Video game retailers

[unleashedmaniac]

2 hours ago, Dudley said:

You'd think but I've been in a lot of CEX since lockdown and they've all been perfectly fine, the one GAME I remember seeing with an actual outside recently (Oxford Cowley) was entirely a phone front window.

 

The CEX? Xboxes, Playstations and a Mega Drive among the outside visible stuff.

 

Templars Square is an interesting place, but usually worth a visit for the CEX. Sometimes some good bits there!

[sandman]

Game have kinda become an irrelevance to me. As one of the rare forumiites who still used to shop there I kinda realised that it’s CEX or nothing since my two closest stores closed a few weeks back. And the one on the way to work is never open at a sensible time so there’s only the tiny store at Redhill left and that’s a good 20 minute drive.

 

TBH I’ve been buying less and less in there over the last year or so. But as on oldie who fucking hates buying online it’s still a shame. 
 

And CEX is still a fucking gross place to shop most of the time. The real dregs of society 

[Dudley]

Yeah, I got into a conversation about James Pond with the guy behind the counter.  He was enjoying the name (I was buying it on MD) and even more so when I explained Robocod existed.

[phillv85]

I think the last thing I bought from any of the companies owned by Game was Skyrim on 360 from Gamestation when they had that ridiculous offer of it brand new for £22.50 either on release on shortly after. It was about £15 cheaper than either Amazon or Shopto at the time. I don’t think I’ve been in a Game store for a good few years, but last time I was, releases that were over months old were still £50. They did something that looked fairly cool in my nearest one when Fallout 4 was coming out. They made a Fallout style bunker on a Mezzanine, but it didn’t get me buy anything.

[Captain Kelsten]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2020-09-22-game-adds-gbp10-delivery-charge-to-ps5-and-xbox-series-x-s-pre-orders-on-the-quiet

 

Game adding £10 delivery charge to Xbox series X/s and ps5 preoders on the sly. 

[Dudley]

And even more dodgily, charging £10 to collect.

[gossi the dog]

They charge £5 for posting you a game which if anything is more outrageous.

[kiroquai]

Having a fun time trying to cancel my GAME pre-order for the PS5 at the moment. Sent three support tickets to them about the order, all of which have received a seemingly stock reply of 'sorry you couldn't make your order with your GAME account - don't worry, we will sort out the reward points once the order is processed!'. Tried the automated system on the GAME UK Twitter DM's that does have a 'Cancel Pre-order' button... which then links you to a page to claim on product warranty instead. Sent them and the GAME Help Twitter account both DM's asking them to get back to me about cancelling the order and had nothing back.

 

Half expecting that if I phone them up and tap through an automated answering system that I'll somehow end up getting forwarded to an adult chat line instead or something equally ridiculous

[David Heath]

This thread:

game is awful

they treat customers like shit

their service is abysmal and i hate them

i hope they go out of business

 

Also this thread:

guys, i ordered something from game and it's gone wrong pls help

[ChewMagma]

If you wanted an All Access Xbox deal though they were the only retailer aside from Smyths (who had an equally woeful day) offering it.

[Hello Goaty ♥]

Game, Electronics Boutique, Gamestation, CEX, Gamestop  etc...  Grainger games for some of you....

 

I haven't bought anything from those shops since the Xbox 360 and PS3 era too.

 

Amazon are my go-to people now, and Shop-To now and again.

 

How are they all still in business???  ( apart from CEX which of course is more or less Cash Convertors for Geeks! )

 

 

 

 

[Luseth]

1 minute ago, Hello Goaty ♥ said:

Game, Electronics Boutique, Gamestation, CEX, Gamestop  etc...  Grainger games for some of you....

 

I haven't bought anything from those shops since the Xbox 360 and PS3 era too.

 

Amazon are my go-to people now, and Shop-To now and again.

 

How are they all still in business???

 

 

 

 

I imagine because they wern't relying solely on your business.....

 

Also aren't only game and CEX still going? So whilst the pool of people that still go into a store to buy stuff isn't as big, neither is the pool of stores for them to go into.

[Hello Goaty ♥]

2 minutes ago, Luseth said:

I imagine because they wern't relying solely on your business.....

