Huge Closures for GAME
- Thread starter Logan Westbrook
- Start date
Huh, and here I was thinking that GAME is just the UK branch of Game Stop.
Considering there are TWO of the ruddy things (plus a Game Station and two Game-selling HMV's, one of which has a Gamer Base headquarters in it...) in my town, it wouldn't really be a disaster if one or even both of them shut down.
Considering there are TWO of the ruddy things (plus a Game Station and two Game-selling HMV's, one of which has a Gamer Base headquarters in it...) in my town, it wouldn't really be a disaster if one or even both of them shut down.
It makes sense to me. Norwich has three or four, and a Gamestation, so it makes no sense to have them all open, when people tend to only shop in one or two. It's very rare that you'll find a game you want in one, but not any of the others, so it just makes for a longer time browsing the second hand bins, which means it would be easier if there was only one or two at most, with all the second hand stock in one place.
You have game retailers that aren't game or gamestation? that's all we have in harrogate, and it's on the far side of irritating, I must say. We used to have a place called Warp Nine back when I had a PSone, but that's gone. So yeah, there's not much choice. They both suck, game a bit moreso.Baron Khaine said:
I don't know if any of the other towns nearby have anything else.
EDIT: Oh, and we have a PC world. We don't go there.
Well, if it's anything like it is over in the states the stores have a massive over-saturation.
In the local mall there's literally an Electronics Boutique on the first floor, and if you get on the escalator right in front of it, go upstairs and Bam! there's a Gamestop staring right at you. Get out of the mall, hop on the max and go downtown (its about 10 minutes) go to the other major mall and there's.... well shit its been a while but last I checked they too had 2 gaming stores. Plus there's all the department stores that inevitably sell games too.
In the local mall there's literally an Electronics Boutique on the first floor, and if you get on the escalator right in front of it, go upstairs and Bam! there's a Gamestop staring right at you. Get out of the mall, hop on the max and go downtown (its about 10 minutes) go to the other major mall and there's.... well shit its been a while but last I checked they too had 2 gaming stores. Plus there's all the department stores that inevitably sell games too.
Read it carefully, the actual statements seem to be talking around any real NEED for the colusures.Xzi said:
It's a very common practice for businesses to lay off employees and close stores in an area with a lot of stores in one area to increase profits. Less rent/leases, less employee salaries, and perhaps one or two of the remaining stores in an area getting a size boost or whatever to deal with the increased traffic.
The thing is that simply firing a bunch of people to increase profits does not go over well, it generates bad press. Not to mention that in some countries/states it can be outright illegal, or open the company up to being attacked civilly. Thus, companies that want to downsize will talk about how much money they are losing, as a way of justifying the layoffs. It can be very difficult to tell (legally) what a company's finances look like, especially if they resist the process. This is how things like "Enron" managed to snowball into such a bit deal.
One typical way of argueing that your losing money is based on "projected profits". According to some schools of thought company's only succeed if they are growing at a fast rate and expanding. If a company makes money, but it doesn't meet the predictions, this can be argued as "losing money" especially if the company claims it borrowed money from other businesses for products based on projected profits they never received. This is a round about way companies can argue "well sure, we said we made a hundred million dollars in profit here, but we're crying poverty over here because we expected to make a hundred and fifty million dollars according to our projections so we wound up losing fifty million dollars and will be laying off enough people and closing things down to make up that differance". It generally blows chips, and is one of the big reasons why companies go to such lengths to get politicians (including state and local ones) into their pockets (to ease their deceptions, hamper investigations, and other things).
GAME is a major chain in their neck of the woods, and like any big business their motivations are going to be similar.
Right now you'll notice that in general people are talking about the game industry as a growth industry that is worth billions each year. Unlike a truely sick industry that is losing money, people are willing to throw fortunes into game development (like what we saw with Modern Warfare 2). At the same time you have companies, retail chains, etc... all claiming that they are losing money (if they are to be believed everyone involving is losing money, which makes no sense given no shortage of producers, and other reports) and laying off employees, closing stores, or whatever else. It's industry wide.... basically the same BS affecting any other big business with layoff drama, corperate deceptions, etc... is present in the game industry.
Please note that this doesn't mean that the game companies are right about the used game sales and such. It simply means that everyone involved is being less than up front like any other business. The game companies/producers/developers really do believe they could make more money if it wasn't for the used game market, and that retailers are cutting into their piece of the pie. Of course this is largely based on the flawed assumption that us consumers are not spending all we could on games, and would be rushing out to buy more games new, and for full price, if used games were not availible.
So basically my initial guess (being a paranoid cynic) based on what knowlege I have of business in general, is that "Game" is involved in optimizing themselves to increase profits at the expense of employees and stores, they aren't losing any money the way things are now, but they aren't making as much money as they could be through reorganization. Their claims of losing money being the smokescreen.
