The UK "Game" store is not doing very well financially, I found out why!

[Treblaine]

if game goes then games will be relegated to all media stores (like hmv which itself is struggling)

And... how is this bad?

HMV already does a better job than game and frankly if ALL high-street retail of games disappeared I think this would be great. people who play video games are very well connected online, they can make INFORMED and HIGHLY COMPETITIVE purchasing decisions online.

On the high-street, the only competition is that in extreme proximity. No one is going to take a 45 minute round trip bus ride out to PC World to see if they have a better price. But it's 10-seconds to check if play.com has a better deal than Amazon or even see if ebay has an offer. THAT is competition, the best price and service prevails and you can easilly check forums and other sources to find if people are ripping off or poor service.

And of course Steam, Origin, GoG, OnLive, etc shows we can go 100% digital with huge success.

 

[JasonBurnout16]

Gamestation, CEX, Amazon, Play and Blockbuster all do games much cheaper than GAME anyway.

The only time I do shop at Game is when I buy a new console, as they are usually the same price then anyways.

Blockbuster is actually pretty good at the moment, I've gone in their and seen new games priced very low. And you can get some great deals online if you search about. Plus the supermarkets usually stock new games now. I remember ASDA had BF3, at release, for £32. It was £45 in game.

Game going out of business won't matter that much. Any gamer knows you can get better deals elsewhere.

 

[Klaflefalumpf]

Seriously though, if the manager can't do simple maths, how on earth did he get that job?

/Rant.

As a former Game/Gamestation employee I can safely say: With very little competition.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

What does that mean for Gamestation as GAME owns them as well?

 

[Maze1125]

You make a GRAND amazing saving of -£0.75.

Yes, that is minus £0.75. You pay an extra 75p to buy 5 games. Well done "Game", deal of the century!

Seriously though, if the manager can't do simple maths, how on earth did he get that job?

I think you did the maths wrong. The total price of those games is £34.25, which is a saving of 75p. It's a crap deal for sure, but you're not paying £35.75 which is what I read when you say you're paying an extra 75p.

You're thinking the wrong way around.

Standard deal:
2 games cost £10 each, £20 total, the deal is both of them for £15, a saving of £5.

The deal in the picture:
5 games cost their respective prices, £34.25 total, the deal is all 5 for £35. a saving of -£0.75.

The deal is more expensive than the prices of the original games.

 

[Palademon]

I have little problems with GAME as I usually only go in for new games on release and won't pay anything more than £40 for a standard edition.

My only real problem is them taking a while to update preorder lists and that I'm often the reason they remember to give out preorder bonuses...after they go "It should be in there."
Yes, ofcourse. The preorder bonus for your shop chain will be sealed inside the case of the game you just unloaded out of the box...

 

[hutchy27]

GAME is too expensive and their employers don't know a single thing on about any game in the shop. I went to buy the GOTY edition of Fable 2 a few years back, and I went in and saw it on the shelf, however the guy in the shop said it wasn't the GOTY edition even know it says Game of the year edition on the case and he then decided to try and sell me the collectors edition for £45 which was also on the shelf for £20.

 

[Alexander Cunningham]

As a northern irish this is a BAD BAD thing. You fancy english folks get gamestation.We get either GAME or eat shit.

 

[Seraj]

As a northern irish this is a BAD BAD thing. You fancy english folks get gamestation.We get either GAME or eat shit.

Not really, if Game was to leave NI it would leave an open field, it wouldn't be long before some other corporate beast jumps to its place.

Also, Game is your only option, don't you guys have CEX? Don't supermarkets stock games in NI?

 

[Alexander Cunningham]

As a northern irish this is a BAD BAD thing. You fancy english folks get gamestation.We get either GAME or eat shit.

Not really, if Game was to leave NI it would leave an open field, it wouldn't be long before some other corporate beast jumps to its place.

Also, Game is your only option, don't you guys have CEX? Don't supermarkets stock games in NI?

Nope. Theres a DUNNES that used to have a bin filled with PS2 shovelware but it's gone now.

 

[Maze1125]

As a northern irish this is a BAD BAD thing. You fancy english folks get gamestation.We get either GAME or eat shit.

Gamestation is owned by GAME.
We don't actually get any options, we just get something that looks like another option.

 

[Matthew McDonald]

You make a GRAND amazing saving of -£0.75.

Yes, that is minus £0.75. You pay an extra 75p to buy 5 games. Well done "Game", deal of the century!

Seriously though, if the manager can't do simple maths, how on earth did he get that job?

I think you did the maths wrong. The total price of those games is £34.25, which is a saving of 75p. It's a crap deal for sure, but you're not paying £35.75 which is what I read when you say you're paying an extra 75p.

You're thinking the wrong way around.

Standard deal:
2 games cost £10 each, £20 total, the deal is both of them for £15, a saving of £5.

The deal in the picture:
5 games cost their respective prices, £34.25 total, the deal is all 5 for £35. a saving of -£0.75.

The deal is more expensive than the prices of the original games.

Ah yeah, what a numpty I am... Maybe *I* should be a Manager at Game...

 

[J Tyran]

GAME has been a rip off as long as I can remember, even I think back to the Xbox 1 era the games they sold where more expensive and they gave the worst trade in prices.

Edit

Just thought of something, I wonder if anyone else finds the same problem. I buy most of my PC games from Steam and everything else from Amazon, not just because of the price though. Parking in my town is fairly expensive (£2.50p for 90 minutes) and the town centre has nothing of interest to me. The out of town shopping developments and the supermarkets are far better so I have no reason to go shopping in my local town centre. So not only would it be more expensive for me to get my games from GAME I would have to pay £2.50p for parking on top just to visit the store. It wouldn't be so bad if I had other reasons to go into town but its mostly a few clothes stores, Iceland, scoop & saves and pound stores.

