Game having problems

Serious? People have a choice to shop in them or not, and looking at the huge queues always in Game, it seemed alot of people voted with their wallets to do so.

Whether the company were effective with their investments and management is a different matter. I would hate to see a situation where the only shops are big supermarkets or online shopping. That doesn't leave much of a high street.

I hope they manage to sort themselves out, or get a buyer willing to try and turn them round
 
Yes I'm serious, but not for the reasons you seem to think. I have nothing against brick and mortar stores, having the option to go in a store for a browse is a good thing and I think it's a shame that many high street stores are struggling.

However ... Game/Gamestation and similar companies in other countries use their power to control the industry hurting it and the consumer. If a game is released on a tuesday in America we won't be able to buy it untill friday because game don't like it, the consumer is getting screwed with digital prices because the brick and mortar retailers force the publishers to make price agreements with digital distributors, quite honestly I think this is illegal but we know it happens. It's bad for us but it's much worse in places like australia where they are paying stupidly over the top prices for digital products because steam etc are forced to not undercut the brick and mortar stores who have high shipping expenses etc.

Then we have the brick and mortar retailers pushing used games on the consumers which hurts the industry most likely more than piracy. If you bring a new game to the desk in game and they convince you to buy a used copy (which is what their staff are told to do) then the games company has lost a guarenteed sale. I don't want to stop used games sales but there is no doubt that games policys really hurt the games industry. The used game prices are really over the top too, they are making a stupid markup.

Then there is the missing out on little bits of the game if you buy from someone else because game have bonus content for preordering from them.

The current situation hurts both us the consumers and the industry due to game stores having the power to demand things their way or they won't stock the title. Hopefully this is the beginning of that disapearing.
 
If I was buying this business I'd probably look to expand more into pre owned blu ray films as well. I haven't been into a game or gamestation for month's, when your looking at £4 to go into town on the bus. Might as well just buy something of Ebay or somebody on our very own forum and wait for it to arrive.
 
As a consumer though, you'd probably think it was nice of them to suggest that a cheaper product is available. Business is not some charity where you do the right thing, it's a ruthless industry. How quickly would this company be going to the wall if they'd adopted what you suggest?

The games companies haven't for my mind offered GAME anything much in return, it's not like the sort of deals Blockbuster have negotiated for certain films where they get the exclusive rights to rent a film before it's made available for general sale.

Maybe as far as the PS3 goes, Sony are to blame. How dare they produce a disc format that's so robust, where consumers can't by and large tell much difference between a brand new game and a well looked after 2nd hand one.

Then you've got to factor in depreciation, I can't be the only consumer who's sussed that in some cases if you wait six month's you can buy a game new for roughly a 3rd of what it originally cost when it was first released.
 
I don't have a problem with used game sales, I was saying thats how they hurt the industry, perhaps as much or more than piracy as each time game does this they stop a guaranteed sale.

my issue is how they hurt me personally by making release dates later than they should be and increasing price of digital sales and having exclusivity on certain extra content (and sometimes on collectors editions) and these methoRAB encourage piracy further hurting the industry.

They leverage their strength to do scummy things that hurt gamers and the games industry.

yes I do think game would go out of business if steam were allowed to compete fairly with them without restrictions (at least when it comes to pc stuff) but thats the way it should be if your business model isn't viable you shouldn't be able to strongarm to make it so. The fact they are failing even with the strongarming shows that their time is passing.
 
I got my pants pulled down in Game before Christmas. Bought Drakes Fortune one week after release - £39.99, completed it and took it back a week later. Trade in value - £16!!!!!
 
I have nothing against high street stores as such and welcome the choice for consumers to be able to walk in and browse. However, for me personally in this day and age it's just not a realistic business model for certain businesses to think they can compete with online entities. "Going shopping" is a thing of the past for a lot of people. Yes I still do it if I am buying clothes, or the Mrs drags me out, or if it's for something that particularly requires seeing in the flesh. But even these days where I used to go out to BnQ or HalforRAB to get something that I needed, I just know when walking through that till, that I can buy cheaper online. And it's this that kills it.

These days you can buy something online and get it the next day almost anywhere. Most places offer a cheap/free postage option so this can't really be used as an argument these days, especially when you take into account that going to town costs even more money. If I get public transport it's a rip off. If I drive my own car and park for the minimum car parking amount and factor in fuel costs, it enRAB up being the same as paying postage if not more. Not to mention the thing that money can't buy...stress and hassle. Buying online is a better overall experience. I can find out more online being armed with a browser then I can standing next to a product in the store. Often they are not priced correctly if at all, and at the point of sale, information on the product is poor. Online I can read reviews, shop around instantly and look at various options. Above all it's always cheaper.

