GAME exits Administration

[ToxieDogg]

A couple of absolutely brilliant posts there, jcdentont1000.

One of the things that strikes me is that many people seem sad to see Game go, when Game have actually helped to cause a lot of the problems surrounding the industry today that make life worse for every single customer.

I don't wish people out of a job and I feel deperately sorry for those that will be....but as customers, is it really our duty to support a chain of shops who's policies are centred around ripping the customer off, however nice that staff in individual branches may be?

Many of you lament the fact that if we're forced into an online only model, we may well be ripped off by extortionate prices on PSN/XBL/etc. and I agree wholeheartedly on that score. But, by the same token it saddens some of you to see Game struggling and yet Game routinely charge more than almost every other retail outlet anyway. I don't blame the individual staff...the same as I don't blame the tech bods who sit there updating the PSN/XBL stores each week...for the prices but as somebody who isn't a millionaire (hell, I'm not even in full time work at the moment myself) and can't afford to waste all my spare money just to keep other people in a job, I'm not going to shop there and support the practices of Game Head Office. They're the ones who are ultimately to blame for what's going to happen to their staff, as it's them who've alienated gamers everywhere. You can go on almost any game related forum and find an angry rant from someone who's either been ripped off by Game or had terrible customer service in there. Not good.

So long as the genuinely good and helpful staff out there can find other jobs to go to, then I really won't be sorry to see Game go, and if it pushes us more quickly towards a 'download only' future, then so be it.

[Liamh1982]

I can definitely see GAME disappearing here, considering there's a Gamestation just down the road from it, CeX a couple of minutes walk the other way and Grainger Games has just opened in the local shopping centre.

It was never the service that bothered me (IMO it was no better or worse than in many other places), it was the pricing. Why should I buy Game X from you when Gamestation - YOUR SISTER COMPANY - are selling it 20-50% cheaper?

[nakamura]

This completely pisses me off. Remember when we had 3 different game retail chains? GAME, Gamestation, and Electronics Boutique. GAME bought up all of them, and now GAME are going under , we have lost all 3 stores. Thanks to them, we no longer have any game retail chains. Good Riddance. Only people I feel sorry for are the low level staff. Everyone else can go sit on a cucumber.

This is not true.

EB bought game and rebranded. Game were doing just fine on their own.

[greenberet79]

Near me there are two Gamestations, HMV, Grainger, GAME and CEX. I never go to GAME. I go to all the others quite often. I've been to GAME in the past, and there is nothing in there that I want.

[Treguard]

Apparently Game is now not stocking any of the Ubisoft PS Vita game due to credit issues, and all Sony games sold there new now come with a label stating they remain the property of Sony until sold. Worrying times.

[pratty]

e "hardcore" gamers (who buy more) the most.

Very very wrong.

Really?

By hardcore I don't mean people who just buy COD and Fifa and nothing else, that's not hardcore at all. I mean the people who probably own multiple consoles and are in many cases buying several games a month. Surely they must buy more games than the parents etc?

What group would you say buys the most games?

Anyway, my point is Game put off a large group of would be customers with their antics. I think people aren't really anti-high street and would like to shop more at Game, but it's Game that puts up the barriers.

[DigitalDuck]

By hardcore I don't mean people who just buy COD and Fifa and nothing else, that's not hardcore at all. I mean the people who probably own multiple consoles and are in many cases buying several games a month. Surely they must buy more games than the parents etc?

Per person, maybe. The 'hardcore' market accounts for a very small percentage of the total population, though.

[gmintyfresh]

Where will we be able to listen to 10 year old nu-metal music played while we shop now?

CEX always has that covered, as well as the stench of BO and f@rts

[theantmeister]

Where will we be able to listen to 10 year old nu-metal music played while we shop now?

CEX always has that covered, as well as the stench of BO and f@rts

Is that what that smell is!?

[GigaPepsiMan]

Even if GAME had made all the right business decisions and done things properly they would still be going down the drain. Sad but this was going to happen one day.