 

 

 

[Luseth]

3 minutes ago, Hello Goaty ♥ said:

 

 

 

It's just a matter of time I think by the end of this gen they'll be gone with many more people being digital only

[kiroquai]

28 minutes ago, David Heath said:

This thread:

game is awful

they treat customers like shit

their service is abysmal and i hate them

i hope they go out of business

 

Also this thread:

guys, i ordered something from game and it's gone wrong pls help

 

 in my case, I've never had a problem with their online side of things! Granted I only get a couple of things from them per year, but they're always on-time and as expected. This time, though... yeah I think we can assume I've learned my lesson.

[MattyP]

54 minutes ago, David Heath said:

This thread:

game is awful

they treat customers like shit

their service is abysmal and i hate them

i hope they go out of business

 

Also this thread:

guys, i ordered something from game and it's gone wrong pls help

 Why do people still use Game? If they feel that strongly about the poor service of a place DO NOT USE THEM go somewhere else more deserving of your money. No point moaning about it  Just change your shopping behaviour.

 

Personally use them to offload old hardware from time to time. Only when they offer better deals over somewhere else. That is it. Internet for every other gaming thing I need. Even my old stuff I put on FB marketplace and Gumtree most of the time. Only Game/CEX when the price is better and I can't be arsed with the run-around you get when trying to sell stuff sometimes. 

[dumpster]

Hypothetical, but what would happen to Game if lockdown causes all non essential stores to close and the lockdown period covers the dates for the launch of Xbox Seres and PS5?

 

Supermarkets would still be open, Amazon would still be shipping, Argos would be open inside Sainsburys.

 

But we know that shops like Game tend not to make money all year round and rely on console launches, christmas sales etc.

 

I know we have been asking if Game is finished since 2011, but I bet this could the the straw that breaks the camels back.

 

I wonder if the implications for the marketplace would see Sony and Microsoft delay their launch until out of lockdown.  But I bet the CEO and head office teams at Game are shitting themselves right now.

[JohnC]

Would they be allowed to be open on a click and collect basis? Argos and Gamestop here are both open for click and collect only under our current highest level of restrictions.

[tnman]

Not to tread on the COVID-19 threads' toes, but I find another lockdown with all non-essential shops closed as a condition very unlikely. The current government have made it clear they want the economy open.

 

That said, if it did happen, you'd have hundreds of heavily disappointed customers who would get a very delayed console. Perhaps they might be able to redirect stock to online, contact customers and have their order ship from the website's warehouse, but I don't think even in this day and age that they've linked their bricks and mortar with their online experience so would find that unlikely.

[gossi the dog]

54 minutes ago, dumpster said:

Hypothetical, but what would happen to Game if lockdown causes all non essential stores to close and the lockdown period covers the dates for the launch of Xbox Seres and PS5?

 

Supermarkets would still be open, Amazon would still be shipping, Argos would be open inside Sainsburys.

 

But we know that shops like Game tend not to make money all year round and rely on console launches, christmas sales etc.

 

I know we have been asking if Game is finished since 2011, but I bet this could the the straw that breaks the camels back.

 

I wonder if the implications for the marketplace would see Sony and Microsoft delay their launch until out of lockdown.  But I bet the CEO and head office teams at Game are shitting themselves right now.

 

They have Mike Ashley’s deep pockets bank rolling them and very short rental leases. They’ll be fine.

[teddymeow]

I wondered the same about Smyth's and any click and collect pre-orders. I'd hope they would move everything to a home delivery order but, certainly with Smyth's, each pre-order is separate so you'd hope they'd change their system and send everything in one shipment otherwise you could be waiting for more than one delivery driver.

[SeanR]

My son bought that there FIFA shirt thing in GAME yesterday. Cheaper than a sodding Arsenal shirt...

[djbhammer]

1 hour ago, dumpster said:

Hypothetical, but what would happen to Game if lockdown causes all non essential stores to close and the lockdown period covers the dates for the launch of Xbox Seres and PS5?

 

Supermarkets would still be open, Amazon would still be shipping, Argos would be open inside Sainsburys.

