Some mega deals to be had on second hand games right now, spent all my store credit yesterday.

Still when there gone it will make trading games in a bit of a mare, leaves only Blockbuster within a 40 mile radius where I live.

See yer.

I have £60 of discount to use.

Any suggestions?

Me and my bro were talking about this only other day. Told him not to worry as they will simply close down shop and re-open the following week under a different name.............. Properly something like 'GAME-OVER!' lmao

Ha! GAME is getting its just deserves! Buying out Electronic Boutique, Gamestation and ruining the brand name by changing its priorities. I hope they fold like origami! Treating customers like idiots-thats what you get! Dont let the door hit you on your way to liquidation.

imagine how shitty it is to be an employee there this week, knowing regardless of how good of an employee you are or what you do there you most likey dont have a job there by weeks end! Man they should blow out all inventory for pennies on the dollar. Wish i was in the UK when that went down!

good riddance. I do however feel it for the employees that are going to become jobless. As for GAME, Gameplay & Gamestation are all part of the same parent company

I think one reason its happening is because GAME refused to bow down on used game sales.... now they are in trouble and companies like EA and capcom are turning the screws......

Be prepared next gen to see price hikes, and a seriously reduced used game trade!

I for one will enjoy any bargains I pick up, but I still realise that GAME going under isn't a good thing for gamers!

bye bye retail

I picked up Castlevania lords of shadow for £3 and Metroid Prime 3 for £2 in the sales, which was good but GAME were just too damn expensive in general. Theres no reason to shop there when you can buy online for much less

The Game? Wait just one minute...could this be...? Oh my it could be...

It's weird, in one way I'm over the moon that this store of cretins (generalisation: some staff are genuinely knowledgeable and care about customer service, but I've only encountered a seldom few) is on the ropes. Penance for years of high prices, misinformation and banking on the ignorance of parents. But on the other, it really is a sad time for retail and big blow for an already crippled job market, at least in the UK. Uncertain times ahead for sure.

I was originally going to save all of this for a blog but here goes,

Whats happening at game and what does it mean for us gamers?

First let me explain a few things,
The retail video games industry is one of the toughest on the market with one of the lowest profitable mark ups on new stock, Thus the exceptionally "vigorous" pre owned push.

A few things about buying relevant:

Obviously people think Shop buys stock then sells it, But its a little different and more complicated.

Sale or return : You hold the goods and pay for them as you sell them, Any unsold goods are able to be returned to the distributor.

Dating: You order £xxx of stock then get an invoice date usually 30 days after, If paid within X amount of days you usually get a higher discount on the purchase.

Ok so that's kind of all you need to know about what goes on behind the scenes so i guess ill start explaining whats happened whats gone wrong and where.

Game is a company owned by share holders, unforgivably any profit made over the years has been handed back to them not kept in the company to secure any future.

With the recent fall out with EA and other major developers GAME is struggling to get stock as you may already know, However those companies could in theory do a leap of faith, SONY is currently doing it anyone who recently bought any vita product from there will see a sticker on the back saying "Product of SONY etc" its near the bar-code, This is because all SONY stock in game at current is on sale or return.

What happened with EA ?
Game could of still got ME3 in stock but they made the decision not to, EA and GAME used to have very good terms GAME holds about 70% of englands Video game market thats ALOT. But if GAME would of chosen to get ME3 in stock they would have lost money on every copy sold ( Not even broken even) as EA wanted to change there buying arrangement originally decided months ago when they set the price for the N7 edition, Would you as a business owner do that?.

Oh noez there games are so pricey!

The most profit game has ever made on a single full SRP Title is £5 after VAT, The video games market in a retail sense is bloody pathetic, There is no money in it what so ever. The reason game charge full SRP is because if they are selling a game at £39.99 that probably cost them around £32.99 + 20% Vat thats just under £2 profit. This is the reason alone you barely see any indie stores anymore. There is 0 mark up in Hardware and MS/ PSN Points again no money retailers take a small commission on units sold.

Oh there preowned is far to expensive.

In some senses yes, But does any other retailer offer the exact same warranty as new ? So what you can buy it £10 cheaper on ebay, You pay for service and reassurance that nothing will go wrong with it. I traded in my Saints Row 3 for £35 about a week after purchase they were selling it at £37,99 How is that a rip off? There pre owned prices are also down to there UK stock level VS demand of a game.
If they have in one branch alone 100 copies of a game think of there national levels, Why would they offer you an arm and a leg for the product? You just wouldn't its business one of my local branch's rent and rates come to 150k a year alone, + Staffing costs.

I am told they had a negative effect on the industry, particularly developers, so I guess this is a good thing.

I popped into GAME today on the way to work and there really was a sense of impending doom in there. Like all the staff watches you walk in and they suddenly stiffen up, watch you with sunken, hollow eyes and try and act nonchalant but really they wanna run over begging you to buy something.

If you live in the UK definately get in there though, the 'spring cleaning sale' has some fantastic offers on, so get it while they're cheap and desperate.

guess i need to buy some games since they start to lower the price i hope anyway. i knew this would happen.

I was in my local GAME last weekend and found the hardback Killzone3 Collector's Edition Guide, marked up for just 1.99p. I had to ask the guy if that was the correct price before I bought it! lol

Maybe in UK, but let's not forget that GAME is spread all over Europe, and they have no problems with stocking games at all.

I think the "imminent" collapse of GAME is just a sign of things in the UK today as many towns and cities are "dieing" due to the Government and the piss poor handling of this country at the moment.

So many places are going to Administration and going under due to the econimic climate and GAME is just being added to that... although talk of Gamestop wanting to buy them might well be more viable and perhaps bring GAMES ridiculous pricing down as well.

Game give people £5 for traded in game then try to resell the same game for £20-25 pure greed now they are reaping what they sow feel sorry for the employees but not the company

Tell me again how the multiplatform strategy was supposed to fix everything. Look at your results and compare them to Nintendo, which keeps thriving with exclusives. Your loyal fans are gone. And let’s not forget the pile of IPs you purchased only to let them rot.

The worst thing is this is down from last years numbers/expectations which was down from the previous years numbers/expectations. You think about how long “down” has been a consistent part of the communication and you realize those subscriptions are what’s holding that boat together. The price cut of gamespass is still a price raise in a string of price raises. They are trying to use players to offset the missing revenue. Now call of duty is out of gamespass, which is literally WHY they bought the company. To draw people to the subscription. They realized they missed a boatload of money and that wasn’t sustainable. Now you pay for it like you would have if they never bought the company… so why buy the company? Mind you those billions still need to be paid back. Yeah it gives you a chance to say we make the biggest FPS… but the internal conversations must be brutal at high level on topics that really matter. Like revenue. Profitability. And ROI for the shopping spree.

Is this like the 10th quarter in a row they're down 33% on hardware how is that even mathematically possible. You would think their mediocrity would Plateau