Game & Gamestation: GAME credit woes

[Daragon]

I'm talking about sustomers refusing to buy things from a shop with that brand. That's damaging. You can't expect the public to understand that they've been taken over and are being run by a totally new organisation. That would kill the brand. But...

If the brand "Game" gets taken over by, for example, Richard Branson, then EA and Nintendo will very quickly forget the past and happily deal with Game once more.

New owners won't necessarily save them. What was the reason GAME ended up in this mess to begin with? Will new owners promise customers and publishers that such mistakes won't be made a second time? Can they?

[Brad]

To suppliers new owners means a fresh start. They won't tarnish the new owners with the same brush and they clearly don't feel that same way about all high street stores otherwise HMV would have no stock either. I thought this was all pretty simple really. If the public don't like you then a change of company name can be enough to start again but that won't wash with your suppliers; they'll know you're the same old problem you were in the past. Upset your suppliers and they'll want to see real changes before they deal with you again but as long as the public are unaware of your shady shenanigans then you can keep your company name no problem. Hence my stance that the 'Game' name is not severely damaged.

[elaniel]

I know many of my comments in the past may have slated GAME, but I don't want to see all the people that work there losing their jobs, maybe the people that deservedly do (Like the people who made poor decisions about the company), but I used to work for both them and Gamestation and I really enjoyed it all those years ago.

The staff in my local Gamestation were usually always friendly and helpful and I could tell the manager today who served me knew exactly what i was doing getting rid of my credit, and he said he couldn't blame me. I've relied on Game and Gamestation many times thanks to trade-ins for new titles when I was tight for cash, so I appreciate them for being there.

I hope whatever happens, something works out, whether it's Gamestop (which I still think would be a good thing - even though it will probably come with cuts). I also don't think anyone mentioned that if Game Group goes, we may see the midget-cracksmoking-condom giving Grainger Games opening a lot more stores, and who thinks that's a good idea?

[Daragon]

To suppliers new owners means a fresh start. They won't tarnish the new owners with the same brush and they clearly don't feel that same way about all high street stores otherwise HMV would have no stock either. I thought this was all pretty simple really. If the public don't like you then a change of company name can be enough to start again but that won't wash with your suppliers; they'll know you're the same old problem you were in the past. Upset your suppliers and they'll want to see real changes before they deal with you again but as long as the public are unaware of your shady shenanigans then you can keep your company name no problem. Hence my stance that the 'Game' name is not severely damaged.

Except the general public probably will be aware of GAME's shenanigans sooner rather than later. A simple facelift might help make a person who looks ugly as sin beautiful, but sadly it doesn't quite work like that with high street stores.

At this point, without seeing DRASTIC changes in the coming months then the most they could probably hope for is an online presence.

[EvilBoris]

It's not just GAME that need an overhaul, the entire games retail industry is stuffed because they haven't kept their margins in line with the increased cost of games. GAME are just more reliant one it as it's all they sell, unlike ASDA or HMV (who are dying for other reasons).

I've been offered ?5 on my points card as compensation for my preorder , which was free (and that I only placed because I was asked , but was going to buy from HMV instead).
So they've actually just lost another ?5 as I will use it to buy a 400 MSP points card.

[Psyduck]

Anyone know if gamestation is also in trouble? I've got a fair amount of store credit saved up there...

[ItsThere]

Anyone know if gamestation is also in trouble? I've got a fair amount of store credit saved up there...

Same parent company. So yes.

[Daragon]

Thought Tesco were in trouble not asda?

I thought Asda were the leading Supermarket.

[sj33]

Asda used to be second behind Tesco, they're now third. But they're still hardly in danger. The store I work at takes ?2 million a week in pure profit.

[booth83]

Well whoever runs gamestop can't be any less competent than some of the people running game group, they've been making mistakes that cost money for years and now it's all coming to a head. them buying us out seems like the only chance myself and many others have of staying in gainful employment. from what i've read of internal emails and speaking to my regional manager, the decision to not stock any of ea titles was our call, and not because of the recent credit insurance issues with the banks, so basically we spat the dummy out because ea wouldn't give us the stock at the price we asked, in my view even if we only made ?1 off each game (hell even zero just to get it in, maintain market share) that's an infinitely better choice than what we have now, our reputation (for what it was worth) is now pretty much irreparably damaged, incidentally we've had a similar falling out with ea before years ago when we actually had more than tuppence to rub together, we ended up not winning that argument either iirc.

the conspiracy theorist in me thinks this was all engineered to destroy our value as a company and get gamestop to swoop in for the buyout, maybe there'd be more buying power and confidence from the banks with them in charge!

[EvilBoris]

Thought Tesco were in trouble not asda?

I thought Asda were the leading Supermarket.

HMV are dying (not asda)

poor use of bracketing.

[kryss]

I hope thing work out for you Teddymeow! Being left jobless is not fun, as I'm sure many of us can contest to.

The general public are incredibly dense and GAME would still be GAME to them if someone else bought it out and stopped the multiple-shop nonsense.

[gambit6613]

The interesting thing i have noticed, i was checking ebay the other day to see how much people were selling the N7 editions. There were loads all asking for at least a minimum ?200 buyout. How i laughed to myself this afternoon seeing most replaced with new listings for ?90 or so. This is one good thing to come out of this. On anther note i pre-ordered at lunch time with Shopto.net for the Xbox, so pleased i did as now they have sold out

[teddymeow]

I hope thing work out for you Teddymeow! Being left jobless is not fun, as I'm sure many of us can contest to.

Cheers Kryss. The only thing I keep reminding myself is that 10 years with them would mean pretty decent redundancy.

I love my job, pride myself on giving the best I can but its a shame that doesn't seem to be enough these days.

[ETC]

Cheers Kryss. The only thing I keep reminding myself is that 10 years with them would mean pretty decent redundancy.

I love my job, pride myself on giving the best I can but its a shame that doesn't seem to be enough these days.

I think you will be fine teddy good retailers are always after someone that is enthusiastic and it's pretty obvious you are good at your job and like it so I'm sure you will be rehired in a crack with a hefty payoff if the worst happens, no less scary a prospect like being redundant I have been there myself last year (Nhs) but at least a nice payoff gives you a bit more time to think and evaluate what you want to do