GAME exits Administration

[Syntesis]

They're not a charity.

No, but I think it's important to support people's jobs, even if it means paying a slight premium. If all retail business in the UK went digital then countless thousands of jobs would be lost - that's people with mortgages and families. As someone who's had a period of unemployment, I know what it's like.

Websites need staff too.

Not as many, granted, but if you include the delivery chain you're keeping people in jobs by buying online anyway - it's all the same economy.

Would you go to a crap dentist or car mechanic just to keep them in a job?

Well said!

Im fully aware of both sides of the coin tbh. I know that if I try hard enough I will find pretty much any game cheaper, sealed etc etc and delivered to my door for free online as opposed to the high street. This is something that the high street could never hope to do. But on the flip side I could walk past shops like Game, Gamestation, CEX etc, go in and impulse buy a title for a few quid more and be playing it within the hour. Something that I wouldnt like to miss out on tbh. I like the best of both worlds and wouldnt want that choice taken away. Game are crap, for sure, but I would rather they stayed around and improved their business practices rather than disappear down the plug hole.

It's rarely just a few quid more. You can typically get most new releases online for half price or less within 2 weeks to 2 months of release and Game will still be charging RRP for it. If it's something you enjoy doing then I can't argue with that but you are paying a massive premium to do so and getting a worse product (gutted).

[greenberet79]

I like shopping, I like browsing. I like going to shops and looking around at what they've got.

Browsing on the web just isn't the same for me.

And you know you CAN get bargains on the high street, you just gotta be lucky sometimes. Of course the internet is cheaper 9 times out of ten, but it isn't perfect (getting stolen in the post/broken/having to return stuff).

And, I can't trust myself on the internet with my credit card! Buy...buy...buy.

[Syntesis]

I have bought over 100 games online this generation and only had two duds (a gutted copy of Way of the Samurai 3 from HMV and a used copy of MGS4 sold as new by Game Collection, both shops I haven't used since although both games are otherwise fine and no worse than a "new" copy from Game). Nothing stolen or broken despite my posties being utter pillocks with everything else.

You can get a bargain on the high street if you are very lucky but that's once in a blue moon stuff and never on new sealed games.

Again if you like browsing shops then great but don't think that shopping online has any downsides other than not getting the game immediately. Personally the only thing that would get me interested in Game/GS again would be retro but they trashed all their retro stock when GS got bought out so that ship has probably sailed.

[commanderkaiser]

I still love browsing the shop, you can sometimes come across a decent deal or two but that's a rather rare occurrence.
I'm well aware how much better shopping online is i.e cheaper prices, better selection and choice etc but I still like how I can walk into the store and leave there and then with what I want rather than wait for a delivery.

I mean take Mass Effect 3, I bought it the other week for £29.99 from GAME using the trade in deal. I'm well aware I can get it online a couple of quid cheaper just looking at shopto it's £25. The £5 extra to get it there and then and start playing straight away is well spent IMO.

Of course there are some prices that no matter what it's just a better deal to get it online but I still would rather have the choice between the two.

[big-byte]

Finally cracked and went and bought a PS VITA with some of the credit on my gift card today. I went for a pre-owned one for £200
Felt like I was being completely ripped off tbh especially when you can get a brand new one on amazon for £180. Also considered buying uncharted for £38 (preowned!)
but was told that to play it online I would have to buy a code for £5! Is that true for all vita games? anyway won a copy of uncharted on ebay for just under £22 delivered
so now all I need to get is a memory card.

With game, I did try to get a deal by asking if I bought vita + preowned uncharted would they throw in a 4gb card for free or even half price but apparently they cannot do it as it would be a sackable offence.

[Freestyler]

Comments:

Finally cracked and went and bought a PS VITA with some of the credit on my gift card today. I went for a pre-owned one for £200
Felt like I was being completely ripped off tbh especially when you can get a brand new one on amazon for £180. Also considered buying uncharted for £38 (preowned!)

Yeah, I'd like a Vita, but the shop vs internet prices are wildly different at the moment. Every pre-owned shop I've seen are selling them for more than brand new on Amazon and whatever! So I's waiting for prices to tank before I give it another glance.

Also considered buying uncharted for £38 (preowned!)
but was told that to play it online I would have to buy a code for £5! Is that true for all vita games? anyway won a copy of uncharted on ebay for just under £22 delivered

I think we've all come to realise that once our Store Credit has been spent there's going to be little reason to go into another GAME store ever again. They can't compete on any terms now. None. Expect another crash before Xmas.

so now all I need to get is a memory card.

This really pissed me the hell off. What little research I've done has lead me to believe that the cards are four times more expensive for up to five times slower speed! It's another price gouge tactic that that they can stick up their arses. Vastly reduce the card prices (or release some firmware that allows regular memory cards to work) and we'll see.

With game, I did try to get a deal by asking if I bought vita + preowned uncharted would they throw in a 4gb card for free or even half price but apparently they cannot do it as it would be a sackable offence.

Ahh, this old chestnut. Yes it's true. The bundles are set in stone and attempting to change them is a waste of time. They'd rather lose a sale than swap out a game for £7.99 for another game for £1.99 simply because Management said the bundle is to be sold "as is" and can't change. Upon pain of death. Old tricks die hard I see.

[the_hawk]

I think we've all come to realise that once our Store Credit has been spent there's going to be little reason to go into another GAME store ever again. They can't compete on any terms now. None. Expect another crash before Xmas.

NAIL ON THE HEAD!


I can't pretend to know the first thing about running a business, but even I can see that the things that put them under last time were having a ridiculously high number of shops leading to huge overheads & having completely overpriced stock and having a very pushy sales based rather than customer focused service etc

Utterly baffling, on what planet exactly do people expect to have a successful business when they seem to be repeating the exact same things that brought the company to it's knees in the first place?

[Rayne]

Any idea what sort of trade price they'd give on a white wii?

[Freestyler]

Any idea what sort of trade price they'd give on a white wii?

I think they were selling them for about fifty quid the last time I checked. They had completely sold out of DS/Xbox/PS3's though, so that might be affecting price? The +25% offer does apply to Wii though, so now's the best time. You'll probably get less than a tenner at Cash Converters.

[Rayne]

Any idea what sort of trade price they'd give on a white wii?

I think they were selling them for about fifty quid the last time I checked. They had completely sold out of DS/Xbox/PS3's though, so that might be affecting price? The +25% offer does apply to Wii though, so now's the best time. You'll probably get less than a tenner at Cash Converters.

I'll pop in and ask today, I know they're cheap as chips these days