GAME exits Administration

[Freestyler]

1992: SNES Street Fighter 2: £64.99 retail.
2011: Xbox 360 Street Fighter 4: £39.99 retail.

If you factor in inflation and in the increase in VAT, the RRP of Street Fighter 2 today would actually be over £100 so games have actually come DOWN in price over the years not counting the 8-bit market. All things considered, I don't think we're doing too badly. I'd say anything 16-bit / PC onwards has probably reduced slightly compared to current PC titles but console wise we're experiencing a massive drop so it's pretty good time for gamers.

This isn't the first time i have heard someone say this, 'if you factor in such and such, then if released today it would have been more expensive,' but i cant see it, if it was released today, it would be £39.99, or an rrp £44.99, plus another £30 of dlc rubbish on day 1 release.
The price of £64.99 for SF2 on the SNES was a product of its time so to speak, with alot of different factors causing that price point, things such as smaller games market, cartridge etc. So inflation really means nothing as if released today, unless it was a special edition and came with a miniture Ryu, would be priced at todays prices, and as such a product of modern times, if this makes sense.

The thing to remember as well is it wasn't even the most expensive SNES game. That I knew of, at least. Turok had that dubious "honour" at a stunning £74.99 retail. Shocking!

I'll definitely agree that Gaming as a whole has never ever been cheaper and so inclusive. Despite companies like EA and Capcom trying their utmost to rip their loyal customers off (c'mon guys, leave the Buyers Justification at home for once; admit it) the Gaming Scene is a wonderful place to be. I hope the death of GAME, Gamestation and any others from the inevitable fallout won't be seen as either the "immanent collapse of the Industry like during Atari" or as an excuse to lambaste the Pre-Owned market for ultimately causing it in the first place. Both are wildly speculative, if not outright wrong.

[killbot]

The thing to remember as well is it wasn't even the most expensive SNES game. That I knew of, at least. Turok had that dubious "honour" at a stunning £74.99 retail. Shocking!

I'll definitely agree that Gaming as a whole has never ever been cheaper and so inclusive. Despite companies like EA and Capcom trying their utmost to rip their loyal customers off (c'mon guys, leave the Buyers Justification at home for once; admit it) the Gaming Scene is a wonderful place to be. I hope the death of GAME, Gamestation and any others from the inevitable fallout won't be seen as either the "immanent collapse of the Industry like during Atari" or as an excuse to lambaste the Pre-Owned market for ultimately causing it in the first place. Both are wildly speculative, if not outright wrong.

Turok was an N64 game. I'll give you credit and assume you knew that really

But yeah, it was £70-odd. On the other hand, Amiga games of the same era tended to retail for no more than £25 - maybe £30 for a real AAA title. And that's probably a fairer comparison because like modern games those came on discs costing a few pence to manufacture, not carts with about £12 worth of silicone in them (that was the value I heard quoted for top-end N64 games).

[dste]

So it would appear things are hinged on this crapita buy out then? Oh dear!

That offer was apparently shunned a couple of days ago by lenders with OpCapita blaming RBS for dragging their heels.

That 12 Million in staff wages, cant be a debt. can it? If they have borrowed against this years wages then sure it would be, however, I'm reading that its for the next financial year, which mean it will be included in the budget and isnt a debt as such?

I honestly couldn't tell you mate as there wasn't enough information and I'm not even going to pretend to know. I just put what I read.

[ToxieDogg]

The same thing could have a devastating effect on even the strongest of retailers but for one in the position that Game is in right now, it could push them even further into trouble as they won't have the cash coming in to make up for the lost income for stock that they are effectively "giving away". While there are inactive cards out there, there are an estimated 19m cards out there (source: MCV) and all of them have points on them. Even if only 10% of those cards were active and only had a minimum of £2.50 on them, that's a debt of £5m that Game would have to "pay" it's customers overnight. As I said though, the majority of people seem to be spending more on their cards so the Reward Card debt situation seems to be a lot more drastic. A debt of £25m+ isn't an unrealistic estimate spread across the entire company and it's one that we're all calling in before the company collapses.

