GAME Closure Looms on Monday
- Thread starter Andy Chalk
- Start date
Good Riddance.
They have artificially inflated prices, screwed the industry and displayed blatant monopolistic practices. Outright Barring online sales of a game from the UK on threat of not stocking that game.
It's sad for the people that work there, but I don't think many people will be that sad to see their big faceless corporate boss who pas them minimum wage leave either. Always another giant chain to work at.
They have artificially inflated prices, screwed the industry and displayed blatant monopolistic practices. Outright Barring online sales of a game from the UK on threat of not stocking that game.
It's sad for the people that work there, but I don't think many people will be that sad to see their big faceless corporate boss who pas them minimum wage leave either. Always another giant chain to work at.
Ok well think about it. How many stores does GAME/Gamestation (lets call it game from now on) have? lots. It is a huge company and if a company of its size collapses I cant imagine investors will be queuing to make a loss. Im willing to bet one of the reasons it went out of business in the first place is that it is engaged in a price war with supermarkets and online retailers such as amazon and play.com which it cannot win. With these two factors i think we wont be seeing a game specific high street retailer ever again considering digital distribution is not to far off the horizon. Games fall was inevitable with digital distribution and I look forward to that but until that time we suffer without it and the competition it brings. If pc gaming was worth supplying for then game wouldnt have stopped. I know pc gaming is worth a lot of money but I can only think it was the move by the medium to digital which caused it to stock less pc games. Less competition is a bad thing and its unlikely any company is gonna fill games shoes. I rather liked Game as well now ill have to buy online and it seems no more used sales. to ebay it is.bahumat42 said:
I've said it before, but partly management are to blame, and partly WE are to blame. I worked in MVC when it started, and we not only were encouraged to talk to customers about music, movies, TV, gaming etc, anything that we sold, but the manager of each store tried to get an 'expert' for each genre of music, as well as a a movie enthusiast and a gaming one. (yes, that was me).Gordon_4 said:
We were doing fine, but changed hands at one point, and the new management scrapped all customer service, in favour of pushing those stupid 'additional' sales at the till, where you get offered a range of crappy dvds for an extra 3 quid. We were told to stop 'wasting time' talking on the shopfloor and get on with selling. Our customers fled, and our profits plummeted. (Of course, we got blamed for this week on week, ignoring all evidence.)
I do feel that if you can engage with your customers, some, not all, well return for the experience, and the knowledge. In the end, you can't beat online for price, so cost cutting and having pushy salespeople isn't the way. You need to beat the websites on service, which is very easy.
I say we are also to blame, as I remember a fair number of people coming in, looking to us for advice, using our listening posts to try out new albums, then buggering off to Tesco or Amazon to save a whole pound on a cd. Then complaining when we shut down and got replaced by a pound shop.
EDIT: I'm not saying you should have paid the prices in GAME, £5 off for preowned is ridiculous, after all, and over £50 for new titles is daft too, they should make some attempt to be competitive, not just roll with the RRP. However, you can't bemoan the loss of brick n mortar stores staffed by real people, if you never shop there.
nope, it was exactly how i wanted itcaptainfluoxetine said:
way to take to the next level for your self thoughIt was inevitable they just didn't move with the times I used to like their stores but haven't bought anything there for about 6 years.
Things they did wrong
- Ran two competing brands in the same company GAME and gamestaion sometimes on the same street in my town they were about 80 meters apart with a granger games on the same road and there are only like 250,000 people in Birkenhead and half of hem shop in Liverpool.
-Refused to compete with Steam instead trying to push PC gamers to consoles this is what made me drop them entirely i now buy games from Amazon steam and GOG but only because they pushed me to look elsewhere
-Pricing was insane, this isn't all their fault publishers have some blame here but 8 year old PC games should not be 3 for £20 when gog is selling them for £6 each.
If brick and mortar gaming shps want to exist they need to do things digital cant that means a focus on hardware and service.
I can't speak for the console crowd would be neat if some of you chipped in but for PC gamers they could do the following to win us back.
Price competitively you wont beat steam sales but if they stop bundling stuff into £20 sets i might by the odd old title.
Hardware what if game had a team nationally that worked out the best gaming rig for each £50 increment budget for each given month then acted as a reseller with a service package on top including info on upgrades extended warranty and such pair up with a firm like novatech, they could make PC gaming accessible.
Get partnered with the LAN tournaments and such give this stuff a presence in the real world.
Sell more peripherals and have examples available to show people an on-line store simply cant do that.
The worst part is the exploitative strategy the staff shouldn't be trying to have you buy a worse product the on-line stores do a better job of it aim for better service.
Things they did wrong
- Ran two competing brands in the same company GAME and gamestaion sometimes on the same street in my town they were about 80 meters apart with a granger games on the same road and there are only like 250,000 people in Birkenhead and half of hem shop in Liverpool.
-Refused to compete with Steam instead trying to push PC gamers to consoles this is what made me drop them entirely i now buy games from Amazon steam and GOG but only because they pushed me to look elsewhere
-Pricing was insane, this isn't all their fault publishers have some blame here but 8 year old PC games should not be 3 for £20 when gog is selling them for £6 each.
