GAME Over Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

[replayme]

With all the talk of GAME's impending demise, what do you think of their situation? Have you taken advantage of any of their sale offers, and if so, what sort of bargains have you gotten from their "fire sale"?

[Friendly]

From what I've read, they'll likely be out of business in 2 weeks; the fire sale confirms this. It's basically a form of liquidation (they'll have no more stock once it's over). Sucks for the employees, and will lead to further dominance by Gamestop. Anyway, if you happen to live in the UK and can get a few cheap deals, why not.

[replayme]

yeah, i spazzed out and bought all of these. some of the games don't have the sale prices on them, in which case, i bought "kof:xiii" and "metroid: other m" for £5 each.



i might give some of them back. probably have too many games there, and more than enough considering my back catalogue of unplayed games.

[Friendly]

If you don't buy them cheaply then Gamestop will, and for even less. So no need to feel guilty.

[TransatlanticFoe]

I'm going to have a look tomorrow to see what they've got marked down. There were two in Guildford but they closed the silghtly bigger store which actually sold a reasonable range of PC and Wii games, so the one that's left is probably going to have naff all.

It comes as no surprise though. 50% of the store is pre-owned games... which are about the same price (or higher) than NEW games online. It was pretty competitive for launch titles on PC and Wii compared to online but it seemed like they just gave up stocking anything once it fell out of the chart. I really wasn't a fan of having their trade-in deals rammed down my throat every time I bought something either.

The biggest downfall was that Game has never been able to compete with the online market. Going back to the Dreamcast days, I regularly ordered CDs from HMV - but Game and Electronics Boutique's response to "can I get title X?" was always "you can't order anything, we just get what is given to us". Brilliant. So just as online stores start becoming popular, you're driving people towards them to get the games they want? Good tactic. From there, with erratic stock and uncompetitive prices you're always going to lose.

It's a shame that Game spawned multiple shops across city centres, killing off independent competition, taking over Gamestation and ruining it, thus becoming the only dedicated games store in the country.... then they gradually die. Leaving nothing. Cheers.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

thx for the heads up, ill pop down to my local GAME tomorrow

[Khan]

wow never knew about this, thanks for the heads up.

Whats strange is I went to GAMEFEST in birmingham last year a gaming event organised by GAME and to me it looked like they pulled the punters through and made a boat load of cash at times i couldnt move it was that jam packed and im pretty sure it was a success.

[Ed Oscuro]

That sucks. Next year it'll just be FEST.

[cj iwakura]

Just out of morbid curiosity, do EU games work on US PS3s? In case anyone wants to grab me some stuff.

[replayme]

Isn't the PS3 open-region? I was always under the impression that you could play games from all regions...

I can take a look today. What you after?

[ryu]

interestingly, you still paid more for a sealed retail copy of other m in the uk than i did in germany

[replayme]

Not much left in Oxford St branch. All the best stuff's gone...

[replayme]

thinking of giving the following back within the next few days. just checked out online reviews/prices, and the deals don't seem that hot anymore.

topspin 3
kane and lynch: dead men
halo 3
project gotham racing 4
lost planet 2

i'm only going to get £11 back though... probably not worth the trip in to town for these. maybe.

[cj iwakura]

Isn't the PS3 open-region? I was always under the impression that you could play games from all regions...

I can take a look today. What you after?

Is there any EU-exclusive PS3 stuff worth owning?


And I know JP games work on the PS3, didn't know if EU games were different somehow.

[replayme]

don't really follow us or jpn stuff anymore. sorry, i couldn't help you.

[guigui]

If any of you guys in UK can snatch a PS3 copy of KOF XIII and/or Ultimate Marvel Vs Capcom 3 for under £10 each, I'd be happy to refund you, pay for shipping price here to France, and add a little money for your personnal pleasure.

[Daigohji]

thinking of giving the following back within the next few days. just checked out online reviews/prices, and the deals don't seem that hot anymore.

topspin 3
kane and lynch: dead men
halo 3
project gotham racing 4
lost planet 2

i'm only going to get £11 back though... probably not worth the trip in to town for these. maybe.

Keep Project Gotham Racing 4. It's a great game, especially once you unlock the faster cars.

[cj iwakura]

don't really follow us or jpn stuff anymore. sorry, i couldn't help you.

