Game & Gamestation: GAME credit woes

[Neon Ignition]

With supermarkets it's less about the on the spot losses though, they only do it with a small number of major releases. They make a sizeable loss selling COD for ?26 but the marketing raised from having their name mentioned by millions of gamers hunting for the cheapest copy is worth tons to them. That aggressive approach to marketing is one of the options places like GAME etc don't have and even though there's not always much in the price differences there's now many who will associate Sainsbury's etc as being cheaper than GAME etc even if they're not for half the releases. As long as the net company profit is good, supermarkets are pretty happy to lose on individual products if it presents enough overall benefit.

[nakamura]

Do you actually know they sell at a loss? I know it is a different generation but when I worked for an indie, we used to buy PS2 games in at ?27-30 for a ?40 title. Yes I know RRP is higher but they have never retailed that that much.

[FelixofMars]

Exactly we are talking a number of big releases, a majority of their games are anywhere between ?44.99-34.99 which admittedly often still undercut GAME. The thing is GAME has an actual release library which isn't much better than most supermarkets its only the fact they do carry stock a bit longer but its still preowned games that make up most of the shops stock.

With supermarkets it's less about the on the spot losses though, they only do it with a small number of major releases. They make a sizeable loss selling COD for ?26 but the marketing raised from having their name mentioned by millions of gamers hunting for the cheapest copy is worth tons to them. That aggressive approach to marketing is one of the options places like GAME etc don't have and even though there's not always much in the price differences there's now many who will associate Sainsbury's etc as being cheaper than GAME etc even if they're not for half the releases. As long as the net company profit is good, supermarkets are pretty happy to lose on individual products if it presents enough overall benefit.

[Skull Commander]

46 staff to be paid off at head office:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-02-07-game-confirms-layoffs-at-head-office

[djtickle]

46 staff to be paid off at head office:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...at-head-office

Sad to ever see that people are being laid off, but lets hope its the "right" people and this is the kick up the ass they need.

[FelixofMars]

Yeah, lets hope for the rest of the company this means a shake up and a review of how they conduct game sales. At the end of the day most of us would purchase from them if the prices where ?5 or so lower, less emphasise on pushing preowned and less forced sales.

[Corranga]

At the end of the day most of us would purchase from them if the prices where ?5 or so lower, less emphasise on pushing preowned and less forced sales.

Not a hope of that though..

For me, the GAME group have almost single handedly destroyed the UK High Street games retailers (well, at least more so than the supermarkets).
They've either bought the indies up, or drove them out of business.
They've removed retro sections from gamestation, and from what I gather destroyed a LOT of retro stuff rather than sell it on for cheap.
Now, what are we left with?

A bunch of stores with some over-priced new games, very poor back-catalogues (ok, better than supermarkets, but small all the same) and 85% pre-owned games that I don't want to buy.

The real shame here is all the shop staff that have an interest in games and provide the public with good service and great advice (possibly some of them amongst us now).

I used to love popping into Game(well station more) and even just have a browse. Now when I go in, I feel depressed, look for where they've hidden the new games this time, and almost always walk out empty handed.

Let's not kid ourselves here, Game want our money just as much as Tesco do.

Personally I'm glad of places like shopto that seem to care about us getting our games soon, and can still have decent prices.

Chris

[EvilBoris]

A bunch of stores with some over-priced new games, very poor back-catalogues (ok, better than supermarkets, but small all the same) and 85% pre-owned games that I don't want to buy.

I know what you mean, I went to buy my 3DS the other day and the selection of games both new and pre-owned was incredibly poor for both DS and 3DS, I went into the indie near by and the difference was like night and day.

Even the big tescos near to us had a better and more varied selection of DS games, which is actually quite embarrasing for GAME group.

[Dogg Thang]

What I never quite get about Game is why sometimes the new releases aren't out on the shelves. I remember many years ago looking for Phantasy Star Online on the day of release. Not on the shelves at all. Nowhere. And yet they had it. Okay so that was a different age back in the DC time but it's happened other times since. The same thing happened on the day RE Revelations was released on the 3DS. I wasn't actually buying it because I had it ordered online but I was getting the circle pad and couldn't help notice there was no sign of RE at all anywhere. Went to buy the pad and the guy pulls out a copy of RE and asks me if I've already got it. Dude, put it on the shelves!

There are times I'll take a wander in shops and not bother asking if you've got stuff.

[BaronSqwelch]

Yeah, lets hope for the rest of the company this means a shake up and a review of how they conduct game sales. At the end of the day most of us would purchase from them if the prices where ?5 or so lower, less emphasise on pushing preowned and less forced sales.

As long as they dont go over the magic (to me) ?39.99 I will always buy from Gamestation rather than a supermarket. Sadly lately GS either dont bother having any stock of the stuff I want (am looking forward to a fruitless attempt at picking Catherine up on Friday) or have the big games in at ?42.99+.

While it may seem strange that I am willing to pay 5-10 quid more at GS than Tesco but that ?2.99 makes me go elsewhere I surely cant be the only person that has that price ceiling?

