knew what he was talking about. Pity that the woman behind the counter, talking to a customer didn't seem to have a fucking clue what she was talking about.
I do have to make a post defending the staff though. As a retail manager myself (although not for long in my current job - I'm moving the fuck away from games/film retail in two weeks, into convinience store management), I know the pressure that happens behind the scenes. In my current job, there's a HUGE focus on hitting revenue targets. The only way to do so in this current situation is to target staff to up-sell on every opportunity. If they don't perform, they are got rid of and replaced with someone who can.
Considering how much debt GAME is in (15mil GBP), I can only imagine just how bad it must be there.
Simple as that. It's a cutthroat culture, a literal 'it's me or you' situation, and the staff know their jobs are on the line if the targets aren't hit. If you're asked for pre-orders or upsells when in a GAME or other similar store, don't act like a fucktard and be rude to them - if you don't want their deals, fine. Just be polite - remember, they're not doing it to piss you off.
Hadn't been in GAME for years (same for gamestation, last time I went to a gamestation, I brought starfox/wing pre-owned for the SNES!!), and dear god it was full of crap when I went earlier this week. literally four bays full of shitty shovelware Wii games, and overpriced 360/PS3 ones on the other side.
I do have to say, the guy who demoed me the Vita was incredibly helpful, and knew what he was talking about. Pity that the woman behind the counter, talking to a customer didn't seem to have a fucking clue what she was talking about.
I do have to make a post defending the staff though. As a retail manager myself (although not for long in my current job - I'm moving the fuck away from games/film retail in two weeks, into convinience store management), I know the pressure that happens behind the scenes. In my current job, there's a HUGE focus on hitting revenue targets. The only way to do so in this current situation is to target staff to up-sell on every opportunity. If they don't perform, they are got rid of and replaced with someone who can.
Considering how much debt GAME is in (15mil GBP), I can only imagine just how bad it must be there.
Simple as that. It's a cutthroat culture, a literal 'it's me or you' situation, and the staff know their jobs are on the line if the targets aren't hit. If you're asked for pre-orders or upsells when in a GAME or other similar store, don't act like a fucktard and be rude to them - if you don't want their deals, fine. Just be polite - remember, they're not doing it to piss you off.
Shame really, I want to go into Game and buy things, but I know almost everything is cheaper somewhere else when I look round, especially online =/. Their sales are alright though. They need to get cheaper fast, but i think we all know that this is probably the beginning of the end and they will be gone by the end of the year. I'm more sad that Gamestation will go down with them =[ Their preowned deals are some of the best around.
Got the next image all ready.
CrunchinJelly
formerly cjelly
How long have you worked there, if you don't mind me asking?
How is the new stock situation compared to say, this time last year? How many copies of a new release are you getting now compared to the equivalent time period last year?
Are stock rooms literally empty of new titles?
All retail here - AFAIK - need a 30 euro deposit for a Vita preorder. You get a preorder box with headphones and psn discount codes and stuff so I guess they don't want people just making empty preorders to get those.
On another note, apparently EA's CEO made a reference to this situation during their earnings call. Dunno what exactly he said though...(?)
checkeredknight
Member
Not sure what I can post about this really (since I know we have a strict-ish Internet protection policy), but eh.
No idea about other stores, but let's just say you could count the amount of new titles in our stock room at the moment before hitting thirty. It wasn't always like this.
Wait, what?
GAME are the only store that make EBGames inflated prices look reasonable. GAME's instore prices for both new and used games are always the highest out of the big three (them, EBGames and JB).
SatelliteOfLove
Member
The UK game scene itself does not look healthy in the least, period. How is a developer to make any money in such a tight window? DD or bust, I guess.
CrunchinJelly
formerly cjelly
Urgh, that must be a depressing state to work in. Feeling like the company is winding down.
Do you guys have any independent or small scale used game stores specifically? Like here in my city in the Us, we have a couple of stores that do stock Ps1/xbox/Gamecube/Dreamcast/N64 sorts of things. They even have kiosks with the old systems set up around the store and loads of used consoles from various eras. Its pretty awesome to see. I dont know how those stores stay open but I would think gamers trust that kind of store with used merchandise more because they seem to have a genuine affection for retro gaming.
checkeredknight
Member
Urgh, that must be a depressing state to work in. Feeling like the company is winding down.
We're making good business. The only thing that's depressing about it is the fact we have very limited new stock to sell to customers. It's not like they don't want to buy it, but how can we sell it if we have no stock? I assumed it was since nobody was pre-ordering, but after reading this today I'm changing my mind. :/
We don't have that in my town, but it sounds awesome. I'd love for us to do something like that in our store, but it's just not possible right now. Financial losses and stuff like this isn't helping, either.
J Tourettes
Banned
EB actually bought out Game but carried on with the 'Game' branding. Game used to be alright before that.
