Game closing stores NOW.

Tediore said:
As for the Steam issue, I'm sure I read somewhere that Gabe Newell said if Valve ever had problems (I don't see that happening any time soon, though...) all the games would be made available, so you wouldn't lose anything already purchased. There are other digital distribution platforms besides Steam, though. Use those. GamersGate is pretty good. Let's not forget Amazon and the like. Steam isn't suddenly going to swallow up all the competition because Game is gone. The very thought is laughable. Game's been failing horribly for years. The place was a ghost town every time I walked past.
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Especially on the PC front :)

I think PC gaming is becoming larger at the moment due to the aging consoles not getting their limelight with "Next Generation" hardware. I think this lets developers play around more with the concept of PC games or at least decent ports, which also then preps them up for the next generation of console development.

I don't think Steam is going to eat up much of Game's missing sales as probably 80% of PC gamers who purchase stuff from Game don't tend to use Steam much at all.
 
maxilive said:
Especially on the PC front :)

I think PC gaming is becoming larger at the moment due to the aging consoles not getting their limelight with "Next Generation" hardware. I think this lets developers play around more with the concept of PC games or at least decent ports, which also then preps them up for the next generation of console development.

I don't think Steam is going to eat up much of Game's missing sales as probably 80% of PC gamers who purchase stuff from Game don't tend to use Steam much at all.
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Pretty much this. TotalBiscuit made a good point about this in his mail box recently. Consoles are long overdue an upgrade, and PCs are coming down into the price range of what a next gen console is likely to be, only with more flexibility in terms of use and control options, cheaper games, better modding options both physically and in games, upgradeability, etc., so more and more people are jumping over to the PC, whether that be for the first time, or whether they have had a PC in the past and not bothered to upgrade it because of the cost, and are probably more unlikely to go back to a console after playing their games on a PC, which I'd be very happy to see, because it would mean us PC owners would have more buying power, which would hopefully make developers sit up and take a bit more notice to the platform, and encourage more of them to either develop games with the PC in mind, or at least give us a port worthy of our chosen platform.

Despite the economy being all doom and gloom, I think a lot of people are ready for a next gen console. You only have to look at the success of the iPhone 4S to see that a poor economy isn't a good enough excuse. If your product is good enough, people will buy it. The next Xbox would sell faster than they could produce the things if they released one now.

thenewoc said:
Would love to know what the criteria is for the ones they are keeping, whether they have done any analysis of rents, sales turnover, profitability, seems a bit sporadic to choose so many in such a short time.
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I'd wager they've been keeping an eye on all their stores for some time now, but put off doing anything about it until crunch time. I suppose if they're closing or consolidating stores, and their share prices are plummeting, they will have much less power to bully publishers and/or distributors into exclusive bonuses or rights to sell the game, and we all know how Game love to do that... :D
 
I would imagine the list is based simply on profitability. Hence the inclusion of some of what you'd expect to be high profile stores in a list otherwise full of the more random ones.
 
Some stores will be easier to ditch than others due to lease duration as well.

Sorry to see Game go even though I didnt buy much from them.

I would have liked to see much more emphasis on demo pods, might have attracted more people to the stores to "try and buy" games. I understand they have space constraints though.
 
There is one Game and one Gamestation about 50 yards apart in the high street, both still open. Just doesn't seem to make sense, shut one, move some of the staff to the one staying open as they are so close, no reason why they wouldn't pick up the slack at all.
 
In meadowhall sheffield they had 3 Game stores and a Game Station

they have kept the gamestation and one game, and closed 2 of the game stores.

They obviously think theres place in the highstreet for both a gamestation and a game store.
 
Malevolence said:
I tried to go into the Newcastle-under-Lyme Gamestation today only to find it shut. One of the staff said something about a burst pipe, but I didn't believe that as he sounded really shady when he said it.
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That was true. I was in there this afternoon and part of the floor was taped off with mops etc about
 
In Bristol, I have two Game shops within a 10 minute walk from my flat.
They're keeping the one in the old galleries open, but closing the one in the much nicer Cabot Circus. I'm guessing it's to do with rent prices.
 
Popped into the Stratford on Avon store today (Maybird is still open) they don't know what is going to happen, but they were a bit depressed about the situation. Nice guys in there as well.
Nothing really going cheap, but I did pick up a Logitech DFGT wheel for under £80.
 
Such a shame for the people who work there, I went into my local store the other day and got chatting to one or two of the staff who said that they'd been waiting next to the phone for the last few days for a call to see if their store was going to close. Looks like they were one of the unlucky stores.
 
Just aswell I used my £10 worth of gamepoints. I feel for the people who lost jobs but rarely did I use GAME. I either use Amazon or Play.com because it's cheaper.
 
[TW]Fox;21562214 said:
If Origin is down, you can't play
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That's not the case for quite a few games I've bought through Origin, e.g. Mass Effect 2, NFS Shift 2 etc seem to load fine without it.

Don't get me wrong, I have concerns over how ownership/access to digitally acquired games will work in the long term too, but in my experience Origin isn't some sort of blanket DRM system yet.

Approaching the situation from an environmental/efficiency perspective, it makes sense that there is a shift towards digital publishing because media and games lend themselves extremely well because the actual good itself is the same whatever mechanism it is delivered via (consistent quality), unlike say online grocery or clothes shopping where there is more of a difference in product quality so some people may wish to examine products before purchase.

Given the choice I take retail games over digital games, but the manufacturing, packaging, distribution, shelf space etc processes represent an inefficiency that will be driven out eventually.
 
CaptainRAVE said:
Sounds like an insurance thing to me :cool:
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:D

"In other news: Game store up in flames! Lighter found nearby with employee's fingerprints on! Coincidentally, stock had been completely removed the previous day and the store's insurance coverage was less than a week from expiring.."
 
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