Game over?

Looks like we missed the cull in Derby which means there will still be 1 each of Game and Gamestation (not that I have been in either of them for some time).
 
Both of mine are closing (Gamestation already shut its doors yesterday but GAME weren't expecting to be closed as well). I went again on Saturday but neither had anything I wanted. In fact, every GAME I can think of for miles was also on the list. I guess the people of Derby are better high street shoppers than the folks in my area!

R
 
Leeds has lost its Gamestation, and the smaller Game that was only 2 minutes' walk from the main store on the Headrow.

Sad to see both stores go in Preston, glad I finished uni last year, as there'll only be CEX and HMV selling games there now.
 
I've seen lists online about which GAME stores have closed and Cambridge doesn't seem to be on any of their lists, which is surprising considering that GAME and Gamestation are like, a 5 minute walk from each other.

Back in the old days there were 3 GAME stores in town; one closed down aaaaaaaaggges ago and another closed last year.
 
We lost one of the two Games within 5-10 mins walk of each other here. Ironically the CEX, Gamestation and Game literally several doors down from each other are still all open.
 
I had a silly nightmare (don't ask) shortly after GAME first got into difficulties, and in part of it all of the shops on my local high street were closing down and turning into different branches of GAME. It sounds as though some high streets were like that already for a few of you!

R
 
Interesting thing is, the GameStation in Edinburgh closed down ages ago. I guess that was when things started going wrong. No idea why that thought didn't occur to me until it started becoming a problem as major as this.
 
*sigh* I remember the good ol days when we actually had a few half decent game shops around. I used to have a proper local little game store/internet cafe that had a small choice of games, but they mostly proper niche ones and they had some random imported games too, and guys that worked there we're OK. Then they got bought out by some other chain and all the new staff seemed to have trouble speaking and all looked like zombies, the choice of games was dire. Then they went under and all we had was GAME....now we have nothing at all. As someone who only recently took to internet shopping, I am saddened by the downward spiral the UK games market has taken.
 
vashdaman said:
As someone who only recently took to internet shopping, I am saddened by the downward spiral the high street games market has taken.
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Fixed. Supermarket and internet games market is as good as ever.
 
Mutsumi said:
Supermarket games market is as good as ever.
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Thought they rarely drop the prices or do any special offers like GAME used to.

I still see this as a great loss for the high street gamer, though i can't feel too sorry for the company itself as with most greedy fat cats who fail to realise change - they get what they deserve.

If they spent less time and money opening second and third silly little branches even though a main branch was already open in a town centre it just goes to show how their business plan never took into consideration a change in the market to this degree, if your running a company hundreds of stores across the UK strong i wouldn't be so foolish to presume that competing at the same standard against internet shopping was ever going to win.

I'll be popping into my town centre maybe tomorrow or saturday and see whats up, hopefully they sell alot of their stock off at cheaper prices (Limited edition statues and the like will be on my list of things to buy as their value will only go up over time) otherwise if they are both closed i'll be abit gutted :/

Surely they will have to sell all the stock either if they are bought out or continue down administration?

http://www.technicallyfunny.net/2012/03 ... -game.html

Sums up things rather well actually.
 
Stores have closed in Wrexham, Chester, Ellesmere Port, Llandudno and Rhyl with only a small handful left open in a couple of these areas areas and nearby.

I was in Gamestation Chester on Monday morning and I must have been amongst the last few to have been in there, heard that they had to close straight away and where in a middle of a transaction which unfortunately they couldn't sell!
 
Supermarket prices are generally crap compared to online. Like Game with far fewer titles - Fine if you want to pay near full whack for this months big thing but little use for anything else, especially PC games.

That article Tachi linked brings up a good point about game visibility to kids / parents in a world "after Game". For most of us older gamers, hitting up review sites (or magazines if you're old school) and buying online is what we're used to now, but the impulse / gift market is very different. Something will have to emerge to cater to that crowd or the games industry would be in line to take a serious hit in the UK.

I wish the two-thousand who've joined the dole queue luck; may they find jobs which aren't too soul-destroying (which seem a rare thing indeed these days).
 
Mutsumi said:
vashdaman said:
As someone who only recently took to internet shopping, I am saddened by the downward spiral the high street games market has taken.
Click to expand...

