GAME enters administration

[Mr Posh]

Britain's biggest video game retailer, Game Group, has gone into administration.

 

It means there are serious doubts about the jobs of the staff at its 1,300 stores, 600 of which are in the UK.

 

The administrators from PricewaterhouseCoopers said that the retailer had suffered from high fixed costs and an ambitious international expansion.

 

Its business has been hit by competition from online-only retailers.

 

"Despite these challenges, we believe that there is room for a specialist game retailer in the territories in which it operates, including its biggest one, the UK," said one of the administrators, Mike Jervis.

 

"As a result, we are hopeful that a going concern sale of the business is achievable."

 

Game Group employs 385 staff at its headquarters in Basingstoke in Hampshire, and about 5,100 in its stores in the UK and Ireland.

 

About another 5,000 staff are employed at Game's other stores, which are located in France, Spain, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Scandinavia and Australia.

 

"This decision is taken after careful consideration and ceaseless interrogation of every possible alternative," Game Group said.

 

The stores operate under the Game brand, as well as Gamestation.

 

The company asked for its shares to be suspended last Wednesday and announced it was planning to call in administrators.

 

It followed confirmation that some suppliers had stopped doing business with the retailer.

 

I can't see who in their right mind would try and buy it as it is such an outdated business model. They are screwed on big game releases as the Supermarkets can afford to use games as a loss leader, they are pretty much nonexistent in the pc game market thanks to the likes of Steam etc. and then of course you can go online and buy pretty much anything they sell for cheaper on Amazon, Mind you I suspect they could cut costs quite considerably by not having about 5 stores in each town.

 

I hope they can be saved as I do quite like having a browse in there, but I can

[patiirc]

Funnily enough from what I've read around it the UK based stuff is profitable, so it isnt as much of an issue as is basically confirmed by the Administrators in the original post. It's the foreign markets, mainly Scandinavia and Australia and propping up the losses their which have contributed to its downfall

 

I suspect UK Game and Gamestation will be sold on in that respect to an equity group/Gamestop who will streamline it and then keep the rest going. as that part of the busniess isnt completely ballsed. I have been wrong before though

[PunkStep]

I'm sure I read Xbox are looking to go disc-less for their next platform, meaning downloadable games only. This certainly seems to be the future, and I can see others following suit (Nintendo will take a while to fully adapt, probably another generation). Like Mr Posh says, it's a bit of an outdated business model now. Not Game's fault, it's the way of the industry. Just think how much money will be saved in downloadable games rather than distributing games through a third party market.

 

Shame though, as wandering into Game was always one of my escapes from Saturday shopping with Mrs Punk.

[Big Benny HG]

I made sure to head to GAME and hastily convert all my unspent Christmas gift vouchers into Microsoft Points on Saturday, in light of the news.

 

The Gamestation store in Middlesbrough closed down at the weekend, too. They'd already removed most of the stock from the shop, but a lot of what they did have left was being sold off for

[Mr Posh]

If they do go under I would be more annoyed about the loss of Game Station than Game, there is always something quite amusing about the spotty nerds that work in Game Station telling you their thoughts about games or offering you advice about which HDMI cable you should buy etc.

[ColinBollocks]

A smug 'mate' is manager at the local Gamestation (after years of working to get the position) and I kind of feel sorry for him. It will be funny for a bit, because he - according to friends closer to him - started acting like King Shit because of his new found 'power' and money, but it sucks that he'll be on his arse after all the hard work he did.

[Cobra1000]

I have some friends that work in Game, and I too used to work there, feel absolutely terrible for them, however at the same time I'd still like to turn up and get something on the cheap...

 

On a side note, if the Games stores close in Belfast, the city has shops closing down left, right and centre! the city is gonna be deserted soon!

[Mr Posh]

A smug 'mate' is manager at the local Gamestation (after years of working to get the position) and I kind of feel sorry for him. It will be funny for a bit, because he - according to friends closer to him - started acting like King Shit because of his new found 'power' and money, but it sucks that he'll be on his arse after all the hard work he did.

