They departed some time ago.Originally Posted by Yodhrin
By they way, I don't know when the first Steam sale was, but I do know that the share price first started plummeting (general 2008 crash aside) not that long after I got GTA 4 for something silly like £2.49 or a fiver through a Steam sale. There's no way Game can compete against that. I'm sure that's why the PC sections in their stores aren't as big as they once were.
Where's the kaboom?
As a former employee, let me assure you that Steam had bog-all to do with it. GAME have been shrinking their PC section for years now, and the reason is simple; preowned. Why sell a PC game with a margin of a couple of percent when you can sell a preowned console game and put on an 80% markup? So went the thinking of "the management". Then there was the change of "mission statement" every few ******* weeks; one moment we're supposed to be appealing to core-gamers, next they're emailing round the stores instructing everyone to get ready for the new ad campaign that will bring in Wii-loving mums, a few weeks later they're back to catering to core gamers; it was schizophrenic. Their "record profit" period was built on the backs of all the regular staff members who were given ludicrous and punishing targets which they had to hit or risk losing their jobs. They went through a period of losing both core-gamer customers AND staff to Gamestation, so they bought Gamestation out and proceeded to apply their life-sucking top-down management system there as well. Over the last few years, they were telling managers that stores should avoid hiring people who play videogames. No, you read that right; apparently actual gamers were more likely to recommend(and even, horror of horrors, dissuade) based on personal experience rather than the company line, so their solution was to try and stop hiring people who actually understood the product. Not basement-dwelling neckbeards that would pontificate to customers about the inherent superiority of FF7 over FF[whatever number it's up to now], but anyone with more than a casual passing interest in gaming.
No, the only thing that brought down GAME was the moronic policies of the people running GAME, with their constant stance-shifting, soul-sucking micromanagement. Good riddance, hopefully lots of smaller chains and local stores will spring up in their wake if they do go under properly, as happened to an extent when Threshers went down the pan.
I'm not a fan of Game. More of a fan of EB games or JB-HiFi. Their shop layout to me is weird, don't know why, and it's just never had the appeal of the other video game retailers.
Reason not to hate Mat Ward #62: Mat Ward used the well designed spine of the Grey Knights Codex to 'Ward' off chavs who were harassing a group of nuns]
If by EB you mean Electronics Boutique, Game took them over in the UK years ago and the name disappeared from the high street.
As ever WINTERMUTE speaks the truthRIP Jon Wilson/Brimstone. 1967-2009.
If you can please donate to The Jon Wilson Gift of Hope Heart Fund in aid of the British Heart Foundation
Lee Guthrie/Eldanar RIP
Investors warned it's almost game over.
Shares down 65% today.
Where's the kaboom?
Long live Gamestation!
I heard that Gamestop wanted to buy Gamestation when that became available but GAME got ahead of them and bought it despite Gamestop being at the 11th hour of getting the deal done. Now it looks like Gamestop buying the company is the only route remaining. Karma is a bitch huh?
Last edited by superdupermatt; 15-03-2012 at 21:37.
What a result for Gamestop, they can now pretty much pick what assets they want at a bargan price
OpCapita have offered to buy out GAME's lenders. Might not be over for them just yet.
http://www.dofonline.co.uk/content/view/6106/152/
Where's the kaboom?
Apparently Walmart have expressed an interest as well.
On the subject of Gamestop, I've read they may be interested in the European assets of Game but not the UK ones.
As ever WINTERMUTE speaks the truthRIP Jon Wilson/Brimstone. 1967-2009.
If you can please donate to The Jon Wilson Gift of Hope Heart Fund in aid of the British Heart Foundation
Lee Guthrie/Eldanar RIP
Where's the kaboom?
With a pitifully small selection of games and high prices its not had to see why Game is on its knees.
Is your gaming club in Gosport or Portsmouth looking for an experienced new member with an interest in historicals but willing to play pretty much anything? If so drop me a PM.
Xenonauts the real successor to X-COM.
Death Guard Plog
Given the additional overheads, I can forgive higher high street prices. From memory, their online prices weren't that bad. But the poor selection, given they're a specialist games retailer, is pretty incredible.
Where's the kaboom?
Oh well, good riddance to this sort of behaviour!
Where's the kaboom?
Game went into administration this morning and during the day announced the immediate closure of over 270 stores. More details plus a list of the affected stores (not exhaustive I suspect) can be found here.
As ever WINTERMUTE speaks the truthRIP Jon Wilson/Brimstone. 1967-2009.
If you can please donate to The Jon Wilson Gift of Hope Heart Fund in aid of the British Heart Foundation
Lee Guthrie/Eldanar RIP
Closing with immediate effect? damn that sucks, I was hoping for a mass sell-off of stock
Remnants: A log whereupon a veteran attempts to piece an army together from scraps and trades
Danger! May contain Oingo Boingo
Not all shops have closed, but they aren't doing a firesale (yet).
Where's the kaboom?
Presumably any stock from the closed stores will go to the nearest open one, so that if the company can be rescued, the stock is there, and if not, they're not paying additional wages to keep the stores open just to sell stock off for what they can get for it.
From my point of view, virtually all the stores near me have gone, so I've got very little chance to go grave-robbing.
Good luck to all Game's staff though - being made redundant is no fun.
Now just imagine how it felt to be forced to redo 50-70% of shelves in the store in that manner every single week on one day, and then remember that GAME required their staff to do so after hours and without pay(this was not explicitly stated, but was rigorously enforced in all the regions I passed through).Oh well, good riddance to this sort of behaviour!
It's a shame they're going to limp on with the aid of the administrators, even with 270 stores closing, that's not going to make a big enough dent in their "coverage" of the country to allow new indie retailers to take up the slack(some towns have five GAMEs in them, I ran into some setups where there were two in the city centre alone, less than a mile apart; loons). Better they die out entirely; it sucks for the workforce in the short term, but it would be better for the UK retail scene.
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