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[MrNyarlathotep]

Actually Michael French did a great article in MCV(10/02/12) basically calling out people who want GAME done in and what it means for the high street in general regarding specilist game reatilers.

It's a "great article" if you have a vested interest in seeing Game survive as a retail chain for some reason - or if you have been misled into thinking you do. There's a reason it was posted as an opinion piece.

Game shutting down is going to mean the end of gaming magazines?
Lol.
Gaming magazines are dying anyway, and propping up Game plc isn't going to change that even if gaming print journalists were hoping for a game informer + game stop type of relationship to bail them out temporarily.

The follow up piece about gaming doing better than ever while Game value plummets sort of undermines the stance that Game are critical to the industry too.

 

[x3r0123]

hmm so what's happening to GAME? I only found out about this today and I'm worried about my preorder

 

[BlazingDarkness]

hmm so what's happening to GAME? I only found out about this today and I'm worried about my preorder

Nothing yet, you don't need to be worried

 

[Queen of Hunting]

was speaking to the manager in my local game station.

he was saying alot of stores on the first week of release will only stock pre orders only, so if there is any on the shelves its because people didn't get there's after a few days.

he also said in alot of place either a game or game station store will close down depending on how close and how much money they take in.

in there situation there is a game down the road which takes in what they take in a week in 1 day. so the game station store is being closed.

game and gamestation are also selling dvds now (was only blu ray before )

 

[x3r0123]

Nothing yet, you don't need to be worried

great, thanks

 

[Linkified]

It's a "great article" if you have a vested interest in seeing Game survive as a retail chain for some reason - or if you have been misled into thinking you do. There's a reason it was posted as an opinion piece.

Game shutting down is going to mean the end of gaming magazines?
Lol.
Gaming magazines are dying anyway, and propping up Game plc isn't going to change that even if gaming print journalists were hoping for a game informer + game stop type of relationship to bail them out temporarily.

The follow up piece about gaming doing better than ever while Game value plummets sort of undermines the stance that Game are critical to the industry too.

Urgh. But I think you misread the opinion piece: it specifically talks with the publishing aspect without Game there will be less published games in the uk, plus this is the EiC of MCV I think he knows a bit more behind the scenes, meaning less advertising in both print and online not just game centric but all outlets.

 

[Facism]

lol saw a GAME tv advert for The Darkness 2, with "while stocks last" as the advert ends.

 

[Chopper]

lol saw a GAME tv advert for The Darkness 2, with "while stocks last" as the advert ends.

Ha ha. I just noticed that! You're watching QI aren't you.

 

[Carbonox]

Where do you people live? I have two Tesco stores in my town.

Both have the following:

1) Top 20
2) Top 20 budget chart consisting of older titles and Classics/Platinum
3) Section for 15 or so Kinect or Move games depending on platform.

You are lucky to get even a top 20 in GAME these days.

My Tesco is the same as yours it seems. My town has two big Tesco stores but the original one that's been here for years has a more robust entertainment section and as such, has the above variety of titles. The newer one not so much.

Then we have an Asda which has a fairly sizeable gaming section as well, probably bigger than that of Tesco's.

Our town has a ridiculous amount of stores to buy games from, brand new and second hand. GAME/Gamestation going out of business wouldn't make a huge difference (if they closed down, that would only be a small minority of ways to obtain games gone). I never see a packed out GAME store, and a lot of people are savvy to the cheaper deals in the supermarkets where bigger titles are concerned, as they are the ones with queues for midnight openings and whatnot, whereas the same can't be said for the specialist stores.

I buy my games on Amazon though. I never purchase in-store. That is one thing that I don't have in common with many of my friends though as they seem more content to purchase in-store.

I wonder how it is for people in other towns and the people they know.

 

[MrNyarlathotep]

Urgh. But I think you misread the opinion piece: it specifically talks with the publishing aspect without Game there will be less published games in the uk, plus this is the EiC of MCV I think he knows a bit more behind the scenes, meaning less advertising in both print and online not just game centric but all outlets.

I didn't misread the piece; I understand exactly what he's claming, but its entirely layered supposition based on the assumption that Game is - somehow - good for the games industry as a whole.
You have to believe that as a starting point for the piece, as there is no evidence at all for the claims within it.

That is a stance that most games publishers don't take (project ten dollar), most game developers don't take, and every single rival retailer doesn't take.
It's also not the reality of the (more recent) article of the current health of the UK games market.

