GAME UK Saved By Private Investors

24 responses to “GAME UK Saved By Private Investors”

1. 

   oggob

   April 2, 2012 at 10:09 am

   Sounds like just the UK arm of the business, or are they taking on the entire Global business also

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2. 

   Snakee

   April 2, 2012 at 10:14 am

   Sounds just like the UK arm, doesn’t it?

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3. 

   matt30822

   April 2, 2012 at 10:17 am

   I am suprised that they found a buyer to be honest, yet alone someone so quickly that plans to keep the UK arm relatively intact.

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4. 

   Eighty7

   April 2, 2012 at 10:18 am

   who cares, all specialist gaming stores are going to disappear eventually. It’s just a matter of time until consoles stop dealing with physical media and stand using a “steam like” system which will kill both normal game sales and pre-owned meaning the only thing left for them to sell is hardware and i doubt the stores can survive on that.

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   1. 

      f4ction

      April 2, 2012 at 10:29 am

      The 3200 people who faced instant job losses probably cared, at least now they’ve got time to look elsewhere.

      Reply
   2. 

      Snakee

      April 2, 2012 at 11:56 am

      Till digital get this whole “selling” thing down pat (which could take awhile) retail will still be a significant channel for publishers. Look at the current full games you can download on PS3 or Xbox 360, most of them are way overpriced and can be bought for usually $30 LESS at retail. It should be the other way around they want it to work.
      Steam WAS a cheap channel, and still is if you go through cd-key re-sellers, yet the actual Steam store is highly priced and again, cheaper in retail stores. Going through re-sellers of cd-keys is not something the mainstream market will pick up, I know a handful of people that play exclusively steam games, and even they didn’t know you could go to another website and buy cheap cd-keys, or put retail keys into steam.
      There is definitely room for retail, and even more so a specialist, for gaming.

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      1. 

         Mic

         April 2, 2012 at 12:47 pm

         Steam is mostly cheaper, just that a number of the big name publishers(Ubisoft, Activision) match local store prices. :/

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         1. 

            Snakee

            April 2, 2012 at 1:49 pm

            Sorry, they go beyond retail prices I have compared for new releases. MW3, Skyrim, Saints Row, Anno 2070 all above what retail.
            Mic, they price on what they want the RRP to be (which is never near what it actually is in this current environment.)

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      2. 

         Eighty7

         April 2, 2012 at 12:54 pm

         steam still IS a cheap channel, the only real exceptions are usually AAA+ titles that are as or mo0re expensive than retail because local publishers want to protect retail.

         most of the games are a fair price and if you purchase during one of their many sales you can get amazing bargains.

         when retail game sales die then prices on digital sales will drop.

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         1. 

            Repneiras

            April 2, 2012 at 1:24 pm

            “because local publishers want to protect retail.” should be “because local publishers want to keep screwing over retail.”

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         2. 

            Dr. B

            April 3, 2012 at 10:45 am

            Ummmmm that’s not how the market works. Once there is no competition, the prices will go up!

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   3. 

      Snacuum

      April 2, 2012 at 1:58 pm

      Every thread about retail we get somebody banging on about how nobody should care and praising the coming storm of digital distribution. It’s getting bloody annoying, some people DO care about retail, and give no care for systems like steam.

      How about neither go down huh? That way people can get their boxes and online game rentals.

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      1. 

         Eighty7

         April 2, 2012 at 6:23 pm

         ” some people DO care about retail, and give no care for systems like steam.
         How about neither go down huh? That way people can get their boxes and online game rentals.”

         like you are a dinosaur desperately clinging to your old boxed copies, the fact is boxed copies these days are rubbish and you are lucky if the game comes with anymore than a disc in a cheap plastic box. its not like the only days where the box was designed by people who care and came with maps for the game and instruction booklets that were like small novels.

         as for the “online rental” swipe at steam which i can only assume is because we are buying a licence to play rather than a copy i fail to see how it matters? i still get to play the game as much as i want and down the track i can easily reinstall the game (with all the latest patches automatically added).

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         1. 

            Snacuum

            April 2, 2012 at 8:05 pm

            Actually my praise of boxes was related to the ideology of game ownership, you might think big corps will be happy to treat your licenses as something you own forever but they get to call the shots on that. Nobody will be taking my boxes unless it’s from my cold dead hands, I can enjoy the fact that I can play my games in the future even if distributors feel I’ve expired my rental period.

