GAME Goes Bust [Updated!]

[TheEvilCheese]

While I am always sad to see more redundancies, I have to say that GAME just wasn't a good product for me personally. The website has, on occasion, provided good deals on newer titles but the shops are pretty much there to sell AAA games preowned for more then I can get one new on-line. If a business isn't competitive it stops competing

 

[Trivun]

You know what would help them out so much, in terms of getting back on their feet after finding a buyer (if that happens)? Selling more technology and less in the way of games. It may sound odd, but there you have it. When I applied for a job at HMV a couple of years ago I was told in an interview that the company was phasing out sales of DVDs, games, and CDs, making them a smaller (though still vital) part of the business. The reason was because they were shifting focus to technology, selling things like iPods and tablets and media players and e-readers and such, because those were becoming more profitable in a world dominated more and more by digital retail. And GAME and Gamestation haven't exactly been on the cutting edge of gaming retail in recent years. Seems to me that selling more technology and becoming a less specialised (though still mainly game focused) store would be a massive help. That being said, I suppose there's less they can really do in the way of selling technology than if they were focused now on DVD and Blu-ray instead of games, or music, or something else...

 

[Me55enger]

Any company intend on charging £20 for TF2 deserved it.

Although, good luck to the employees.

Capatcha: Bullet train.

 

[EeveeElectro]

I honestly never thought I'd see Game/Gamestation go down the shitter... You never know what's round the corner. Sad times :<
If I want to browse in an actual shop, I'll have to go to Grainger games ;-; the staff are terrible, one of them turned his back on me as I was trying to talk to him ;u; Ignorant...

I feel more sorry for the workers to be honest >.<

 

[The_Waspman]

I'm one of the few thousand people who have been sent back to the breadline today, and honestly, I don't know how to feel about it. We've all known for a long time that this was going to happen, so it's not like it was a big surprise or anything. Unfortunately, I happened to work in the one (of three) branches in our town that got shut down.

Still, I've been on holiday for the past two weeks, so it only really feels like that has been extended. Permanently.

Hooray?

 

[Trivun]

I honestly never thought I'd see Game/Gamestation go down the shitter... You never know what's round the corner. Sad times :<
If I want to browse in an actual shop, I'll have to go to Grainger games ;-; the staff are terrible, one of them turned his back on me as I was trying to talk to him ;u; Ignorant...

I feel more sorry for the workers to be honest >.<

Which Grainger Games have you been in then? Since I went to the one in Leeds when I was at university and found the staff there to be friendly and helpful, and truth be told I kind of had a crush on this cute redheaded girl who worked there . It's a shame that I'm no longer in Leeds, unless I can find a job up there... But yeah, it was a pretty good store, to be honest I kind of hoped they would buy GAME out after GAME went bust (since it would help Grainger Games to no end to expand from just the north of the country and have a range right across the UK, even if they had to close plenty of GAME and Gamestation stores anyway). Sadly though, it seems that won't be the case...

 

[EeveeElectro]

I honestly never thought I'd see Game/Gamestation go down the shitter... You never know what's round the corner. Sad times :<
If I want to browse in an actual shop, I'll have to go to Grainger games ;-; the staff are terrible, one of them turned his back on me as I was trying to talk to him ;u; Ignorant...

I feel more sorry for the workers to be honest >.<

Which Grainger Games have you been in then? Since I went to the one in Leeds when I was at university and found the staff there to be friendly and helpful, and truth be told I kind of had a crush on this cute redheaded girl who worked there . It's a shame that I'm no longer in Leeds, unless I can find a job up there... But yeah, it was a pretty good store, to be honest I kind of hoped they would buy GAME out after GAME went bust (since it would help Grainger Games to no end to expand from just the north of the country and have a range right across the UK, even if they had to close plenty of GAME and Gamestation stores anyway). Sadly though, it seems that won't be the case...

The one in Bradford. I realised it one day when I was working in the shopping market, I saw a glimpse of orange and ran to it after work xP Apparently it's only been there for a year and half, so they must have opened it when I was living in Hull.
I think Grainger games are cheapskates xP they're a fairly small business, probably don't have the money to buy out any stores.

Capthca: Meat with gravy.
Hmmmm. >w<;

 

[Trivun]

I honestly never thought I'd see Game/Gamestation go down the shitter... You never know what's round the corner. Sad times :<
If I want to browse in an actual shop, I'll have to go to Grainger games ;-; the staff are terrible, one of them turned his back on me as I was trying to talk to him ;u; Ignorant...

I feel more sorry for the workers to be honest >.<

Which Grainger Games have you been in then? Since I went to the one in Leeds when I was at university and found the staff there to be friendly and helpful, and truth be told I kind of had a crush on this cute redheaded girl who worked there . It's a shame that I'm no longer in Leeds, unless I can find a job up there... But yeah, it was a pretty good store, to be honest I kind of hoped they would buy GAME out after GAME went bust (since it would help Grainger Games to no end to expand from just the north of the country and have a range right across the UK, even if they had to close plenty of GAME and Gamestation stores anyway). Sadly though, it seems that won't be the case...

The one in Bradford. I realised it one day when I was working in the shopping market, I saw a glimpse of orange and ran to it after work xP Apparently it's only been there for a year and half, so they must have opened it when I was living in Hull.
I think Grainger games are cheapskates xP they're a fairly small business, probably don't have the money to buy out any stores.