He might as well say; without Game, less games get made. With less games made, more troubled teenagers are on the streets. With more on the streets, crime goes up. As crime goes up, the police are busier. With the police busy, terrorism increases. Then one day ninjas kidnap the president. Are you a bad enough dude to recue him? terrorists blow up sellafield, and the UK becomes a radioactive wasteland, and all for the want of a nail because Game stopped defending us.

It's as ludicrous a stance as suggesting the sweets market crashed because when Woolworths died nobody could buy pick and mix.

 

[Keyser Soze]

hmm so what's happening to GAME? I only found out about this today and I'm worried about my preorder

The only thing to worry about is the fact you've preordered something

 

[kyo_daikun]

Haven't been in a Game store in months, basically because its always the same stuff and im lazy and just order my stuff online.

Have got a Vita preorder with them tho as I had £110 of reward points to use up, good thing as well if they are sliding towards going bust.

 

[Linkified]

I didn't misread the piece; I understand exactly what he's claming, but its entirely layered supposition based on the assumption that Game is - somehow - good for the games industry as a whole.
You have to believe that as a starting point for the piece, as there is no evidence at all for the claims within it.

That is a stance that most games publishers don't take (project ten dollar), most game developers don't take, and every single rival retailer doesn't take.
It's also not the reality of the (more recent) article of the current health of the UK games market.

Unfortunately your wrong. Here is proof:

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/industry-rallies-around-troubled-game/091006

Secondly, other retailers? I assume you mean supermarkets - Morrisons and Sainsbury are pathetic(Top 20 all charts), Tesco and Asda are slightly better with maybe(Top 20 Consoles and a Top 20 Handheld, and in ASDA a load of preowned games - which I wouldn't touch with a barge pole). But in all honesty, Game still actually have more games sold in the store than the supermarkets at least here in the north east.

 

[Brera]

Pre-orders are for suckers.

GAME took what was once a kind gesture for hardcoregamers to a form of hardselling. The very existance of it is a joke.

 

[Gen X]

When I was living in Shepards Bush, London a couple of years ago I went to trade in some games at GAME in Westfields, got a quote for the prices and then walked around the corner to Gameplanet by Shepards Bush Green and they were offering me around £10 more for the same titles, while the games on the shelf were £10 cheaper. This was a little indie store, granted it was tiny and they usually ran out of new releases quite fast.

GAME need to sort their shit out. They offer bugger all for trade ins then have the cheek to charge more. If their overheads are high then they need to look at their premises/locations and if their sales are low then they need to do a bit of a revamp on how they manage things. There is a reason why people queue up at Asda on release day or go to these other chains. They need to do something like offer new release games at cut throat prices then encourage other deals as well once you are in the shop. Don't charge high prices to make up for lost sales, charge lower prices and get more customers back. Would you rather sell a few games at £45 of a hell of a lot more for £35?

I dunno, I'm a bit out of the loop on prices there since I left but for the 4 years I was there I rarely bought from GAME unless they had a sale on. Gamestation was my preferred choice and there was also a great little store in Acton as well that had some of the cheapest prices I had seen for off the shelf products.

 

[MrNyarlathotep]

Unfortunately your wrong. Here is proof:

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/industry-rallies-around-troubled-game/091006

Secondly, other retailers? I assume you mean supermarkets - Morrisons and Sainsbury are pathetic(Top 20 all charts), Tesco and Asda are slightly better with maybe(Top 20 Consoles and a Top 20 Handheld, and in ASDA a load of preowned games - which I wouldn't touch with a barge pole). But in all honesty, Game still actually have more games sold in the store than the supermarkets at least here in the north east.

I'm wrong to say most publishers don't think Game is entirely expendable, because a very small selection of publishers supported them? And by supported, I mean they made some PR statements about helping - Microsofts was hardly a ringing endorsement other than a vague 'we support retailers'.

Do you notice any particular publishers absent from that list of supporters?
For example; EA, Activision, THQ, Ubisoft, Sega, Bethesda, Take 2, Nintendo, Sony, Capcom, Namco, Warner Bros?

Compare the response to HMV.

EDIT:
And no, I don't just mean supermarkets.
Other retailers includes independents, other franchises like Grainger games, other mixed media entertainment high street retailers (like HMV) as well as all internet based retailers.
Do you think anyone in competition with Game give a shit if they go?

