Video game retailers

[new member]

As long as there is no debt to the suppliers outstanding and GAME is waving a suitably sized wad of crisp £10 notes at supplier x, there is no reason for supplier x to decline product really. Unless supplier x really does want to be difficult of course and persuade GAME that they should cut preowned or provide some other kind of incentive.

[Asura]

There's literally no reason for people not to supply them now so they will, just it takes time to get people sufficiently high up in both organisations to sign the right things, especially as GAME basically HAD no higher up people for 2 weeks.

True. Plus there may be other admin work; I assume the new owners will want to have a stock and equipment audit.

[Pekoe]

http://www.gamesindu...that-saved-game

[Superunknown]

http://www.gamesindu...that-saved-game

No longer the powerhouse retail Goliath, coldly dictating terms to the industry, while greedily gobbling up pre-owned profit, the enfeebled chain has little choice now but to listen. Its future - still very much uncertain - depends upon it. And the biggest change to come from this rebalancing of power could be in the controversial second-hand trade.

One source, close to the negotiations, characterised the position starkly: "It has to be revenue share. It won't be acceptable to big players for it not to be. If they don't, they need to remember that companies were already prepared for life without GAME."

[ryodi]

Revenue share would be fine but the publishers would then be double dipping with that and online pass / new game content codes that is starting to appear in most new games.

[Straps]

Oh not this shit again. Where publishers got this sense of entitlement, I will never know.

[Oh Danny Boy]

There was a riot in the store at the Fort in Glasgow where I worked. Easily about 2000 people. Utter, utter chaos. Staff getting battered, the manager pulled over the counter, the place was ransacked, Just torn apart. One girl I worked with was brained by some arsehole with a basket full of DVDs. It was horrible.

The administrators released the news of them no longer accepting the giftcards on the radio that morning, and nowhere else, probably thinking that not many people would hear it, and hey! they put the word out there. The mall security, our security guy sand the police cleared the store and we closed the shutters. At that point I hadn't been paid for five weeks. A few people just didn't bother showing up for work after that day.

i thought that was just another day in Glasgow?

[SMD]

Publishers are going to end up fucking themselves in the arse, if they keep the same tactics but just try to claw more money back through retail then they're going to get a pretty nasty shock.

[footle]

Oh not this shit again. Where publishers got this sense of entitlement, I will never know.

Probably where they put the money up front for the product Game is selling in the first place.

[angel]

Interesting. On one hand, I was really pleased to get rid of Game from the high street. On the other hand, i'd like a proper retailer with decent prices doing midnight launches like the article says. If they sort their shit out and stop being so uncompetitive on price, i'd use them again.

[Couch Corpse]

Probably where they put the money up front for the product Game is selling in the first place.

But not the second place.

[sandman]

Went into a Game yesterday and it had barely any stock left. Almost half the shelving was empty - why havent they moved stock from the closed stores.

[Vespa Alex]

I suspect they would have recalled it all to a warehouse in preparation for it being sold of as a bulk lot by the administrators.

Now that's not going to happen it will take time to distribute it.

[Boozy The Clown]

So are the Irish folk still holed up their store ? It must be as ripe as a Gamestation by now.

[Dudley]

Revenue share would be a disaster for GAME because it would make them horribly noncompetitive (more so) on preowned.

Because they'll be paying the publishers twice or more for each game whereas Amazon won't and are too big to not be supplied.

And more to the point CEX will laugh in their face.

[SMD]

Publishers blaming retail is just another reason why they don't understand a lot of the market. This arms race is ridiculous, if you can't afford to compete then don't. FIFA used to trounce Pro Evo in the graphics department but Pro Evo outsold it every time it had the better gameplay. Gamers aren't that stupid, licences and graphics only get you so far.

Sending games out to die by releasing them alongside blockbusters, dropping the price so quickly you're practically penalising day one buyers, killing off online features after a couple of years and making games almost impossible to find new after a while are things they need to look at before even considering preowned markets.

Which have been around for ages, by the way, it hardly killed companies in previous eras.

[ontwofronts]

Revenue share on pre-owned only works if all the retailers operating a trade in model join in, otherwise Game would be uncompetitive having to include this margin in isolation.

I'm sure somebody in publishing must have crunched the numbers to see if it works out beneficial to set up a revenue share working to some degree as a retro against new stock purchases. There might be something in that. If it makes Game more competitive on new stock then you may see others pursue the same scheme while it would keep CEX in isolation. I'm not convinced but that's just a hunch, I don't know enough detail to assess properly.