It's very, very hard for me as a customer to feel any sympathy for them (as a company) over that though....their loyalty points scheme is largely connected to the preowned games trade and encouraging it's growth (don't they offer extra loyalty points for trading in games?) which over they years they've obviously had 100% of the profits from, whilst costing publishers (their main suppliers) sales. Their situation now is largely because those same publishers won't supply them with new games, and that loyalty point scheme has come back to bite them on the bum.

Some would call that irony, some would even say Game deserve it. I still think it's pretty bad for the people who work behind the counter, who over the last week or so have been better than ever and despite the circumstances, I've actually enjoyed shopping in there for a change and bought a couple of the more expensive items (Ratchet & Clank All 4 One & No More Heroes PS3 for £17.98 each) that I might have normally waited for an even bigger reduction on.

[DPrinny]

>Game prices.

NEO GEO BITCHES!!
The console of the spoiled rich kid

[jdanddiet]

>Game prices.

NEO GEO BITCHES!!
The console of the spoiled rich kid

Mike you've got well over 11,000 posts, I reckon ive understood about 2000 of them

[speedlolita]

>Game prices.

NEO GEO BITCHES!!
The console of the spoiled rich kid

Neo Geo is arcade hardware and was aimed at adults.

Although, everyone knows video games are exclusively for children.

[Rinoa]

From ShopTo - http://www.shoptonews.net/2012/03/20/ga ... alks-fail/

A new report suggests that several suppliers have this afternoon engaged in negotiations with GAME today to try and agree new supply terms.

According to MCV, if a deal cannot be struck and GAME fails to pay its rent bill this weekend, then the chain could close down as early as Monday.

“We all want a strong specialist to survive, not a lame duck just bumbling along – that would be pointless. Somehow, we’ve got to find a way,” said one supplier to MCV.

“And one thing’s for sure, whatever happens there won’t be 600 stores in the UK. There has to be reduction in store count. And the real shame about that is the fact that it’s not the UK or Spain that has caused this predicament. It is France, Australia and Scandinivia that has been losing big money for a long time.

“You have to wonder why someone somewhere within GAME didn’t notice that and do something about it sooner. Those stores should have been closed.”

We hope for the sake of people’s jobs that GAME manage to survive, but it’s not really looking good at the moment.

[ToxieDogg]

From ShopTo - http://www.shoptonews.net/2012/03/20/ga ... alks-fail/

“And one thing’s for sure, whatever happens there won’t be 600 stores in the UK. There has to be reduction in store count. And the real shame about that is the fact that it’s not the UK or Spain that has caused this predicament. It is France, Australia and Scandinivia that has been losing big money for a long time.

“You have to wonder why someone somewhere within GAME didn’t notice that and do something about it sooner. Those stores should have been closed.”

We hope for the sake of people’s jobs that GAME manage to survive, but it’s not really looking good at the moment.

Interesting. Why's that then? People in those regions buying less games? Or is there more competition on the high street? Or something else?

[dste]

Latest I'm reading is that Gamestation could be sacrificed for the store closures.

There are so many reports and rumours flying around now it's starting to become difficult to figure out what is what. I think the best bet is just to see what happens on Sunday/Monday when rent is due.

[Morkin]

GAME suspends itself from stock exchange


Update: "Board unable to assess the business's financial position, and is of the opinion that there is no equity value left in the Group"

The Game Group has been suspended from the stock exchange at its own request.

According to the group, it is suspended "pending the clarification of the company's financial position".

In a statement, the company said: "Further to the announcements of 12 March 2012 and 14 March 2012, the board of GAME has assessed the status of the ongoing and regular discussions between GAME and its lending banks and between its lending banks and a potential third party provider of finance to the business.

