GAME exits Administration

[retrosofer]

Just to add, at this rate the UK highstreet is going to look like this in a few years > Morrisons, Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Aldi, Lidle.

[Flint]

I don't want anyone to have a monopoly over the gaming retail, but I don't really care. Case point... I have spent hundreds on single games in the past, so I really care about paying £5/£10 extra for a brand new title of a download service that I'll be able to have forever on my harddrive, with no risk of disc damage? I am sold! hahaha

I’m not entirely sure if you’re serious but I’ll quote you anyway as it’s relevant to my post.

The trouble with digital distribution isn’t just inflated prices, there are potential problems with this countries online infrastructure and you don’t get as much consumer protection.

The games companies can change their T&Cs/EULAs to pretty much anything they want, they can lock you out of their online games/marketplace, make your single player games unplayable, make games expire after a certain time, require you to be connected to the internet while playing etc.
So if your internet is down, a company goes out of business or a server is turned off after a few years then your game(s) could become unplayable. Or if there was a legal or licensing issue they could disable/remove a game from your hard drive.

Yes they can do much of that with physical products but at least you have the option to trade it all in and the retailers can kick up a fuss in necessary (like they did with Resident Evil Mercenaries 3D).

Here’s an example of somebody being banned by EA for no good reason resulting in an e-mail stating “Please be informed that your account not only suspended, But it is also Banned, So you will no longer to play the game in single player.”
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/12 ... e-edition/

Plus an example of game Expiring, it was an accident but proves they can do it.
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/01/29/gears ... eaks-game/

[killbot]

Just to add, at this rate the UK highstreet is going to look like this in a few years > Morrisons, Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Aldi, Lidle.

I think we'll still have high-streets in a few years, but they'll only sell stuff which is impractical to buy online - which essentially amounts to clothes, jewellery and shoes (of course you can buy clothes online, but most people still want to try stuff on and see how it looks before buying) or toiletries and medicines (because you can't wait three days for delivery on your paracetamol when you have a headache now). Anywhere selling books, games, CDs, DVDs or electrical goods will be gone. Already in York we've lost Zavvi, Woolworths and Borders and the vultures are circling over HMV, Game and potentially Waterstones. The city is still infested with clothes shops and chemists, though.

[retrosofer]

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

Come on dude nu-metal? We all know Game & Gamestation dont play nu-metal at their stores, its all the emo pop-fashion-rock crap with bands who have names like, 'Can I have an Icecream on Monday' & 'FYI Fishfinger Friday,' if they actually played some decent nu-metal i'd be impressed.

[jcdentont1000]

Just had a text off a friend who works for a 'leading Edge game magazine' who says he has heard Game are trying to close 100 shops by the end of the year. Oh dear.

[jcdentont1000]

I don't want anyone to have a monopoly over the gaming retail, but I don't really care. Case point... I have spent hundreds on single games in the past, so I really care about paying £5/£10 extra for a brand new title of a download service that I'll be able to have forever on my harddrive, with no risk of disc damage? I am sold! hahaha

I’m not entirely sure if you’re serious but I’ll quote you anyway as it’s relevant to my post.

The trouble with digital distribution isn’t just inflated prices, there are potential problems with this countries online infrastructure and you don’t get as much consumer protection.

The games companies can change their T&Cs/EULAs to pretty much anything they want, they can lock you out of their online games/marketplace, make your single player games unplayable, make games expire after a certain time, require you to be connected to the internet while playing etc.
So if your internet is down, a company goes out of business or a server is turned off after a few years then your game(s) could become unplayable. Or if there was a legal or licensing issue they could disable/remove a game from your hard drive.

Yes they can do much of that with physical products but at least you have the option to trade it all in and the retailers can kick up a fuss in necessary (like they did with Resident Evil Mercenaries 3D).

Here’s an example of somebody being banned by EA for no good reason resulting in an e-mail stating “Please be informed that your account not only suspended, But it is also Banned, So you will no longer to play the game in single player.”
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/12 ... e-edition/

Plus an example of game Expiring, it was an accident but proves they can do it.
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/01/29/gears ... eaks-game/

I never wrote that :S

[Flint]

Oops! sorry I messed up the quote a bit there.

[jcdentont1000]

Oops! sorry I messed up the quote a bit there.

See you in court!

[Flint]

It didn't take Zavvi long to take advantage of this.

After the launch of our zavvi Rewardz scheme last week, we thought we’d keep the customer thanks coming – this time with the launch of our hot new EA Extras Club. This is our way of rewarding all of the customers that purchase EA products at zavvi.com, with double rewardz points, exclusive content, double referral points, automatic entry to exclusive prize draws, the latest breaking news, and more…
http://blog.zavvi.com/games/breaking-ne ... tras-club/

[ALK]

Just had a text off a friend who works for a 'leading Edge game magazine' who says he has heard Game are trying to close 100 shops by the end of the year. Oh dear.

Oh joy, all the Game Stores will be converted into more 99p Stores soon enough.

[crusto]

I rarely use game myself. But it would be a shame if they went. Just makes it easier for the others to charge more.

[James A]

Just had a text off a friend who works for a 'leading Edge game magazine' who says he has heard Game are trying to close 100 shops by the end of the year. Oh dear.

Oh joy, all the Game Stores will be converted into more 99p Stores soon enough.

Well in Coventry in the space of 300 years theres 2 Games and a Gamestation. Theres no need for that amount of shops in such a small area.

[Hitman_HalStep]

i hate these threads because it gets me paranoid that they will go under in a matter of weeks and i won't get a chance to use up my reward points,i started downloading the ssx demo because of this thread.

[Megamixer]

I rarely buy much from GAME but it'd be a shame for there to be less choice. Gamestation going down with them would be even worse.

A digital future is inevitable but it makes for a worse shopping experience imo. I can walk into a physical store and take a punt on a few pre-owned games that are selling for around £5-£7 each. If I was taking a risk on a game but I could only get it from PSN/XBLA then £50 each is not something I'd be remotely interested in. It's fine for games you definitely want but if fixed £50 digital asking prices are in place then gamers are less likely to take a risk and publishers less likely to take risks on large-scale games that aren't sequels or proven franchises.

You've also got to consider the fact that current digital games sometimes retail for more than physical copies and yet there's no box, instructions or distribution costs involved so where is the discount? Publishers aren't giving savvy consumers a convincing reason to download a full retail game from an online store.

I've only just started getting into digital and DLC after bypassing it for so long and there are some good deals. Daytona USA for £6-something is a nicely priced classic game and the Soul Calibur IV/V DLC packs are cheap enough to be appealing (even though I still see it as a cheeky move since the content is already on the store from day 1 ). I'm not ready yet to be blowing full RRP on something though. Even SSFIIT HD Remix for £12 seems too steep for what it is.

So overall, I'm not as against digital as I once was but at the moment, publishers aren't showing me the benefits of downloading games over purchasing them physically and for that reason, actual stores like GAME are still very much relevant to the likes of me.

[PaulEMoz]

Just had a text off a friend who works for a 'leading Edge game magazine' who says he has heard Game are trying to close 100 shops by the end of the year. Oh dear.

100 in the next ten months? That's not many, given how many stores they operate. It should be easy, given that in Newcastle there are three in the city and two in the Metro Centre. Totally unnecessary.