Game & Gamestation: GAME credit woes

[Flabio]

This might actually be the boost HMV need to stave off their own problems.

[Stoppy2000]

Goodbye GAME. Can't say I'll miss you.

[koopatroopa90]

Agreed on the HMV front. The offline parent and non gamers needing to buy games will just go to the next shop that sells games on the High Street, and thats HMV.

Problem is, parents and non-gamers aren't the markets game are looking to exploit (even though it probably is the only one they've successfully managed to do so with). If hardcore gamers turn their back on them then they're finished.

To be honest I've no idea what Games business strategy is but I've always assumed it was targetting parents and people that were not-so-clued-up, which doesn't tend to be gamers. This view has been built up on my own experienccs in Game, and I guess explains why they are in trouble as the "we are for gamers" message never hit through to me. Gamestation on the other hand...

[Neon Ignition]

I haven't bothered with Gamestation for ages either. Since the buyout they wear their GAME badges to readily on their sleeves and after the dozenth time of being fed misinformation about games to try and get me to buy I sacked them off. HMV are superior in every way.

[Daragon]

I haven't bothered with Gamestation for ages either. Since the buyout they wear their GAME badges to readily on their sleeves and after the dozenth time of being fed misinformation about games to try and get me to buy I sacked them off. HMV are superior in every way.

Except with pricing maybe.

[Neon Ignition]

The two are usually pretty similar but I find HMV's trade in values and the ease of that system to be much better than GAME's, it's nice not having the heavy sales pitch each time too

[ETC]

Why doesn't a large online retailer snap them up ie amazon would be good unfortunately we will probably get stuck with the even worse than game GameStop buying them up

[Daragon]

I doubt gamestop would buy them up, they're no more popular in the UK than GAME are. Their high street presence has died.

Edit: Going back to Mass Effect 3, I wonder how many units of the CE each new retailer will have? Bioware stated no new stock was being produced before launch

[koopatroopa90]

I haven't bothered with Gamestation for ages either. Since the buyout they wear their GAME badges to readily on their sleeves and after the dozenth time of being fed misinformation about games to try and get me to buy I sacked them off. HMV are superior in every way.

The drum'n'bass-head manager in the Brighton GS has worked there for as long as I can remember and is awesome. Most of the staff in there when I used to go were gamers too. Used to have some brilliant choons playing on the store soundsystem

[MiG]

More amusingly I bet all the people who are re-selling their pre-orders on eBay for ?150 will be panicking as they have had their game pre-order cancelled

[JU!]

As above just seen this on Edge website Game perhaps doomed.

http://www.edge-online.com/news/games-mass-effect-3-memo-full

[rmoxon]

Alot of these shops have employees who know nothing about what they are selling and cant tell you anything about gaming beyond how awesome they think the next modern Warefare game will be online.

Cant say ive ever been impressed by the load of rubbish they usually spout while serving me. I dont think having people who know about games is a priority when hiring for some reason.

[slicer1000]

This will no doubt prove to be the knock out blow. There not on the ropes there now on the mat now with the ref counting

[charlesr]

More amusingly I bet all the people who are re-selling their pre-orders on eBay for ?150 will be panicking as they have had their game pre-order cancelled

LOL. Isn't this a smaller version of the entire banking crisis a while back. People repacking bad debt and selling it on with a shiny cover?

[charlesr]

Alot of these shops have employees who know nothing about what they are selling and cant tell you anything about gaming beyond how awesome they think the next modern Warefare game will be online.

Cant say ive ever been impressed by the load of rubbish they usually spout while serving me. I dont think having people who know about games is a priority when hiring for some reason.

I think that's fair to say about a large proportion of the staff that I've spoken to, although obviously there are many out there that do it for the love and know their stuff. And in a way, this I feel is the root cause of GAME's problems - people go to a shop either for impulse buy / same day buy or to get advice. If they can't get decent advice then half of the raison d'etre is gone, because the other half is catered for by supermarkets and HMV (companies that sell "not just games").

Contrast this situation to what you get when you go into other single-purpose chains, e.g. Topps Tiles - everyone in the store knows their stuff. Honda dealer - everyone knows their stuff. Any independent lighting shop. Phone shops. In fact pretty much anywhere I can think of that sells specific items (not a "general store" setup). GAME are operating under the impression that they can staff the stores with robots/weekend staff instead of gamers.

I'd be interested to hear what sort of training (on the gaming side, not the sales side) employees are given.