Capthca: Meat with gravy.
Hmmmm. >w<;

Ah, fair enough then. I've not been to the Bradford one, though to be honest I've only really been to Bradford for the Media Museum and for curry anyway . Still, even if they can't afford it now, Grainger Games do seem to have been gaining more recognition in the market recently, so I wouldn't be surprised if they do start expanding anyway by opening new stores. Maybe they could at least be a viable alternative to GAME and Gamestation in the UK market?

 

[jelock]

Gotta say I was always a fan of Game. Yes they could be overpriced sometimes,but in those cases, just went elsewhere. In my local stores there was always helpful and friendly staff. Sad to see it closing.

In saying that though maybe Game and Gmestation will get split up and setup some more competition again. Otherwise there will be someone to take its place, HMV or someone will up the ante on selling gaming.

Plus its not as if there is a shortage of decent online stores to use (for those who can at least.) I do feel sorry for those suddenly out of a job though, I know exactly how it feels.

 

[Daveman]

I'll be honest, it's probably for the best they're closing down some stores. I'm not sure I need two GAMEs and one gamestation all within a 200 yard radius in my city centre.

 

[jelock]

I used to have

I'll be honest, it's probably for the best they're closing down some stores. I'm not sure I need two GAMEs and one gamestation all within a 200 yard radius in my city centre.

I used to have 3, one store at the end of the town centre and two at the other end in the same mall. I do think that planning like this probably was one of their problems. Oversaturation.

 

[ThunderCavalier]

Never great to hear about someone possibly losing their job.

My condolences to any affected by this bankruptcy, especially those who lost their jobs. Never good to lose a job, especially in this economy. Hope you guys recover.

 

[Elate]

Yea, those 2,104 employees will just mosey on over to all those other places on the UK high street that are hiring.

:/

Whether you shopped there or not doesn't matter. Whenever you lose a big name from the high street it has massive knock on effects further down the line. Either through loss of jobs or loss of brick and mortar earnings. That are a deceptively crucial part of an economy.

The ideal situation here would have been that someone had bought them out and restructured their business model. But just like it sounds, that's a lot of work and potentially risky.

So instead they've simply been lost.

Honestly that is a comparatively small amount of people. To put it in perspective, my city has a population of 555'500. Yes, it's sad that they lost their jobs, but that doesn't mean I want a company like that to continue.

I was wishing Gamestop would have bought them out, maybe then we would have seen some changes. I just hope now that GameStation doesn't go down the pan as well, but, they probably will.

 

[Craorach]

People often don't seem to realise the knock on effects of this, it will cost many more jobs than just the people within the company.

From the employees lost, will come a loss of income of all the places they need to cut their spending in order to live on their new, much lower, income.

From the company closing its doors, will come a loss of business for all the companies that supported them... warehouses and distributors.

This will even have a knock on effect for game companies.. sure, the hardcore gamer will still find his games online via download services or online stores, but the casual "oh, that looks fun" market will dry up immediately. Going into a gaming store is likely to be the trigger to create many future gamers. That is now lost.

Even completely unrelated to gaming.. there is a value in property to be lost by areas where closed stores are located. Businesses surrounding them WILL see a loss of trade.

A single company never goes under alone.

 

[lostlevel]

Here's one GAME that got a worse ending than Mass Effect.

That would explain why they weren't allowed to stock it. Maybe buying out Gamestation for £74 million wasn't such a good idea after all...

I will miss the staff, I feel sorry for them as with the exception of the manager of my local game(definitely a sales woman not a gamer) who would frequently attempt to con people that didn't know any better.

My local Game used to let you return games if simply you thought the game was terrible and Gamestation used to be great with often ridiculously cheap pre-owned games but the way that they operated in more recent years won't be missed.

However sentiment aside we all have Amazon accounts right?

 

[Grey Day for Elcia]

This is a sad day for the UK high street. Oh well, at least I managed to grab everything I could before it went down.

Yeah, a shop with a terrible business model, archaic returns policy, and ludicrous pricing went bankrupt.

Oohh tragic days.

I know I won't be missing them.

The fate of the thousands of employees is the tragic part. Don't forget that in your rush to shrug off a bankruptcy.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

We will see more of this in the future as games begin to transfer to digital only. This is why it's a bad idea. A lot of people will lose jobs. It's bad for the economy.

 

[mental_looney]

As someone currently facing the prospect of redundancy I feel bad for the employees, it's a horrible time to lose your job with little chance of a decent redundancy package.

 

[Burnhardt]

Whatever happens, hopefully at some time down the line, some Game shops will reappear on the high street. It would really be a downer if there wasn't a dedicated gaming chain on the high street.

While I certainly hope that a dedicated gaming chain fills the void I hope that GAME's practises of dedicating 3/4's of its floor and shelf space to pre-owned stuff, forcing publishers to pull games from digital distributors, and getting rid of surplus shovelware stock through console deals are now permanently consigned to hell.

The only people I feel sorry for in all this are the employees who have lost their jobs or whose jobs are on the line.

 

[Ilikemilkshake]

snip

Charity shops are shops that are set up by a registered charity. They sell donated items and the money raised goes towards that charity. They usually sell old clothes, books and random clutter. I'm not saying you can't find some good stuff there but i've never seen games being sold (that would require people donating games rather than trading them in which i doubt happens often)

OT: While i think some of Games business practices were kinda stupid, it's a shame to see thousands of jobs go. Now pretty much the only local place for me to get games is Asda and apart from some preowned stuff they rarely stock outside of the top 10 charts although maybe that'll change now.