GAME/Gamestation in trouble?

Discussion in 'Gaming' started by Grim, Mar 7, 2012.

  1. You may have already missed your chance. My guess would be that they stop honouring gift cards and rewards points pretty soon if they haven't already like Zavvi did when they went under.

    I have some money my GS card but will probably just declare it null and void.
     
  2. I can't be doing with these time limited decisions! What to get, what to get!
     
  3. Games themselves sell very well, (provided they're good games that is), but the way in which games are sold is whats killed of big game retail. I rarely buy games in shops now unless I happen to see a particular special offer or freebie that will bring me into store; I shop mainly online because it's cheaper and, usually, I get my games delivered a day or so before the street date. High St. retailers just can't compete when they have huge overheads to cover such as rent, rates and staff wages.

    The other killer is that second hand game sales are dwindling. You're getting more and more codes needed to play a new game which is just forcing people to buy new and those people are turning to the online stores.

    Then there's digital delivery. I'd be prepared to wager the majority of games on PC will be sold via download and if things keep going the way they do consoles will be the same very soon. Although that said, I heard something very interesting about the next XBOX's medium which makes sense to me in terms of having a retail presence for games but stopping the second hand market.
     
  4. I went into game yesterday to see if they had any good deals due to their "spring clean" but found nothing good so I went to cex and got guitar hero warriors of rock and halo reach for a total of £20.
     
  5. @ichi: what have you heard about storage on the new Xbox then? I heard vague rumours of games not coming on discs.
     
  6. I heard something about flash storage along the lines of SD cards. Would be nice as it should cut load times down if not cut them out.
     
  7. Yeah, essentially its going to be a proprietary format memory card. As soon as you plug it into your console it will lock itself to your machines ID and will only work on that machine from then on. At least, that's the word I've heard.

    Flash cards make sense. It might seem like we're going back to cartridges but it actually makes more sense if you're wanting fast access
     
  8. Can't see that happening, what happens if your console breaks down? And lets be honest M$ consoles have a habbit of doing just that! £1000 worth of games that won't work with the new console?

    Also I have seen elsewhere that GAME have said loyalty points and gift cards etc are now worthless so I hope Chi go in early.

    Loads of the stores are already closed, go here to see which ones.

    http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/store-closures-begin-at-game-and-gamestation/093365

    GAME Croydon is very new, only been open around a year and GS moved into the old GAME store after a refit. Massive waste of money that was!
     
  9. Balls. I visited my local Game store and it was business as usual. And, as usual, nothing really worth getting.
     
  10. Game had some good deals before Christmas but they had pretty much nothing I wanted in their spring sale.
     
  11. https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150774075271000

    Some of the things that have taken effect from today. I love the banner on the left. "You can't lose!"
     
  12. As it stands now any purchases you make on XBOX Live are tied to your console and your gamertag. If you get a new machine you can still play any games or other content you've bought provided you're using the same tag. If you want other tags that use your console to be able to play it you can go online and transfer your purchases to a new console. However you can only do this once a year (or six months, i forget), the exception being if your console breaks down in which case MS automatically transfer your licences to a new machine in the event they replace it.

    The second hand market is something that developers and publishers desperately want to see the end of and a medium. Discs themselves can't be locked out and the codes they're bundling don't quite stop second hand sales.
     
  13. So effectively you are buying a license to play a game and not an actual game. I don't agree with this personally as if I pay £40 for an entertainment product who are M$ to say I can't sell it when I am done? I don't mind when the game is £10 or less but if this does happen I will never pay full price for a game again and probably wont be the only person.

    I imagine a lot of people need to sell some games to be able to buy new ones, especially in times like these. It may actually end up hurting the industry unless they are willing to cut prices.
     
  14. I think the majority of software is sold as licence to use rather than actually being owned outright Locking games down to a particular owner or system has never really hurt the PC market and developers are probably betting it won't hurt the console market either.

    Also, a lot of developers and publisher would argue that second hand game sales hurt the industry as much as piracy. It's not a view I particularly share but they have a point in that they don't see any revenue from that market and while it's great to know people like a game it's of little consequence when the developers aren't recouping their development costs let alone making money.

    They really need to adopt an approach that's more carrot than stick; lowering the price of the games for one thing would probably go a long way to encourage people to buy new software but just buying the right to develop for Sony or Microsoft costs an arm and a leg before they even sit down to develop a game. That though would be something the big companies would have to address.
     
  15. You know, whenever I got to GameStop to try and get a cheap used game, it's usually only $2 cheaper than brand new. In incredibly generous circumstances, it's a full $5 cheaper than brand new. It always make me so goddamn livid, I want to hulk smash the entire store to pieces.

    I don't understand who buys these used games, when Amazon will usually sell it cheaper new.
     
  16. I think a lot of people have cottoned onto the fact that shopping online you'll find new games for what the stores are selling them second hand. What most of the retailers do they is they offer trade ins which is where they really want to try and make their money; offer peanuts and sell them back on for a tidy amount. I went to Gamestation once to buy a joypad and heard them offer a guy something insane like £17 for GTAIV not 3 weeks after the game launched and I guarantee they'd have sold it for just a tiny bit less than new. They actually made more money in second hand deals than they did on new.
     
  17. Looks like RBS may rescue Game from the doldrums of despair.

    http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/game-to-exit-administration-tomorrow-rbs-consortium-wins-race/093563

    Incidentally, the Gamestation in my town has closed, but I believe Game may or may not have still been open.
     
  18. Other way around here, GAME gone with a sign on the window telling people to go to GS.

    In other news rumours are afoot that the PS4 will also lock a game to a console and if you get it second hand will only have access to a demo unless you buy a code to unlock the full game!
     
  19. Game is still open in yon village. I've read rumours of the PS4 being called Orbis as well, from a "reliable source"

    http://kotaku.com/5896996/the-next-playstation-is-called-orbis-sources-say-here-are-the-details
     
  20. Seen on another forum that RBS have made a serious bid AND that rewards points can be used again but only on second hand goods.

    No idea if either is true.