 

[ScreenSplitter]

I'm wrong to say most publishers don't think Game is entirely expendable, because a very small selection of publishers supported them? And by supported, I mean they made some PR statements about helping - Microsofts was hardly a ringing endorsement other than a vague 'we support retailers'.

Do you notice any particular publishers absent from that list of supporters?
For example; EA, Activision, THQ, Ubisoft, Sega, Bethesda, Take 2, Nintendo, Sony, Capcom, Namco, Warner Bros?

I don't blame Nintendo for not singing their praises, they promoted the 3DS like shit. They're doing the same with the Vita. Unless they can sell it RIGHT NOW FOR MONIES, they don't care.

 

[MrNyarlathotep]

I don't blame Nintendo for not singing their praises, they promoted the 3DS like shit. They're doing the same with the Vita. Unless they can sell it RIGHT NOW FOR MONIES, they don't care.

Game have been giving Nintendo the minority of floor space for as long as they've existed; it arguably made sense to do so for the N64 and the Gamecube, and it never made sense for the GBA / DS / Wii.
That's literally like HMV refusing to sell pop music because they don't think it's cool.

Games major profitability is in the secondhand market, which - regardless if you believe this to be true or not - has been openly attacked by publishers as cannibalising new sales.

So;
- we have a 'specialist retailer' with obvious bias against one of the three major hardware manufacturers (and against handhelds in general, including the PSP)
- we have a 'specialist retailer' that has ignored a major platform in gaming (the PC) and (if you choose to believe the industry gossip) actively attempted to harm UK PC gaming by denying titles on Steam
- we have a 'specialist retailer' whose business model has been openly criticised as harmful to the industry as a whole by the largest producers in the industry
- we have a 'specialist retailer' who is actively disliked by a significant portion of its targetted consumer base
- we have a 'specialist retailer' that does not compete particularly well on either price nor selection with other 'bricks and mortar' retailers that are not a 'specialist retailer' in the field, let alone with more agile internet based 'specialist retailers' that are, where it literally does not compete at all

 

[show me your skeleton]

as I had £110 of reward points to use up

good lord man!

 

[migulic]

What I'm wondering is, are there general 'electronics supermarkets' in the UK which sell games? I mean the kind of shops where you can just walk in and buy a TV, a laptop, a fridge... Media Markt and Saturn come to mind, at least here in continental Europe. Those seem to be the biggest gaming retailers here (together with general 'multimedia' stores which sell music, movies and games)...

Where I live (Belgium) there's one 'specialist' game store chain which is pretty bad - high prices, small selection, rip-off trade-ins.. Seems like most people either buy their games online from the UK or at those big electronics stores like Saturn. The big supermarkets which sell everything tend to have a pretty small selection of games, and their prices aren't too good either.

 

[MRORANGE]

What I'm wondering is, are there general 'electronics supermarkets' in the UK which sell games? I mean the kind of shops where you can just walk in and buy a TV, a laptop, a fridge... Media Markt and Saturn come to mind, at least here in continental Europe. Those seem to be the biggest gaming retailers here (together with general 'multimedia' stores which sell music, movies and games)...

yes, curry's - pc world, but most people would go online or to a supermarket before buying from there, there prices are what the publishers say and there game selection is usually only the top 20.

 

[Rich!]

What I'm wondering is, are there general 'electronics supermarkets' in the UK which sell games? I mean the kind of shops where you can just walk in and buy a TV, a laptop, a fridge... Media Markt and Saturn come to mind, at least here in continental Europe. Those seem to be the biggest gaming retailers here (together with general 'multimedia' stores which sell music, movies and games)...

Where I live (Belgium) there's one 'specialist' game store chain which is pretty bad - high prices, small selection, rip-off trade-ins.. Seems like most people either buy their games online from the UK or at those big electronics stores like Saturn. The big supermarkets which sell everything tend to have a pretty small selection of games, and their prices aren't too good either.

Currys/PC World megastores fit that bill, but Tesco and Asda sell pretty much everything. The big ones are the equivalent of Hypermarkets in the continent.

 

[migulic]

yes, curry's - pc world, but most people would go online or to a supermarket before buying from there, there prices are what the publishers say and there game selection is usually only the top 20.