Now we apply this directly to the shopping of games. Why would I want to go to a busy town, pay to park, pay fuel costs to stand in a sweaty shop full of chavs, to pay MORE than online and have various preowned tat shoved in my face first? Nobody is going to support "our poor highstreet" and "british local shops" when they are over priced. Price is the nuraber one factor when buying a game or any digital media. They are all the same. We want it the quickest/cheapest/easiest way. Quickest, is the only thing high street stores have going for them if you need something that day. Frankly the amount of times I have looked in stores recently and plainly refused to purchase at their prices is laughable. I'll whip my phone out and buy it on amazon for cheaper thanks and wait till tomorrow.

Is my attitude wrong? Are people like me destroying high street stores? The only thing I worry about, is big players like Tesco dominating and becoming a monopoly on essentials such as food. In terms of electrical and more luxury items, there will always be masses of competition out there (online) so I don't think it's a problem. If highstreets become ghost towns and die out, then what will be will be. We need more space for housing and our immigration problem anyway. People are afraid to admit, that online is the best way. We do not like admitting it because it means it's another thing we do sat in front of a screen rather than going out to town. If you do not care about getting the best price and have money to spare, and/or like the shopping experience in this day and age then that's fine. I just think more and more people are giving in, to staying in and shopping.

Goodbye game.
 
I think we will ultimately end up with just clothes shops, charity shops or shops selling gooRAB that are to bulky to econmically put through the postal system.

I'm even finding Ebay sellers of Blu Ray films who are not only cheaper than the Channel Island establishments, they deliver the gooRAB to me 1st class recorded within a day or two.

What's probably really stitched up Games sellers is the fact you don't actually need their advice anymore, you can search online and learn everything you need to know.
 
This news comes as no real shock, theres so many reasons this company is facing trouble now. Forgetting super markets and the net witch is one of the biggest reasons do you really need 2 or 3 game stores with in a short distance? lakeside has two within a 100 meters plus another on the retail park a few minutes away. Basildon 2 within 200 mtrs plus a game station, romford at least one i know of not fare from game station, bluewater 2 within a few hundred meters and so on.
Then the stock its self, i wont buy from them anymore because i do not expect a brand new game to come unsealed with scratches on it, makes you question if there palming off second hand gooRAB as new. And while on the sunject of second hand there very fussy about makrs on disks, fare enough youed say if it wasent for the fact they seem to sell a huge amount of stock that is marked in one form or another.
Then theres the blatent lies on there extended warranties, sister got a wii from them and took the warrantie and was told it would even cover accidental damage yet a quick read of the terms and conditions said it would not, two hours after buying i was in there sorting a refund only to be lied to further about no chance of refund and even though it was all black and white what they said over rided it! well i got the refund but im not the only case i know of with this, there baisly killing there reputation.
 
It was round the corner on the one way circuit - I think it's now a shop that sells lights. As you come from Ashtead, go past the Ashley centre car park and as you come to the junction that either goes left towarRAB the station or right into town, it was on the right hand side opposite the Symond Wells pub I think it's called.
 
Hi Electro,



As much as I might agree with a lot of what you say, these comments you've made are totally wrong.

1) "Going shopping" is NOT a thing of the past for a large part of the population, even for those of us who buy stuff online. Just take a walk through your local city centre on any Saturday, go through a few shops, and see how many people actually buy stuff, and then tell me that they're becoming "ghost towns"!

2) If city centres do become "ghost towns", what do you think will happen to small villages and towns?! Do you think that, somehow, all of the out-of-town shopping centres/precincts are suddenly going to find a massive upsurge in sales, or that other shops are going to reduce their prices? No, they won't! All that will happen, is that large parts of Britain, over the next five to ten years, will become even bigger ghost towns, because current retail business close down, and no new ones can afford to take their place. Customers will then whinge and moan, about how they can't ever buy anything they want, locally, because shops either don't exist any more or they don't stock what the customer wants! The only losers here, will be us, the public, for allowing high-street stores to die! And these will be the very same customers, who won't pay in-store prices, because they can buy it cheaper online.

