GAME - Gamestation, about to fold?

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topshot said:
Without the likes of gamestation on the high street the supermarkets wouldnt be that cheap either. I dont think they are cheap now anyway, not like when they used to sell new releases for £29.

I dont mind gamestation as the staff generally are chatty about games usually have better preowned games. Game however the staff hang around together, usually have no clue what they are on about and charge a fortune for games. Some of the preowned prices are a joke too.
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Well, Tesco seem to be pretty good with pricing - roughly £5 below the price in Game, most of the time. I find the likes of Sainsburys and Morrisons are high/on par though.

I still think there will be price wars though - you'll always have the likes of Amazon and Play to compete with.

As for staff - well, again as others have said, I often know what I want and why - so have no need of talking to them other than "just this please", "no I don't want a rewards card thank you", "no thanks, I only want to buy this game" etc.... and besides, we have access to the internet and player reviews/release schedules - I cannot see (other than a bit of a chat) what staff offer.
 
I never set foot in the shops because I'd lose an organ paying for games in there.

I bought a lot from GAME online until they recently ramped up their prices. I still get the odd thing as the guaranteed release date delivery is good and their loyalty scheme is relatively generous.

It won't help that their website went down for about 2 weeks recently - I nearly gave up on them and I bet quite a lot of people did.

My prediction is that the shops will close, Game will surive maybe or get bought out by Amazon. In the USA I understand almost everyone buys everything from Steam now...
 
I am sick of the pre owned stuff, Game never use to sell 2nd hand games, in town we had one stall on the market that sold 2nd hand games and one independent shop, both went years ago, every body is doing it now you can trade in games at Asda and Argos.

They had MW3 for £45 pre owned, WTF

I went in GAME yesterday and the XBox 360 section was a joke they had small section for new games, top 10 chart and a few new games, then a massive section of preowned games, the pricing of preowned games is very strange, I sometimes pick up older games that I have not played but I want them for £5 or less not £15, why I use ebay.

CEX is about best for 2nd hand games.
 
I only buy from them online. Both the GAME shops near me are bad for new games :(. New releases at the front, a small chart section and if you're lucky and small section of slightly older games. Then a massive section of pre-owned games.

No point me even checking any more. As if it's a new game it'll be overpriced and if it's slightly older, they won't have it and will just try to sell me used.
 
Noel Gallagher said:
CEX are cowboys disguised as emos.

"We'll have to knock a quid off to get this resurfaced."

Yet every single pre-owned game I've bought has never been "resurfaced" its always scratched to hell with finger marks on.
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yep! lol I remember the good ol' days when CEX used to do import, Pokemon blue US import £40? go on then lol!

just reading the telegraphs news on GAME and there describing yesterdays share price fall as a 'collapse' and say that some analysts are questioning the long term future of their business :eek:
 
Noel Gallagher said:
CEX are cowboys disguised as emos.

"We'll have to knock a quid off to get this resurfaced."

Yet every single pre-owned game I've bought has never been "resurfaced" its always scratched to hell with finger marks on.
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I've shopped in CEX for years and have never had any money knocked off the countless games I've traded over the years. They've only ever refused to take one game off me, for a disc defect I didn't even spot myself (but was very noticeable after they pointed it out).
 
I think they need to adapt a new business strategy considering the tactics employed by supermarkets. It wont be long till another giant retailer/company comes along and swallows Game up if they carry on, guess this will be a better outcome for customers.
 
Share price :eek: i made some nice change being a share holder but bailed out 10 years ago :D
Talk of a Take over could double your money it's never been that low only for the Brave
 
the shadow said:
Share price :eek: i made some nice change being a share holder but bailed out 10 years ago :D
Talk of a Take over could double your money it's never been that low only for the Brave
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Madness right? - I was offered an amount of shares for a discounted rate when I used to work for them and I was seriously considering investing, really glad I didn't now lol!

on that note high time I used all my credit from the loyalty cards just in case!
 
The web sales annoy me as well, its more expensive to buy download than have them send out a copy :confused: and instore wont match online prices, its their own website ffs :mad:
 
Instore prices can be high IF they have the customer service to back it up: which most game stores dont as its all about the upsell now.

I look forward to the day they fold, exceptionally bad top end management have destroyed the company. Their buy in of gamestation was stupid and im not surprised shares are falling.

they will fall and blame everybody but themselves
 
Emlyn_Dewar said:
Game cant really complain if they go under. Their prices are shocking.
Make way for another store if you dont want to compete Game. I wont miss you.
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There is no other highstreet store though, if Game and Gamestation goes that leaves HMV on the highstreet and CEX if you are lucky.

The independents are just as expensive, well round here they are.

So that leaves the supermarkets, which in-store tend to be as expensive as Game and Gamestation most of the time and for older titles more expensive.

This leaves online only which is great apart from the fact you can't do trade-ins.

I suspect Game / Gamestation is failing due to their whole infrastructure being built around Trade-Ins which in reality is one giant pyramid scheme where cash rarely changes hands just game credits. This will not help cashflow. That and the lack of profit on hardware and high rent prices and overheads of retail units.
 
Hopefully GameStop or someone that understands the market knows what they are doing will buy them up.

GAME's main issues are that they rely too much on ripping people off with trade ins, both on what they offer, and what they sell for. That plus they aim at the parents market and prey on those not 'in the know' so that they can sell warranties, disc 'cover' and all the unnecessary additional crap.

Gamestation is their 'hardcore' brand aimed more at traditional gamers, but it's painfully cliched and aimed at 15 year old boys. The worst thing they did to the Gamestation brand was to get rid of all the retro, used to love seeing Virtual Boys, Atari stuff etc in the window.

They need to make themselves relevant to the modern gamer and not rip people off left right and centre and the business will return in droves. Let's face it, we all have fond memories of buying games in shops like electronics boutique and old skool indies, but years of management with no passion for the core business has turned it into a self defeating joke.
 
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