Paid Members Hannibal Scorch Posted May 10, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted May 10, 2022 (edited) @Mr_Danger  AEW Games presents FIFA 2025 Edited May 10, 2022 by Hannibal Scorch Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merzbow Posted May 11, 2022 Share Posted May 11, 2022 It looks like the shitehawks at GAME have decided that eSports gaming cafes are what's going to keep them alive, Birmingham has closed it's Bullring store and opened a new one in the giant Sports Direct. It actually looked decent but how many people are going to play eSports in store? Coventry is doing the same with the old BHS building being turned into something similar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members FLips Posted May 11, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted May 11, 2022 (edited) 37 minutes ago, Merzbow said: It looks like the shitehawks at GAME have decided that eSports gaming cafes are what's going to keep them alive, Birmingham has closed it's Bullring store and opened a new one in the giant Sports Direct. It actually looked decent but how many people are going to play eSports in store? Coventry is doing the same with the old BHS building being turned into something similar. It’s the reason I left the company. They closed our gaming arena, moved our store into the corner of a Sports Direct and then gave our arena to someone else after sacking all the staff there. Of the 12-15 staff we had in the retail/arena combined, nobody is left there. Every GAME will eventually be in a Sports Direct and I imagine in a couple of years GAME will cease to exist at all. The reason GAME is now filled head to toe with tat Trolls merch, dolls and shite is because Mike Ashley bought it all cheap from a warehouse and needed somewhere to sell it. We got sent it all as our store was relocating and got told to flog it all half price. Edited May 11, 2022 by FelatioLips Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Jazzy G Posted May 11, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted May 11, 2022 11 hours ago, Mr_Danger said: Been talk of it for a while. I believe FIFA wanted more control of the monetisation within the game and EA obviously make a shit load from FUT and didn’t fancy shelling out loads of money for the FIFA brand without the cash cow of FUT. FIFA didn't realise how lucrative the licence was when they signed the deal originally, and wanted more money when it came to licence renewal time. EA figure they can go it alone, I'm sure FIFA have got enough money that they can probably attract some developers away and get a game rustled up in time. It will be interesting whether EA Football or Soccer or whatever they decide to call it would sell as well as FIFA. You have to think Konami have missed an opportunity to get a few more sales by abandoning the PES name ahead of this happening, as that brand familiarity could have been helpful. FIFA & 2K? Its like a money grubbing match made in heaven. If anybody can egregiously grift money from people better than EA it's 2K. @MerzbowI know in Manchester the branch of Sports Direct in the Arndale Centre has a few Game branded racks of games on them. I wonder whether that's what's next there as well. There is room there, but they'd have to move a bit of their existing stock around. There used to be a nice little esports gaming type thing underneath that big HMV on Market Street. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members GlennCullen Posted May 11, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted May 11, 2022 EA have absolutely bottled the chance to make Roy Hodgson the new Madden, to be honest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wideload90 Posted May 11, 2022 Share Posted May 11, 2022 1 hour ago, FelatioLips said: It’s the reason I left the company. They closed our gaming arena, moved our store into the corner of a Sports Direct and then gave our arena to someone else after sacking all the staff there. Of the 12-15 staff we had in the retail/arena combined, nobody is left there. Every GAME will eventually be in a Sports Direct and I imagine in a couple of years GAME will cease to exist at all. The reason GAME is now filled head to toe with tat Trolls merch, dolls and shite is because Mike Ashley bought it all cheap from a warehouse and needed somewhere to sell it. We got sent it all as our store was relocating and got told to flog it all half price. GAME is a shithole and I have nothing but negative experiences from going there - being told they're checking for an Xbox 360 and leaving me stood like a twat for 15 minutes while they serve someone else, being charged 'disc repair' on several purchases even though I didn't ask for it or have products on disc and being goaded in to signing up for a reward card otherwise my trade-ins wouldn't be accepted (when they could) make me glad it's going down the toilet. Good riddance. To keep this on topic - the recent Lego Star Wars game is not as good as I hoped. Bugged to buggery and limited replay value on levels. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr_Danger Posted May 11, 2022 Share Posted May 11, 2022 (edited) 2 hours ago, Merzbow said: It looks like the shitehawks at GAME have decided that eSports gaming cafes are what's going to keep them alive, Birmingham has closed it's Bullring store and opened a new one in the giant Sports Direct. It actually looked decent but how many people are going to play eSports in store? Coventry is doing the same with the old BHS building being turned into something similar. Similar to GameStop in the States who at least had the excuse of being pre pandemic before deciding that they’d turn in to boutique gaming experience stores. Post pandemic it seems mad that these retailers think that something as perfectly remote as esports is the way to get people in to their stores. Edited May 11, 2022 by Mr_Danger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Accident Prone Posted May 11, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted May 11, 2022 (edited) As bad as GAME is/was, they will never match GameStation. I had a mate who worked at a Birmingham branch during their shutdown and after the till had closed on the very last day, the management team threw every last bit of unsold retro gaming software and hardware into a big skip. Consoles and games just broke and smashed, and the employees weren't allowed to buy or save anything as the manager kept saying "All this stock belongs to the liquidators now and they want it binned". I assume those managers were promised positions at GAME and other related retailers if they hugged the company line that badly during it's final death breath. They had a similar policy at Staples, where we were instructed to destroy perfectly fine computers, laptops and printers whenever one came in for a third-party warranty claim. Tech retail is full of this shit. Edited May 11, 2022 by Accident Prone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members PunkStep Posted May 11, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted May 11, 2022 2 hours ago, FelatioLips said: The reason GAME is now filled head to toe with tat Trolls merch, dolls and shite is because Mike Ashley bought it all cheap from a warehouse and needed somewhere to sell it. Ahh, this all makes sense now. Same with the budget end Nerf ranges that are filling the stores. When they started selling board games and other geek merch a lot more, I thought it made sense because the need to buying physical games is surely on the wane in a big way and so they needed to keep consumers buying other stuff linked to gaming. But with that cunt involved Game will end up with all kinds of shite that the Sainsbury's bag-carrying inflated Del-Boy wants to peddle that he got on the cheap. Expect calculators and mugs the size of small countries to be sold there soon with his rotten brand plastered all over them. What a fucking reprehensible man he is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TildeGuy~! Posted May 11, 2022 Author Share Posted May 11, 2022 Even if people still buy Physical editions of console games they’re not buying them from Game as they charge more then anyone else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Jesse Posted May 11, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted May 11, 2022 The Belong concept did very well for the CEO in charge of introducing it, as they sold it to an American company (keeping the license to continue doing them in the UK) and he went along with it to take a role at the buying company (and leaving behind the dying world of retail). They've been on this track since 2015 though, it's what they acquired Multiplay (where I used to work) to do - with the first one even being called the Multiplay Gaming Arena before they sold half the company and the name off to Unity and settled on the Belong branding. Afaik the goal was less to make money out of individual customers as it was to sell to publishers - either to get cash to promote their new/upcoming games, or to use it as a package deal to negotiate better retail rates and increase their margins there. I left years ago though, so no idea how it's actually performing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members FLips Posted May 11, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted May 11, 2022 2 hours ago, TildeGuy~! said: Even if people still buy Physical editions of console games they’re not buying them from Game as they charge more then anyone else. Before I worked there I had this mindset, but we made plenty of money tbh where cheaper shops like Grainger are gone. You underestimate the amount of people who won’t travel out their way to save a fiver, don’t like shopping online, or parents buying for kids who are out shopping anyway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TildeGuy~! Posted May 11, 2022 Author Share Posted May 11, 2022 I think the last title I bought from game was Dragonball Z Kakarot as there was a Game near where I worked at the time and it was release day. I remember the bloke behind the counter asking me If I also wanted to buy the DLC Season Pass (nothing for the game had been announced yet). I said No Thanks and he looked at me like I shit in his scrambled eggs and proceeded to ask me another 3 times before I told him I’d just buy the game from Argos if you won’t take my money for this right now, I then paid and he disappeared into the back rudely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merzbow Posted May 11, 2022 Share Posted May 11, 2022 (edited) Isn't there a lot of pretty horrid pressure put on workers to push things like that, I've heard horror stories about GAME management and the goals that are set to workers.   4 minutes ago, RalphyV2 said: I did wonder what the old Sports direct was going to turn into, will have to check that out if i go to Brum soon. I dont think these esports cafes will do well, too Niche and only appeals to a certain amount of people, and not enough for it to be successful in my opinion. These kind of places, having frequented a fair few of them despite being awful at games, tend to just attract the same people and rare any new ones come It's in the old Primark building IIRC, since that moved to where the Pavillions used to be. Edited May 11, 2022 by Merzbow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Jesse Posted May 11, 2022 Paid Members Share Posted May 11, 2022 Yeah, we worked out of Head Office for a bit and upselling at the till is often pure margin for them. Like the 'disc insurance' or whatever it was called - margins on games aren't huge, with the majority of it going back to the publisher so anything like that is essentially free money to GAME. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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