WHAT PLAY YOU!? Version 3.0

[Jesse]

55 minutes ago, FLips said:

I worked at GAME as this happened and the stores started getting binned into the corners of Sports Directs and filled with tat. It was a nightmare but you’ll be somewhat relieved in a sense that most of the staff left in the company are not staff that experienced it. People got let go or voluntarily quit en masse back in 2020/2021.

I was in Head Office at the time (was brought in as part of the Multiplay purchase, and worked across events/Belong stuff. We'd already had two waves of redundancies pre-Ashley, and by the time I left we were down to about four rows of desks total. Worst years of my life, and delighted I got out when I did given what's happened since.

[RedTwoster]

I know we’re moving to a predominantly digital landscape, but it’s such a shame that gaming is as popular and lucrative as it is, yet we’re moving to a situation where there are almost no standalone video game shops on the high street. I miss the days where you could nip into GAME, Gamestation or G-Force (in Glasgow) and browse, picking up a game you’d never heard of based on a recommendation from staff (Gamestation was particularly good at this); or picking up import games long before they reached the UK - G-Force was great for this, and I picked up Chrono Trigger and some of the DS Pokémon games in that way, alongside Jump Ultimate Stars. It sucks for the staff, sucks for the consumer and sucks for the high street.

I won’t hold my breath, but I would love to see games stores make a comeback.

[DavidB6937]

One of the best thing about stores has always been having a browse or a chat with staff and finding something new. Scrolling through online just isn't the same.

[BomberPat]

I do wonder if games shops can possibly have anything like the resurgence of record shops.

When I was in Jersey I used to work with a few Business lecturers who really focused on retail, and they'd go to these Chamber of Commerce meetings where there was always some guest speaker talking about how to revive the high street, and it was always ideas like high-end fashion or something really niche, or attracting huge brands to come into the island, and I'd always have these conversations with the lecturers afterwards about how they missed the point, and how record shops were one of the few areas of retail that were experiencing growth. 

Received wisdom was that they sold a limited number of things, all of which were better catered for on Amazon, so they'd never be able to compete. But the reality is that most record stores saw greater competition from the likes of HMV and Virgin than they did from online shopping - these huge shops that offered a greater range of choice than they ever could. The shops that survived all of that then actually started to do really well while the big stores went downhill or collapsed entirely; because if the only thing HMV could offer you was choice, they were the ones who couldn't compete with Amazon. But a shop that, like @DavidB6937 said, can offer conversation, expertise, a bit more of a curated collection and experience, is offering you something that online stores never can.

I just don't know how far gaming shops could replicate that - yes there's steelbooks and special editions that might encourage you to buy physical, but the industry as a whole is committing way too much to digital-only, and too few small and indie games get a physical release at all, so you'd be pulling from a very limited pool. So then their only other options for more physical stock is either retro gaming, which requires a whole different approach to your business, or merchandising, and that just leads you down the same road as GAME of gradually giving up more and more of your shelf-space to Funko Pops and plushies.

I hope there's a way back, but I don't think the games industry as it is can support just brick and mortar shops selling new games and nothing else.

[SuperBacon]

My first ever job was in a pawnbrokers* in Crawley. We (quite shamefully) paid as little as £2 per PS2 game.

Anyway, one day the local Electronics Boutique were handing out flyers and had a poster on their window which said "Exchange 4 games for a new game" so I tested the water and took in 4x copies of Fifa 02 and swapped it for a brand new shiny copy of PES3, which I sold for £24, undercutting everyone in town (Comrade Karl, I'm sorry)

Then I gathered up all the copies of all the FIFAs, all the games no one ever bought (around 40) and took them in to EB to swap for 10 copies of PES3. The manager was really reluctant until absolute nobhead 18yo me pointed out it didn't say 1x per customer and didn't state any other stips, so it was only fair they honoured the promo.

The next day there was a handwritten sign next to the promo stating "1x per customer, NO FIFA, NO WRESTLING GAMES" 

I have no idea when EB went under, but I like to think I unwittingly played a part.

 

*absolutely hated the job, but was desperate and young.

 

[Ironic Indie Lad]

1 hour ago, RedTwoster said:

I know we’re moving to a predominantly digital landscape, but it’s such a shame that gaming is as popular and lucrative as it is, yet we’re moving to a situation where there are almost no standalone video game shops on the high street. I miss the days where you could nip into GAME, Gamestation or G-Force (in Glasgow) and browse, picking up a game you’d never heard of based on a recommendation from staff (Gamestation was particularly good at this); or picking up import games long before they reached the UK - G-Force was great for this, and I picked up Chrono Trigger and some of the DS Pokémon games in that way, alongside Jump Ultimate Stars. It sucks for the staff, sucks for the consumer and sucks for the high street.

I won’t hold my breath, but I would love to see games stores make a comeback.

G-Force was great and my go to shop for decades. 

Used to buy Pokémon cards from there, import games, get batteries replaced on retro stuff.

You can still get a glimpse of it in its glory days on old episodes of ConsoleVania

[RedTwoster]

1 minute ago, Ironic Indie Lad said:

G-Force was great and my go to shop for decades. 

Used to buy Pokémon cards from there, import games, get batteries replaced on retro stuff.