Alright, that's different then. In Belgium those are the cheapest retailers for games - they stock newly-released titles for €40-50 while other stores invariably charge €60, sometimes even €70. They also tend to drop their prices for games pretty quickly. Of course, they'll never be as cheap as UK online retailers (those prices can be crazy from a continental Europe perspective!) but they're the cheapest you can get locally.

 

[checkeredknight]

I don't blame Nintendo for not singing their praises, they promoted the 3DS like shit. They're doing the same with the Vita. Unless they can sell it RIGHT NOW FOR MONIES, they don't care.

I can't speak for GAME, but we feel like we're the only ones actually bothering to advertise the Vita around here at GameStation. =/ The shop windows are full of Vita stuff and we have a demo pod right next to the check-out. Next to that, we mention to (more or less) each customer if they're interested in it if and they'd like a go of Uncharted (since it's not on the demo pod, but it is on the one we have behind the tills.) Most aren't bothered (we get a lot of "lol no forever Xbox" people) which is fair enough, but some people just like a go. Doesn't matter if they pre-order or not. It's a bit lame to read we're not advertising it when, at least in our store, we're trying quite hard.

Game have been giving Nintendo the minority of floor space for as long as they've existed; it arguably made sense to do so for the N64 and the Gamecube, and it never made sense for the GBA / DS / Wii.

Our Wii / DS sections are the same size as our PS3 section. PSP is ridiculously small, but the Nintendo consoles aren't really treat any different. The only section that is bigger is the Xbox one. I do remember their GameCube sections being absolutely terrible, though.

 

[Rich!]

I have to admit, I was amazed when I went to France last year and went to a supermarket near where I was staying (near bordeaux. I think the store was a Super U), and the games section was huge. But it was absolutely filled with brand new PS2 consoles, games, tonnes of PSP games and even some gamecube stuff. In 2011. Brought a Wavebird controller for dirt cheap.

wouldn't see that in the UK.

 

[NinjaBoiX]

I fucking hate GAME, I'll be glad to see the back of it. I mean, it sucks for people to lose their job, but the company stinks.

-They charge customers for their loyalty, you have to buy a loyalty card. Beyond stupid

-Their prices are generally pretty poor, well above average.

-Yet their trade in prices are awful. I just sold my 80gb PSphat for £115, cash at CEX. GAME were offering me £60, trade. WTF?

-They only price match with Grainger Games, even though GameStation is the same group.

-They only price match non-sale items, RRP only. So basically, they don't price match.

-They pressure sell every fucking time at the till. "Do you need points? Do you want to pre-order anything? What about batteries and cables?". No, otherwise I'd have asked wouldn't I! "Don't forget to bring it back when you are done to trade it in.". Yeah, I'll, um, definitely do that.

 

[MrNyarlathotep]

Our Wii / DS sections are the same size as our PS3 section. PSP is ridiculously small, but the Nintendo consoles aren't really treat any different. The only section that is bigger is the Xbox one. I do remember their GameCube sections being absolutely terrible, though.

You get how ridiculous that is though, right?

When the Wii was outselling 360 and PS3 combined, to be given 'equal space' to the PS3, at the time the worst selling console with the smallest marketshare?

It's like giving Coke the same amount of shelf space as Dr Pepper, because the people in charge fucking love Pepsi, not what the market is actually buying.

EDIT:
Or to use a more apt analogy, HMV making the Pop section the same size as the world music section, because they want to have metal have the most floor space. Because metal is cool and edgy, and pop is for little kids. It is a ridiculous way to run a business.

 

[Linkified]

EDIT:
And no, I don't just mean supermarkets.
Other retailers includes independents, other franchises like Grainger games, other mixed media entertainment high street retailers (like HMV) as well as all internet based retailers.
Do you think anyone in competition with Game give a shit if they go?

Your correct competition hates competition and they feel that less is more.However, the people who should care about competition are consumers.

Personally there are currently fewer games specific online retailers that I trust with my money. Anyway all this discussion is moot becausde Game will survive.

 

[checkeredknight]

They pressure sell every fucking time at the till. "Do you need points? Do you want to pre-order anything? What about batteries and cables?". No, otherwise I'd have asked wouldn't I! "Don't forget to bring it back when you are done to trade it in.". Yeah, I'll, um, definitely do that.

