Game

[JJ McClure]

They've obvioulsy been brought down by a number of factors that have already been mentioned on this thread. Too many stores, internet competition (despite having its own online presence) and loss leading by the supermarkets.
I'd still expect the adminsitrator to find a buyer, but most likely with only half the 600 stores being kept open. Some of the more prestige stores were still doing very good business.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Haywards Heath and Burgess Hill still open so the company must still be keeping head above water, just.

Ah, right. Cheers. Must be a London Road thing.

 

[Jello]

If you have any indoor credit, use it now!

Does anyone know if gift cards etc are still honoured? Seems to be the norm with other retailers going into admin, think I've got £20 from xmas to spend

 

[mune ni kamome]

Felt very uncomfortable standing around hopefully while the staff completely ignored me. Won't miss them at all. Bye Bye then

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

They've closed one of the three (yes, 3) stores (including Gamestation) in Crawley.

 

[brakespear]

Please bring back shops like Gamer in Brighton. Does anyone remember this shop in the 80's?
I remember seeing the commodore Amiga and Atari ST on display. They where the must have computers and seeing the Amiga Balls demo was amazing. Loved the Amiga.

Pretty sure I bought my ST at Gamer

Not so surpised by the news about Game - always found them overpriced, buy most of my games (PC) via Steam or other digital download services because you can get some pretty good deals.

 

[JBizzleBeard]

Won't miss it one bit. Overpriced to say the least!

 

[halbpro]

Although online was an issue for Game, it wasn't what drove them to this point. From what I understand (based on the opinion of a few financial analysts) their main issues were over expansion in the UK and their international arm. If they'd culled back their international to just Spain (which is a profitable territory for them apparently) they could have survived. However, by not flogging or closing down the operations in the rest of Europe they dragged the rest of the country down with them.

They'd actually started to combat the stuff in the UK, looking at what stores to close etc... They had a full plan laid out to scale back over the next few years, done at a pace that tried to minimise job losses.

Ultimately the supermarkets may have caused them some trouble in the long run, but I think they could have gotten around it. Whilst supermarkets have the price advantage, they just don't have the stock levels or range.

Hopefully someone will come in. It looks like RBS are set to cherry pick assets, but a take over by OpCapita or GameStop isn't impossible. It's worth noting that GameStop seemed more interested in the Spanish branch than the UK though.

 

[deletebeepbeepbeep]

Apparently a call has gone out to most if not all stores to close up shop with all staff to be made redundant in 2 days.

I feel sorry for the shop staff, quite a few more young people at the job centre tomorrow.

 

[Uncle Spielberg]

2 of my favourite shops, Past Times and Hawkin's Bazaar both gone bust with an empty shop in Eastbourne yesterday. The High Streets in 5 years time will just be

1. Coffee shops
2. Bookies
3. Pound shops
4. Charity shops

That's pretty much Newhaven High Street now and Eastbourne is fast going that way.

 

[HawkTheSeagull]

List of shops closing in the next few days have been listed - Birmingham has had 2 Gamestations shut and Bournemouth has lost 1 of each. Nothing in Sussex though.

 

[Colossal Squid]

They're not honouring gift cards or loyalty card points.

I'm pretty pissed at this because the writing has been on the wall for a while and I've got about £20 of points on my Reward card so I went in the shop to use them up before they went tits up and realised I'd lost my card. Luckily I had ID and an old pre-order receipt with my card details on (the pre-order had to be refunded as they couldn't fulfil it) so assumed this would do the job. But alas no. No card, no points spending. So I hurriedly requested a new one but of course nothing has turned up and now the points are valueless.

I agree they weren't the cheapest around but they were the ONLY place on the high street to go for games. Because I have problems with deliveries at my address I don't often use the internet for shopping, and the supermarkets tend to only sell in the big out of town superstores where their range is strictly limited. Furthermore, as has already been mentioned, nowhere else bar cash converters and CEX will offer you trade in deals which really took the sting out of game prices.

I agree they had taken on too much too quickly and there are far too many stores they don't need. The three shops they own in Brighton are all within five minutes walk of each other (Game Churchill Square, Game Western Road and Gamestation Western Road) so it should have been obvious they didn't need to be competing with themselves. Particularly when they dont have any other high street competition. Why waste the money on three expensive premises selling exactly the same stock in the same part of town when just the one store could enjoy all of the business?

I know HMV still sell games but they don't generally have the range or stock that Game stores did and it's not very likely they'll be around themselves much longer.

I'm really rather sad at this. Seems strange that the sole high street retailer for the multi billion pound game industry has managed to f*** it up whilst the rest of the industry is thriving. Losing Zavvi was inevitable once the internet made obtaining films and music over the internet (either paid or otherwise) instant and simple. But with the exception of PC gaming, the games industry hasn't been subject to the same switch in media. It's still near impossible to pirate console games and the sheer volume of data means a straight paid download would take a seriously long time on even the fastest broadband connections, not to mention taking up huge chunks of the limited space available on current generation machines.

I'm hopeful somebody steps in to take over, leaving a one store presence in places like Brighton and Crawley, because I don't really see who would take up the slack if they disappeared forever. The chance of my Reward card points ever being honoured seems incredibly unlikely however. What a waste

 

[hans kraay fan club]

They're not honouring gift cards

Is this true?

My 11 year old has £40 on gift cards.

 

[Colossal Squid]

Is this true?

My 11 year old has £40 on gift cards.

I'm afraid so

GAME suspends use of Reward Cards and gift cards, cancels refunds and exchanges Eurogamer.net

 

[Colossal Squid]

You can't even get refunds or exchanges. Surely it's illegal for them to refuse to refund a genuinely faulty product however?

 

[Basil Fawlty]

I knew the writing was on the cards for Game, when they cancelled their Midnight opening for the Playstation Vista. They made such a big deal out of it, but cancelled it last minute.

 

[hans kraay fan club]

I'm afraid so

GAME suspends use of Reward Cards and gift cards, cancels refunds and exchanges Eurogamer.net

Absolute cu.nts.

 

[HawkTheSeagull]

Gamestation in Brighton has now gone.

EDIT - Add Hastings to that as well

 

[beorhthelm]

Not being able to sell the new Fifa and Mass Effect 3 etc etc was the final nail in the coffin.

They grew too agressively by buying out every gaming shop in every town centre in the UK ending up with 3 + Games and a Gamestation (owned by the same company) in every town centre (often only 5 minuts or less walk from eachother). Coupled with a growing move towards digital distribution and online shopping it was only a matter of time.

this. though i think its harsh to knock them for wanting to sell add-ons, game guides etc as that is the purpose of their business. really their problem was they didnt do this enough, or rather didnt specialise more giving advise, test machines and becoming a social hub for gamers.

and not managing the buyout of Gamestation, apparently in some towns there were three game shops. thats just bonkers. they also shouldnt have picked the fiht with EA, who at the end of the day dont need them. with the games market in general drying up, as the Xbox 360 and PS3 nearing the end of their cycle, it was poor timing.

hopfully what will come out of this will be old Gamer style shops, independents on major high streets sell games/guides with a coffee/soft drink lounge with consoles to try games. thats what you have to offer when online and Tesco can undercut you by 20%.

 

[thedeadone]

Gamestation in Brighton has now gone.

EDIT - Add Hastings to that as well

Just been up to gamestation in haywards heath very little new stuff in there and loads of empty gaps on the shelf.Only one member of staff working i think they will be gone by the weekend.