GAME Group

[TezzRexx]

Continuing on from the discussion here.

It seems that things have gone from bad to worse, with Game now reducing prices heavily to allow them to buy more stock (both online and instore, with discounts varying between). Had a look round the Redditch brand and its a sorry state of affairs. The games they could reduce, people are unlikely to buy as they either have them, or are considerably shite, or, weren't still reduced enough to compete with online prices / other stores.

It will be a shame for me at least, as I remember the days of when it wasn't a complete ripp off merchant, although that was back in 1994/95 and buying Megadrive games.

Also, I'm not so sure that Game going bankrupt would be a good thing for competitiveness within game retail.

[buzzmong]

Even worse: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17336697

[TezzRexx]

Oh dear

[mrbobbins]

I got Killzone 2 for 49p, which I thought was pretty good.

Oh, and I also got the Motorstorm Apocalypse for free.

Which was due to a lot of confusion, I picked it up as it had a 'Now £7.99' sticker on it, thought it was worth a go.
The guy took the shelf box and put it on the counter, then went to the drawer to get a proper copy, which I paid for and left.

I checked the receipt once I was outside and saw it had cost £19.99 so I went back in, the shelf box was still on the counter and the guy picked it up to scan and check the price, which was £19.99 so he went to get a supervisor.

Supervisor checked price and said that kids are always messing about with stickers and it shouldn't have been there and that I could have a refund, said while removing the sticker from the shelf box, I agreed to refund which he said was easier to give me in cash so he gave me a £20 (rather than £19.99 as he couldn't bothered) then I left

Only when i got home did I realise I still had a copy in my bag.

That's a rather boring story really, the end result is Game paid me 1p to takeaway a shit game.

[Grimmie]

That's a rather boring story really, the end result is Game paid me 1p to takeaway a shit game.

Maybe that's why they're losing money?

[mrbobbins]

Maybe that's why they're losing money?

That, and the 'Kids' who are always causing havok with the price stickers, it's definitely not the inept staff.
Not that I've ever seen any kids in there, or many adults really.

Although there was a dad in there who would have paid full price for Mass Effect 3 for his kid but was told they don't have it due to 'Stocking issues'

[Dog Pants]

I don't see the loss of Game as bad for competition, certainly not as a PC gamer. They stocked very little in the way of PC games anyway, and those they did were overpriced. I've not bought anything from there in probably a decade. Digital distribution will be what keeps PC gaming competitive. Consoles might suffer, but that doesn't bother me. Worst case scenario is that the shitty ports get shittier and fewer PC gamers buy them, so they stop making them for PC. No great loss in most cases, and the void is filled by decent PC titles.

[Joose]

Consoles might suffer, but that doesn't bother me.

I doubt even that will suffer too much. The reason Game has gone down the shitter isn't because people are not buying games, they are just not buying them on the high-street. I imagine the only market it will have any negative effect on is the second hand games market. But hey, if people buy less second hand games, they are more likely to buy games new, which means more money to the people actually making the games. So theoretically, Game falling over could even be a good thing for the games industry. Weirdly.

[Pnut]

Did GAME not threaten to boycott games that were going to be on steam about a year ago? If so then they have probably brought this onto themselves. If I was a Dev/publisher and a company threatened not to stock my game because you wanted it on a digital supplier, then i would tell then to go fuck themselves when they came crawling back.

[buzzmong]

The reason why Game has gone down the shitter is because management don't want to compete with online outlets on price and while I quite like having boxed games, you can get fucked if you think I'm willingly going to pay £5 to £10 (occasionally even more) extra to have it in my hand when I can get said boxed game delivered free to my doorstep for release day.

Quite frankly, they'd have done better to simply sell new titles at cost in order to shift units, and make more of their money from second hand sales (which were already massively profitable), as that's the only way they can trump online outlets.

I normally use Game for my second hand console purchases alongside PC budget titles, but quite frankly there's been nothing I want that I couldn't already get on PC for my 360 and their budget game section hasn't been refreshed in at least two or three years now.

I think the other major reason apart from not offering the titles I want is the fact there's far too many branches around and they're competing with each other. Don't forget that Gamestation are also owned by Game, I've got one of each within 30 seconds of each other in my home town. Same goes for Portsmouth. Coventry city centre has FOUR (2 Game, 2 GStop) within 3 or 4 minutes of each other.

[FatherJack]

Coventry city centre has FOUR (2 Game, 2 GStop) within 3 or 4 minutes of each other.

It's a stupid legacy thing from when they had different owners, and one Game was an EB even after they opened a Game literally feet away when West Orchards opened. I never understood why they didn't close down the extra ones.

I haven't liked Game for a long time, filling their shelves with empty pre-order boxes and aggressively pushing pre-orders and pre-owned new games they made more markup on - they didnt seem to have a cohesive strategy. Them buying GameStation completely ruined it, from a glorious dingy den when real classics could be discovered it just turned into a slightly grubbier Game.

Stores like CeX have filled the gap where GameStation used to be, and now supermarkets offering used games in a non-threatening (to non-gamers) environment have reduced that slice of the market - although the supermarkets tend to trade in older used games and don't aggressively pit them against the new titles - so publishers don't hate them and try to block their sales.

Game even opened a store within Tesco's Arena complex, failed consistently to compete with Tesco's prices and then shot themselves in the other foot by banning supermarket trollies from their store.

I miss GameStation, but Game ruined it and I won't miss their high-street stores. Their online store wasn't spectularly better or worse than anyone elses, though.
I suppose they were okay to wander around in while the missus bought frocks and shoes, but that isn't really a viable business model.

[TezzRexx]

Andddddd just incase you missed it, the most over used headline in recent memory.

GAME OVER.

[Grimmie]

Jesus, that didn't take long.

[Thompy]

Shares in Game closed at 2.39p on Tuesday, having fallen from 62p a year ago.

Ouch.

[buzzmong]

Good. I wouldn't be surprised if someone comes and snaffles up about a 1/4 or even 1/3 of the stores in a firesale and actually makes a profitable business out of it.

[spoodie]

Meh. The shops were useless to me, especially when they became half full of pre-owned games. If I want those I go to eBay, etc.