Anyone else think GAME is going downhill?

[Charlie]

The cheekiest thing about GAME is their "lowest price guarantee!" sticker on every game they've got labled as £39.99 which is 30-35 quid at just about any indy games shop you want to walk in.

 

Tell them that it's cheaper somewhere else, and you get it for that price. It's worth it for the 10 day return/rental service.

[Ashley]

Tell them that it's cheaper somewhere else, and you get it for that price. It's worth it for the 10 day return/rental service.

 

Unless its not in stock or in supermarkets. Supermarkets sell for cheaper because its not a big profit earner for them. Food is...obviously.

[Shorty]

GAME has been downhill for a long time. It was good in the early days of Electronics Boutique, good deals, good overall prices, lots of low cost second hand games, good trade-in prices... now they never have the best price. I never shop at GAME because online prices are always better.

[Rico]

GAME has been downhill for a long time. It was good in the early days of Electronics Boutique, good deals, good overall prices, lots of low cost second hand games, good trade-in prices... now they never have the best price. I never shop at GAME because online prices are always better.

 

i agree. i only ever buy pre-owned games from high street shops now, and even then i prefer Gamestation.

[Haver]

The GameStation staff I've come into contact with are lazy and rude and ignorant and smelly and y'know, horrible and stuff. They're all proud members of the 'alternative' scene, too. Seems this is a widespread policy.

 

The GAME staff I've come into contact with aren't lazy or smelly, but they're certainly rude and ignorant and horrible.

 

Staffers in indie shops range from welcoming and funny to really, really, really, rude. Really. I wouldn't buy anything from the really, really, really rude man but he stocks NDS imports about two days after their US or Japanese release.

[Ashley]

I suppose Indies need to be more welcoming and what not because they really need the business. Not that widespread stores should be horrible because they have money of course.

[Haver]

I totally agree. The really, really, really rude man in question has this aura of 'Hey, I'm poor and down and out, fuck capitalism etc etc' and you're not going to get anywhere with that attitude. Hoover the carpet, be fucking nice and crazy things can happen.

[Raining_again]

Game is fine for me, most of them don't know a terrible lot about the stuff they sell, but that doesnt bother me cause i'd research something before i bought it. doesn't that sound terribly geeky

[stev2604]

The GAME near me is the best games shop in my area- it has the biggest CUBE selection(most other shops only sell second hand CUBE games) and their games are the cheapest. In my local GameStop Mario Kart DS is €55, in GAME its €45.

[Humphrey]

The staff in both GAME shops near me are OK, they usually can answer questions about particular games or will call over another member of staff who can. Never really go into gamestation, it always seems dingy and shabby. Forbidden Planet is nicer than either of those though, the pricing can be a bit random though (some things much cheaper, some more expensive).

[Zero Seven]

I always shop online now but when i used to go to my local GAME store, they where nice friendly staff, just absolutely clueless when it came to videogames

[Hero-of-Time]

I always stick with online shops now in paticular Gameplay due to their cheap prices and awesome delivery service. If I do get a game in a shop I just go to my local Indy shopy as they are friendly and I get on with them really well. They also give me free posters and and cardboard stand-ups for being a good customer.

 

I do go into GAME when in Metro centre ( big shopping mall type place ) and the staff their are friendly enough but their lack of support for Nintendo products annoys me, but I think thats just the general attitude towards Nintendo in most shops these days.

[the_villa]

most GAME's have virtually no gamecube games

[E3wannabe]

GAME trade-in offers suck, the smaller GAME shops aren't too bad, never really have a problem with the staff except the managers usually their arrogant pricks! Gamestation staff are just plain lazy though as many have said they never take pre-orders when i ask.

[Ollie]

I used to work in GAME before I went on my student placement, and I intend to go back there when I go back to uni. For those of you that are new here, there is a GAME bashing thread about once every 6 months. I used to work in the same store as Johelian, and it was great, we were always polite and knew our stuff, but you tend to get different people with different interests.

 

For example, I was particularly interested in FPS games and Jo was into RPG's, so depending on the questions asked, different people would answer.

