Game over?

M

mangaman74

Akatsuki
http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/games/89282 ... p-for-sale

Rumours suggest that GAME and Gamestation may have just two weeks to turn themselves around, as the company acknowledges that its share value may soon fall to nothing.

The future is looking increasingly grim for GAME Group, as rumours suggest the company is currently up for sale and that it may only have two weeks left as a going concern.

Over the weekend multiple sources suggested that a two week deadline to pay the rent on GAME and Gamestation's shops could prove the end of the company, if it hasn't sorted out its finances by then.

According to The Sunday Times financial group Rothschild has been hired to find a buyer, with American chain GameStop reportedly already interested in GAME's Spanish subsidiary. Acquiring the main British business though wouldn't be as easy, and would involve a pernickety pre-pack administration procedure that may put off some buyers.

All these problems arose straight after Christmas when GAME's lenders change their terms and the only way GAME could carry on was wangling a cheaper deal from publishers for their stock. Increasingly though they've decided not to help out, with EA, Nintendo, and Capcom in particular refusing to supply big name games such as Mass Effect 3, Mario Party 9, and Street Fighter X Tekken.

As a result GAME's share price has plummeted so far that the company is now worth little more than £15 million. This has forced GAME to issue the following statement, where it admits the share price could potentially fall to zero:

'Further to GAME's announcement of 29th February 2012 and recent press speculation, the Group confirms that it remains in discussions with its suppliers and lenders in relation to terms of trade that allow the business to operate within the facility provided by its banking syndicate, as announced on 3 February 2012, and to meet its revised strategic plan. While these discussions are ongoing, it has not been possible to source new products from a number of suppliers.

The Board of GAME is working actively to resolve these issues as quickly as possible. This includes ongoing discussions with suppliers, seeking access to the original facility or alternative sources of funding, and reviewing the position of all of its assets in the UK and international territories.

It is uncertain whether any of the solutions currently being explored by the Board will be successful or will result in any value being attributed to the shares of the Company.'

Even EA's boss John Riccitiello has weighed in, describing the two week deadline as 'all but a certainty', and according to trade paper MCV he's 'praying for the lenders to get rational and keep them in business'.

Although he was careful not to name GAME by name (the reporter speaking to him used the phrase 'a UK retailer in distress') he added that serious trouble, 'now looks like all but a certainty. It was a risk a month ago. Now it looks like a fact.'
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Looks like it will be game over soon.
 
It will be a shame to lose them on the high street (and it will leave my bustling town with a grand total of zero entertainment stores of any type!) but as I have not successfully purchased a game from GAME or Gamestation in many years, it won't have much impact on my life. My memories of the chain go something like this:

A considerable while back, GAME took preorders from a number of people in my town for a certain World of Warcraft special edition set. I called them the day before release, and they told me they had only one copy in stock. I camped outside the shop in the morning before it opened and managed to grab it, but every other preorder customer went home empty handed. Gamestation had zero copies, despite also taking preorders (I had put my name down on their list too as a backup). To make matters worse, the next day I called a GAME in another nearby town on behalf of a friend and they had extra copies to spare, so I took a trip over and bought a second copy off the shelf for my friend.

Sengoku Basara 3 was released on PS3/Wii over here. Neither game shop had any stock (and never got any since), so I bought it at HMV, who not only had stock but also helpfully advised me the anime was coming out here in a few weeks. I was impressed by the staff taking the time to attempt to get more business out of me.

Gundam Musou 3 was released over here not long ago. Again, neither game shop had any stock (and HMV had closed down). I asked at the counter in GAME in an attempt to show there was demand, and they said that they wouldn't be stocking that, but they would definitely carry it preowned. They didn't even attempt to keep my business by offering to order it in for me. Incidentally, they never did carry it preowned either, because if nobody can buy something then of course they can't resell it.

By the time the last Gran Turismo came out, I just bought it at Asda as I was more confident in them having stock than the dedicated gaming specialist stores.

I'm not exactly a massive purchaser of core titles, but the fact that every single time I have tried to buy any game on the high street I have come away feeling as though the dedicated shops are worthless probably isn't a good pattern. There's never been any attempt to engage me as a customer, or carry titles people ask for, or competently manage preorders. There are no demo stations in stores any more, the staff are not gamers themselves and they don't try to get customers interested in anything new. I don't see the value of the service these high street stores provide, if they're only carrying the most mainstream titles at full price, aimed only at customers who already took the time to research them online.

R
 
I think the last game I purchased from a Game store was the 2nd .Hack game for the PS2 which I had preordered.

The reason why I haven't been buying from the highstreet for a long time is a bad experience at Forbidden Planet (I think it was called Another world at the time). I picked a copy if Ico Limited Edition (PS2 - New ) from their shelves and while it came with the artbox I never got the artcards.

I now only buy online as all highstreet shops tend to take the shrinkwrap off which could lead to a similar experience.
 