CrunchinJelly
formerly cjelly
They don't mention them by name, but it sounds like EA are worried:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...ncial-health-of-major-european-retail-partner
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...ncial-health-of-major-european-retail-partner
I have faith that GAME will survive.
They are a cockroach on gaming. As everyone knows, that's the creature that can withstand anything and most likely to survive a nuclear war and even a Zombie Apocalypse. If you look at their share price in the last 10 years, you'll see that the last time they hit a real low was in 2002, just before the PS2 launched.
They will go up and down with the console cycle. The only problem this time is that the down point in this cycle has coincided with a global recession and this cycle has been extra long. Not to mention that the Wii has tanked this past year and the 3DS has only recently picked up and GAME share price is closely tied to Nintendo's success as the market leader.
Sales are down this year but they are trending above the industry standard and they are still the biggest off and online gaming store.
I've put my money where my mouth is. I bought £500 worth of shares in December at 7p and another £100 worth at 3p. I own 10'000 shares and in 2013/14 when the new cycle starts....I'll be in the mega buxx! I estimate my £600 will be worth £30'000.
Just look at the HMV share price. Went from 2p to 8.5p last week, ok it's down a bit now but could have made a packet on those in hindsight.
Don't write off GAME yet. Plus it's in EA's interest to make sure GAME have their game in stock, as do Nintendo and everyone else.
They know tesco et al will rape them in the long run and they need GAME to stay!
Off topic but I went into GAME and GAMESTATION to buy Mario 3D Land, assumed it would be £29.99 and I need it for a trip this week. It was £39.99! Fuck dat shit! It's £22.99 at Amazon and Play....and that's the problem. They can sell it at 29.99 in store but won't. I'll pay a £7 premium...but not £20!
They are a cockroach on gaming. As everyone knows, that's the creature that can withstand anything and most likely to survive a nuclear war and even a Zombie Apocalypse. If you look at their share price in the last 10 years, you'll see that the last time they hit a real low was in 2002, just before the PS2 launched.
They will go up and down with the console cycle. The only problem this time is that the down point in this cycle has coincided with a global recession and this cycle has been extra long. Not to mention that the Wii has tanked this past year and the 3DS has only recently picked up and GAME share price is closely tied to Nintendo's success as the market leader.
Sales are down this year but they are trending above the industry standard and they are still the biggest off and online gaming store.
I've put my money where my mouth is. I bought £500 worth of shares in December at 7p and another £100 worth at 3p. I own 10'000 shares and in 2013/14 when the new cycle starts....I'll be in the mega buxx! I estimate my £600 will be worth £30'000.
Just look at the HMV share price. Went from 2p to 8.5p last week, ok it's down a bit now but could have made a packet on those in hindsight.
Don't write off GAME yet. Plus it's in EA's interest to make sure GAME have their game in stock, as do Nintendo and everyone else.
They know tesco et al will rape them in the long run and they need GAME to stay!
Off topic but I went into GAME and GAMESTATION to buy Mario 3D Land, assumed it would be £29.99 and I need it for a trip this week. It was £39.99! Fuck dat shit! It's £22.99 at Amazon and Play....and that's the problem. They can sell it at 29.99 in store but won't. I'll pay a £7 premium...but not £20!
As someone based in America, here's hoping that Game doesn't die. Unlike Amazon UK, Game will happily ship to the US.
It's the only way some of us can snag those EU exclusives!
I seem to remember in the Cheap Arse Gaffer thread a mention of Xenoblade for 98p. Why the hell not collect them up in one place and sell 'em on US eBay? You'd easily make twenty times that.
bitoriginal
Member
Interestingly enough this happened to me as well with Mario 3D Land. It's the same with any decent 3DS release. They're trying to get that extra cash but it's stopping customers from actually buying the product.
sixteen-bit
Member
Gaming's Nostrodamus!
I have a slight hope of it bouncing back once it cut's it losses, but £30,000 really?
Damn it, this is actually making me want to buy a few shares as I guess they'll go up in price at least a bit when Vita launches. Don't have the first idea how shares work and how to buy them though
I actually had customers at christmas time coming into my store (blockbuster), looking at our 3DS section, seeing Mario Kart/Mario 3D Land for 32.99 each, and then complaining to me that they'd spent more in GAME
why the fuck complain to me?
Damn it, this is actually making me want to buy a few shares as I guess they'll go up in price at least a bit when Vita launches. Don't have the first idea how shares work and how to buy them though
You know it makes sense.
At the height of the PS2 era and then Wii era, GAME shares were worth shitloads. £3 son. The shares are going for pennies right now. One thing you have to remember about share prices, they're based on emotion and confidence, not facts.
GAME have made their first loss in a long long time. It's their first one so far. HMV have been making loses for years and are still going. GAME should make it till the 720 at least. They have a 100 million war chest and are worth a punt.
There is a lot more scope for the price to go up, worst case, it goes from 5p to 2p and you lose pocket change. Best case, £500 worth of shares at 5p = 10'000 shares. Multiply that by 100p just to be conservative and that gives for £10'000. If they go to £3 again in a few years, that's £30'000!