So when I do get a console game or a retail box PC game I get free delivery from Amazon and can save nearly £7.50 if you count the parking.

 

[Liham]

I find that here in australia, EB games is sorta... eh basic mc normal place.
GAME is the cheaper awesome option and game traders is where you go for odd hard to find games.

 

[srm79]

asda and tesco are usually good to buy from, i think i bought BF3 for about 32 quid when it just came out. my guess is that supermarkets makes less profit on games because its not their primary product. also you can buy beer while you buy a game you cant do that at game

The big supermarkets do exactly this. It's called a "Loss Leader". You know those glossy pamphlets you sometimes get through your door with the local paper or the mail? The ones full of all the really good deals? They lose money on every single item they discount in those. It gets you through the doors though, and a large enough percentage of people decide to grab a few other things - might as well while you're there right? - that they make a profit on your total transaction.

These mega-retailers have spent fortunes doing psychological studies and all sorts of stuff you would be surprised at, with the goal of designing their store layouts to maximise the "impulse" buy and to get you to buy the most profitable stuff. Ever noticed that all the premium brands tend to be at eye-level, while the cheapest and nastiest own-brand stuff (think ASDA Smart Price stuff) is always shoved down the bottom? And it works too.

Finally, don't forget that ASDA, Tesco and the other big supermarket chains have more buying power than even GAME does. They have been beating down wholesalers to get the cheapest prices they can for years. It's a big part of the reason that farming (especially Dairy) in the UK is on its knees, but that's another story.

OT: Haven't been in a GAME store for yonks. I did wander into one a couple of months ago to kill some time while the other half was shopping for girly things. Wouldn't dream of spending my money there though any more - I also remember the "good old days" where you got a decent trade-in price, generally good value for money, and top-notch service every time, and think the place is a hollow, corporate, greedy shell of it's former self. While it's unpleasant for employees to be staring down the barrel of redundancy and I sympathise with them wholeheartedly, I can't say I'll be sad or surprised to see the company go down.

Instead of adapting to the changing market, they seem to have decided to keep coming up with new ways to screw the customer. Might work for the short term, but us gamers are a pretty fussy bunch on the whole, and we're also tech-savvy enough to figure out we're better off with either digital distribution or ordering hardcopies online.

 

[Tiswas]

Game and Gamestation are so bad for choice they only stock the same games that Asda, Sainsburys etc are stocking but for cheaper. Most of the releases recently they aint even gotten through the doors (Catherine, Last Story, One Piece.) sure they're obscure but still.

We have Grainger Games up here which is better. They import PS3 and DS games and are usually cheaper for releases too.

I used to order the odd game here and there from Game's online service. Usually Limited editions. But their handling of the Last Story was just ridiculous (Changed from limited to standard without notifying and then cancelling the standard the day before release anyways) While I'm aware this is due to Nintendo not allowing Game to get the Games on credit anymore it's kinda weird considering Game/Gamestation asked for a £10 deposit for this particular game. So they shoulda been stocking enough to cover those people.

I'm not a fan of CEX much. Great sometimes for old obscure games but most of their stock is more expensive than the new ones elsewhere. I was kinda wary when I saw a shady looking guy reach into a bag and take out about 30 sealed copies of Modern Warfare 3. The staff looking at them and giving the guy money.

 

[Gunner 51]

I agree with that entirely! My local is the same! I have been going there for years, and I know them quite well! They always give me good reccomendations, and they are a great source for rumours! Not only do they read all the reviews, but they get stuff off of other customers too!

They are so much more enthusiastic than the GAME staff, and you can tell that they love to play games as well as sell them. And they are allways honest... they won't let me buy something that is crap, well not without warning, and a reccomendation of something better!

I will really miss the bricks'n'mortar retailers when they go the way do the do-do. Especially when those good people working there will be out of a job. A shop with good staff will always provide a better service - and a welcoming and friendly smile is something no website can truly replicate.

I know that for every good retailer, there's a slew of not so nice ones - whose business practices regarding trade-ins are dubious.

But the way I see it is that developers and publishers alike have no right to a cut of the proceeds if Joe Public sells their game onto someone else (as is their right to do so) - and if that someone else is the retailer, it doesn't make a difference.

But then again, I'm also of the opinion that most of what's wrong in the world of gaming is purely down to the publishers who treat their development team like slaves and the paying public like thieves or cattle.

 

[Varrdy]

I've just had an email from GAME saying that they are "not in a position" to honour my preorder for Mass Effect 3: N7 Collectors Edition.

Fail.

Wardy

 

[Matthew Lynch]

Game was once a decent game store you know... Another company, "Electronic Boutique" bought Game, and decided to change all its store names to Game (EB sounded so much better).


At first prices were still reasonable and they were putting small stores out of business, once they pretty much owned the brick and mortar game store business I guess they decided scamming the ignorant was a much better marketing move than trying to attract gamers.

i remember only a few years ago i could walk in and get really good deals, really good prices but not i almost never go there.
thankfully if their website is cheaper (a little) if you're buying new games, but used? pfft amazon is the best bet

Yeah...if you can actually get the GME webpage to work...according to the GAME website, the postcode for my house doesn;t exist...nor does any other Hinckley postcode. According to GAME.co.uk, my entire town is a figment of my imagination.