What with amazon/play etc losing their tax breaks and the high street dying a death... I have a feeling as a consumer we're gonna be screwed for gettign DVDs/games etc goign forward. You'll neither be able to get them on the day nor at a discount...
 
This is a real shame.

Both stores were on my daily circuit of the town centre every lunchtime when i used to work back in luton. To think of GAME going is a horrible thought but the whole parent company struggling and going bust which will take both gamestation and GAME off the high streets is truly terrible.

Without competition from these two stores most consumers will be stuck to ordering online and limited to stores like HMV, Blockbuster or CEX (Which due to demand will probably mean they can keep their prices higher for longer)

Just look at Waterstones and Borders, both stores are gone and what do we have left to get books from? The over the priced WH Smiths who do not even bother with 3 for 2 or half price sales ¬___¬ That was enough to kill off my Manga collection in one go, now to think that could happen with gaming aswell...


There are no demo stations in stores any more, the staff are not gamers themselves and they don't try to get customers interested in anything new.
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There is a 360 station in my local Gamestation and PS3 in GAME, maybe your store drew the short straw :/

I don't see the value of the service these high street stores provide, if they're only carrying the most mainstream titles at full price, aimed only at customers who already took the time to research them online.
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Hmmm strangely enough i find myself thinking more of HMV than GAME with that quote, most anime never comes down in price even slightly and in the case of not knowing the worth of a game the rule of thumb seems to be "put it to the highest price and leave it there... forever" atleast with GAME they understand what a seller would want and in my local Gamestation the guys constantly ask people if they can help and through talking to them (once for about an hour though we spoke about more than just games) they were very helpful when i was looking for a game for my dad.

Maybe its just the "pot luck" of each store.
 
I've noticed that the staff in GAME and Gamestation suddenly started constantly pouncing on me every time I went in too to ask if I was ok. Unfortunately as soon as I actually ask for help with a preorder or specific title, they have always proved to be wholly useless. Customer service is only meaningful if they can follow through with it. Stores which still retain some staff who like games are probably better off. I've noticed it in all industries these days; people rarely seem to take pride in their work and understand what they are trying to sell any more.

And Waterstone's is still fine, I believe, though I'd be surprised if HMV lasts much longer. They've closed almost every single branch within a huge radius of where I live in the last year. Definitely having major problems.

R
 
Tachi said:
This is a real shame.

Both stores were on my daily circuit of the town centre every lunchtime when i used to work back in luton. To think of GAME going is a horrible thought but the whole parent company struggling and going bust which will take both gamestation and GAME off the high streets is truly terrible.

Without competition from these two stores most consumers will be stuck to ordering online and limited to stores like HMV, Blockbuster or CEX (Which due to demand will probably mean they can keep their prices higher for longer)

Just look at Waterstones and Borders, both stores are gone and what do we have left to get books from? The over the priced WH Smiths who do not even bother with 3 for 2 or half price sales ¬___¬ That was enough to kill off my Manga collection in one go, now to think that could happen with gaming aswell...
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterstone%27s
http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/


When did Waterstones go? I'll have you know there is still one in my nearest city centre (they have moved the manga/sci-fi section from ground floor to 2nd floor which means many steps to climb :( ). The online site is still trading as well (I think I preordered Persona 4: Official Design Works from there).

There is still a HMV store in my nearest city centre Rui. I haven't purchased anything there for a while but my brother buys cds from there several times a month (I get his pure points as he doesn't have a card so I validate his receipts on my account after he has purchased something - I think I should get around to using my points (currently just over 400,000)).
 
The last game I bought from GAME was when I ordered Super Pokémon Rumble from their online store, as it was being sold at £20 shortly after release - then with reward points, I got it down to just over £15.

I used their online store a fair bit (my reward points got me Ocarina of Time 3D for free), but I very rarely shopped in store (only for big releases like the 3DS, or Pokémon, when I wanted them asap).
 
Rui said:
I've noticed that the staff in GAME and Gamestation suddenly started constantly pouncing on me every time I went in too to ask if I was ok. Unfortunately as soon as I actually ask for help with a preorder or specific title, they have always proved to be wholly useless. Customer service is only meaningful if they can follow through with it. Stores which still retain some staff who like games are probably better off. I've noticed it in all industries these days; people rarely seem to take pride in their work and understand what they are trying to sell any more.
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Can't this be said of many places though, believe me i've been working here for 5 years and if i was still doing the same job as i was when i first started i'd be less than motivated to bother doing more than my bare miminum expectations too.

Bringing younger blood into the jobs and getting gamers back into jobs selling games to gamers will always be a nicer thought than the boring guys and girls who have been there for an eternity and lack enthusiasm and probably just work there to pay the bills no longer because they like gaming themselves. Sadly i think it will just remain that; a nice thought.


