http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/game-files-for-administration/093137
So after rumblings a few weeks back this has finally happened! I beleive Ea Stopped sending them new titles as well, such as SSX and Mass Effect which must have lost them loads.
Time to start spending those left over gift vouchers etc!
Good luck for anyone who is currently working there.
Replies
How is it surprising? Their prices are ridiculous compared to online/ even supermarkets and they give terrible trade in prices.
Overprice the games, and force you to buy pre-owned ones.
Then give you next to nothing FOR trading games. They were making wayyyy more money on games than developers were for years. They make the lions share of the profit, until people started slowly shifting to using online stores and other places to get their games.
When Modern Warfare 3 came out in the UK it was £45 in game and £43 in HMV. All the major supermarkets were stocking it for £38. Amazon was selling it for £38. If you went to Tesco and spent £50 or more on your general shopping they'd sell MW3 for £30 - that's a massive savings.
Couple that with the sales patter that the staff are forced to give (I know a guy who worked in Game), where they try to sell you strategy guides, ask you to trade in, ask about preorders, ask about wireless controllers, and it leads to a place where customers don't want to shop.
there quite pushy with there customers trying to sell them used over new copies, which is bad for the industry since neither the publisher or the developer of the game makes money from a used copy.
and conveince, why go to a dedicated store for games when you can grab it while doing your other shopping at a super market, or just order games online.
edit: here's a good article on it: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-02-28-what-would-happen-if-game-died
thats why I was surprised. A lot of people seem to trade in there and get ripped off I always assuned that meant a good profit for game.
so if one goes, they both go. and thank fuck for that!
I've used their online store a couple of times, for special offers and sales, but play.com usually beats them there, too.
I think I've read 3 or 4 cases in the past 2 weeks that seem like their upper management were actually aiming for being put under administration. Falling out with publishers, denying investors and bail-out offers.
As a company, as a store spending more effort in turning a profit from second-hand wares, I'm not really too bothered what they do. I haven't used either their store, or their e-store, in the last 6 months.
The problem is that they acquired GameStation, and then did nothing except change GameStation's policies to reflect those of Game. This meant they effectively had two stores on every other high street, directly competing with each other.
Then yeah, the crummy business tactics surrounding pre-owned put so many people off going there. Things like having a policy where used copies of games shared shelf space with new ones - and the store staff would be told to put the used copies in front of the new ones...
They were rubbish though, they were basically modelling themselves after supermarkets, bright lights and shelves full of paid for advertised games and the current most popular.
Not alot can be done when idiots are running the place. Perhaps indie stores could take off.
£10 profit.
Can't say i'm going to miss it if it goes away. Feel sorry for the staff though.
I used to trade and buy pre owned games a lot when I was younger and didn't have much money. I feel sorry for of kids in the future that'll have to pay top dollar when they get rid of trading like this and wont be able to experience as many games as we did.
not everyone is in an area where there are a lot of retail jobs going, this could be there only income. loosing a job isn't nice full stop.
That's a true observation. I think if all the jobs went at my local town of Wrexham, a lot of them would end up on benefits for awhile. Its not the best town for finding any kind of work now that the agencies there can't just send an endless amount of people off to Bank of America to sell PPI over the phone.
Some of them that work there are like older people who were just happy in retail.
funny you should mention that, as that's the example that popped into my head immediately! i'm sure there are other areas even more worse off than wrexham, going to uni there it seems to me that its an area that's in a bit of a decline.
Well I guess I also have a bias sympathy because when I finish uni this Summer I will practically be in the same boat as them unless I can relocate to a job before my final loan runs out :poly122:
join the club
what you studying?
Image speaks for itself.
Good riddance.
Its not like there going to easily jump into another job. We already have high unemployment. If you believe the governments lies then they are all just lazy arses, or it could be a possibility that there arent enough jobs.
Retail was the only growth sector in jobs for a while that is now declining.
The future is not looking bright.
Good news for the employees. Will be interseting to see OpCapita's direction...