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Forums - Gaming Discussion - gamrDebate- Goodbye to GAME... (and what went wrong?) UPDATE** "Saviour" found?

 

Is there still a point in having dedicated games stores?

Yes! 59 72.84%
 
No! 14 17.28%
 
See results. 7 8.64%
 
Total:80
Conegamer on 29 March 2012

GAME group has entered administration. My local Gamestation closed its doors JUST as I was about to go in. It's depressing going past the store and seeing all of the games there, just abandoned...

Too late to be saved now, I fear. Is this a worrying trend? I certainly hope not.



 

Here lies the dearly departed Nintendomination Thread.

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Conegamer on 29 March 2012
spurgeonryan said:
Conegamer said:
GAME group has entered administration. My local Gamestation closed its doors JUST as I was about to go in. It's depressing going past the store and seeing all of the games there, just abandoned...

Too late to be saved now, I fear. Is this a worrying trend? I certainly hope not.


I do not think so in America. Gamestop seems to be alive and kicking! Not sure about the other game stores since there are none near me other than Gamestop.

 

Too bad you were not a little earlier. When Game crazy went under over here I got so many good games for cheap from them! 80 percent off.

Now that I mention gamecrazy I must add that it was part of a failed movie store chain. So it was not just because of the games not selling.

Huh. You must know that there was very little sign of issues before GAME went under, though. 

I really hope they'll be some sort of huge clearance sale. 80% off? NICE. Buy loads of 3DS' and Vita's and sell them for a profit :/



 

Here lies the dearly departed Nintendomination Thread.

mike_intellivision on 29 March 2012

Question for those in the UK?

How many high street retailers are open past 18:00 every night (Sunday excluded)?
Looking at the posted hours for many Game stores -- they seemed to close at 17:00 or 18:00.

It is my theory that one of the issues is that because of the lack of evening trading hours, the store could not capture people coming home from work. And thus sales went on-line or to supermarkets.

Mike from Morgantown (who tried to post this using proper English terms)



      


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Andrespetmonkey on 29 March 2012

Looks like it's game over for Game.



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TrevDaRev on 29 March 2012

My first memories of buying games was from GAME. Every weekend when my Mum went shopping I would always drag her to GAME, good memories. I remember going to GAME on the day GTA: SA launched and giving my Mum my wallet so she could buy it for me, as I was underage. She went to the till and opened my wallet and quickly looked around at me and said, 'You've only £15 in here.', she was great and paid the rest. Even all these year later I still pop into GAME every time I'm in town, I will definitely miss it.



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SecondWar on 29 March 2012
Conegamer said:

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? 

Are you kidding me? Whenever I've been to the 'gaming' section in my local Tesco Extra, the choice is absolutely patheic. With exception of a few consistant high sellers (eg Mario Kart) Tesco have a Top 15 Chart, new releases and then what accounts to a Bargain Bin (ie what was in the charts not too long ago and what we now need to get shut of). In terms of choice and variety, Tesco is a big step backwards.



SecondWar on 29 March 2012
NotStan said:
That's funny, the guy at GAME the other day - like yesterday actually was assuring the customer that GAME will be there for a long time, "They've said that we're going under 8 months ago.. and well, we're still here, so don't worry" those were his exact words, ironic that it's official that they're closing less than 24 hours later.

Same thing happened to me the day after I found out they weren't going to stock Mass Effect 3. Went in the cash-in a £25 gift voucher and after commenting that I was doing it before they went bust, he said due to Game's position in the market, GAME not stocking Mass Effect 3 was more likely to cause EA to go bankrupt. 

A few weeks later I went back to cash in my last few loyalty points (by now the company was about a week or 2 from administration). Coincidentally, he served me again and I was tempted to ask him if he still thought it was EA who were more likely to go broke (especially after all of GAME's pre-oreders went straight to other stores and Mass Effect 3 had before first week sales than the first two games combined). I resisted the urge as I didn't feel in the mood for provoking a pointless arguement.



SecondWar on 30 March 2012

Just had a look in my local GAME store and got to say they haven't even got their fire-sale right (spring clean as they call it). They claim that they've slashed hundreds of prices, but if you take a look you'll see those products with price cuts are all pre-owned titles that originally came out several years ago, sitting there unsold because no-one wants particularly wants them, especially when there are newer versions out.
Newer releases and accessories (including GAMEware) did not have price cuts. Compared to what I remember of Woolworths closing down sales, GAME's is the worst I've seen.



Conegamer on 30 March 2012
SecondWar said:
Conegamer said:

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? 

Are you kidding me? Whenever I've been to the 'gaming' section in my local Tesco Extra, the choice is absolutely patheic. With exception of a few consistant high sellers (eg Mario Kart) Tesco have a Top 15 Chart, new releases and then what accounts to a Bargain Bin (ie what was in the charts not too long ago and what we now need to get shut of). In terms of choice and variety, Tesco is a big step backwards.

This is my point. If you look at the games which have been in GAME for the past year or two, you'll see that, most of the new games, are these BIG hitters in the top 15. The stores get relatively few new games in which I would consider 'niche', unless they're pre-owned, or you've asked for them. And even then, they'll only get one or two copies in, and they'll be more expensive than online.



 

Here lies the dearly departed Nintendomination Thread.

SecondWar on 30 March 2012
Conegamer said:
SecondWar said:
Conegamer said:

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? 

Are you kidding me? Whenever I've been to the 'gaming' section in my local Tesco Extra, the choice is absolutely patheic. With exception of a few consistant high sellers (eg Mario Kart) Tesco have a Top 15 Chart, new releases and then what accounts to a Bargain Bin (ie what was in the charts not too long ago and what we now need to get shut of). In terms of choice and variety, Tesco is a big step backwards.

This is my point. If you look at the games which have been in GAME for the past year or two, you'll see that, most of the new games, are these BIG hitters in the top 15. The stores get relatively few new games in which I would consider 'niche', unless they're pre-owned, or you've asked for them. And even then, they'll only get one or two copies in, and they'll be more expensive than online.

Read my last post above yours, having been in today the entire place was much more lacklustre than I was expecting. I'm used to running in and out on a given day with a day-one purchase. Rarely stop to look at what else is on offer. Had a look in HMV, they had a better selection, a load of lesser known games and a lot less focus on pre-owned titles. Maybe thats why they haven't suffered quite so badly.