GAME Group what next?

[Cube]

Does anyone know which store he worked at?

[ipaul]

These days you buy online and you have little choice

 

I'm sorry dude, but little choice? Are you shitting me?

 

The choice of content on XBLA alone dwarves anything we've had in previous generations. There are so many cool and quirky games on this one service alone that you can't possibly claim we have little choice. Yeah granted, the decline of brick and mortar stores sucks in many ways, but buying online and downloading do have their benefits. I hate to say it but it really sounds like your romanticising the past there and if anything, the absence of anything like the 32X/Sega CD suggests the state of gaming has improved, not declined.

 

More on topic, I'm not massively arsed to seem them go. As long as Grainger Games continues, I'll have somewhere to browse. What I do miss and have done for a while now, is Gamestation before they were bought buy Game and then basically became the same store as them albeit with a different marketing slant and a darker interior design.

Edited March 26, 2012 by ipaul

[Mokong]

Don't hold your breath cos aren't GameStop in a bit of trouble? Remember towards the end of last year they had to shut x amounts of stores. I think they pretty much closed nearly all of them in Northern Ireland. The 2 in Belfast defo went.

 

EDIT:

 

Yup, looks like Gamestop are gradually closing all stores to became online only...

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-01-24-gamestop-closes-northern-ireland-stores

 

Seems that they had a better plan than Game..

 

The NI stores and "online plan" were for the UK market, I think the stores in the RoI are on somewhat steadier grounding

[Cube]

Had a proper look at the list: Meadowhall is listed separately to Sheffield. So four GAME/GameStations are closing in Sheffield.

 

I also saw that the GAME in my town is also closing. I didn't know there was a GAME in my town.

[Esequiel]

Cube - just been to Sheffield, all game / gamestations are now shut except for the on gamestation in meadow hall.

 

We're going to need a solution for finding new games in the high street, my lad wanted poke park 2. Couldn't find it anywhere :/

[Grazza]

Gaming in this generation feels different somehow. I miss the endless consoles in the 90's with the vast amount of choices you had. For example in 93, we had to choose between the@ SNES, Mega, CDi, Sega CD, 3D0 and a few others. These days you buy online and you have little choice

 

Sega, I think, were a particularly exciting company. Seemed they were always working on something new - Mega CD, 32X, new coin-ops - and didn't stick rigidly to accepted console "generations". Suppose it didn't help them much, really, but I agree they were more exciting times with a better atmosphere.

[Jimbob]

Can't access the site, but from a check earlier only 1 of the 2 Cardiff branches remains open. Thats if it hasn't changed since.

 

Honestly, i predicted end of the month. Wasn't wrong at all. I feel really bad for all the staff in-stores which have closed, i wish them well for all their future endevoirs. Here's hoping @Dyson isn;t out of work.

[flameboy]

Hey up, sounds familiar.

 

Kidding, but really not at all sad to see this douchebag of a company go!

 

I think yes douchebag of a company to GAME. I feel sorry for the staff at Gamestation Harrogate, they got shut down today whilst the vastly inferior GAME has remained open. A couple of the staff there have been there since before the GAME owned days so definitely feel for them.

[Fierce_LiNk]

Pretty sure the Gamestation and GAME in Bournemouth are now gone. Will have to visit to make sure. Even if I don't buy anything, it's nice just knowing you can pop in for a browse. There's occasionally a good deal or a cheap game that I pick up, so it's sometimes worth it.

 

Also, I bet the GAME in Newport will have gone, too. That's a shame. It's one of the last remaining shops on Newport's dead highstreet.

[Agent Gibbs]

well only The Headrow Store and White Rose store are remaining open (for now) in Leeds, all other GAME stores and ALL gamestation stores have closed down

 

I really feel for those staff who turned up for work to be sacked today, its so harsh on them

 

speaking of harsh, the suspension of gift cards is really bad considering there have been having staff push store credits on them of late (not the staff's fault only the stupid management as per usual)

 

The whole situation is just utterly shit

 

Kudos to Shopto for trying to get the customer database and atempting to reinstate the reward card system/points

 

Reading the GAME facebook page is eyeopening! people complaining about how much they have lost on Gift cards, some it seems were preloading gift cards like they were credit cards to use at some point (saw one guy who'd done this complaining as he's lost £300) that all said i don't feel sorry for them too much, the situation has been well publicized, if i had a gift card and didn't want anything I'd have bought something to sell on Ebay rather than loose the money

[canand]

I dont want shopto to get my customer details

[Jimbob]

Pretty sure the Gamestation and GAME in Bournemouth are now gone. Will have to visit to make sure. Even if I don't buy anything, it's nice just knowing you can pop in for a browse. There's occasionally a good deal or a cheap game that I pick up, so it's sometimes worth it.