CrunchinJelly
formerly cjelly
I don't think you realise just how much shit GAME are in.
Publishers are refusing to sell them games. They're fucked. It's the same as what happened right at the end of Zavvi and Woolworths.
The Emperor
Member
Well I have cancelled the pre-order now and got a refund. Will be getting it from Blockbusters on the day of launch.
grimshawish
Banned
Instead of changing marketing strategy they've decided to steal from people uneducated on the prices (so people with kids basically!)
It hurts them in the long run, and their basing their prices off other retailers (HMV is often +full price); but it takes away their 'niche' of being the got to store for games. Honestly, why go to Game if your going to Sainsburys next week?? You wouldn't.
Game need an entire re-strategising - but I think its too late and will likely go into administration, we can only hope its assets are sold or someone moves in with a clearer strategy.
Certainly they need to re-colour everything, make strategic prices that undercut competition - and look to make up revenues by pushing accessories more; games magazines; gift vouchers (bet Game do poorly here, where its gold for other retailers); and some full priced big games (Fifa/CoD)
Game should be under pressure from the current economy/industry but they shouldn't be failing solely based on this - mostly to do with the board.
One day, there will be a thread on GAF entitled "UK retailer GAME is great" and we will all eat our hats.
Seriously though, as much as I'd like to see them go down for the stuff they've done, I do still have some points back home, and I always used to like just going in for a browse.
Seriously though, as much as I'd like to see them go down for the stuff they've done, I do still have some points back home, and I always used to like just going in for a browse.
This is what happened to Zavvi and Woolys but it's not the publishers refusing, it's a credit insurance problem.
The publishers need GAME. They will work something out. GAME is 30% of the UK market and as others have said, their shops are usually very busy.
Doesn't stop them being a huge rip off.
As a share holder, I demand they close 35% of their stores, cut pre-owned game prices by 30% and new games by 15-20%.
Do a Nintendo basically. Stop being tits charging £39.99 for Mario 3D Land.
ChimpanzeeThat
Member
Is it only 30% then? I thought that figure would have been larger, or I really have underestimated the size of the UK market (i.e. Supermarkets).
Their shops are very busy around where I live, but the strangest thing about GAME is that there are 2 stores within minutes from each other, and no exaggeration, one of those stores is literally spitting distance from a Gamestation that opened a few years back.
I can see why you would want some of their stores closed, it really makes no sense to me how my local stores (Milton Keynes for reference) are still going. And to make matters worse for them, CEX has opened a very large store right near the GAME and Gamestation stores too.
MrNyarlathotep
Banned
You know what I like about buying games at Asda / Tesco / Generic Retailer?
They treat me like a customer buying a product and don't sneer at my purchasing choice / are visibly impressed with my awesome taste depending on the shop assistants fanboyism of choice.
I don't really need to feel like I'm defending / impressing some minimum wage gap year student.
Complete opposite of my shopping experience.
No, Game nor any of their retail partners have ever said they were responsible, but in the interim period between Brink suddenly becoming available to purchase and Space Marine not being available, IIRC RPS asked them about it and thei'r response was along the lines of 'we are not currently doing any such thing'.
It is known it is a UK high street retailer who has been pushing this policy, and the fact that they can strongarm publishers into accepting it suggests it is both a retailer who sells PC games, and one with sufficient market share that they can get publishers to agree to it.
Cui bono. Because it isn't me.
If the mysterious Steam absences continue after Game has died, well, I will take back my strong suspicion.
Don't ShopTo deliver worldwide?
Brera
Share Prices can go down as well as up
(Today, 12:10 AM)
Diablohead
Member
this made me :lol
bryanee
Member
Another thing about buying at Asda and Tesco other than being cheaper most of the time is they dont try to get me to buy a used version instead or keeping nagging at me to pre-order anything and everything.
checkeredknight
Member
Sounds like you've had some bad experiences, but it depends where you shop. I don't think myself or any of the staff in my store would treat a customer in such a manner. I pretty much always support the customers choice of product, whilst still being honest and having my own opinion. It's frustrating to know there are people out there giving us a bad reputation, but it's more or less the same with any big chain of retail stores.
PlayerReady
Member
No offence but 600 pounds in shares isn't really a big risk. I am considering buying shares as I was in HMV but it still feel too risky. If I were to invest it would probably be to take a bigger gamble, but what worries me is the amount of debt they have. If EA and other publishers announce a deal with them, then they will survive as is the case with HMV and its supplier, but I don't see this happening with Game. Especially if EA are already announcing a potential dip in their profits due to a European retailer closing.
Nevertheless, I think Game's market share is quite large, so it leaves the potential for others to start up shop and replace them.
MarshMellow96
Member
FF XIII-2 still listed as 'unshipped'.
'Staying late' my arse.
'Staying late' my arse.
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