[ahb]

I never really like game but it would be sad if they did go in a way, but their victims of there own downfall i mean when i was trying to pre order a game from them but i would of had to of paid £3 to get a loyalty card so i can pre order the game i imediatly said no and i then went to hmv and i pre ordered it for free and i got the game when it came out i mean its crackers in my opinion no wonder people shop online.

I agree with darren completely i dont like the way gaming is going at the moment with everything being released on digital and i feel sorry for the people who could lose their jobs i mean the last thing the british econamy needs is another retailer going bust and more people being on the unemployment line.

[retrosofer]

Damn!!!! Had my ME3 Ltd Edition pre-ordered with Game, was worried at first with all the pre-ordered games not being available over last few weeks at the store, but as time went on i thought, 'surly a game such as ME will be ok and in stock as it'll be a massive seller for them,' looks like i was massivly wrong damnit.

I dont want Game & Gamestation to go from the highstreet, this will be a massive loss for everyone in gameing: gamers, publishers, developers and anyone else. The bad decisions and silly practises that have hurt these two store chains are because of the idiot CEO's at the top. I have come to realise that many of these high level senior managers and CEO's clearly dont have a clue and get paid alot for doing what many can clearly see as bodge jobs, if these people at Game/Gamestation dont know much about gaming, what gamers want, the industry etc, why the fudging hell were they ever allowed to be given such top ranking positions, this is one of the reason the economy is so bad to.

[Mayhem]

This completely pisses me off. Remember when we had 3 different game retail chains? GAME, Gamestation, and Electronics Boutique. GAME bought up all of them, and now GAME are going under , we have lost all 3 stores. Thanks to them, we no longer have any game retail chains. Good Riddance. Only people I feel sorry for are the low level staff. Everyone else can go sit on a cucumber.

This is not true.

EB bought game and rebranded. Game were doing just fine on their own.

Indeed. Specifically the US branch of EB got involved with its UK arm to acquire GAME, and then halfway through the deal, pulled out. Leaving the UK branch to essentially have to then form itself as its own company, and because the US arm still held the name rights to "Electronic Boutique", it rebranded itself as GAME in the process. So essentially today's GAME is the old UK EB. Then GAME bought Gamestation afterwards.

Back to the argument at hand... yes, GAME are not perfect. But until such time that console manufacturers don't need physical shops to sell their latest hardware; infrastructure online is able to support people downloading games in the majority; and that publishers understand that they can't charge equal or higher prices for download only because people can't pay for them via trade-ins... then a good, physical shop is needed.

[killbot]

So no EA games, no Ubisoft games, and Nintendo and Sony games are iffy as well? That's the end of Game, then. Hopefully GS can survive and find another backer, and maybe get back to the more relaxed and less corporate presence they were before they were gobbled up.

[killbot]

This completely pisses me off. Remember when we had 3 different game retail chains? GAME, Gamestation, and Electronics Boutique. GAME bought up all of them, and now GAME are going under , we have lost all 3 stores. Thanks to them, we no longer have any game retail chains. Good Riddance. Only people I feel sorry for are the low level staff. Everyone else can go sit on a cucumber.

This is not true.

EB bought game and rebranded. Game were doing just fine on their own.

Indeed. Specifically the US branch of EB got involved with its UK arm to acquire GAME, and then halfway through the deal, pulled out. Leaving the UK branch to essentially have to then form itself as its own company, and because the US arm still held the name rights to "Electronic Boutique", it rebranded itself as GAME in the process. So essentially today's GAME is the old UK EB. Then GAME bought Gamestation afterwards.

Back to the argument at hand... yes, GAME are not perfect. But until such time that console manufacturers don't need physical shops to sell their latest hardware; infrastructure online is able to support people downloading games in the majority; and that publishers understand that they can't charge equal or higher prices for download only because people can't pay for them via trade-ins... then a good, physical shop is needed.

I agree, but I think Grainger or the old, pre-merger GameStation both represent better models of how a 'good physical shop' should operate than Game does.