Yeah, I can imagine this is very annoying for some people. You can usually tell when a customer doesn't want to hear the sales spiel, so you just don't do it. You'd be surprised at how many customers do say "Oh, I didn't know you could trade in games here..." or "Oh yeah, I'll get some points since the CoD maps are out soon." So, it kind of works. I don't think I'd ever say to someone "bring it back when you're done" after their purchase of a brand new game though. It sounds ridiculous, like you're de-valuing their game and choice of purchase.

You get how ridiculous that is though, right?

Yeah. I never thought of it like that. To be honest, I wasn't working there back when the Wii was out-selling the other home systems, but I'm 99% sure it was pretty much the same as it is now.

 

[kyo_daikun]

good lord man!

Yeah I should buy less games stuff in general I think... tho thinking about it the only game i've bought since december was RE revelations

 

[CadetMahoney]

I fucking hate GAME, I'll be glad to see the back of it.

I've only been to GAME once or twice in my life just to look around and could tell it was a shithole of a store buy/sell wise. Never been in one since.

 

[ScreenSplitter]

I fucking hate
-They pressure sell every fucking time at the till. "Do you need points? Do you want to pre-order anything? What about batteries and cables?". No, otherwise I'd have asked wouldn't I! "Don't forget to bring it back when you are done to trade it in.". Yeah, I'll, um, definitely do that.

Pity the employees. If we don't do all that stuff, we get shit from our managers. And I mean ALL that stuff. Like a script. Seriously.

 

[Starwolf_UK]

game and gamestation are also selling dvds now (was only blu ray before )

Again? Though I wasn't sure if Gamestation really stopped. I remember in the early-mid 2000s GAME used to have used DVDs then they stopped accepting them for trade. I remember overhearing in the queue the manager telling the customer "they might as well go to blocky B".

Spoiler

I spent like 5 minutes thinking "what the hell is this Blocky B place" then I relaised they meant Blockbuster *sigh*

What I'm wondering is, are there general 'electronics supermarkets' in the UK which sell games? I mean the kind of shops where you can just walk in and buy a TV, a laptop, a fridge... Media Markt and Saturn come to mind, at least here in continental Europe. Those seem to be the biggest gaming retailers here (together with general 'multimedia' stores which sell music, movies and games)...

Not sure for how much longer. Comet have pulled out of games and been selling their stock at buy one get one free for the past few months (meaning poor pickings, apparently the prices are good now but...they've not bothered to update the price labels so stock sits idle on shelf to get even cheaper...). They might still stick with hardware.

DSG Group (Dixons, PC World, Currys) are abysmal price and stock-wise...or so the price labels would have you think. A lot of the time the prices are plain wrong so it take a bold customer to ask the staff to scan the thing (Okami Wii was a prime example, £20 in both GAME and Currys Digital; bought at latter as hey, its sealed, scans up at £10). Also they randomly do clearance sales where they sell older stock for £0.97 but thanks to a more organised internet (read locusts who lurk on hotukdeals waiting for the next load of stuff to "flip" on eBay) its impossible to get these nowadays (plus the employees taking a few). Given all that I'm not sure they'll be continuing for much longer either.

Both of the above don't bother with other media like Music or DVDs though the sell the players.

But games and retail in general is HMV are thinking of cutting the sections of the store down to size. Probably for more Speakers and MP3 palyers and whatnot (as now that those have some shelf space they're actually selling, whodathought). So we might have more places than ever to buy them but less selection overall.

 

[dreamcastmaster]

EB were always shit. I remember taking Indiana Jones Trilogy on the SNES down there and they offered me £7 trade in... the game was still 3 months old and in those days,

October 1995 is when Idiana Jones was released on the SNES EB was not in the UK until around May 1996 after a rebranding of the chain Futurezone. There's no way your tale is accurate.

FYI Gaffers Brera was "Rick Strider" on the forum RLLMUK and was banned for his bullshit.

 

[StuBurns]

I've literally never had shit from the people at Game. Maybe they'll ask if I want to preorder a CoD that comes with a poster or something when a huge release is coming, but they certainly have never been irritating. If they're meant to say that stuff, they're terrible employees.

 

[kobashi100]

Pity the employees. If we don't do all that stuff, we get shit from our managers. And I mean ALL that stuff. Like a script. Seriously.

Don't really shop in game anymore but hated getting asked to buy a pre-owned game instead of brand new version.