If brick and mortar gaming shps want to exist they need to do things digital cant that means a focus on hardware and service.
I can't speak for the console crowd would be neat if some of you chipped in but for PC gamers they could do the following to win us back.
Price competitively you wont beat steam sales but if they stop bundling stuff into £20 sets i might by the odd old title.
Hardware what if game had a team nationally that worked out the best gaming rig for each £50 increment budget for each given month then acted as a reseller with a service package on top including info on upgrades extended warranty and such pair up with a firm like novatech, they could make PC gaming accessible.
Get partnered with the LAN tournaments and such give this stuff a presence in the real world.
Sell more peripherals and have examples available to show people an on-line store simply cant do that.
The worst part is the exploitative strategy the staff shouldn't be trying to have you buy a worse product the on-line stores do a better job of it aim for better service.
It was inevitable they just didn't move with the times I used to like their stores but haven't bought anything there for about 6 years.
Things they did wrong
- Ran two competing brands in the same company GAME and gamestaion sometimes on the same street in my town they were about 80 meters apart with a granger games on the same road and there are only like 250,000 people in Birkenhead and half of hem shop in Liverpool.
-Refused to compete with Steam instead trying to push PC gamers to consoles this is what made me drop them entirely i now buy games from Amazon steam and GOG but only because they pushed me to look elsewhere
-Pricing was insane, this isn't all their fault publishers have some blame here but 8 year old PC games should not be 3 for £20 when gog is selling them for £6 each.
If brick and mortar gaming shps want to exist they need to do things digital cant that means a focus on hardware and service.
I can't speak for the console crowd would be neat if some of you chipped in but for PC gamers they could do the following to win us back.
Price competitively you wont beat steam sales but if they stop bundling stuff into £20 sets i might by the odd old title.
Hardware what if game had a team nationally that worked out the best gaming rig for each £50 increment budget for each given month then acted as a reseller with a service package on top including info on upgrades extended warranty and such pair up with a firm like novatech, they could make PC gaming accessible.
Get partnered with the LAN tournaments and such give this stuff a presence in the real world.
Sell more peripherals and have examples available to show people an on-line store simply cant do that.
The worst part is the exploitative strategy the staff shouldn't be trying to have you buy a worse product the on-line stores do a better job of it aim for better service.
Things they did wrong
- Ran two competing brands in the same company GAME and gamestaion sometimes on the same street in my town they were about 80 meters apart with a granger games on the same road and there are only like 250,000 people in Birkenhead and half of hem shop in Liverpool.
-Refused to compete with Steam instead trying to push PC gamers to consoles this is what made me drop them entirely i now buy games from Amazon steam and GOG but only because they pushed me to look elsewhere
-Pricing was insane, this isn't all their fault publishers have some blame here but 8 year old PC games should not be 3 for £20 when gog is selling them for £6 each.
If brick and mortar gaming shps want to exist they need to do things digital cant that means a focus on hardware and service.
I can't speak for the console crowd would be neat if some of you chipped in but for PC gamers they could do the following to win us back.
Price competitively you wont beat steam sales but if they stop bundling stuff into £20 sets i might by the odd old title.
Hardware what if game had a team nationally that worked out the best gaming rig for each £50 increment budget for each given month then acted as a reseller with a service package on top including info on upgrades extended warranty and such pair up with a firm like novatech, they could make PC gaming accessible.
Get partnered with the LAN tournaments and such give this stuff a presence in the real world.
Sell more peripherals and have examples available to show people an on-line store simply cant do that.
The worst part is the exploitative strategy the staff shouldn't be trying to have you buy a worse product the on-line stores do a better job of it aim for better service.
I don't know much about Gamestop, but if they're buying out Game would keep (some of) the shops open and the brand alive, then I'd be all for it. Besides the somewhat sentimental side of it - I remember buying games from Game when it was Electronics Boutique so for years it's basically where I bought most of my games (and my 360).Beautiful End said:
Then there's the even more depressing and realistic aspect, that being if all Game branches shut, that's a ton of people, managers and sales people alike, out of work. Bad enough for them, but the last thing the country needs right now is an other whole rake of people unemployed. Especially given that in current times, being unemployed means you'll probably end playing grab ass for who know how long trying to find more work.
It's all well and good to just say "Oh, it doesn't matter if Game shuts down, I'll just get all my games online and digitally", but while I have nothing against those avenues of procuring games, it's not something that's worth another set of empty premises and "For Sale/To Let" signs springing up across the country.
Everytime I do something with the military that involves being shut away, and no access to the regular world, a UK chain closes! Onmy initial training I came back and Woolies was gone! Now I am on deployment, and GAME is dissapearing! D:
i Normally get new releases from there, just to make sure i have it on Release day, for some reason i dont trust Postmen and couriers to give me my game on the day it comes out, so i just go to GAME And pick it up.. There is a CEX Two shops over but they dont really have new games,
And the GS and HMV Closed in our town.. Guess ill just pray to god the postie gives me it on time.
And the GS and HMV Closed in our town.. Guess ill just pray to god the postie gives me it on time.