UK game retailer goes into administration (out of business)

[GigaPepsiMan]

With the userbase here being mostly american I'd imagine many of you have not heard about this. Trouble has been brewing here for a few weeks now, the United Kingdoms biggest Video Games Retailer is the GAME company who also own a second chain called GameStation, they also owned Gameplay.com who was once a very well known web retailer.

Anyway long story shot things have gone bad, gameplay was shut down and then game stopped stocking games, the nail in the coffin was when they announced that they would not be stocking Mass Effect 3 which was a big deal because the Limited Edition was suppose to be a GAME exclusive pre-order, since then everyone has stopped sending them games.
Nintendo has stopped stocking them (they didn't get MArio PArty 9 and they are not getting Kid Icarus), Microsoft refuse to sell them xbox consoles (So no limited Edition Star Wars Xbox whixh was heavily promoted), Ninja Gaiden 3 was just cut as was Prototype 2, Capcom wouldn't let them stock Street Fighter X Tekken, Activision has dropped support and of course EA not giving them games is a big deal because it means GAME cannot stock FIFA Football games anymore, which much like your Madden NFL games sell millions of copies in our country.
Basically imagine gamestop not being able to stock madden, that is what has happened with GAME.

The company went into administration today and as far as I am aware (this is just rumors) the current plan is to shut down ALL gamestation stores, take note there are hundreds of GameStation stores in the UK and the company also plans to shut down 50% of the GAME stores, there are over 500 GAME stores in the UK.
This is a last ditch effort to keep the company alive, to give you an idea of how bad it is for them GAME company owe £180,000,000 Great British Pounds to the bank, that is the same as $285 million United States Dollars.


To show I'm not lying about this.
http://www.metro.co.uk/tech/games/89377 ... -stay-open

[AppleQueso]

So what all caused all this to happen?

[GigaPepsiMan]

So what all caused all this to happen?

They were doing really bad business.
Gamestation was once a really good indipendant games retailer winning several indipendant retailer of the year awards, then Blackbuster bought them a good ten years ago and then 5/6 years ago game bought Gamestation off blockbuster which was good for blockbuster because gamestation was losing money.

Many people have bashed game for how the business was run, we are talking stuff like having 3 Game stores on one street, I know this happens, I've been to places like wolverhamption, in the space of a 5 minute walk you have 2 GAME stoes as well as a gamestation store.
Also game tell the staff to be very pushy with sales, in other words staff will always walk up to you to either ask if you are after anything or in the worse case try and make you buy/pre-order something.
Game also got a lot of stick for their prices and trade ins. We are talking brand new games coming out at £40 RRP, having a trade value of £23 and being sold second hand for £37.99. There are many more things people dislike GAME for but at the end of the day the business died because it was ran by people who did't know that they are doing or just didn't care.

Anway looking at the news all gamestation stores are shutting down next monday.

[Opa Opa]

Kinda sounds like... GameStop...

[GigaPepsiMan]

Kinda sounds like... GameStop...

Game don't stock old games.

Gamestation used to be very big on retro but then game took over, all retro games were either sold off cheaply, online through ebay or thrown into a landfill.

[AppleQueso]

Kinda sounds like... GameStop...

Game don't stock old games.

Gamestation used to be very big on retro but then game took over, all retro games were either sold off cheaply, online through ebay or thrown into a landfill.

Gamestop hasn't stocked retro in a long time.

[GigaPepsiMan]

Kinda sounds like... GameStop...

Game don't stock old games.

Gamestation used to be very big on retro but then game took over, all retro games were either sold off cheaply, online through ebay or thrown into a landfill.

Gamestop hasn't stocked retro in a long time.

Oh... I always thought it had.

Anyway there have been rumors for years now that gamestop have wanted to buy GAME, I wouldn't be surprised if Gamestop opened in the UK once (if) GAME goes out of business.

[Reprise]

UK member right here, and this fucking sucks

GAME and Gamestation are pretty much our only 2 games shops left in this country

And, they are the only two games shops in my area.

Screw GAME though, they completely ruined Gamestation! Seriously. That was my favourite game shop, then Blockbuster bought it and it still stayed cool, but they expanded it. Then Game bought it and just turned it into "GAME 2". What was the point, other than taking control of their competitor? They said they wanted to keep Gamestation as a separate identity to appeal to different, more hardcore game fans, but then got rid of most/near all their retro stock, which was one of the store's biggest assets. So that was a lie.

Things are really shit here, because over the years I have watched independent game shops close, all the major chains close down (or shut down stores), then Gamestation and GAME were the two biggies left. Then GAME bought Gamestation. Now both will go down the dump. Then what do we have left? Online shops like Amazon, Play and Ebay. Greeeeat...

[Stark]

What is "administration", is it like bankrupcy court or something?

[Ziggy]

^ I was thinking the same thing.


The description of Game above definitely sounds like Game Stop here in the USA. Pushing sales and pre-orders, having many stores on one road. Around where I live, no matter where you are, you're really close to a Game Stop. There's practically one in every town.