News - GAME goes up for sale in an attempt to avoid Game Over

[HEXUS]

10,000 jobs hang in the balance as the firm seeks a buyer.

Read more.

[crossy]

however the future of the group's UK stores remains highly uncertain. What can be expected is, that any rescue deal or sale will likely result in the closure of many stores, in an effort to avoid the mistakes made by The Game Group

How about turning Gamestation stores into GAME ones (or vice-versa) and then closing stores where there's duplication. Folks on the other thread on this have said that there's circumstances where there's two or more stores in close proximity, so lose the "extras" seems a natural thing to do.

Hopefully my local Gamestation will be one of the ones that's saved, since it's actually pretty good - harkens back to the old record stores where the folks behind the counter were enthusiasts themselves.

Yes, I know ... I'm old-fashioned, naive and out of touch with the 21st century.

[shaithis]

Walking through town on my way to work this morning and noticed gamestation had their window full of special offers and price promises.....seemed very little in the window of GAME about 50m down the road though......

[Grey M@a]

How about turning Gamestation stores into GAME ones (or vice-versa) and then closing stores where there's duplication. Folks on the other thread on this have said that there's circumstances where there's two or more stores in close proximity, so lose the "extras" seems a natural thing to do.

Hopefully my local Gamestation will be one of the ones that's saved, since it's actually pretty good - harkens back to the old record stores where the folks behind the counter were enthusiasts themselves.

Yes, I know ... I'm old-fashioned, naive and out of touch with the 21st century.

Case in point, in Newcastle, you have 2 Game stores in Eldon Square alone no less than 200 yards apart, then a game station just outside Eldon Square opposite where Grainger Games is.

Travel 4 miles down the road in either direction you have one in the silverlink and I think there are three (game/gamestation) in the metro centre.

[saltyzip]

RIP Game - legitimate downloads via STEAM etc. will eventually kill off the service these type of shops provide

[crossy]

RIP Game - legitimate downloads via STEAM etc. will eventually kill off the service these type of shops provide

How about hardware service, trade-ins, etc? Don't think you can do those via Steam/XBL/PSN!

And yes, I have heard of that "eBay" thingy...

[Scribe]

How about hardware service, trade-ins, etc? Don't think you can do those via Steam/XBL/PSN!

And yes, I have heard of that "eBay" thingy...

Steam's still too slow for many of us on less than perfect ADSL connections too.

[lodore]

I do think that game should close Game or gamestation. just like they did when they brought electronics boutique. On another game related note does anyone else use gameplay.co.uk?
My first purchase from them was an N64 which shows how long I have used them for. about a week ago they merged there site with the horrible gamestation website. I was hoping they would of kept the gameplay site since it has a much better layout IMO.

[RedFlames]

Case in point, in Newcastle, you have 2 Game stores in Eldon Square alone no less than 200 yards apart, then a game station just outside Eldon Square opposite where Grainger Games is.

Travel 4 miles down the road in either direction you have one in the silverlink and I think there are three (game/gamestation) in the metro centre.

There's 3 GAMEs in the middle of Newcastle, the two in Eldon Square and the concession on the 3rd floor of Fenwick [which is also in Eldon Square], plus 1 Gamestation... [Plus the Grainger Games, HMV and CeX stores] and for those who don't know Newcastle the 3 GAMEs are literally on a couple of minutes walk from each other.

just from memory alone there are 6 GAME stores and 2 Gamestations within about 10-20 minutes of where I live... and those are just the ones i can remember, there's probably more.

[Gordy]

RIP Game - legitimate downloads via STEAM etc. will eventually kill off the service these type of shops provide

Yeah steam will eventually take over along with other online software stores. The days of physical media are numbered.

[mycarsavw]

Panicked that they may vanish, I logged in to my GAME account to see how many points I had.

55,154 which equates to just under £140.

I started saving them back when I had a first gen PlayStation with a view to buying a PS2 by the time they came out, then I waited for a PS3, then I lost interest.

I just tried to spend £140 on PC games and there's nothing (of any merit, imho!) in stock at all.

Yay!

[Terbinator]

Panicked that they may vanish, I logged in to my GAME account to see how many points I had.

55,154 which equates to just under £140.

I started saving them back when I had a first gen PlayStation with a view to buying a PS2 by the time they came out, then I waited for a PS3, then I lost interest.

I just tried to spend £140 on PC games and there's nothing (of any merit, imho!) in stock at all.

Yay!

Get a Vita?

[Unique]

however the future of the group's UK stores remains highly uncertain. What can be expected is, that any rescue deal or sale will likely result in the closure of many stores, in an effort to avoid the mistakes made by The Game Group

How about turning Gamestation stores into GAME ones (or vice-versa) and then closing stores where there's duplication. Folks on the other thread on this have said that there's circumstances where there's two or more stores in close proximity, so lose the "extras" seems a natural thing to do.

Hopefully my local Gamestation will be one of the ones that's saved, since it's actually pretty good - harkens back to the old record stores where the folks behind the counter were enthusiasts themselves.

Yes, I know ... I'm old-fashioned, naive and out of touch with the 21st century.

the reality is it's not half as easy to put into practice what you just typed. leases and rent agreements will be signed, staff contracted to work, stock in place, etc. so with your rent and rates being the highest costs and being tied into agreements that can last years, you can't just shut down quickly. if you have the stock to shift it's usually just as well to stay open until you're lease is up

most stores that close down do so when leases are up, they just don't renew for another 5 or 10 years. yes 10 years is common. shopping malls like to tie people into very long leases, until businesses start going bust and moving out leaving ghost malls and then the pound stores and charity stores and shops of cheap tat take over instead

[Platinum]

[Spud1]

They don't really help themselves when they try to charge £45-£55 for new "chart" games that grainger (2 mins walk away in Hyde) are selling for £25.

I still buy some games from gamestation - I like the service and to a degree some of the offers, particularly on pre-owned games..but quote often I will walk in there fully intending to spend £30 of my hard earned cash, and then I will walk out disgusted that they are charging £50 for that game that I wanted. I'll then either go to Grainger or a supermarket - the service/range isn't there but if they are sensibly priced, and its a £10-£15 difference..can you blame me?

If you are low on cash the answer is not to jack your prices up - it's gotta be better to remain competitive, and to try and clear out old stock.

Hopefully they will be able to rationalise their stores as a result of the leases being up for renewal - the fact that they are essentially competing against themselves in many many many areas just can't be a good thing. Twice the overheads for the same number of sales? Crazy.

[mycarsavw]

Get a Vita?

Is that like an Atari Lynx?