The GAME and Gamestation thread

[best sheff 10]

Asking how could a company like Game go to the wall. This company should have made enough money in the past to stay open for seven years without a single customer spending anymore. The money this company as made in the past doesn't bare thinking about.

 

Also I went in game a few days ago and was packed like always, how can a company with so much business go to the wall. Doesn't make sense to me, but then nothing does.

[CorkerSWFC 10]

Because of the online passes, it will only get worse for other game retailers.

[ECCOnoob 1,050]

Asking how could a company like Game go to the wall. This company should have made enough money in the past to stay open for seven years without a single customer spending anymore. The money this company as made in the past doesn't bare thinking about.

 

Also I went in game a few days ago and was packed like always, how can a company with so much business go to the wall. Doesn't make sense to me, but then nothing does.

 

It has gone for the same reasons as most retailers. People have voted with their feet and moved on.

 

Games from supermarkets, Games from online retailers, Games from mail order, Games from discount stores.......

 

Their shops might have been full with people looking but it does not mean the tills were ringing. I suspect like me with say, House of Fraser and John Lewis, I walk in to have a look and a play and then wander off and buy the same thing from a retail park or the net.

[PuressenceUK 10]

Asking how could a company like Game go to the wall. This company should have made enough money in the past to stay open for seven years without a single customer spending anymore. The money this company as made in the past doesn't bare thinking about.

 

Also I went in game a few days ago and was packed like always, how can a company with so much business go to the wall. Doesn't make sense to me, but then nothing does.

 

1) Expensive and over ambitious worldwide expansion of the brand to Australia and Europe for a start

2) Over charging compared to online only retailers who don't have to pay to support bricks and mortar stores

3) Expecting a Xmas boom to pay for the above which never came as anyone with a brain has realised it's cheaper online

4) Being undercut by supermarkets who sell games as loss leaders

5) Having 4 or 5 stores within a few miles of each other - pointless

6) If they had 'so much business' they wouldn't have gone to the wall. You're confusing footfall with purchasing. I often used to pop in to see the latest releases and buy elesewhere

7) PC gaming purchases now mostly being made online via portals such as Steam

Not evolving their business model being too overly reliant on used games, a practive which game publishers are trying to lessen

Edited April 2, 2012 by PuressenceUK

[Leah-Lacie 10]

The only 'customers' I know of Game, take their old games and trade them for a new release, so they get the new release a lot cheaper. Game then put these old games on the shelves and try to sell them at twice the price that you can buy them online, and I bet they don't shift many.

 

As for buying a new release with no trade in, even pure numpties know you can get it at least £5 less online, and not have to go and queue.

[donuticus 10]

To put it simply they tried to bully their suppliers at a time convenient to themselves. When the tide turned and the suppliers had the chance to bite back after bills weren't paid they threw Game to the wall.

 

HMV was in huge financial trouble but it was honest with suppliers and creditors. Thus they were willing to help when it couldn't fulfill it's financial obligations. Game tried to muddle its way through financial hard times by not paying its debts then called the bluff of Nintendo and Electronic Arts when they threatened to not supply their latest games via Game outlets.

 

EA and Nintendo called their bluff and the entire Game/Gamestation brand fell in on itself because without the future earnings of the EA and Nintendo games they had borrowed against they became a financial sitting duck.

 

Hopefully their management buyout will free up the finance and the breathing space for the company to continue trading and to keep 3000 people employed.

[Mecky 10]

Game was about the only retailers that had a choice of proper games (PC games). Most retailers are now stocking crappy console games, the type of game where players don't have to think too much. If it does go, I'll be sad to see it go.

[alchresearch 215]

I go in to look at what's in the charts then usually buy elsewhere.

 

Last time I went in they had F1 2010 for the XBOX and it was dearer than F1 2011 at Asda, Tesco, Amazon and so on. The copy in their second hand section was also dearer than the one in the new!

[Karis 11]

The supermarkets have way too much power and they are a massive force in killing the high street. You could buy Skyrim game cheaper than anywhere (even online) at supermarkets, and the whole Harry Potter book 7 price war hit the high street.

 

Personally, I'd like to see RRP mean RP rather than companies being allowed to sell for whatever they like - especially when they're making a loss just to get shoppers through the doors.

[WeX 10]

simple answer ... steam et al.

[L00b 441]

It's simpler still, and less to do with the competition than the way the business had been managed: don't mistake turnover, however large, for profitability (i.e. survivability).

 

Like most large and not-so-large companies, GAME had been financing itself via credit lines for too long. Bank taps were turned off in a big way a long time ago now, and it's eventually caught GAME up this year when the rent bill came round (it could only ever ride its market position/momentum so far).

 

A case of badly managed cashflow, as usual: big turnover + (concurrent-) big operating loss + "no credit top-up this time round m8" = financial death.

 

I.e. what has been happening to hundreds and thousands of businesses the length and breadth of the UK since 2008.

[clairelou65 10]

as others say, it has to be online traders selling so cheaply.