GAME to axe 247 jobs, 43 stores to be shut

Oh dear

Just when Gaming was becoming more mainstream too.

Having said that… I always found their trade-in offeres were too agressive and their ‘preowned’ section too expensive.

Sad to hear for the employees, but shouldn’t be coming as a suprise considering the prices for some of the stuff they sell. People are often much better off on amazon or play

They also have a real problem of over saturisation in some cities, up until recently in Cardiff there were two GAME stores and a GameStation. Since when did a city the size of Cardiff need that many when HMV offers just the same service.

I only ever use them for buying hardware these days anyway, they’re ridiculously expensive for games. If sales are down then perhaps they ought to take a good long look at their in-store pricing policies.

I was tipped off about this two days ago. Silly Pat.

Yes, they are way too expensive. I often see pre-owned games in there for £34.99.

I don’t even remember the last time I brought anything from GAME.

i heard tesco are hiring

I use their online store quite abit, i pre-order most of my stuff from them and have it sent now.

Be careful with GAME/Gameplay’s online ‘bargains’. A whole bunch of Eurogmaer people who ordered cheapo copies of the last Chronicles of Riddick game from them a few weeks ago were sent scabby pre-owned copies when it was being advertised as ‘new’. The ones that have complained are being ignored, one of the guys who sent his copy back and asked for a refund has instead been sent a different pre-owned copy by return. Shocking behaviour from anyone, let alone the biggest game store in the country.

It’s been coming for a long time. They have too many stores competing with each other, and they’re also grossly pricing items above what other online retailers provide. It’s a crummy situation for those who’ve had their livelihoods cut, though.

Game used to be good enough value.

Trade-ins were half the shelf price of new games (at least you knew what to expect); the old reward points were good for a freebie* every once in a while; there was pretty clear water between new and preowned prices; and the old 10 day return thing saved me from one or two little follies on the purchasing front…

Then things changed and greed bummed all those good points till they were blue and sad.

*said data mining probably led to increased prices and lack of value

Everything about Game sucks.

The prices (particularly newer pre-owned), the layout (seriously, could they get those shops any more cluttered, disorganised and just downright awkward?), and quite often the freakin staff.

They seem to have axed their “Deal of the Week” promotion where they gave one (usually decent) game a genuinely bargain price in favour of taking a couple of quid off a selection of shite games.

I buy or rent 99% of my games from online stores because it’s cheaper (even compared to Game pre-owned prices which are a fucking joke) and less bother. Oh, and nobody tries to sell me MW2 for £45 because “it’s the best game evaaaaaar!”

Feel very sorry for the staff, but Game is fuckin shite.

I’m not surprised Basildon has 2 Game stores and a GamesStation. So there’s a lot of duplication. But then to be honest there’s no point in a town having a Gamestation and a Game store, because all their deals are the same now. I don’t really shop there now, it’s cheaper online or in Tesco. Game often sell second hand games for more than the new price at most other outlets.

GOOD! It will teach them for neglecting the PC user! GAME should never have been allowed to purchase Gamestation as there really isnt enough competition on the high street.

I get everything from Amazon with free next day delivery thanks to Amazon Prime (great value if you order alot of stuff).

Shame for the staff though.

Not at all surprised. We have 4 game shops in southampton, and a gamestation. And they’re all shit.

My friend had to take back his 360 to game 4 times because they sold him ones which had been bricked. Each time they tried to make out it was his own fault. Bunch of useless bastards.

scummer

I’m sad for the staff but this doesn’t surprise me. The last time I went to game was the midnight launch of GTA4, their prices are just too high and their pre-owned offers are shite especially as you see them on sale for £20-£30 more than they paid YOU for the game. This has been coming since the took over gamestation and I hope their monopoly will come to an end. Remember the days of Electronics Boutique, Gameplay, Gamestation, Chips, GAME and local computer game shops all competing against each other… How many of these name do you see on the high street today? Lack of choice has forced people to shop online and we all know that you get cheaper deals if you can wait a day or two for delivery!
Just in case anyone is interested… a really great site I use for a lot of my game purchases is http://www.gameconnection.co.uk. I have absolutely no affiliation with these guys I just like their site and service – they deserve a mention!

Shame to hear, but not surprising really. We’ve got one of each (GAME & Gamestation) locally and I can’t imagine both surviving.

@ spitos

Well, EB gobbled up GAME back in 1997 then GAME gobbled up Gameplay and now Gamestation. Thats where all the competition has gone – there isnt any!

I used to work at EB back in the day and they always wanted to charge an extra fiver for a game so they could use that to reduce prices without hitting margin.

Now, they use their dominate position in the market to play such dirty tricks.

@2

Last time I was in Cardiff they had three branches of GAME! One of them used to be an EB store before the take over. I would imagine many of these closures are for towns where they kept the EB store and re-branded it.

With the rise of digital distribution this is only going to happen more and more I think.

We have a Game, a Gamestation and a Debenhams concessions Game in our town and the Debenhams store is the only one of the Game group with friendly and approachable staff and the only one closing. The EB rebranded store of the town closed about a year after Game bought them out.

@Bulk Slash – one of the GAME stores in Cardiff (the old EB one) was closed I think when I was in the city centre earlier in the week. Certainly didn’t notice the usual video game models in the windows.

I buy from GAME when they have a new release trade in deal (got both ME2 and Bioshock2 for under £25).

However you’re usually better sticking with ShopTo.

There’s a smiliar situation in Reading with oversaturation; there’s 2 GAME stores 5 mins walk apart, and then a Gamestation just round the corner. There used to be one which was an old EB but that went a few years ago. The manager of one of the GAME stores was really nice and really passionate, especially about Final Fantasy, but when he left it just wasn’t the same. I only use GAME now for occasional browsing but never really buy anything in store. I still use their website for some stuff, especially the GAME rental service.

I’m the same, I pre-order most of my games from their website. You get points for everything you buy from them, which leads to money off. Their prices are often the best as well.