            Also it’s pretty poor to sling insults like ‘dinosaur’ at people who are likely approximately your age or even younger than you, especially when the antiquated system they enjoy is perfectly functional.

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            1. 

               Eighty7

               April 3, 2012 at 12:24 am

               In regards to calling you a dinosaur i was not referring to your age rather i was referring to the “ideology” (as you put it) that you hold towards boxed copies.
               and your fear that distributors would one day randomly decide my licences have expired is rather irrational (imo) and unlikely.

5. 

   Boomzzilla

   April 2, 2012 at 10:28 am

   $130,586,248 by 333 stores means 392 grand per shop plus whatever other assets GAME had.Seams a bit high to me as the brand is permantly damaged.Who would buy a gift-card or plunk down a cash deposit on a game with them now?
   They still have the supply issue to work out as well.The big publishers will have them over the barrel now and could still withold stock if GAME keep pushing pre-owned.
   Unfortunatly without pre-owned GAME’s bussiness is not viable as profit on new stock is in the order of 5-10% to stay competitive.They might have to chose between the profitable income from used versus getting new stock to sell if the publishers play hard ball.
   Either way GAMEs days of having thier cake and eating it too may be over.

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   1. 

      DogMan

      April 2, 2012 at 11:27 am

      True, but always keep in mind that game stores without EA games are about the scariest thing EA can imagine. Publishers are jerks but they’re jerks who want to make money. EA views every Activision sale as a lost EA sale just like Ubisoft see every pirate copy installed as a lost sale.
      I’m not saying they won’t take advantage of a weakened GAME but it looks like the stores will stay open for at least another six months thanks to the new money. They’ll be reluctant to give GAME any wriggle room because they’ll see the potential for them to rack up debt before they die, but they’ll have to balance that with their desire to not let 333 video game stores sell Call of Duty without Battlefield on the shelf next to it.
      Forcing them to abandon the used game model would probably shatter that balance. Although I guess they’re pretty smart guys. They might think up a way to muscle their way into the used game money while the chain is vunerable rather than simply destroying a profitable arm of the company.

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6. 

   FlyCre

   April 2, 2012 at 11:22 am

   Hopefully that means GAME Australia is saved cause EB are D!cks! I know that prices can be cheaper somewhere else and online and things like that but sometimes you just want to have a browse in a store that just sells games – maybe grab a bargain? maybe see something you never would have looked for online? maybe laugh at the prices? Either way if its not there you can’t. GAME seem to try hard and hopefully it pays off! Good Luck GAME Au!

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7. 

   Prof. Ake

   April 2, 2012 at 5:02 pm

   Did they honestly pay a single pound for the entire franchise?

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   1. 

      SomeGuy

      April 2, 2012 at 9:28 pm

      plus 85 million dollar debt

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8. 

   HappilyMAC

   April 2, 2012 at 9:35 pm

   I would just like to mention off topic that Tracey Lien is not worthy of a Journalist status. Her articles are so second hand information and not always entirely true, and most of the time just copied from MCVUK. By reporting what is happening in the UK and not being more specific about the issue being isolated to the UK has effected GAME’s Australian business. I was talking to a friend who is an employee of GAME and he said their sales are so bad of late because of speculation on the internet about the sustainability of the company and that people read this garbage and then want to cancel pre-orders, redeem their points, or start shopping elsewhere out of fear that the iconic GAME brand is in the firing line. You need to look at the adverse effects your false reporting does to the industry, and know that we don’t just read Kotaku, we know where your cut and paste journalism is coming from Tracey.

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   1. 

      LF1MTank

      April 2, 2012 at 11:47 pm

      By that definition every guy on the US site should have their job titles removed. Just off the top of my head the last good piece I read by Tracey was her interview with the new lead designer of AC3. That was what, last week? Her newest piece is on her outing at some game creation workshop (global game jam?) that I’ve yet to read but I’ll probably get to it. Last piece written by someone from the US site worth reading? Honestly don’t recall… Granted I’ve probably read more Mark’s pieces, he’s been here longer, stuff Tracey writes is of no lesser quality when it’s an actual article piece.

      You make it sound as news in general isn’t copy and pasted from one site to another.

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   2. 

      Tracey Lien

      April 3, 2012 at 10:47 am

      It’s a GOOD thing you know where the stories are coming from. We credit where we aggregate our stories from — we’re not trying to claim stories as our own.

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   3. 

      f4ction

      April 3, 2012 at 11:25 am

      Oh man, this comment is brilliant in it’s stupidity.

      Reply