"The Board now considers itself to be unable to assess the business's financial position, and is of the opinion that there is no equity value left in the Group. Therefore the Company has requested that the listing of its securities on the Main Market of London Stock Exchange plc be suspended from trading with effect from 7:30am today.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2 ... k-exchange

[simes]

What I don't understand with all of this right now is what the RBS is playing at. A bank, owned by the Government, has refused to play ball with an investor who has been willing to take over Game and pay off all of their debts including £30m owed to the bank. If these debts aren't paid by the deadline and Game goes into Administration, the funds simply won't be there to pay all their debtors and while the banks (being the largest creditors) will get the lion's share of what is raised) they certainly won't get the full £30m back.

RBS is effectively playing games with public money and the Government should have stepped in and made a decision in exactly the same way they did with Northern Rock. Otherwise, as the direct result of a state-owned company, 10,000 jobs will be lost. Not wanting to turn this thread political, but hasn't this government made enough controversial decisions already to lose them votes in the next election?

[simes]

From ShopTo - http://www.shoptonews.net/2012/03/20/ga ... alks-fail/

“And one thing’s for sure, whatever happens there won’t be 600 stores in the UK. There has to be reduction in store count. And the real shame about that is the fact that it’s not the UK or Spain that has caused this predicament. It is France, Australia and Scandinivia that has been losing big money for a long time.

“You have to wonder why someone somewhere within GAME didn’t notice that and do something about it sooner. Those stores should have been closed.”

We hope for the sake of people’s jobs that GAME manage to survive, but it’s not really looking good at the moment.

Interesting. Why's that then? People in those regions buying less games? Or is there more competition on the high street? Or something else?

I can't speak for all the countries, but when I was in Sweden last year, I waked past one of the branches of Game and it was barely visible. It had a small storefront with a shared entrance with a local Subway-like restaurant, and even with prices of everything in the country being high (taxes are astronomical over there), game prices were much higher than they are over here. There didn't really seem to be a lot of gaming or entertainment presence in the retail centre at all in the town I stayed in, and that was in one of the larger towns (Uppsala) which has one of Sweden's largest universities there!

[sirclive1]

What I don't understand with all of this right now is what the RBS is playing at. A bank, owned by the Government, has refused to play ball with an investor who has been willing to take over Game and pay off all of their debts including £30m owed to the bank. If these debts aren't paid by the deadline and Game goes into Administration, the funds simply won't be there to pay all their debtors and while the banks (being the largest creditors) will get the lion's share of what is raised) they certainly won't get the full £30m back.

RBS is effectively playing games with public money and the Government should have stepped in and made a decision in exactly the same way they did with Northern Rock. Otherwise, as the direct result of a state-owned company, 10,000 jobs will be lost. Not wanting to turn this thread political, but hasn't this government made enough controversial decisions already to lose them votes in the next election?

I feel as sorry as the next person for all the job losses but the goverment will always treat " banks " differently to retailers .

[slacey1070]

What I don't understand with all of this right now is what the RBS is playing at. A bank, owned by the Government, has refused to play ball with an investor who has been willing to take over Game and pay off all of their debts including £30m owed to the bank. If these debts aren't paid by the deadline and Game goes into Administration, the funds simply won't be there to pay all their debtors and while the banks (being the largest creditors) will get the lion's share of what is raised) they certainly won't get the full £30m back.

RBS is effectively playing games with public money and the Government should have stepped in and made a decision in exactly the same way they did with Northern Rock. Otherwise, as the direct result of a state-owned company, 10,000 jobs will be lost. Not wanting to turn this thread political, but hasn't this government made enough controversial decisions already to lose them votes in the next election?

As we know, saving banks was driven by political motivation (much of it self-serving) - however the rest of the market must stand on its on two feet.

Banks are reluctant to lend - despite being instructed that they should.

I hope for all the staff that something can be worked out and that a strategy for a sustainable business is put in place.

If Woolworths could go, why not Game?