 

Also, I bet the GAME in Newport will have gone, too. That's a shame. It's one of the last remaining shops on Newport's dead highstreet.

 

The one at 13 Commercial Street is closed, the Gamestation survives though.

[Fierce_LiNk]

The one at 13 Commercial Street is closed, the Gamestation survives though.

 

I've got a friend who works at the GAME there. Well, old school friend, don't really keep in contact with him that much, but did speak to him when I popped into there over Christmas. Feel sorry for him.

 

Gamestation has always been the better shop there. I remember the good times around the N64 era. Their retro games section was amazing. I miss going in there and seeing megadrive games on the shelves.

[Jimbob]

I've got a friend who works at the GAME there. Well, old school friend, don't really keep in contact with him that much, but did speak to him when I popped into there over Christmas. Feel sorry for him.

 

Gamestation has always been the better shop there. I remember the good times around the N64 era. Their retro games section was amazing. I miss going in there and seeing megadrive games on the shelves.

 

Yeah, them were the days indeed. Loved visiting the store and viewing the classic titles on sale, bargains were to be had. Even had the same nostalgia instore in both the GC and early Wii era's.

[Blade]

All the GAMEs and Gamestations have closed down in Sheff? I get paid on friday i was hoping to get something cheap!

[Cube]

All the GAMEs and Gamestations have closed down in Sheff? I get paid on friday i was hoping to get something cheap!

 

There is one GameStation left in Meadowhall.

[Sheikah]

I dont want shopto to get my customer details

But for GAME to have them is fine? Weird logic.

[Blade]

There is one GameStation left in Meadowhall.

 

Is it having a sale on that is worth going to do you know? When i say sale i mean decent games in it.

 

Ive booked annual leave on friday for no reason but to chill out and i dont want to go to meadowhell if i can help it

[Dyson]

Hello, all.. It's been a while again but I thought I'd come here to see what the reaction has been to the closures, and it's pretty much what I anticipated to be honest. I'll get to a few posts now and answer them honestly to try and clear things up for you.

 

For those of you asking about me, I myself am still in a job. Our store was not closed today. However, I must have had some bad karma stored up as today I was running a store that was in fact closing down and as such was in charge of closing the store at midday, receiving the information via phonecall, passing it on to the team, and informing all of the staff that as of this Friday they were to be made redundant with no consultation. I then had to cash up as if it were the end of the day, safe and till floats and all and keep the team together to help with sending stock away until Friday, when they'll all be let go. It was a horrible, awful situation to be in, one in which a Senior Sales Assistant shouldn't be put in in the first place - and nobody should have to do it in another store they don't even work at. Those poor staff members.

 

So yes - today, I found I was safe for now, but had to do the heartwrenching job of telling the team I was with for the day they'd lost theirs having met some of them that very same morning.

Scum.

 

For the past week my local Game and Gamestation have had boards outside encouraging customers to trade in their games in exchange for store credit.

Under orders from above to continue trading as normal, yes.

They've been offering extra to customers if they take store credit. They've also been pushing deposited pre-orders hard. Pretty sure this was planned all along and they have been taking goods and money from customers without any intention of paying anything back. Thieving scumbags tbh. Hope they burn (also got significantly less sympathy for the staff who have been party to this con).

 

Can confirm we only found out about store credit stuff (gift cards/points etc) at about 1pm today. We were still doing trade-ins for credit as I closed down the store I was looking after, and they were still going through. About an hour later they switched off the service on the tills.

 

Does anyone know which store he worked at?

It's still standing for now. However, the highest grossing store in our region was shut down today, so nobody is safe. We were stunned when we saw one closure in particular and it struck us all with a bit of fear. We've gone from having 20 stores down to, like, 12 in our region.

