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Editorial: GAME Over?

Doctor Oak

Staff member
Overlord
Game.jpg


Has UK retailer, GAME, lost all its continues? Is it Game Over for buying video games offline altogether?

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Linkachu

Hero of Pizza
Staff member
Administrator
As geeky as it sounds, the majority of my favourite shops are specialist gaming and technology shops. If they all went out of business for reasons like those you detailed in this article, I'd likely never set foot in most shopping malls unless dragged to them by friends.

You hit the nail on the head in your last paragraph. Being able to shop at a gaming store is an experience, and countless times have I found a rare gem at EBGames that I never would've bothered with otherwise. It would be a great loss to lose those sorts of experiences altogether.

Even if this was UK centric, great read, Alex. ~:)~
 

Doctor Oak

Staff member
Overlord
Game have now cancelled pre-orders of The Last Story, due out tomorrow. That's two new Nintendo published titles in as many weeks. At this point, it could be unlikely that GAME will be able to secure any new Nintendo titles in their current state, which is a pretty big deal.

Really not looking good for them right now.
 

Demelza

Eevee Tamer
Staff member
Moderator
Doctor Oak said:
Game have now cancelled pre-orders of The Last Story, due out tomorrow. That's two new Nintendo published titles in as many weeks. At this point, it could be unlikely that GAME will be able to secure any new Nintendo titles in their current state, which is a pretty big deal.

Really not looking good for them right now.

It started looking bad once they started swapping the limited edition version for the normal version without telling people earlier this week.

But yeah, doesn't look good at all.
 

Doctor Oak

Staff member
Overlord
Well, it's basically all over for GAME now. They won't be stocking Mario Party 9 next week, basically putting paid to the idea that in their current status GAME could get their hands on ANY new Nintendo game. Adding onto that, they're not stocking any new EA game past SSX - including one of the year's biggest releases, Mass Effect 3.

If they can't secure any Activision stock, that's basically the majority of the publishing industry locked out to them. If something doesn't get done really quickly, GAME will probably collapse within months.
 

Linkachu

Hero of Pizza
Staff member
Administrator
=/

I can't imagine how they can get themselves out of this mess. A gaming store without new games, especially big name releases like Mass Effect 3, is barely a game store at all. I'm almost surprised that they haven't filed for bankruptcy yet.

After what you wrote in this article, I'm not sure whether to feel sorry for GAME or to accept that they had it coming. However, one thing is sure: this really sucks for gamers who supported them.
 

Demelza

Eevee Tamer
Staff member
Moderator
Linkachu said:
=/

I can't imagine how they can get themselves out of this mess. A gaming store without new games, especially big name releases like Mass Effect 3, is barely a game store at all. I'm almost surprised that they haven't filed for bankruptcy yet.

After what you wrote in this article, I'm not sure whether to feel sorry for GAME or to accept that they had it coming. One thing is sure: this really sucks for gamers who supported them.

Not stocking Kid Icarus will happen, final blow, calling it. I think a lot of us are surprised to have seen them hold on so long honestly, specially when the stocking problems have effected a lot of releases this month, across platforms.

They might have had it coming, but losing a store like this from high streets will be very sad sight indeed. Really, we'd only be left with HMV then, and while GAME going down might be just enough to keep them going awhile off passing trade etc, I wonder how long they'll be able to hold out. I know GAME falling apart currently sent them a fair bit of trade, anyone who wanted the Lost Story went off to them for it.

Only time will tell what happens, but GAME really is a lost store now.
 
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