Some of the staff can be annoying! remember buying ace combat 3DS and the queue was huge on christmas eve so I decided to get out the 3DS and started playing mario kart. As I finally got to the till I still had 3DS in hand with ace combat. The bozo serving me has just sold me ace combat but then decides to tell me that I should trade in my 3DS for a vita pre order and how game will offer best deal etc etc.

 

[Temrer]

Is Game the shop where they have those naff doggy-bags to put games you want to sell into them? I was there in the summer and got the whole "bring it back when you're done and we'll buy it! " spiel - I told him that I really didn't want to sell this particular game, thanks, and he just shoved those bags into my carrier bag and went "Well, if you change your mind!! "

Felt like his Area Manager or someone was lurking behind him with a sniper rifle.

Other than that, though, the Game in my hometown - all three of them within walking distance - are relatively decent. They stocked Xenoblade, which surprised me.

 

[Little Old Man]

-Yet their trade in prices are awful. I just sold my 80gb PSphat for £115, cash at CEX. GAME were offering me £60, trade. WTF?

Holy shit. That is ridiculous. CEX might not be a company I'm that happy with after some bad experiences, but they give trade in prices (mobiles aside), and have a good stock range. Plus the website lets you track down exactly which stores have certain games in.

I was honestly shocked at the recent trade in 'deal' for PSVita. Giving in a 360 or PS3 towards it would generate no where near what I'd expect.

On the topic of the DSG group, I have read that they plan to drop most/all of their gaming ranges soon. I can see why, they've made virtually no effort in years in terms of price, so I imagine very few would have them high up on their list of places to check for games/consoles.

Ironically enough I got Yakuza 4 from Currys the other day for £4.97. Though I only knew of it because of HotUKDeals (bet you most of the copies where taken by the Ebay locusts on there).

 

[Shotgun Kiss]

Yeah, I can imagine this is very annoying for some people. You can usually tell when a customer doesn't want to hear the sales spiel, so you just don't do it. You'd be surprised at how many customers do say "Oh, I didn't know you could trade in games here..." or "Oh yeah, I'll get some points since the CoD maps are out soon." So, it kind of works. I don't think I'd ever say to someone "bring it back when you're done" after their purchase of a brand new game though. It sounds ridiculous, like you're de-valuing their game and choice of purchase.

If you don't ask every single customer, you aren't doing your job properly, according to the higher-ups. We're always told to do the whole spiel for everyone. You can be randomly watched and reviewed on any transaction.

To put it in perspective for everybody, here's a breakdown of what is required in every transaction at Gamestation:

1) Ask if they have a loyalty card.
2) If they don't have a loyalty card, try to sign them up for one. Doing so requires asking them for their full name, address, contact number, e-mail, and date of birth.
3) Mention pre-owned at some point.
4) Try to sell them something extra.
5) Try to get them to pre-order something.
6) Mention trading in.
7) Point out a website on the bottom of their receipt where they can rate the service they receive to win £200 of vouchers.

Apparently, all of this is "good" customer service. I don't know about you guys, but I don't consider being given the Spanish inquisition when I want to buy a game good customer service at all. And let's not forget that when you're spouting all this off to somebody, you're keeping every single person behind them in the queue waiting as well.

For every person successfully persuaded to buy something else/pre-order/etc, three or so people are going to get pissed off to the point where they shop somewhere else. If I didn't get staff discount, I certainly wouldn't shop there.

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

Its not cool for the people working there, but fuck the company.
If I dont get my ME3 collectors edition from my usual store (they are friends, so they promised they were going to try to get it even if it was from another retailer) because of GAME getting the "exclusive" im going to get mad. If they fall, and EA in europe has to give all the Collector Editions to the rest of stores I will be glad. Fuck them.

Happened more or less the same in Spain. We had the national "Centro Mail" chain where every shop had an owner who could make direct decisions on mostly everything but decoration and corporate image (as expected).

Then GAME bought the chain rights to turn them into GAME and started to buy stores one by one (as they were owned by different people each). However, even if both Centro Mail and GAME were part of the same chain with the same IT systems and resources all that, there were a fuck ton of owners that didn't want to sell to GAME due to several reasons being the main one losing control over their shops and turning into mere shop managers on contract so as a means of pressure GAME started opening their own shops really near (sometimes at less than a 5 minutes walk or even in the very same mall) to those Centro Mail with a basic premise: "we're going to be stocked much better for all the interesting stuff and releases so you'll have to address people to our shop and eventually people will stop going to yours and you'll go out of business and bankrupt". This ended up with most Centro Mail selling themselves to GAME or going freelance by 2008 more or less creating stupid instances where you could find two GAME shops in the same mall. I don't know if they did the same in other countries but if they did, I'm sure this is part of most of their financial disaster for being overdimensioned.