Rui said:
And Waterstone's is still fine, I believe, though I'd be surprised if HMV lasts much longer. They've closed almost every single branch within a huge radius of where I live in the last year. Definitely having major problems.

R
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mangaman74 said:
When did Waterstones go? I'll have you know there is still one in my nearest city centre (they have moved the manga/sci-fi section from ground floor to 2nd floor which means many steps to climb :( ). The online site is still trading as well (I think I preordered Persona 4: Official Design Works from there).
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Waterstones still lives?! I'll have to look for the nearest store to me now that the huge one in luton closed down to make way for a second spec savers (within 3 stores of each other aswell... who plans these things?!)

Thanks for this both of you :) Maybe now i can carry on collecting manga, may need more space though :lol:
 
I had put a post in the other GAME topic beforehand with how they had suddenly decided to mark down every pre-owned title they have as well as consoles back on thursday. I kinda knew it was going down from there, since i've been following the shares. At last check, the lowest it was at today was under 1p a share. It's stablised at 1.25p is at the moment though.

I actually made a prediction as well, suggesting that we'd see GAME either go into administration or be close to a buyout from Gamestop by Wednesday. Though from what I'm hearing, it's possible they will go into Administration first, then Gamestop will buy them out, so they avoid more liabilities.

On another note. If you where still considering getting a 360 or PS3, now is the best chance. PS3s are as low as £99, 360s as low as £69. So it's a good chance to pick one up if you wanted one.
 
If Gamestop do indeed buy GAME, I'll be buying packets of spaghetti.

But in all seriousness, for the last few years all I ever used GAME for was to check out the pre-owned sections, and even then I could probably find stuff cheaper on Amazon. With the rise of digital distribution for PC gaming and online retailers catering to console players, GAME's customer base has probably been leaning towards parents buying games for their children and people who are just wandered into the shops out of boredom on the off chance they might see a good deal. They can't even compete with supermarkets nowadays. I bet I could find a day 1 release of a big name game cheaper in ASDA than GAME. It's a sad state of affairs but GAME can only blame themselves for not adapting.
 
^ Indeed. People can point their finger at online retailers and supermarkets, but it's GAME's fault for not adapting to the market. If they couldn't lower their prices, they should have tried to bag more in-store exclusives, for example.
 
Joshawott said:
^ Indeed. People can point their finger at online retailers and supermarkets, but it's GAME's fault for not adapting to the market. If they couldn't lower their prices, they should have tried to bag more in-store exclusives, for example.
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They are in this situation precisely because they couldn't even get games in; never mind exclusives. I don't blame companies like EA and Nintendo not trusting GAME with their shoddy credit rating.
 
Supermarkets often sell big titles as loss leaders, and that's something a specialist retailer like GAME can't match. Their new games have been overpriced for a long while, though, resulting in a lot of the more savvy gamers taking their business online.

I haven't shopped in GAME since the days when they used to do their 10-day return thing, which I'm guessing a lot of people abused the hell out of. Still, the thought of there being no specialist game retailer on the high street is somehow unthinkable. Perhaps we'll see a resurgence of the independent store, not only for games but music and video as well, in the coming years... or maybe not.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
Perhaps we'll see a resurgence of the independent store, not only for games but music and video as well, in the coming years... or maybe not.
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I'm hoping to see more of Grainger Games after things have settled down.
 
Mutsumi said:
MaxonTreik said:
fabricatedlunatic said:
Perhaps we'll see a resurgence of the independent store, not only for games but music and video as well, in the coming years... or maybe not.
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I'm hoping to see more of Grainger Games after things have settled down.
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Really?
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So your perception of an organisation rests on a few ******** individuals? Yeah sounds about right for you.
 
fabricatedlunatic said:
Still, the thought of there being no specialist game retailer on the high street is somehow unthinkable. Perhaps we'll see a resurgence of the independent store, not only for games but music and video as well, in the coming years... or maybe not.
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The problem with high street retail for any company, big or small, is still uncompetetive business rates (which I don't see the govt. doing anything about) and the price of town centre retail units to rent vs. out of town commercial lock-ups (and the last few years have shown that private landlords would apparently rather leave retail units sat empty than lower their rents).

If we still want to have a high street in a decade's time these are the things that need to change - high overheads make it nigh on impossible to compete with online shopping. It's not as though the high street doesn't try to compete, it just literally can't compete and still remain profitable.
 
MaxonTreik said:
Mutsumi said:
MaxonTreik said:
fabricatedlunatic said:
Perhaps we'll see a resurgence of the independent store, not only for games but music and video as well, in the coming years... or maybe not.
Click to expand...
I'm hoping to see more of Grainger Games after things have settled down.
Click to expand...

Really?
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So your perception of an organisation rests on a few ******** individuals? Yeah sounds about right for you.
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The few ********s the company itself chose to represent itself. More put off by their pathetic excuse for an apology. Companies make mistakes, it is how you deal with them that matters.
 
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