 

More on topic, I'm not massively arsed to seem them go. As long as Grainger Games continues, I'll have somewhere to browse. What I do miss and have done for a while now, is Gamestation before they were bought buy Game and then basically became the same store as them albeit with a different marketing slant and a darker interior design.

 

Check this hilarious news story out for an example of Grainger Games and their exemplary standards they hold themselves to.

 

I think yes douchebag of a company to GAME. I feel sorry for the staff at Gamestation Harrogate, they got shut down today whilst the vastly inferior GAME has remained open. A couple of the staff there have been there since before the GAME owned days so definitely feel for them.

I feel sorry for all the staff affected full stop. They are not the ones that made the mistakes, or caused this to happen, whatever anyones' skillset in retail. Whether they were the best SA or a fucknut behind a till they all lost their jobs for reasons which have nothing to do with them. As for GA/GS preference, it's intentional. I don't understand why people haven't been able to get the gist that Gamestation is targeted at gamers, whereas Game is for everyone and as such has to cater for everyone. Ultimately, though, they operate the same behind the scenes and follow the same practices (as dropped down by the regionals to both GA and GS stores).

 

Pretty sure the Gamestation and GAME in Bournemouth are now gone.

Not quite, both the GAME stores gone I believe? I remember trying to decide between Fable 2 and Fallout 3 when I was in the larger Game store, and going with Fable. And buying FIFA 09 in the one below Bookers for me and my flatmates to get hooked on. The store below Bookers had some really nice staff working there too. Real shame.

 

Well, the website is now down

Should be back tomorrow with "some changes" according to the GAME twitter.

 

What I'm now wondering is will there be a fire sale before the end of the week those that even make it until then?

No, other than the massive sale both brands have going on as of 2 weeks ago. Not that there's much good stock left. The stores affected all closed today, for good. Stock is being sent back to the central warehouse (probably to be redistributed to the open stores.)

 

And also said on the news here is GAME aren't even paying out any redundacies to staff and some staff are planning store sit-ins in protest.

 

Nope, the company is in administration and therefore cannot pay redundancy, however, the people in question can claim it from the state. Store sit-ins are allegedly happening in a couple of stores in Ireland now.. I hope they don't do themselves more harm than good and go and get a criminal record for trespassing. It sounds like a good idea to fight now (and I strongly believe people should stand up for their rights) but if they're not careful they'll only damage their futures and have themselves to blame.

 

I probably won't be on tomorrow or Wednesday but any questions I'll try and get through them. Though for the most part I know as much as you I hate seeing misconceptions that paint the front line staff in a bad light when it's simply not true - everyone I know has been fighting to keep us going for the past few weeks and should be recognized as having done so.

[canand]

But for GAME to have them is fine? Weird logic.

 

It's because I don't shop at shopto and the customer details should stay with Game

 

Is anyone going to buy Game Dyson?

[ipaul]

 

Check this hilarious news story out for an example of Grainger Games and their exemplary standards they hold themselves to.

 

Already well aware of that, I'm just not particularly bothered by it. It was very funny though.

[Iun]

Good to see that neither the Dover or Folkestone stores were hit. Sad to see the Reading Oracle branch go, I have a feeling that my old manager was transferred there after the Broad Street Mall Branch was closed down as he was promoted to District Manager and the Oracle Store was a flag store.

[McPhee]

Under orders from above to continue trading as normal, yes.

 

Can confirm we only found out about store credit stuff (gift cards/points etc) at about 1pm today. We were still doing trade-ins for credit as I closed down the store I was looking after, and they were still going through. About an hour later they switched off the service on the tills.

 

Apologies for any offence caused. The view I got of the way staff were behaving was based on experiences in my local stores last week. Maybe the staff were convinced that everything was fine, and that the silly trade-in prices they were giving for store credit were part of some master plan to save the company.

 

There was a board outside my local GAME advertising the Star Wars Xbox pre-order deal, with an extra manager's special discount if you traded in your old Xbox over the weekend. It's been common knowledge on the web for weeks that these consoles won't be sold by GAME, so I just saw it as the store manager's cheap ploy to get used consoles for effectively nothing. Similar situation with games, they were offering special prices with store-made advertising advising people to trade in anything they weren't using for credit as the prices will never be as good again. The whole thing annoyed me on Friday/Sunday when I was in town. When I saw the news this morning it really hit a nerve, over the weekend I only suspected the company was trying to rob it's customers. The news that they weren't going to accept gift cards confirmed it (It's also interesting that you were still able to issue store credit right up to closing. Were you accepting it to pay for goods? My local stores weren't. Not sure if they were still issuing it or not though).

