GAME announces closure of 19 stores

There's two in Cambridge, within half a mile of each other. Hmmmmm! I wonder...

Posted:2 years ago

There are two in Portsmouth two minutes walk from each other and one Gamestation located right down the street.

This company really does play some dirty games.

Posted:2 years ago

Last time I looked there were three in Reading town centre plus a Gamestation. When you walk in and see the prices of new titles compared to online it's amazing they've lasted this long. Any notable constriction of the secondhand business would kill them...

Posted:2 years ago

At least two in Nottingham, and a Gamestation

And in Birmingham City Centre.. there used to be at least 3 in the one shopping center (BullRing, and Pallisades attached to the Bullring).. and was a minute between each one if that not including the couple of Gamestations around..

Posted:2 years ago

2 games in the middle of swindon town centre as well as the debenhams and gamestation. I think that a lot of these multiple game stores in a city center is due to electronic boutique pulling out of retail in the uk and game taking over there stores

Posted:2 years ago

Most towns have at least 2 GAME stores + a Gamestation, it's not surprising they're cutting down the amount of stores they have.

Posted:2 years ago

two in Newcastle, in the same shopping centre!

Posted:2 years ago

sad, GAME used to be my favourite store...but buying online is just so much cheaper now

Posted:2 years ago

The two in Guildford have closed down in the last two weeks.

Posted:2 years ago

you all know Game and Gamestation are owned by the same company :-). For new games i turn to Zavii.co.uk cuts the competition in half

Posted:2 years ago

Its about time publishers actually got together and bought a piece of this action, I mean, the industry keeps complaining about how much second hand sales are killing it. Why don't you actually get involved yourselves then?

Posted:2 years ago

@Andrew: This situation with Vs piracy (usually drawn upon as the primary reason for poor sales in ) is so very common. If you take a look at iTunes on the music side of things - yes, they have a huge catalogue and are very successful, but what percentage of worldwide music lovers that *would* like to legitimately purchase music, use a store such as iTunes? Surely cannot be more than a few percent - imagine if all the record companies banded together themselves and became an alliance - they could topple iTunes overnight with the right price point.

It's exactly the same with the games industry - which is why second hand sales are booming... people are tired of paying ~£50 for the latest chart title to find out that it sucks or they complete it in half a dozen hours.

TLDR: I agree with your statement!

Posted:2 years ago

When Game bought Electronics Boutique I did wonder about closures, and sure enough they shut the EB stores within 2 years. When they bought Gamestation I wondered how long it would take for the same to happen. There used to be 2 Game stores at either end of Bournemouth, now we have Gamestation and Game within spitting distance of each other. I hope Gamestation stays as the staff In my local store seem to understand the consumer better and provide great customer service, something UK retail seems to lack these days.
With EA doing their online pass system and other publishers soon to follow, the second hand market will become unsustainable forcing the closure of many game only retailers. On the other hand it could cause a major price war as retailers try to combat this trend.

Edited 1 times. Last edit by Steven Moulsley on 30th January 2011 11:34am

Posted:2 years ago

In Northampton there used to be 2 in the same shopping centre, virtually on top of eachother on seperate floors, there is also a gamestation 3 minutes walk from them. Its seems strange that it isnt considered a monopoly in the dedicated games retail industry, considering every other chain store usually only sells games as part of its stock. and the independants must be going the way of the dairy farmers too. If game thinks they have problems with digital downloads then the independants certainly do. I did work experience at Gamestation (only a few weeks after the takeover) and the workers there where worried that gamestation would just become a clone of GAME, and it looks like they have.

Posted:2 years ago

I just hope they don't shut down the GAME in Leeds where I have my 3DS pre-order. That'd be a bit of a balls...

Posted:2 years ago

Likewise; there's a Game and a Gamestation about 60 seconds' walk apart in my local town, and two Games a few hundred meters apart in the town where I work. I appreciate having so much high street presence creates a high entry barrier for other companies looking to break into UK videogames retail, but I don't understand why they didn't realise sooner that having so many excess outlets was creating millions of pounds in unnecessary overheads, and at least slowly begin to shut some of the superfluous stores (before a financial scare forcing their hand).

Anyway, I hope the company is able to pull through and those made redundant can find work again.

Posted:2 years ago