Any chance they have PS2 games? Highly unlikely, but I've always been after Maken Shao and Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call.

[BPzeBanshee]

Well fuck, this is news to me. I wonder how long they've been in this state - if they were like this in say November it's no surprise the Aussie division decided "derp we've decided not to bring DDP:R over *trollface*".

don't really follow us or jpn stuff anymore. sorry, i couldn't help you.

Any chance they have PS2 games? Highly unlikely, but I've always been after Maken Shao and Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call.

Never heard of those titles but some stores might have PS2 preowned titles there, I believe mine does.

[neorichieb1971]

Our Bedford Store has PS2 titles. Its quite a big store in Bedford. If Game shuts down though it means Bedford has no proper store left since I believe Gamestation shut a few months ago.

They only have themselves to blame though. Most stores didn't stock all titles and expected you to pre-order, the prices were quite high, the staff sucked arse and the trade system was awful (from the prices I was offered on some blu rays and games).

I don't see the way things are going its healthy for us. Not just in games but in general.

As they said at the end of the dinosaur age. The scavengers had lots of food for a while, but it was an illusion.


I don't see why Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo don't do what Apple do, make their own stores. Then if they make shit games they can't complain they get shit sales. Just like a cinema can't be blamed if shit films come out.

[replayme]

well, the likelyhood of game closing now looks increasingly likely - http://tech.uk.msn.com/news/10000-game- ... y-lose-job


as for the ps2 games, the one in croydon didn't really have a great collection, and oxford street (to the best of my knowledge) doesn't do ps2 games.

[neorichieb1971]

Once upon a time we had 4 game stores in Bedford. Game took over EB which closed that one. Software Plus died years ago, gamestation has gone now.

If GAME closes it means Bedford is completely dependent on ToysRus and supermarket chains.

[replayme]

Once upon a time we had 4 game stores in Bedford. Game took over EB which closed that one. Software Plus died years ago, gamestation has gone now.

If GAME closes it means Bedford is completely dependent on ToysRus and supermarket chains.

I'm lucky in that in London where I live, I have 2 Cash Convertors, 2 CEX's, 1 indie, and 1 BlockBusters all located within walking distance.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

I popped in yesterday, there wasnt that many discounts for the games I like, most 360 games were still priced at higher than what I could get online, and the PC games wernt even discounted. They had some wii accesories at half price. Picked up a 2nd hand Wii pad for £5 along with a couple of other items.

[Smraedis]

So they buy out all the other video game stores and then go bust, don't think they have done such a good job there...

[E. Randy Dupre]

Inevitable, though. Owning every dedicated videogame shop in the high street means that there's no competition forcing you to keep your prices low, especially if you're that blinkered to believe that you don't have to put up a fight against online retailers.

thinking of giving the following back within the next few days. just checked out online reviews/prices, and the deals don't seem that hot anymore.

Fuck the reviews, man. Halo 3 and PGR4 are well worth playing. LP2 is an acquired taste, but works really well in four-player co-op.

[BIL]

The topic title seems to be incorrectly formatted... the correct phrasing is:

GAME OVER YEAHHHHHH!

edit: excellent, all correct now.

[replayme]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/news ... games.html

No great loss for me, personally. HMV haven't been relevant for nearly 5 years, and their prices are always extortionate.

I would rather see HMV close down, but I wouldn't be surprised if both HMV and GAME go eventually.

Does anyone know as to how GAME found themselves to be in the situation they're in? I think it was only a year ago that their share price was 60p, and now it's something like 6p, if not lower?

How do you lose 90% of your value within a year?

[BPzeBanshee]

Spoke with a staff member at my local GAME store today.

I must've missed something where you mentioned this was only the UK division because Australia's GAME division isn't going anywhere, and apparently the one where I went to claims to have some of the best sales *worldwide* so the guy was confident they weren't closing down. Makes me wonder though. They DO have an awful lot of deals going on even if some of them are bull.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

I think the supermarkets have a lot to do with it. When the Tescos in my town started selling games they were amazingly cheap, more so than Amazon for many games, when its competition in town closed they jacked the prices so high that it makes Game seem like a flea market and shrunk the selection down.

I wonder if the prices are low in other supermarkets atm, I would expect them to be going in for the kill