This is ture. The last Centro Mail in Valencia disspeared some month last year. Obviously the rest of Centro mails were turned into GAMEs except that one that was in downtown. And obviously there was a GAME that appeared near them.

 

[BlazingDarkness]

I've literally never had shit from the people at Game. Maybe they'll ask if I want to preorder a CoD that comes with a poster or something when a huge release is coming, but they certainly have never been irritating. If they're meant to say that stuff, they're terrible employees.

Only thing I've had from employees is 'Do you have a Game Reward card?' which is essentially the same as 'do you have a tesco club card?/boots cards/debenhams store card' etc which the majority of retailers are doing these days
I did have the old 'and don't forget you can bring that back and trade it in' once but I walked off before she could finish

 

[checkeredknight]

If you don't ask every single customer, you aren't doing your job properly, according to the higher-ups. We're always told to do the whole spiel for everyone. You can be randomly watched and reviewed on any transaction.

Yeah, you're right. I tend to stop and talk about something else if a customer is very stand-offish about the killer questions. I guess I'm sometimes guilty of not doing my job properly, but if I were the customer in those situations by the third / fourth question I'd be getting pretty pissed off. What's worse is mid-night launches. Gears of War 3 was a nightmare... there was twice as many questions to ask and a lot of very impatient people.

I think it's important how you ask the questions though. Rather than simply asking "do you want to pre-order anything?" it's best to say "are you looking forward to the new Mass Effect? (etc)" then link the pre-order into that. It does feel like I'm badgering the customers sometimes though, the question system needs to be revised IMO.

 

[Rich!]

What's worse is mid-night launches. Gears of War 3 was a nightmare... there was twice as many questions to ask and a lot of very impatient people.

heh

I got around all of that when I did my midnight launches. Shut my store at 9, set up three networked consoles and TV's, had two members of staff manning the door, who let people in as they arrived, and gave each a raffle ticket (starting from #1 onwards) and then advised the customers to go straight to the till to pre-pay for their game. I'd then be on the tills, processing the money onto their accounts and having a chat, talking about upcoming games and getting FUCKING LOADS of pre-orders. seriously. The customers would then chill out, buy a few drinks and play on the game until midnight. This continued until the store was packed with customers.

At 12pm, we manned three tills. I had the even numbers, the till next to me was the odd numbers, and the one remaining was for fools who hadn't pre-ordered. All we had to do was shout the number, tick it off, scan the game onto the customer's account, and say BYE LOL. We'd then move onto the next number/customer, scan in the game, and give it to them, and so on. All the selling had already been done! There was no unnesecary waits while people paid, or got told about pre-orders, or traded in games - that was all done and dusted by 11:30!

We processed around 120 copies within half an hour. We were out the door and gone by 1am. We got around 80 pre orders on upcoming games when it was GOW night, which was top of the district.

yeah. that's how you do midnight launches.

 

[Shotgun Kiss]

Yeah, you're right. I tend to stop and talk about something else if a customer is very stand-offish about the killer questions. I guess I'm sometimes guilty of not doing my job properly, but if I were the customer in those situations by the third / fourth question I'd be getting pretty pissed off. What's worse is mid-night launches. Gears of War 3 was a nightmare... there was twice as many questions to ask and a lot of very impatient people.

I think it's important how you ask the questions though. Rather than simply asking "do you want to pre-order anything?" it's best to say "are you looking forward to the new Mass Effect? (etc)" then link the pre-order into that. It does feel like I'm badgering the customers sometimes though, the question system needs to be revised IMO.

I ask if there's any upcoming games they're looking forward to, and let them do the talking. If they say no, I drop it.

 

[Diablohead]

heh

I got around all of that when I did my midnight launches. Shut my store at 9, set up three networked consoles and TV's, had two members of staff manning the door, who let people in as they arrived, and gave each a raffle ticket (starting from #1 onwards) and then advised the customers to go straight to the till to pre-pay for their game. I'd then be on the tills, processing the money onto their accounts and having a chat, talking about upcoming games and getting FUCKING LOADS of pre-orders. seriously. The customers would then chill out, buy a few drinks and play on the game until midnight. This continued until the store was packed with customers.