Fixed. Supermarket and internet games market is as good as ever.
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Yeah, but as Ayase pointed out, it certainly doesn't bode well for the UK market on the whole. The supermarkets usually have such a terrible selection of games, so anyone who doesn't use the net would have such incredibly limited choice. The US and especially Japan still manage to stock a significantly more diverse range of games at retail than we do, so clearly something has gone terribly wrong over here for our games market.

I think my favourite GAME memory is when I walked in, and discovered a massive argument was taking place between woman who was accusing a staff member of having grabbed her bottom, and the accused staff member who was breathlessly vocalising his disdain at the fact the woman had brought her very muscley boyfriend (who was just staring at the scene in complete disbelief, as were the rest of us) back to the shop with her. The best moment, though, was when the staff member threw his arm high in the air while making a cup/claw shape with his hand, and claimed that " Just because you see me doing this with my hand, it doesn't mean I'm trying to grab your arse yeah, I just got things to do, init".

Classic!
 
GAME disappearing hasn't been much of a surprise for me at all this year. It's more which stores have actually disappeared. It made more sense when i had a think about it though, cutting back on the bigger stores to keep the smaller ones in. Less rent i guess, means less expenses. But even then, some of the stores they still have in tact have nearly no customers in there at all. Ah well.

As for when we'll actually see a take over, i guess we have to play the waiting game now. OpCapita put in a new bid and it looks like Gamestop are after the overseas stores more than ours.


Oh, last thing the closure page on MCV has been updated with all the stores still open for GAME and Gamestation, so it might be worth reading over again: http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/store-cl ... ion/093365
 
http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/games/89459 ... im-sources

The RBS bid for what remains of GAME and Gamestation's business could be finalised as early as tomorrow, as administrators provide a full list of currently open stores.

UK retailer GAME could be out of administration by tomorrow according to the latest industry rumours, with the bid led by former lender RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland) looking the most likely to be accepted.

GAME officially went into administration on Monday, at which point 277 GAME and Gamestation stores were immediately closed and around 2,000 people made redundant. There's now seems no way those stores can be saved, but the future of the remaining 333 is looking a lot brighter than earlier in the week.

According to 'multiple sources' speaking to website MCV the deal by RBS is very close to being accepted by administrators, rather than alternative offers from US chain GameStop and Comet owners OpCapita.

Nothing official has been announced yet though and even if the rumours are true the deal could still fall through. RBS were a former lender to GAME and their refusal to grant more favourable credit insurance precipitated the company's downfall.

That in itself isn't controversial, given GAME's shaky financial ground at the time, but insiders have suggested that RBS blocked a bid of OpCapita that would've saved all of GAME's workforce. If that's ever proven true then the political fallout could be considerable.

The assumption now is that if RBS's deal goes through it will look to reorganise and rebrand GAME and Gamestation with fewer stores around the country. Publishers are already calling for the chain to diversify and model itself more on Apple stores than the old second-hand obsessed model.
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As we own part of RBS does this mean we will part own Game/Gamestation?
 
News at 1pm: Bailed out unprofitable failure of a company bails out unprofitable failure of a company.

And hang on a sec, am I reading this right? RBS were chosen to tender for offers for Game... rejected one bid and instead chose themselves? Slight conflict of interest there, no?
 
ayase said:
News at 1pm: Bailed out unprofitable failure of a company bails out unprofitable failure of a company.

And hang on a sec, am I reading this right? RBS were chosen to tender for offers for Game... rejected one bid and instead chose themselves? Slight conflict of interest there, no?
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RBS probably blocked the other deal if it meant them losing most of the money they lent the Game Group. I know Game being in administation means they will lose some of it but they will probably push for the deal which gets them the most back (one of the banks did a similar thing when Derby County were taken over a few years back - they blocked one bid as they would have lost out on most of the money owed to them).
 
I knew GameStation in Wallasey was still open, I walked past it today. I haven't been into Liverpool or Birkenhead since last week though so it seems the Birkenhead GAME store is closed but GameStation is still open and both Liverpool GAME stores are closed but both Liverpool GameStations are still open.

So I still have 4 open GS's local to me along with 3 Grainger Games.
 
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