Game have gone into Administration

You may have seen this on the news yesterday, but yes Game are bust.

Im not sure I can understand why as there is a healthy need for video games & consoles.
Was it the competition taking all the business or Game's overheads costing too much?

Also, what is happening to the stock of games? Will they be sold off on the cheap?
Well, here at 606v2 we aim to bring you the answers, and have sent a reporter to their local Game shop (he is going on his dinner break today) to enquire!

More details to follow once our reporter erm... reports back!

You're going to buy cheap games, aren't you?

It depends on the information provided by our reporter

I went into the Game last week and brought a 2nd hand game for the PS3 for £7 when it was originally £15!!

I think the undervalue the 2nd hand games they buy and massively over price them when they sell them. Once gamers are aware of the pricing for them buying 2nd hand games and see how massively they re-sell them, they go online instead.

They are slashing the price of games by 75% on most formats. I heard they don't hold much in the way of stock.

One of the big faults I think with Game is the number of stores they actually had, often they were at the point where their only competition in a town was another Game store.
Where is the logic in that?

In Brighton here they have 2 stores on the same road!!

If they had closed some and operated online, they would still probably be in business.

In Leeds they have 2 Game stores and a Gamestation. Hardly good business sense. (1 off the Game stores closed yesterday evening).

I read that the Bank they owe money to (RBS i think) blocked a move last week for them to be bought out. Doesn't make much sense at all.

Haven't really used game in a while unless i needed some emergency micro soft points, as like others have said their prices are are bit over the top.

Head office is in Basingstoke (where i work) and the girl next to me, her sister is a manager there and got called in as hte baliffs went in this morning.

K-PX0110 wrote:In Leeds they have 2 Game stores and a Gamestation. Hardly good business sense. (1 off the Game stores closed yesterday evening).

It's the same in Hull, they're all less than 5 minutes away from each other they should probably have shut one of their stores down ages ago. In my opinion Game should never have been allowed to buy Gamestation, that meant they had no high street competition even now they don't have the competition, CEX and Grainger Games add a small bit of competition but only really in the second hand market.

Apologies for the delay in the report as it appears our reporter is taking a long lunch and may have gone to the pub instead.

Aren't the majority of stores now closed? The website is down and all game reward points and gift cards have been suspended!

Our reporter might be locked inside a closed shop!

I heard yesterday and popped down to mine. I think ours will be one of the ones that if it doesn't stay open will at least make the end of the week. In Bedford we had one of each but the Gamestation soon disappeared after Game took over. I'll go back in the next hour and see if the staff are in considerably worse moods than yesterday.

The Bedford store is the only one of it's kind in a 20 mile radius.

game in Oxford seems to be Open still according to IGN

Our chief reporter has his report forthcoming!

Good Evening

Today i took that lunchtime trip to Game. (St James Centre, Edinburgh)

For those with gift cards like myself, these are currently not being accepted, yet they will sell you items if you pay cash. This also includes any point or cash accrued on loyalty cards not being accepted.

I am currently in what feels like a one way conversation with the customer service department regarding this, and will keep you updated when i have more info.

As for the store itself, The selection of games was pretty poor, new games almost non existent although what they did have had a small reduction in price.

Controllers, headsets etc where also slightly reduced in price, but nothing major

The Pre owned game where drastically cut ranging from 98p for Fifa 10, £1.99 for Fifa 8 (no i have not got this the wrong way round) up to £7-£8. but i could not see an games i felt the urge to immediately part with my cash for

The selection will obviously vary from store to store but if what is left in your nearest store is anywhere near the selection i just witnessed i would not go out my way to get to game again in the near future.

Excellent report Nay. Exactly the information needed.
Thanks for doing this.

The problem is fairly obvious, they can't compete when it comes to selling new releases and that has been their downfall.

A new game comes out and game sell it for £40. If you go to your local supermarket on release day they will be selling the game for £10 less or charge £40 but you get X amount of microsoft points free. It's pretty obvious which service your going to use.

Add to this play, amazon & many other gaming shops online that all sell games cheaper than game in general.

Also, HMV have also started doing pre-owned games. On average HMV give you £3 - £5 more per game. I took a load of games to trade to HMV and was offered £58, at game I was offered £35. Again, which would you choose?

They can't compete on any level what so ever if people are prepared to look around for the best deal.

so many more people would rather order it online, than go get the game...im not saying i do lol, im just saying thats a massive contribution to them going into adminstration.

Nay Bother wrote:For those with gift cards like myself, these are currently not being accepted, yet they will sell you items if you pay cash. This also includes any point or cash accrued on loyalty cards not being accepted.

I am currently in what feels like a one way conversation with the customer service department regarding this, and will keep you updated when i have more info.

Not sure why anybody would be surprised by this, if they need cash they aren't going to effectively give games away for free.

Derbyblue wrote:

Nay Bother wrote:For those with gift cards like myself, these are currently not being accepted, yet they will sell you items if you pay cash. This also includes any point or cash accrued on loyalty cards not being accepted.

I am currently in what feels like a one way conversation with the customer service department regarding this, and will keep you updated when i have more info.

Not sure why anybody would be surprised by this, if they need cash they aren't going to effectively give games away for free.

They aren't doing though, somebody paid for the games months before when they bought the gift-card.

It's akin to buying something, waiting for a bit, and then the shop going actually you haven't bought it but we're going to keep your money anyway.

Gutted! just went down to the store in Macclesfield which is shut redirecting to Stockport (with a game and gamestation literally next door to each other still open!)

RBS are set to make Game an offer by the end of the week.

Game have been taken over and have since started accepting Gift cards again.

Stock is still very low but the stores open are hoping to get more stock in the next few days.

As to whether the new owners have agreed deals with EA and such like to start sticking new games i cannot say.

The one thing i will say, is i have found Games customer Service department makes Sky's customer service department seem like Mary Poppins answers you every time. And has probably discouraged me from shopping at game more than anything else that has happened.

I remember seeing this article and not thinking much of it.... but NOW IT'S PERSONAL!

My local game has just been closed

Like I said above, the Bedford store is pretty guaranteed safety because if it's location but I'm an amazon guy, the warehouse is 15 miles away and I basically get next day delivery for the cheapest delivery charge that isn't free.

I only use game to get new consoles so won't be headed there until a new Xbox is out.