[flameboy]

Hello, all.. It's been a while again but I thought I'd come here to see what the reaction has been to the closures, and it's pretty much what I anticipated to be honest. I'll get to a few posts now and answer them honestly to try and clear things up for you.

 

For those of you asking about me, I myself am still in a job. Our store was not closed today. However, I must have had some bad karma stored up as today I was running a store that was in fact closing down and as such was in charge of closing the store at midday, receiving the information via phonecall, passing it on to the team, and informing all of the staff that as of this Friday they were to be made redundant with no consultation. I then had to cash up as if it were the end of the day, safe and till floats and all and keep the team together to help with sending stock away until Friday, when they'll all be let go. It was a horrible, awful situation to be in, one in which a Senior Sales Assistant shouldn't be put in in the first place - and nobody should have to do it in another store they don't even work at. Those poor staff members.

 

So yes - today, I found I was safe for now, but had to do the heartwrenching job of telling the team I was with for the day they'd lost theirs having met some of them that very same morning.

 

It's still standing for now. However, the highest grossing store in our region was shut down today, so nobody is safe. We were stunned when we saw one closure in particular and it struck us all with a bit of fear. We've gone from having 20 stores down to, like, 12 in our region.

 

Nope, the company is in administration and therefore cannot pay redundancy, however, the people in question can claim it from the state. Store sit-ins are allegedly happening in a couple of stores in Ireland now.. I hope they don't do themselves more harm than good and go and get a criminal record for trespassing. It sounds like a good idea to fight now (and I strongly believe people should stand up for their rights) but if they're not careful they'll only damage their futures and have themselves to blame.

 

I probably won't be on tomorrow or Wednesday but any questions I'll try and get through them. Though for the most part I know as much as you I hate seeing misconceptions that paint the front line staff in a bad light when it's simply not true - everyone I know has been fighting to keep us going for the past few weeks and should be recognized as having done so.

 

Omg your story actually sucks why the hell should you be put in that position. A real story from the front line that flat out sucks. You should never have been in that position....of all the days to be locking up a store.

 

I also hate all the misreports doing the rounds. It just comes out of either the press reporting it incorrectly or people not knowing what administration actually entails and the processes it involves along with the protection it provides for a company (whether you feel they deserve it or not). I know a little bit from the Portsmouth FC stuff and from what my girlfriend learnt about at uni. A sit in isn't gonna really achieve anything if we are honest.

 

I'd just like to point out my comment about feeling sorry for the Gamestation staff wasn't meant that I don't care about the GAME staff just in my local town Gamestation is by far the better shop, both in terms of shop layout/experience and the staff. So that's why its a shame. What you wrote about the highest grossing store is crazy. I did think we would lose our GAME rather than Gamestation because it's in a real expensive (in terms of lease) shopping centre so thought it was perhaps better to save that money etc...but then its in a better location so perhaps more viable as a business.

[Happenstance]

ShopTo pulls "bad taste" GAME Reward Card promotion

 

Online retailer ShopTo has pulled a promotion that offered GAME Reward Card holders £3 off a game.

 

The offer, which was displayed at the top of the ShopTo website yesterday, encouraged new ShopTo customers to register and send in their now defunct GAME Reward Card to get £3 off of their first ShopTo order.

 

Some Eurogamer readers slammed ShopTo for being "utterly shameful", and criticised the promotion for "kicking the boot in" after GAME administrators yesterday closed 277 stores and fired over 2000 staff in the UK and Ireland.

 

ShopTo boss Igor Cipolletta told Eurogamer: "The administrators of GAME group announced yesterday that they had suspended the GAME rewards card. As a specialist games retailer we wanted to offer those GAME customers some value for their card.

 

"We have withdrawn this promotion immediately as some customers have suggested the promotion was in bad taste, which was never our intention."

 

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-03-27-shopto-pulls-bad-taste-game-reward-card-promotion