Or at least game as we know it now?
I've never really liked game, over the time they've employed enough dodgy practises and sales techniques that I dislike to push them into 'only if I have too' territory. E.g. going to supermarkets and buying their special offers to then sell on in their own store, apparently to give the customers 'choice', I'm pretty sure the customers would rather pay the lower price to be honest...
Buying competitors instead of competing with them, in essence they turned gamestation into a game with a different colour scheme. But left the occasionally questionable for public music.
They're also great users of the sell you extra stuff at checkout and send staff to ambush you in the aisles to offer 'assistance', both piss me off. One visit to the Merthyr Tydfil Retail Park Game resulted in every member of staff bar one in the store approaching me, not a big store. When the last one asked, 'anything in particular you're looking for?' I just shook my head and left.
They can't compete with larger stores (supermarkets, argos etc) on prices and that's not shocking due to the buying power they have. But then mostly miss the chance to offer a specialist service that the supermarket couldn't. Game staff are a split between people who generally think they know all there is to know, and some of them get ratty when you contradict them, e.g. one of them was blabbing about Gears of War and how it was an 360 exclusive, a pointless sale attempt as I had it already! But playing along I pointed out it's not, there's also a windows version at which point I was told in a nicer worded manner, don't be so daft, I work in game so I know. So I wandered over to the PC section, picked it up and showed him...
While some are clueless and they've taken the job as 'shop assistant' and didn't mind where it was. Which is fine, but I do find it quite amusing when they go into pre rehearsed slightly awkward sales patter about games they'll never play.
I've heard them sell over age games to parents of kids as 'all his friends will have it', I've heard them loudly bad mouth other stores, games companies etc loudly in store (Unsurprisingly EA was the latest I heard last weekend where the checkout staff proclaimed, 'No EA are just greedy'. Nothing to do with you're credit rating then and maybe EA realising they may not get paid here? Dick. What's the line now 'EA, Activision, Nintendo, Microsoft, yeah they're all just greedy'?)
They've given me crap deals on trade ins to then resell them at (one extreme) ten times the value. Blockbuster, HMV or CEX are the place to trade.
But they're not all bad, they did have reasonable special offers on times, and I must admit to visiting their 'let's pay the rent' fire sale that's currently going on and when they have an admin stock clearance I'll visit again. Some of the staff are ok, annoying, but that's following orders, plus I'd never wish anyone to lose their job regardless of skill level at it, but administration is looking inevitable.
But going forward, it may become a better shop as a result, Walmart apparently fancy it, with ASDA buying power, it may well be able to complete with the other supermarkets and give itself a chance, even though the ASDA preowned section is rubbish!
I'll miss Game in a way, it was a good place to look at what was out before going to Tesco to get it a fiver cheaper!
Always hated the way Game made you buy a ton of crap games if you bought a new console on or near its launch date. Always thought that practice should be made illegal.
ReplyDeleteI recently watched them sell an unsuspecting parent a Game gift card after they had gone in to administration. They basically took this womans money knowing very well that she could be just throwing her money down the drain.
Another recent dodgy practice at Game is to give refunds in store vouchers only. Even when refunding deposits on games they couldnt provide because they couldnt pay their suppliers.
Even with the buy out I think Game still face a world of hurt on a number of fronts.
Microsoft, Nintendo, Sony and EA have openly admitted that they would like to see Game vanish from the high street so they can close the second hand market. There is no guaranty that any of the 4 big players will want to supply Game even if their big bills get paid up. They could take the opportunity to kill Game.
All the analysts are saying the next generation of consoles will prevent second hand games running at all. All the analysts believe the next generation of games will be locked to an individual machines and you will need constant internet connections to run your games. Can Game survive without the second hand game market? I doubt it.
There are also predictions that Sony and Microsoft want to take a leaf out of Apples books and make games only available via download and only via their stores. This will allow them total control of pricing and will kill the offline and online sale of games.
I have just visited the HMV store in Cardiff and looks like HMV is positioning its self to take on the Game's old market place. Its increased its second hand section and expanded it to include DVDs and CDs.
My prediction is we will see Game back in the same position within 2 to 3 years.