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

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I see what you did there with the title!!

[Grey M@a]

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.

Never even knew of the one in Fenwicks. Just proves the point they over saturated most places they had stores, not to mention the high prices, poor trade in and eventually the lack of PC games at all put an end to me using them many moons ago.

[Flash477]

The last time I went in a GAME store (about 1.5 years ago) the range of PC games they had in was dire - there were about the top 10 games and that was it!

[crossy]

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

So you look at the locations you've got (e.g. the folks from Newcastle saying that there's three within walking distance of each other - in my book that's two too many! Nothing against Newcastle btw - probably the same deal elsewhere) and rationalise. Sure you probably can't get out of the leases, but you could still close the stores and ship stock elsewhere. At least save on wages and power bills.

(Yes, what's above is COMPLETELY heartless, but if your business is on it's last legs then I suppose desperate measures are called for).

E.g. in the next town (where my local GAME is now) there's a GAME and Gamestation near enough on the same block of the shopping centre ("mall" is for Americans), so close one or the other.

Personally though I can't see it happening and suspect that the signs saying "Closing Down Sale" will be going up on GAME and Gamestation stores before the end of the month.

[Grey M@a]

So you look at the locations you've got (e.g. the folks from Newcastle saying that there's three within walking distance of each other - in my book that's two too many! Nothing against Newcastle btw - probably the same deal elsewhere) and rationalise. Sure you probably can't get out of the leases, but you could still close the stores and ship stock elsewhere. At least save on wages and power bills.

(Yes, what's above is COMPLETELY heartless, but if your business is on it's last legs then I suppose desperate measures are called for).

E.g. in the next town (where my local GAME is now) there's a GAME and Gamestation near enough on the same block of the shopping centre ("mall" is for Americans), so close one or the other.

Personally though I can't see it happening and suspect that the signs saying "Closing Down Sale" will be going up on GAME and Gamestation stores before the end of the month.

Ideally, in 2008 when the problems started they should of looked at the shop/rent issue. Instead they threw money at it and borrowed. As the admins have said, management could of been a lot more proactive instead of trying to ride it out.

I guess its just come full circle and now they are paying the cost of running multiple stores in the same area's

[MadduckUK]

Is that like an Atari Lynx?

yes!

[ShadowKnight]

In my area, we have gamestation and GAME within about 30 meters....such things can be very expensive to uphold, not to mention the inefficiency sales wise.

[shaithis]

Well, seems like a bit of a pattern forming......

You have to ask "How the hell did they not notice that paying for 2-3 rents, when 1 will do, is going to end up killing your business?"

/em walks off shaking head in disbeleif

[AGTDenton]

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...

Dont forget Hexus Classifieds

[crossy]

You have to ask "How the hell did they not notice that paying for 2-3 rents, when 1 will do, is going to end up killing your business"

Hmm, I wonder whether the management were those who subscribe to the theory that "we've got lots of shops, so we must be successful".

Dont forget Hexus Classifieds

I had!

Major downside of when they (GAME) do go, is that it's going to be a lot more difficult/more expensive to get shot of my XBox360 when the 720 (or whatever the '360 replacement will be called) comes out. Got no CEX etc nearby, so the only possibility is something like Cash Convertors. Don't fancy eBay etc because being mail order it'd be a major pain to have to package up and arrange couriers etc - assuming you can get a buyer in the first place.

[Hidden Hippo]

Hopefully they won't go under in the next couple of days - I've got a Gamestation giftcard I need to use!

[Roobubba]

I'm always hopeful when I go into a Game or similar, then very disappointed when I find out that usually less than 10% of the store space is given to PC games (I have a fervent hatred of console games and what the console market has done to PC gaming, with fewer games, terrible ports and frankly bad graphics becoming more widely accepted as a result). Then I look at the stock they have, it's nothing that I would want to play and in any case it's all over-priced.

It's a long time since I bought anything in Game. I'm a subscriber to digital media - I don't want the disks and cases cluttering up my house any more, I have enough from the old days already.

[Lee H]

I used to use GAME all the time in the past but nowadays I'm more the digital download route kind of purchaser.

Game are not open at 3AM if I decide I want a game and on digital download its there in a few hours, or if I feel like a walk I can walk 3 minutes down the road to the 24 hour tesco and get them from there.

Sorry Game - you stood still in a moving market and your now reaping what you sow

[Hidden Hippo]

The problem with digital media is that anyone who can't get a decent internet connection end up completely up the swanny. I quite like having a DVD in my hand when I want to install a game/reinstall a game, rather then purchase it, spend 6 hours downloading it then install it.

GAME did bring it upon themselves - there are three stores (2 GAME, 1 Gamestation) in central Bristol within 5 minutes of each other, including one hidden around the back. Hardly a good idea for competition.

[Unique]

So you look at the locations you've got (e.g. the folks from Newcastle saying that there's three within walking distance of each other - in my book that's two too many! Nothing against Newcastle btw - probably the same deal elsewhere) and rationalise. Sure you probably can't get out of the leases, but you could still close the stores and ship stock elsewhere. At least save on wages and power bills.

(Yes, what's above is COMPLETELY heartless, but if your business is on it's last legs then I suppose desperate measures are called for).

E.g. in the next town (where my local GAME is now) there's a GAME and Gamestation near enough on the same block of the shopping centre ("mall" is for Americans), so close one or the other.

Personally though I can't see it happening and suspect that the signs saying "Closing Down Sale" will be going up on GAME and Gamestation stores before the end of the month.

Im sure people would have done the sums and came out that it's better to stay open than close as accountants and money men are ruthless and not there for fun. Remove rent and rates and if you are breaking even then stay open instead of paying rent for nothing.

[Boon72]

Game is next door to Gamestation in Stockport and the 2 Game stores in the Trafford centre are opposite each other albeit on different floors.