You can still get a glimpse of it in its glory days on old episodes of ConsoleVania

Did you ever go to the short-lived retro games shop in Shawlands? I absolutely loved that place.

At least we still have Forgotten Worlds in Stewarton, although I wish they’d move somewhere a little bit more accessible by foot. 

[DavidB6937]

And it's basically why towns are dying - because either shops don't offer that kind of service anymore, or not enough people want it. Probably somewhere in the middle.

When I was young, going to town would be a day's activity. I'd go to the comic book store. I'd go and listen to music in HMV or Virgin or whatever. I'd play some of the game demos in various shops. I'd go to Games Workshop. You'd do all these different things as well as browsing and buying.

Now with everything online it's just not that experience anymore and that's a real shame.

I think you can still get it in some local stores and occasionally in places like book shops if you get an enthusiastic staff member who wants to talk about their favourite books etc, but on the whole it's a real dying art.

[Jesse]

1 hour ago, BomberPat said:

*A great post that I don't want to replicate here for space*

This was part of the logic behind the original pitch for the 'Belong' gaming setups for GAME (we built the first one ourselves, before the branding was made, and it was called the 'Multiplay Gaming Arena' or somethign equally daft). A recognition that physical was dying, but that there might be room for something more social & expertise-driven in the space. I don't think they ever really figured out the financials of it though, too many people lodged in the physical sales history of GAME wedded to the idea that this was a way to increase footfall and time spent in order to then sell them more stuff from the stores, rather than a chance to build something completely new from the ashes.

Lots of poor locations with limited space, built to be attached to dying GAME stores rather than targeting what I saw as high value spaces for the brand (things like walking distance from university campuses). I don't know how it went - I ditched esports in general as a dying UK industry and moved into content creation/influencers very early into the Belong strategy - but it seemed like one of the things that was never likely to survive long-term under Mike Ashley

[Ironic Indie Lad]

1 hour ago, RedTwoster said:

Did you ever go to the short-lived retro games shop in Shawlands? I absolutely loved that place.

At least we still have Forgotten Worlds in Stewarton, although I wish they’d move somewhere a little bit more accessible by foot. 

When was that there? I lived in Shawlands in 2015 and 2016 and think it was perhaps before my time?

Was it in the Shawlands Arcade?

Clydebank had a G-Force in the shopping centre there which shut down long before the Glasgow one. Truly one of my favourite memories is going to there with my childhood best friend. He got Pokémon Gold, I got Pokémon Silver. US imports and the official strategy guide. Beautiful times. 

They also used to have a very basic trade in system where a top game (Metal Gear Solid 2) was 1. A shit game (last years Fifa) was 4. You could trade a 1 for a 1 with no extra money etc. 

There used to be a games shop right beside Partick station in the 90s as well. I have vague memories of trading in all my Super Nintendo and Mega Drive stuff in 1998 and ALMOST getting enough store credit to buy Mario 64

[RedTwoster]

20 minutes ago, Ironic Indie Lad said:

When was that there? I lived in Shawlands in 2015 and 2016 and think it was perhaps before my time?

 

I can’t find much about it online, other than a post on a forum that indicates it was around in 2012, at least. Weirdly, it’s the kind of shop that I think would do better now. The fact Forgotten Worlds is as rammed as it is every weekend suggests there’s scope for something like that in a larger city. Dundee, with its gaming community, would be ideal for something like that.

23 minutes ago, Ironic Indie Lad said:

Clydebank had a G-Force in the shopping centre there which shut down long before the Glasgow one. Truly one of my favourite memories is going to there with my childhood best friend. He got Pokémon Gold, I got Pokémon Silver. US imports and the official strategy guide. Beautiful times. 

I got Pokémon Soul Silver in the main Glasgow, complete with the Poke walker! I picked up loads of Japanese DS imports from that store m; things like Jump and Starfy - I don’t think I’d be anywhere near as passionate about gaming as I am if not for G-Force. It’s such a shame that it’s no longer around.

I’d definitely recommend Forgotten Worlds if you’ve not been there. It’s an utter drain on my wallet, because they have pretty much anything and everything you can think of from gaming history for sale. 

[Merzbow]

Retro game shops seem to be doing pretty decently these days, there's a really good one in the center of Leicester that manages to mix up proper game stuff and merch tat really well. Last time I went in I managed to grab Fire Pro Wrestling on the GBA for less than a tenner.

[DavidB6937]

Shops like that are what I love finding when we've gone away on holiday to random places and I never know what's around in the area. Always great when I find something like that or a second hand bookshop.

[TildeGuy~!]

The only local Video game store to me was Game but that shut down last year, I rarely went there due to their pricing of games anyways, I buy all my physical copies of games online, in regards to retro stores we have nothing like that here that I’m aware of(North London) when I watch videos that collectors make on YouTube these stores seem to overprice things anyways.

[RedTwoster]

This might be helpful for some of you - someone has attempted to make a searchable directory of all independent retro games stores in the UK. There are a few gaps in Scotland; and while it’s perhaps generous to categorise some of these stores as ‘retro’, it’s about as comprehensive a list as I’ve seen and the person who made this deserves a lot of credit as it’s genuinely great. Independent games stores deserve support, retro or otherwise.

Edited November 26, 2024 by RedTwoster