[MagicalDrop]

New offer was advertised in store today, "Trade in any 3 games and get an extra £10 trade-in value. Ask staff for details". Across all formats. I didn't ask, but it sounds like a fairly attractive offer to boost stock levels - except people like me will hit the car boots tomorrow in search of ancient games for £1 and then pile even more FIFAs into Game. Unless of course the small print forbids certain titles. Sounds worth looking into, wish I'd asked now...

edit: it's been on HUKD for a few days now so sorry if this is old news!

[ZOK]

There is a feature on the legal issues of gift cards when companies go bump just about to come up on Moneybox on R4 in a minute-they didn't mention that it would be about Game, but I'm guessing it will be.

[Gringo]

"Trade in any 3 games and get an extra £10 trade-in value. Ask staff for details". Across all formats. I didn't ask, but it sounds like a fairly attractive offer to boost stock levels - except people like me will hit the car boots tomorrow in search of ancient games for £1 and then pile even more FIFAs into Game

Won't this just let people who bought loads of preowned in the sale before GAME went into administration merely bring back they the games they bought and get an extra £10 credit. Doesn't seem like the best idea unless there are stipulations in the small print as you said.

[Transient Curse]

Won't this just let people who bought loads of preowned in the sale before GAME went into administration merely bring back they the games they bought and get an extra £10 credit. Doesn't seem like the best idea unless there are stipulations in the small print as you said.

They haven't told you how much they're paying for all those £3 bargains. Or how much they'll be when they're back on the shelves.

[DjSatansfur3h]

New offer was advertised in store today, "Trade in any 3 games and get an extra £10 trade-in value. Ask staff for details". Across all formats. I didn't ask, but it sounds like a fairly attractive offer to boost stock levels - except people like me will hit the car boots tomorrow in search of ancient games for £1 and then pile even more FIFAs into Game. Unless of course the small print forbids certain titles. Sounds worth looking into, wish I'd asked now...

edit: it's been on HUKD for a few days now so sorry if this is old news!

Finding something to buy thats the problem!

[mushashi]

Revenue share would be a disaster for GAME because it would make them horribly noncompetitive (more so) on preowned.

Because they'll be paying the publishers twice or more for each game whereas Amazon won't and are too big to not be supplied.

And more to the point CEX will laugh in their face.

Without 2nd hand, GAME wouldn't have gotten this far in the first place, nobody doing brand new games as their only business can survive on the volume and current margins (their financials show this to be the unfortunate truth), unless you had a retail monopoly.

GameStop's latest bright idea is to become more like CEX, by flogging refurbed iDevices and Android devices, they just bought an American online company specialising in such things.

[Dudley]

Exactly. If GAME have to do this you might as well say goodbye to them now.

[TheShend]

I've a relative who works in one of the surviving Gamestations and he put this up on his facebook:

I don't normally post work stuff, but GAME are giving an extra £10 trade for every 3 games you trade in. So get rid of your shelved games before they come to their senses.

If you've still one open nearby you may want to take advantage of that.

[Paulando]

Are GameStation still doing the £1 price-beat on trade-ins?

[RIKT]

If you've still one open nearby you may want to take advantage of that.

I presume that's £10 extra on the entire job lot? If so then is an extra £3.33 on top of the derogatory prices they normally offer that much of a draw?

Until they start offering reasonable trade in prices (at least relative to what they sell them for) then fuck 'em - I'd rather give my old games away to family or friends and not have them have the ability to make a killing at my expense.

[earlymodernsteve]

Well, I took in The Darkness (2.98 from their Christmas sale) El Shaddai (4.98 likewise) and Shrek 3 (5 from HMV) and got £21.20 in trade so it is worth looking at the shelves of shame and clearing some stuff. The difference between trade in and sell price is minimal at the moment as they are obviously trying to restock the shelves now that they've secured a buyer.

[DjSatansfur3h]

I took in 9 shite games which were probably at best worth £1-2 each and got £44 for them, so wasnt too bad.

Couldnt actually find anything to spend it on though!

[BeeJay]

I went in at lunch with 18 worthless games, many of which were bought from the same store a few weeks ago for under £2 and walked away with a gift card for £97.50.

I will grab some more from my collection tonight and repeat tomorrow.