Video game retailers

[sandman]

Just when you thought the game/gamestation shopping experience couldnt get any worse (What with piss poor trade ins, terrible staff and a crap product range) they have started charging more than anyone else for new releases.

HMV, the only real highstreet competetion that game group has, seem to be charging £37.99 for all their new releases.

How long will these high prices at game/gamestation continue? Is it permanent?

I have been using them for as long as they have been around, but this really is taking the biscuit and once my trade in card is used up I wont be using them again. And i'll make sure I get UC3 done in under 10 days so I can swap it for skyrim - fuck em.

[Not Thread Owner]

Batman was £35 in HMV on release day, and £50 in Game. Not even a special edition, although HMV gave you a free T shirt.

[womblingfree]

The HMV in Kingston, next door to Game, had signs up all over '35.99 here, 42.99 in Game!'

Game must surely be going bust imminently?? Who in their right mind shops there?

[scottcr]

The HMV in Kingston, next door to Game, had signs up all over '35.99 here, 42.99 in Game!'

Game must surely be going bust imminently?? Who in their right mind shops there?

I'm getting Zelda there coz I've got a few bob worth of loyalty points to use...

[Marlowe]

I'm still bitter about the Competition Commission approving the Gamestation takeover. Such bullshit, and unsurprisingly stuff like this has been the result.

[Pochacco]

Sad thing is it's not even a 2.5% rise on the 17.5% VAT. It's more than that.

But we being savvy shoppers shouldn't let this bother us too much - there's always deals to be had.

[Down by Law]

I have £90 in credit on my Gamestation card i will seemingly never spend as it grieves me to buy their overpriced stock even with credit.

[womblingfree]

I'm getting Zelda there coz I've got a few bob worth of loyalty points to use...

Do they still charge for their loyalty card?

[Down by Law]

I'm still bitter about the Competition Commission approving the Gamestation takeover. Such bullshit, and unsurprisingly stuff like this has been the result.

I worked at Gamestation when this was announced. Hilarious how the management tried to put a positive spin on it, the same management telling us to 'fight the enemy' as it were for years. The MD fucked off to Asda and the Game crew made error after error, spending millions of pounds on a scheme to get gamestation stores to 'stack games better in the back' and sticking in their useless tills. Left at the arse end of 2009 just before the Modern Warfare 2 launch, horrible place to work. Not long after they made tons of staff redundant, and got rid of Game's MD with a million pound payoff, yep right after they sacked everyone.

[watusi]

I have £90 in credit on my Gamestation card i will seemingly never spend as it grieves me to buy their overpriced stock even with credit.

I'm the same, I've £85 to spend but still went elsewhere to pick up uncharted this morning.

What bugs me the most is you can't buy anything without being force fed a load of crap about trade in's and offers.

[NecroMorrius]

High street prices, sigh. Buy from an indie or buy online, game/gamestation are absolute pisstakers of the highest order. Last time I went into gamestation to buy ICO, I paid over the odds for it and got a loyalty card, preorder for Modern Warfare 3 and an offer to buy Ico back once I'd finished it all shoved down my throat. I know they're only doing their job, but it's extremely annoying.

[angel]

They do have occasional uses. Last weekend I bought Xenoblade and a black Wii Classic Controller Pro. They price matched Grainger Games for £33 quid instead of £40, and they'd mispriced the pad at £15 so had to sell it to me for that.

They're a hopeless shop to be sure, but the staff know they're working for a shit company. Shame for all the mums going in there spending £43 quid per new release when they're £35 in the shop literally opposite.

[routeburn]

Some current New Zealand prices, taken from EB Games website, converted using Google currency conversion tool:

Skyrim PS3: $128 (63 quid)

Saints Row The Third: Smooth Criminal Edition PS3/360: $138 (68 quid)

Uncharted 3: $128 (63 quid)

Gears of War 3: $98 (48 quid)

Assassins Creed Revelations 360: $118 (58 quid)

Highstreet prices for new (and new-ish) games in New Zealand are stupidly high. We're a PAL country and included under the Australia / New Zealand umbrella for pretty much all releases. This tends to be a straight shipment of European English titles which are just passed through the local certification process.

There's ~20 million people in Australia, and ~4.5 million in New Zealand, so a total market size of around 25 million. Console ownership is pretty high across both countries with a similar proportion of Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo to the UK (I'd guess).

The problem is, particularly in New Zealand, that it's a small market with very little competition (both online and on the high street), and no economies of scale to drive prices down. Therefore, in order to get anything at a reasonable price, it's off to play-asia, yesasia, videogamesplus etc. for imports. Increasingly, this is causing problems when it comes to DLC compatibility (as I encountered with GT5).

[moosegrinder]

Keep us updated on prices.

Who cares about inflation, yeah?!

It's not inflation, it's Christmas.