 

All this crap about GAME going downhill and all the staff are crap is out of order tbh. I agree that as a company their priorities have changed, when I started three and a half years ago it was all about the customer and it is now about the margin, and yes I'll agree, that is clearly showing. But don't blame all the staff, there are many awesome emplyees and they are just doing as they are told.

 

And to the person who has the problem with the prices - Go back and check, I think you'll find that they have changed their stickers and they no longer say 'lowest price guarantee'. Also just to mention, if you bothered to ask for the T+C's that policy applied to other stores in town, not internet stores or out of town stores, so they are more than allowed to say lowest price if they want to.

[BeerMonkey]

i buy most my games on the game website now i do pop into the store to see what offers are on...got one of the games for xmas on the "deal of the week" the other day in there burnout revenge for £19.99 not bad

 

Games staff do seem knowledgeable where i am its the gamestation staff that dont know shit

[mike-zim]

game suck ass. i hate game

[Nevahom]

The game near me looks really tacky now, just loads of second hand games and no real interest in stocking new games

[mario114]

The largest GAME store in my city has now become ps2 store, with nearly half the store devoted to old ps2 titles, the xbox and cube, psp, ds, gab get hardly any store room, and the pc gets about 1/4th. And i agree the staff know nothing about games, and have no idea when stuff will be instock.

[Draven1984]

Meh, in the last month, Game have completely removed the entire Gamecube shelf - And I do mean "shelf"

 

A rough percentage of shelf space reads as:

70% PS2

10% PSP

10% Xbox

5% DS

5% Xbox 360

 

Every now and then I speak to the manager there, and he seems ok - Has never tried to give me a biased opinion (unlike his staff). God I miss the days of EB.

 

The Gamestation near me is a LOT better though - Staff have always been cool to me, get I get more value on my trade ins, and they've never given me any griefs when returning a game because I didn't like it (unlike Game)

[gothic_hobbit]

Who cares... some moody people work at game... they need to lighten up !

[Ysm]

Wow, you guys all have huge bugs up your arses about GAME don't ya?

 

I work there, I shop there and I can honestly say I've never had a better job. Seriously, what other place can you work where the regional manager comes in and you spend ages having a laugh about dumb foreigners online when you are playing Call of Duty 2 or World Of Warcraft.

 

I'm not gonna defend them to you, it's no skin off my nose if you don't like them, cause hell, most of the complaints most of you guys are saying are ill-informed or matters of opinion. They are here to stay and personally I'm glad.

 

When you think about it, they have only helped the industry. They are the ones pushing it into the mainstream. They are the ones who have the Deal Of The Week which is always awesome (every week a new game is in the offer that is only a week or so old).

 

You guys are saying that the staff don't know anything about games, well dont you get that whereever you shop? I've lost count of the times I've been in PC world and asked for help and no one has known how to answer my query. Likewise numerous times I've asked about a forthcoming CD release in HMV and I've been told that they had never even heard of the band. You'll always get that, no matter where you shop. Now the store I work in, everyone knows what they are talking about, but I understand that this isn't the case everywhere. The other store in Carlisle is full of chavs who even went so far as to refuse to give me discount on a Gamecube game BECAUSE it was a gamecube game.

 

Game offer better security than other game stores. I bought Wipeout 64 from gamestation a while back, was told I had a 30 guarantee, it didn't work, I returned it WITH the receipt and I was refused any exchange or refund because "we dont guarantee preowned games" which is shoddy. I've also known Gamestation to serve customers buying PS2 games in preference to customers buying other games.

 

But anyways....If you dont like it, I dont care. Shop where you please, it is a basic Human Right. If you prefer Gamestation, shop at gamestation. You prefer Gameplay then go to gameplay. Just please stop this pointless bashing. If you have a genuine concern or complaint then please rant, hell, I'd be happy to help. But saying "Game sux" is just pointless and annoying.

 

Rant Over.

[Ashley]

I work there, I shop there and I can honestly say I've never had a better job. Seriously, what other place can you work where the regional manager comes in and you spend ages having a laugh about dumb foreigners online when you are playing Call of Duty 2 or World Of Warcraft.

 

Clearly you're not in the same region as me. Our manager is an anal uptight self-loving mook. And the thing is he loves me (cause I had played Nintendogs and he told me to load a copy onto a DS and show customers and it sold shit loads) so im always in when he visits.