 

But we know that shops like Game tend not to make money all year round and rely on console launches, christmas sales etc.

 

I know we have been asking if Game is finished since 2011, but I bet this could the the straw that breaks the camels back.

 

I wonder if the implications for the marketplace would see Sony and Microsoft delay their launch until out of lockdown.  But I bet the CEO and head office teams at Game are shitting themselves right now.

They already confirmed via social

media a few weeks back (and today actually) that anyone with a console instore pre order would be contacted to arrange alternative arrangements in the event of any shop

closures. So they wont be affected from the console day 1 sales at least. It’s in their interest to have a contingency as they only have the £10 deposits so will be keen to collect the remainder!

 

 

 

 

[Shimmyhill]

I haven’t bought anything in a Game store for ages but sporadically use them online and it’s always been easy - on time and no issues. I have my series X preorder with them on all access and no delivery fee....

 

Shopto are just awful these days, amazon are obv pretty evil but get a pass - Game almost feel like plucky underdogs  

 

 

[deerokus]

16 hours ago, tnman said:

Not to tread on the COVID-19 threads' toes, but I find another lockdown with all non-essential shops closed as a condition very unlikely. The current government have made it clear they want the economy open.

 

 

It's already happened in Wales and there's a region of Scotland where it's very likely to happen. 

[StumpyJohn]

17 hours ago, dumpster said:

Hypothetical, but what would happen to Game if lockdown causes all non essential stores to close and the lockdown period covers the dates for the launch of Xbox Seres and PS5?

 

Supermarkets would still be open, Amazon would still be shipping, Argos would be open inside Sainsburys.

 

But we know that shops like Game tend not to make money all year round and rely on console launches, christmas sales etc.

 

I know we have been asking if Game is finished since 2011, but I bet this could the the straw that breaks the camels back.

 

I wonder if the implications for the marketplace would see Sony and Microsoft delay their launch until out of lockdown.  But I bet the CEO and head office teams at Game are shitting themselves right now.

 

16 hours ago, djbhammer said:

They already confirmed via social

media a few weeks back (and today actually) that anyone with a console instore pre order would be contacted to arrange alternative arrangements in the event of any shop

closures. So they wont be affected from the console day 1 sales at least. It’s in their interest to have a contingency as they only have the £10 deposits so will be keen to collect the remainder!

as already mentioned switching any in-store orders that are to locations where shops are locked down to postal delivery is the only really sensible option.

 

MS and Sony are certainly not going to mess up their launches and all the marketing spend by delaying things because a part of the legacy distribution channel is at a bit of a disadvantage 

Even if they were going to temporarily delay, how would they pick a new date against a backdrop of a rolling patchwork of local and national closures?

[Dudley]

11 hours ago, Shimmyhill said:

I haven’t bought anything in a Game store for ages but sporadically use them online and it’s always been easy - on time and no issues. I have my series X preorder with them on all access and no delivery fee....

 

Shopto are just awful these days, amazon are obv pretty evil but get a pass - Game almost feel like plucky underdogs  

 

 

 

To be fair, I risked ShopTo for Watch Dogs and got it safely a day early.

 

[macosx]

I traded my boxed pristine Pro in last week and was offered the lower price as the assistant had used his behind the counter electron microscope to find dirt /aka dust in the embossed silver logo. Jokers.
“did you order your PS5 at Game?” He asked in vain.

[Isaac]

On 29/10/2020 at 20:14, dumpster said:

 

I wonder if the implications for the marketplace would see Sony and Microsoft delay their launch until out of lockdown.  But I bet the CEO and head office teams at Game are shitting themselves right now.

 

There is no way this is happening. GAME need them more than they need GAME.

 

On 29/10/2020 at 20:19, tnman said:

Not to tread on the COVID-19 threads' toes, but I find another lockdown with all non-essential shops closed as a condition very unlikely. The current government have made it clear they want the economy open.

 

 

 

It's looking like this is exactly what's happening next week.

[Dudley]

Sony and Microsoft aren't going to delay a worldwide console launch in order to slightly help out Mike fucking Ashley.

 

They would be perfectly happy if GAME died.