[Down by Law]

Dead Island : £47.99 after launch

LOL

[Salsa Party Animal]

To New Zealander - import the games from Europe / North America. As you will get them cheaper. try www.amazon.co.uk and www,play.com

[Naysonymous]

I know this really good website which sells games cheaper than Game/Gamestation. It is quite obscure, so you might want to bookmark it.

www.amazon.co.uk

[Wagster]

The last game I bought at retail was at Special Reserve, great shop that, shame they went under.

[pinholestar]

New titles are about £70 here in Sweden. I couldn't believe my eyes when I first saw the prices. Absolutely fucking mental, although everything seems ludicrously over-priced here so I guess it's not that surprising really.

But then I buy all my games from Amazon, have them shipped to me for free & have done for years. I genuinely cannot remember the last time that I bought from a high-street shop. Unless you're a Christmas present-buying mum who doesn't know any better or you're trading old games in, then I'm baffled as to why you would these days?

[nfx]

To New Zealander - import the games from Europe / North America. As you will get them cheaper. try www.amazon.co.uk and www,play.com

Neither of those sites ship games to Aus/NZ. Some do though, e.g. The Hut/Zavvi and OzGameShop. However, some games do have DLC issues, and most shops won't accept them as trade-ins.

Prices in Australia are as bad as NZ, Alice Madness Returns and Shadows of the Damned are still $108 (£70) in EB Games.

[bradigor]

I don't mind my local Gamestation, the customer service in there is actually pretty decent.

[cavalcade]

Highstreet prices for new (and new-ish) games in New Zealand are stupidly high. We're a PAL country and included under the Australia / New Zealand umbrella for pretty much all releases. This tends to be a straight shipment of European English titles which are just passed through the local certification process.

There's ~20 million people in Australia, and ~4.5 million in New Zealand, so a total market size of around 25 million. Console ownership is pretty high across both countries with a similar proportion of Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo to the UK (I'd guess).

I live in France. It has over 3 times the population of Australia and New Zealand combined. Most supermarkets carry new games at 70 euros a pop here (60 something quid), second hand prices are incredibly high, nothing depreciates and there's also the lottery whether the game will have English support or not.

I also have shit broadband.

So, chin up eh?

[Ravern]

Keep us updated on prices.

Who cares about inflation, yeah?!

Except UK wages are very low, so they're not facing higher costs from inflation, you astoundingly ignorant cretin.

[tnman]

Eh, GAME in being crap shocker.

I use ShopTo now.

[Harsin]

Game senior management have made the decision that they won't even attempt to compete on price. Hilariously they think things like extra costumes and golden guns and spamming people with 'Pre-order Title X and get 500 reward points' junk mail will make people pay an extra £5 to get it from them rather than a shop two doors down. Sorry there's also their "expert advice" of cou... hahahahahahahahahaha!

Game must surely be going bust imminently?? Who in their right mind shops there?

[Transient Curse]

I think Gamestation are alright, I can't think of having had a bad experience with them in the 4-5 shops I've regularly used. I was a bit sad to see Camden Gamestation go, as far as a retail experience goes I thought it was about right.

However, I too ended up with loads of credit that I refused to spend on highstreet game prices. I was looking to use it on hardware but couldn't see anything on the horizon I wanted. I dumped £300 odd of Gamestation credit on Microsoft Points to make sure I wasn't stuck with credit for a shop that no longer existed. At the time I thought they'd be gone imminently but I guess it'll be Summer next year now?

EDIT: Those policy changes are a bit crap aren't they.

[djbhammer]

I was in GAME today and saw Uncharted 3 was £42.99.

Walked 3 mins to Sainsburys and it was £37.99.

I buy all my new releases online, there are discount codes normally doing the rounds for Tesco Entertainment, Sainsburys etc. Most of my latest games have been around the £33 mark. plus Quidco of course!

[scissorkicks]

How times change. I remember trying to get Left 4 Dead on release day, and HMV wanted £49.99 for it.

Cor Special Reserve. I remember going to the Sawbridgeworth place (OG, yo) on Xmas Eve 1992 in a rush to buy an external floppy drive for my Amiga - in anticipation of a full holiday season of tune-making with Octamed. Then on my way out, I managed to wrap the passenger side of my car around a lamp post in the Car Park. Good times.

[JoeK]

The only time I seem to buy from GAME these days are on the odd occasion when they have some decent stuff in those 3 for £10 PC games. Whilst most of the time it's pretty naff, they have had Mass Effect, Ass Creed and Dead Space up. And whilst I tend to buy from Steam, sometimes the thought of downloading GBs of stuff puts me off.

Aside from that, they have nothing. Blockbuster regularly kicks their arse when it comes to pre-owned stuff at the best of times too.

There is however, a very fit bird working in my local one. So it's not all bad I guess.

[angel]

I was in GAME today and saw Uncharted 3 was £42.99.

Walked 3 mins to Sainsburys and it was £37.99.

I buy all my new releases online, there are discount codes normally doing the rounds for Tesco Entertainment, Sainsburys etc. Most of my latest games have been around the £33 mark. plus Quidco of course!

Always sealed too, GAME still gut their boxes. It's like they want to fail.