Arkham City kinda proved it to me (tho it could be my imagination obviously)...they had 2 staff milling around by the entrance unusually, me and a workmate walked in and saw that it was ?42.99 and turned around to go to the Blockbuster 30 secs away. Never even said a word before the 2 guys went straight into how it had EXCLUSIVE Robin levels that Blockbuster wouldnt have.

When I traded in at the GS (for a ?39.99 BF3 ) the barcode didnt work on the steelbook copy and the guy asked the manager what to do...he said to scan a normal copy, "we have had loads of these steel ones coming in, cant believe so many people bother buying stuff up there".

I will add my own "cool story bro...changed my life" to save your typing too

[PaTaito]

As long as they dont go over the magic (to me) ?39.99 I will always buy from Gamestation rather than a supermarket. Sadly lately GS either dont bother having any stock of the stuff I want (am looking forward to a fruitless attempt at picking Catherine up on Friday) or have the big games in at ?42.99+.

While it may seem strange that I am willing to pay 5-10 quid more at GS than Tesco but that ?2.99 makes me go elsewhere I surely cant be the only person that has that price ceiling?

Arkham City kinda proved it to me (tho it could be my imagination obviously)...they had 2 staff milling around by the entrance unusually, me and a workmate walked in and saw that it was ?42.99 and turned around to go to the Blockbuster 30 secs away. Never even said a word before the 2 guys went straight into how it had EXCLUSIVE Robin levels that Blockbuster wouldnt have.

When I traded in at the GS (for a ?39.99 BF3 ) the barcode didnt work on the steelbook copy and the guy asked the manager what to do...he said to scan a normal copy, "we have had loads of these steel ones coming in, cant believe so many people bother buying stuff up there".

I will add my own "cool story bro...changed my life" to save your typing too

I dont know mate, all those fivers add up. I dont personally like throwing money down the chute...especially when you dont get a single hassle buying at supermarkets.

Dont get me wrong if gamestation was like it was in say 2002/3, i would be all for paying an extra couple of quid(not a fiver+ mind) to keep the place going, but in reality, its an absolute shadow of the place it once was.

So if its as lifeless as the supermarkets, then whats the point really.

The 2nd hand side of things is the biggest loss really.

[Stoppy2000]

Plus at Tesco I get to spend my clubcard vouchers which I have acquired through buying necessities ie food. No hassle, cheaper and I'm likely going to buy food anyway. No reason to go in game apart from to laugh at the outrageous pricing.

[kryss]

My most expensive GameCube purchase is still getting Resident Evil for 37.99 from GAME the week after the game launched. I think that was the last GC game I got from them. I did get a sweet deal on the South Park movie back in 2000, when DVDs weren't cheap.

[Ouenben]

As long as they dont go over the magic (to me) ?39.99 I will always buy from Gamestation rather than a supermarket. Sadly lately GS either dont bother having any stock of the stuff I want (am looking forward to a fruitless attempt at picking Catherine up on Friday) or have the big games in at ?42.99+.

While it may seem strange that I am willing to pay 5-10 quid more at GS than Tesco but that ?2.99 makes me go elsewhere I surely cant be the only person that has that price ceiling?

Arkham City kinda proved it to me (tho it could be my imagination obviously)...they had 2 staff milling around by the entrance unusually, me and a workmate walked in and saw that it was ?42.99 and turned around to go to the Blockbuster 30 secs away. Never even said a word before the 2 guys went straight into how it had EXCLUSIVE Robin levels that Blockbuster wouldnt have.

When I traded in at the GS (for a ?39.99 BF3 ) the barcode didnt work on the steelbook copy and the guy asked the manager what to do...he said to scan a normal copy, "we have had loads of these steel ones coming in, cant believe so many people bother buying stuff up there".

I will add my own "cool story bro...changed my life" to save your typing too

The most I'll spend on a new release these days is ?30 unless it's a game I absolutely must have and can't wait but even then usually you can find it for that new online pretty soon. I've stopped getting a lot of games in release week just to wait for them to go down in price as it only takes a few weeks, especially in the holiday rush.

HMV have good trade in prices and their in store stock/range is sometimes pretty good but I find they charge the ?40-?45 mark for far longer than most other stores. It takes ages for games to be reduced there. Which is probably why the trade in prices are higher. I used to use the HMV App to get the same trade price at Gamestation but they've stopped accepting it

[nakamura]

What I never quite get about Game is why sometimes the new releases aren't out on the shelves. I remember many years ago looking for Phantasy Star Online on the day of release. Not on the shelves at all. Nowhere. And yet they had it. Okay so that was a different age back in the DC time but it's happened other times since. The same thing happened on the day RE Revelations was released on the 3DS. I wasn't actually buying it because I had it ordered online but I was getting the circle pad and couldn't help notice there was no sign of RE at all anywhere. Went to buy the pad and the guy pulls out a copy of RE and asks me if I've already got it. Dude, put it on the shelves!

There are times I'll take a wander in shops and not bother asking if you've got stuff.

Exactly the same thing happened in my four local stores. None had Resi priced up and ready to buy on launch day.