Once a month (or more, if these threads become successful), I shall be taking the month's biggest gaming story/event and putting it up for debate, as well as posting my view on the issue. I shall be asking other people on the site to post their opinion and vote either for or against the thread title, and, after 3 weeks, will be selecting the winning side.
This month, I'll be looking at the UK's largest high-street videogames retailer, and the issues it faces in the immediate future.
UPDATE
In the past few hours, GAME Group announced that investment group Opcapita will be purchasing a large chunk of GAME, potentially saving them from immediate bankrupcy, however, the closed stores won't re-open. More in the link:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17575500
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ORIGINAL
The high street is a dangerous place to be nowadays. With the rise of online shopping, the risk of slipping back into recession and the increase in empty shops, the high street can sometimes seem to be a lonely place. And, even more so for retailer GAME and its subordinate business, GAMESTATION, where its troubles seem to get worse every passing day.
The latest unsettling news (incase you haven't heard) is that GAME CEO Ian Shepard met with senior management to discuss the future of the company, telling them to brace for administration, in as little as two weeks. In an attempt to try and scrape some money together, the retailer has issued a 'fire sale', dubbed 'spring clean', to try and get rid of excess stock (and it's well worth having a look:), but is it too little, too late?
http://www.game.co.uk/en/games/xbox-360/spring-clean/?attributeName1=Catalog_GameSalesCatalog_EN_GB&sortColumn=popular&sortTypeStr=DESC&inStockOnly=false&attributeValue2=4294965394&attributeValue1=4294967257&attributeName2=Catalog_GameSalesCatalog_EN_GB
The question is, why did this happen, and will we be seeing more of this in the future?
What went wrong?
There's a number of different reasons why GAME group are staring bankruptcy in the face, but, in my eyes, there's 2 main reasons- a lack of new releases and a lack of variety
No new releases
Incase you didn't know, The Last Story, the Wii exclusive JRPG, was released in Europe a few weeks ago. However, one gaming establishment didn't stock it. Not only that, but they also cancelled people's pre-orders, the DAY before launch. This gaming company? Well, it was GAME. They cited that they had 'rifts' between the company and Nintendo, but a real reason was never really given.
As an exclusive case, this would be OK. Maybe there was just a rift. However, when you combine this with the fact that other big titles, including all Ubisoft Vita games, Mass Effect 3 and Mario Party 9, have also been given the shaft by the company, suddenly the situation becomes more sour.
The real reason for this? The company couldn't pay to get the games into the stores. But this causes a much larger issue. Because if you pre-ordered from the company, and they cancelled your pre-order, would you trust to invest in the company again? Doubtful. Especially with what has happened. This causes a vacuum of loyal customers, and a lack of reliable income for the company from new releases, a problem which can only compound itself over time.
A lack of gaming variety
I remember the time when you could go into a gaming store and find all sorts of games. The new releases, the retro, the mainstream, the niche...but not nowadays. These days, if you were to go into your local branch of GAME, you'll be lucky to find anything other than the new releases. Games from the previous generation? No. Some smaller releases, like the one above? You're out of luck there. The only thing you'll find really nowadays are the big releases (if even then...).
But the issue with that is, you could get all of these from other retailers, like Tesco, or Asda, but with one key difference- the price is usually lower. So where's the point of going to GAME, if the game you're trying to get can be found in your local supermarket, for a lower price, and is more likely to be there when GAME may not even be stocking the game in the first place?
All of a sudden, the attraction of going to a dedicated game store is removed, and I'm not even going to go onto online retailers, like Amazon.
Will we be seeing more of this type of thing?
There's always a chance, but it's not all doom and gloom just yet. So long as other games retailers, like Gamestop, don't fall down the same route, then they should be alright.
The key thing to do is to offer variety. If you can do this, and for a reasonable price, then they'll always be a place on the high street for the dedicated game store. And, of course, to not cancel pre-orders the day before the release of a game...
Other retailers are in a stronger position anyway. They have a good revenue stream, and their stock does not appear to be volitile, at least at the moment. And, let's face it, can anything beat going in to a games store, checking through the shelves, looking behind all of the cases to find that one game that you're missing for a drastically reduced price? I don't think so, and I'll miss it when GAME does close down, provided no saviour is found.
R.I.P. GAME.
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What do you think? Is there still point in having dedicated games stores on the high street, or should we move to online retailers? Be sure to vote, and comment below!
The conclusion from the previous GamrDebate is that, yes, the Vita is 'Dead on Arrival', with 316 votes to 280. Check the thread here:
http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=139592