As pessimistic as it is, I wouldn't be surprised if you'll find that GAME consulted with some kind of business efficiency experts or something fairly recently. People make fun of them/talk about them in movies and such for a reason, they have effectively been heralds of massive layoffs and workplace changes for a looong time. All of the laws put into place to protect employees (not to mention unions in certain businesses) have simply resulted in businesses finding other ways to justify doing the things they want to.
Makes me wonder before this happened how many people working for GAME had to sign or re sign a new copy of an "at will" employee agreement sometime in the last six months before this went down as another way of trying to cover bases.
Up until recently, Cardiff had three GAMES and a Gamestation, each within 5 minutes of walking. Not to mention a huge Zavvi, a HMV... Utterly pointless. I don't blame them for downsizing, really.
Not that I particularly care; Amazon is nearly always cheaper.
Not that I particularly care; Amazon is nearly always cheaper.
It makes sense. Ever since they took over EB they have had multiple stores in some towns. In Hatfield and Stevenage they have stores within 100 metres of each other. Hell, in stevenage you can see one from the other!
If you're a regular customer and a store is closing near you, you may get a letter.
I got one telling me that the Game in my town (Hamilton) is closing down, however they said the nearest one I could go to is the one at the Glasgow Fort. I don't drive so that's actually a pain to get to. What I'm concerned about is that they picked that over the Game in East Kilbride, which is 3 miles closer and a lot easier to reach. I'm thinking they may be closing down that one too.
Still it was getting a bit silly. For a city centre of what is essentially 3 streets, and 2 small indoor shopping areas, we had a Game, a Gamestation and 2 independent VG stores, however one of them went bust recently.
Oh well, these things happen I guess. Gamestation will still be there, and there's always the internet.
I got one telling me that the Game in my town (Hamilton) is closing down, however they said the nearest one I could go to is the one at the Glasgow Fort. I don't drive so that's actually a pain to get to. What I'm concerned about is that they picked that over the Game in East Kilbride, which is 3 miles closer and a lot easier to reach. I'm thinking they may be closing down that one too.
Still it was getting a bit silly. For a city centre of what is essentially 3 streets, and 2 small indoor shopping areas, we had a Game, a Gamestation and 2 independent VG stores, however one of them went bust recently.
Oh well, these things happen I guess. Gamestation will still be there, and there's always the internet.
Wow didn't expect some many Reading folk here on the Escapist! Yeah the Oracle one is pretty good, the one on broadsteet is a bit smaller and not as well managed. To be honest I usually get my games at HMV anyway as I'm normally buying DVD's at the same time.ultimateownage said:
I have no less than 5 GAME stores all within easy reach.
It does seem like overkill, they have one on the highstreet here in the city centre of Sheffield in a brilliant prime location, then up the road they have a smaller (but better shockingly) branch hidden away in Debenams department store.
Strange, they could do with a little pruning, still sad though, I love game stores.
It does seem like overkill, they have one on the highstreet here in the city centre of Sheffield in a brilliant prime location, then up the road they have a smaller (but better shockingly) branch hidden away in Debenams department store.
Strange, they could do with a little pruning, still sad though, I love game stores.
I've lived in Leeds all of my life, and I don't remember seeing an EB games shop.Trivun said:Absolutely no ideaBaron Khaine said:. I only came to Leeds about two years ago for university, I'm from near Birmingham originally and I've never seen an EB Games store anywhere in the UK. Unless EB were bought out before I came North, it's always been four GAME stores...
Trivun, I can only think of 3 GAME stores in Leeds, on the Headrow, Albion Street and Crown Point; unless you included the one that used to be on Brigate that was part of Borders and got closed down?
That might be it. I remember seeing four GAME stores at some point, so the fourth one probably was the one in Borders. Such a shame they went under, I really liked that storeCoffeeOfDoom said:I've lived in Leeds all of my life, and I don't remember seeing an EB games shop.Trivun said:Absolutely no ideaBaron Khaine said:
Trivun, I can only think of 3 GAME stores in Leeds, on the Headrow, Albion Street and Crown Point; unless you included the one that used to be on Brigate that was part of Borders and got closed down?
.Also, if you don't mind me asking, you don't happen to read Questionable Content, do you?
I only have one GAME in my town, if they close that it won't be too much of a problem since HMV stocks pretty much the exact same games for the exact same prices; that said, HMV's PC section is embarrassing. If they close any GAME store close to me, it should be one of the ones at Meadowhall; seriously, they have 2 stores just opposite from each other and they stock exactly the same stuff, what's the point?
From what I read elsewhere, all the Debenhams concessions will be closed.
In Bristol City Centre, there's a Gamestation, Game in the Galleries and one in Cabot Circus. I reckon the Gamestation might close as that doesn't seem to have many customers, where as the other stores usually have more than a few people in them at any time. Then again Gamestation does sell retro stuff so who knows....apart from the people who actually do.
In Bristol City Centre, there's a Gamestation, Game in the Galleries and one in Cabot Circus. I reckon the Gamestation might close as that doesn't seem to have many customers, where as the other stores usually have more than a few people in them at any time. Then again Gamestation does sell retro stuff so who knows....apart from the people who actually do.