GAME not stocking Mass Effect 3
- Thread starter jakko12345
- Start date
For those interested in the survival of GAME as an entity, it's interesting to watch the market performance of it's shares and the interplay between major holders of shares.
First of all, a large chunk of game (more then half in fact) is held by investment funds and hedge funds. The investment funds, who tend to represent people with ISAs, pensions and all the other jazz that anyone can get from high street banks and specialists like Standard Life, are selling up their shares because it's become too risky - they no longer have anything like a guaranteed return. The Hedge funds have been buying these shares up, resulting in a price this afternoon hovering around 5p per share. This likely means that they can see a profit (albeit a far more risky one) by either selling the entire business to another company and wrapping up GAME Media Group (the parent company) or by putting the company into administration and selling the assets individually.
GAME are pretty much gone in their present form as a result of this. Mass Effect is a symptom which isn't being treated correctly (Game should be looking to rapidly dispose of some assets to turn a quick profit while altering their business model to be more competitive.)
I'd also suggest they should be adopting better management practises in their stores as well, although that's more down to poor service I've experienced from managers (although not often the sales staff.
EDIT: Also, yeah, I'm really disappointed I've missed out on the Collector's Edition. Hoping EA offer it to Amazon, since Zavvi, GameStop UK and Play had all sold out of the PC and Xbox versions by the time I got home from work.
First of all, a large chunk of game (more then half in fact) is held by investment funds and hedge funds. The investment funds, who tend to represent people with ISAs, pensions and all the other jazz that anyone can get from high street banks and specialists like Standard Life, are selling up their shares because it's become too risky - they no longer have anything like a guaranteed return. The Hedge funds have been buying these shares up, resulting in a price this afternoon hovering around 5p per share. This likely means that they can see a profit (albeit a far more risky one) by either selling the entire business to another company and wrapping up GAME Media Group (the parent company) or by putting the company into administration and selling the assets individually.
GAME are pretty much gone in their present form as a result of this. Mass Effect is a symptom which isn't being treated correctly (Game should be looking to rapidly dispose of some assets to turn a quick profit while altering their business model to be more competitive.)
I'd also suggest they should be adopting better management practises in their stores as well, although that's more down to poor service I've experienced from managers (although not often the sales staff.
EDIT: Also, yeah, I'm really disappointed I've missed out on the Collector's Edition. Hoping EA offer it to Amazon, since Zavvi, GameStop UK and Play had all sold out of the PC and Xbox versions by the time I got home from work.
I'm personally really affected by this as I was going to buy Mass Effect 3 at GAME after I pre-ordered it with a gift card. Now ofcourse the gift card is useless now they aren't stocking it at all and I have no way to get ME3 since I don't have any cash at the moment to use.
God damn it GAME! -_-
God damn it GAME! -_-
They're always ridiculously overpriced and have terrible customer service.ChromaticWolfen said:
Also they wouldn't sell me a Sims game without ID when I was sixteen. Thanks for making me get my mum's birthday present late, Game, you fucks!
After taking another look at the memo at the bottom of this page, I think EA might be to blame for this. It seems as if they're being completely unreasonable with their credit terms. No surprises, here.SirBryghtside said:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-02-29-revealed-games-memo-to-staff-on-mass-effect-3-cancellation
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9113300/Game-falls-out-with-EA.html
That's 'cause it's against the law. If they don't ask for ID, they could be fined or lose their jobs. Hence the over-caution.hazabaza1 said:
Glad I jumped from working at the sinking ship last month. I feel for the customers here, and they'd better get a full flipping refund after the company introduced this ridiculous policy where if you change your mind on a pre-order, you only get to transfer it to a different one or store credit. I feel for my ex-colleagues, too, who are awesome people, facing this backlash of no doubt angry customers and facing a very real prospect of losing their jobs. It used to be a fantastic job for a brilliant company, I was so proud of working there. But my last four months out of four and a half years were terrible. The company completely changed, started completely not caring about staff, slashed all benefits and working hours and morale was through the absolute floor. It literally started making me ill. And it's such a shame because it never used to be like that.
I can see the company going under, easily. Times are not good for the GAME group. But there are so many affected parties from this EA thing that I can't see them recovering easily. If at all. Gutted for the ME3 customers at any rate.
Oh, and I've always thought EA were dicks, especially about this sort of thing. I don't think they're solely to blame, though, GAME have been in trouble for a few months, this just brings it to a new level of trouble. Not being able to afford what will be the biggest title for a few months is worrying.
Doesn't look like they're being "completely unreasonable". Just not inclined to give GAME a break. It's hardly EA's fault that GAME is in financial trouble.MammothBlade said:
The store guy had no idea yesterday, My local gamestation guys are pretty cut up by it.wooty said:
Just got that email and jumped straight to Amazon and preordered the collectors edition from there, not happy that i've had to fork out an extra fiver to ensure i get it on release day but i'd spend about that on petrol driving to my closest store so i guess it works out the same.
Seriously bad news for GAME though losing so many sales especially when their floundering already, i also doubt that i'm alone in saying i probably won't be preordering anything from them for a while now, so thats even more potential sales lost.
Seriously bad news for GAME though losing so many sales especially when their floundering already, i also doubt that i'm alone in saying i probably won't be preordering anything from them for a while now, so thats even more potential sales lost.
Must've had his refresher training on age-related sales drilled into him when you tried to buy the Sims one. We had an e-mail through a couple of years ago about a guy that got caught selling to underage and he got fired and fined. Some staff are pretty relaxed about it but I was one of the harsh ones, haha. Just because it didn't seem like it was worth the risk. My sister managed to buy GTA IV from Gamestation when she was only 17, too.hazabaza1 said:
Agreed. GAME also is in a bad position because they told all their suppliers their dealings with other suppliers will be open and honest, so even if they wanted to accept slightly worse terms from EA they can't for fear that others will want the same rates.Aris Khandr said:
I don't fault EA for their decision.
Wait... so does this mean that GAME and Gamestation are both going to close down? If so that will suck for me because then the only place stocking games in my town will be HMV, which always marks up the price like £10 even when the game was released a year ago, and never stocks old games. Guess its amazon from now on, then.
Got the email same as everyone else, its really sad for me as I've been using the same store for the past 15 years since it opened (the the EB before it before they left the country). now apart from Indie stores theres only HMV left that sees games near me.
this really doesn't sound like something GAME is going to recover from.
this really doesn't sound like something GAME is going to recover from.