 

They certainly do seem to be an interesting breed that works in Game Station, if they go under it would baffle me as to where they would get another job as most appear to be complete dribble kids apart from their super human knowledge of all things computer game related.

[Steve Justice]

A smug 'mate' is manager at the local Gamestation (after years of working to get the position) and I kind of feel sorry for him. It will be funny for a bit, because he - according to friends closer to him - started acting like King Shit because of his new found 'power' and money, but it sucks that he'll be on his arse after all the hard work he did.

 

They certainly do seem to be an interesting breed that works in Game Station, if they go under it would baffle me as to where they would get another job as most appear to be complete dribble kids apart from their super human knowledge of all things computer game related.

 

CEX.

[Deaq]

A smug 'mate' is manager at the local Gamestation (after years of working to get the position) and I kind of feel sorry for him. It will be funny for a bit, because he - according to friends closer to him - started acting like King Shit because of his new found 'power' and money, but it sucks that he'll be on his arse after all the hard work he did.

 

They certainly do seem to be an interesting breed that works in Game Station, if they go under it would baffle me as to where they would get another job as most appear to be complete dribble kids apart from their super human knowledge of all things computer game related.

 

CEX.

 

 

Funny enough a new CEX opened up in Glasgow. EVEYBODY in there used to work in a gamestation/game and moved before this happened. Any idea if prices will go down any more in the shops? I tried to pop on the sight but well..

 

Game :- http://www.game.co.uk/wcsstore/holding_pag...l?storeId=10151

 

Gamestation:- http://www.gamestation.co.uk/wcsstore/hold...l?storeId=10651

[Burchill's Buddy]

I'm sure I read Xbox are looking to go disc-less for their next platform, meaning downloadable games only. This certainly seems to be the future, and I can see others following suit (Nintendo will take a while to fully adapt, probably another generation).

It's still only really been rumoured so far and I can't see it happening so soon. I'd definitely not be surprised to see more future titles being on demand only, but while the Xbox and Playstation hype themselves more as 'entertainment systems' rather than 'games consoles' I don't think they'll cut out a disc drive while DVD movies remain so popular. I also think we'll see much greater backwards compatibility in the next generation and for that to realistically happen they need to have disc drives.

[BiffingtonClyro]

It's progress. The good thing about buying online is that you don't need to spend a second in the company of sweaty dinosaurs wearing Iron Maiden t-shirts. There used to be quite a lot of good independant shops in Glasgow like Game Zone and Gamesworld but when Electronics Boutique turned into Game those stores when to the wall.

[xear]

From Facebook

 

 

Dear GAME customers,

 

 

 

Here

[tiger_rick]

I'm sure I read Xbox are looking to go disc-less for their next platform, meaning downloadable games only. This certainly seems to be the future, and I can see others following suit (Nintendo will take a while to fully adapt, probably another generation).

It's still only really been rumoured so far and I can't see it happening so soon. I'd definitely not be surprised to see more future titles being on demand only, but while the Xbox and Playstation hype themselves more as 'entertainment systems' rather than 'games consoles' I don't think they'll cut out a disc drive while DVD movies remain so popular. I also think we'll see much greater backwards compatibility in the next generation and for that to realistically happen they need to have disc drives.

I thought reading it that it just doesn't seem feasible at all. They must still have millions of users who don't have the internet at home or have limited data. Then there's the DVD/blu ray problem.

 

I think the GAME business model has been in trouble for years. For anything small and slim, you will always get a better deal on the internet and the super markets really knacker them over. The experience of going out and browsing that will keep alive shopping for clothes and appliances just doesn't apply to games and dvd's and to a lesser extent, books too.

 

Pretty soon town centres will be almost empty apart from a 6 acre Tesco.

[Bus Surfer]

Surely we're years away from a 'download only' console. Broadband might be standard for most people, but not everyone has super fast download speeds and an unlimited cap.

 

It's bad enough having to wait while purchasing 1 gig's worth of DLC to your console, never mind a full game.