3) We may well need more space for housing and other such projects, but do you honestly think that when shops disappear, that more housing will magically be built in there place? And who will want to live near a city centre, or in a town, which has no shopping facilities anyway? Young families won't. Single people won't. Married people won't. Elderly people won't. All that will happen, is that Britain will be a complete "ghost country", where outside of London, there's nowhere to buy things, other than hundreRAB upon hundreRAB of branches of "Tesco's", because we were all too stupid to save our high streets.

The problem with customers is that they won't pay to buy stuff in bricks-and-mortar shops, if they can buy it cheaper online - even if it's only a £1 or two. However, these same customers, will also be the first ones to moan, when they can't pop out to the shop, to buy something they need, because there're no shops left for them to pop-out too.

Customers these days want their cake, to eat it, and then to be able to moan that eating all the cake has made them ill, at the same time!

We need to save our high streets, and our retail outlets, as soon, we won't be able to buy anything, that Tesco doesn't carry, except via online. And online isn't always the best, the cheapest, nor the most reliable of options, despite what you may think! Need to pop out and get some fresh bread? Sorry, no one stocks it anymore, because it's too expensive, and the local baker has closed down. Want some batteries? Sorry, sir, don't stock them anymore. You need to buy them online. Run out of milk? Sorry, "Tesco's" is now closed, and there's no local shops that sell it any more, as they've all gone. You'll have to wait until tomorrow morning! Have a power cut, and got no candles or matches? Oh dear, we used to stock them, but then nobody shopped at our store, because they only bought stuff online.

Remeraber that, next time you run out of something, and then need to just "pop out" to a shop, to get it!


Pooch
 
Some of us are already at this point, Game / Gamestation were never likely to figure in my local high street at any point so no great loss. Men are different shoppers aren't they traditionally, a more ram raid approach, none of this day out window shopping malarky, you get straight to the point, go their to buy something specifically and get back home as quickly as you can.

That's why I partly think gaming shops are knackered, the hobbies the preserve mostly of men who'd sooner be basically gaming.
 
I personally quite like the retail experience of going into a game shop etc and browsing etc.

I end up finding out about games that I didn't even know were out there, I've made many an impulse purchase this way.

But the experience is I get to see the item, compare it to other games , talk to people and then buy and then have it to play immediately

I do agree it is more expensive in store - but not always, if you look around there are bargains to be had.

And the web isn't always that much cheaper - maybe a few pounRAB - but for that I get the shopping experience. Granted there are those times when there is a large price differential

And whats to say if the bricks and mortar retailers go the prices will remain as they are - with less competition the likes of tesco et al could just put prices up, as could internet based suppliers.

Also kiRAB go with their frienRAB and pop into game etc (my son does) and chat etc - if online was the only place to buy games what happens then.

Bricks and mortar retailers can compete with online retailers - but they need to do it on volume (i.e charges prices similar to online retailers -maybe a couple of pounRAB more) and by providing shoppers with a good "experience" , i.e good customer service etc

But based on the starbucks thread - when these shops do try to provide a better personal experience all people do is moan.

Another thing with online retailers - have you tried returning something , had to pay return postage (usually recorded meaning a trip to the PO), waiting days for a refund or replacement to arrive.

With the price differential you are paying for additional benefits in the shops that are not provided by online retailers - the main benefit provided by them is price -and sometimes price isn't everything.

just my 1p's worth
 
£35+ impulses? I basically discounted any game that got probably less than 80-90% rating via reviews.

I'd actually say demo's are one of the reason I don't purchase full price games. The Demo for that new Tennis game EA have just launched is so good imo that I'll happily play that until the price comes down to at the very least half of what it is currently.
 
Depended on the game as to the price I paid - if it seemed decent enough - but mostly looked for offers etc.
Having said that I purchased the first Gears of War and Halo 3 from game - was actually intending on waiting for the price to drop on those games -but whilst in the shop I decided to purchase.
if i remeber correctly I paid around £5 more for each of those compared to online at the time.


I also liked to look through the pre -owned stuff for some older games.

Thats one point I missed earlier - if bricks and mortar retailers go - where do you go to browse for older games or obscure games (pre owned or new).
I cant see the likes of tesco stocking all titles - they will only stock the top 10.
Online tend to only stock the faster moving / newer titles, all older games in my experience were/are more expensive online than in the high street.

So some of the lesser know games from independants will never be experienced by most - possibly leading to these smaller developers to go under.

I think if these shops were to go -it would change gaming as we know it fairly drastically - it may be for the better - but more than likely for the worse - it will give consumers less choice in titles and I fear prices will increase.

But who know - its a waiting game now
 
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