At 12pm, we manned three tills. I had the even numbers, the till next to me was the odd numbers, and the one remaining was for fools who hadn't pre-ordered. All we had to do was shout the number, tick it off, scan the game onto the customer's account, and say BYE LOL. We'd then move onto the next number/customer, scan in the game, and give it to them, and so on. All the selling had already been done! There was no unnesecary waits while people paid, or got told about pre-orders, or traded in games - that was all done and dusted by 11:30!

We processed around 120 copies within half an hour. We were out the door and gone by 1am. We got around 80 pre orders on upcoming games when it was GOW night, which was top of the district.

yeah. that's how you do midnight launches.

actually sounds good!

Halo 2 from GAME in swindon was a bit of a letdown, we had to all stand outside from about 10pm to 11:30ish, they lost my preorder card at the main door so I had to get it checked at the till, also not that they told us this before but regular edition buyers were getting a free full sized poster while us paying £50 or whatever for the tin edition had no freebie, that was annoying at the time.

Never did a midnight buy again after that postman usually comes a day early now.

 

[Brera]

The only midnight sales I've attended have been at Asda.

360 Launch....saw the hundreds of people and gave up.
GTA4 - must have had 2-300 hundred people there from all walks of life including mums and dads as well as street robber types.
MGS4 - Same again but slightly smaller.

 

[ScreenSplitter]

Yeah, you're right. I tend to stop and talk about something else if a customer is very stand-offish about the killer questions. I guess I'm sometimes guilty of not doing my job properly, but if I were the customer in those situations by the third / fourth question I'd be getting pretty pissed off. What's worse is mid-night launches. Gears of War 3 was a nightmare... there was twice as many questions to ask and a lot of very impatient people.

I think it's important how you ask the questions though. Rather than simply asking "do you want to pre-order anything?" it's best to say "are you looking forward to the new Mass Effect? (etc)" then link the pre-order into that. It does feel like I'm badgering the customers sometimes though, the question system needs to be revised IMO.

Simply, fuck Mystery Shopper.

 

[Zampano]

Went into both Manchester Arndale stores yesterday to pick up KOA: Reckoning as I got a £25 gift card for xmas. I'd seen it in there for £42.99 but I thought I'd better bend over so I could get my card used.

Neither store had it on 360, so I took a PS3 case to the counter and after the girl was done talking with her mate about how much she'd drunk the night before, she tells me that they don't have any stock of KOA. This is hardly a niche title.

Ended up getting Darkness II, which I've finished and can hopefully trade in this week toward some Vita stuff.

Terrible, useless business.

 

[dose]

It does feel like I'm badgering the customers sometimes though, the question system needs to be revised IMO.

Revised? You mean totally scrapped. Seriously. All those questions just fucks off the customer no end. If we wanted any of the things you asked for we'd ask for them by ourselves.

 

[syoaran]

actually sounds good!

Halo 2 from GAME in swindon was a bit of a letdown, we had to all stand outside from about 10pm to 11:30ish, they lost my preorder card at the main door so I had to get it checked at the till, also not that they told us this before but regular edition buyers were getting a free full sized poster while us paying £50 or whatever for the tin edition had no freebie, that was annoying at the time.

Never did a midnight buy again after that postman usually comes a day early now.

Midnight launches don't really have that much going for them now, possibly because retailers/publishers don't have as much PR budget to shell out for an extravagant night or simply because I'm getting older. For the StarcraftII launch I had a lot of fun and met a lot of great people in the queue, got some nice swag and generally had a good time. Skyrim launch less so, mainly because there were so many self-righteous dogs queueing up that night. I guess Blizzard games just bring the right sort of people?

In the last year, I moved so close to Oxford Circus that queueing up made no sense, I just arrive at 30 or 40mins past the hour and the queue is gone, the event over and I'm able to grab my games with no issue. For the 3DS launch this was a god send, as the types of people in the queue just wolf-whistled at anything with legs. I walked in at 1AM, picked up my 3DS and the free game you got with the event - and because I was one of the last people out they gave me two more left over games as I was paying. Great stuff!