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UK retailer GAME not stocking any EA games after SSX (includes ME3) [&Nintendo?]

Torraz

Member
I've heard Zavvi horror stories. Are they good/bad?

They are a godsend for mainland EU customers, although Uk customers probably have very worthwhile (and better/faster) alternatives. I have only had one problem with zavvi and they did right by me. Their prices are awesome, their shipping has become a lot faster and I could not have bought nearly as many games as I have without them.
 

PaulLFC

Member
Are you in Liverpool? My mate there loves GG lol.
Yeah I am! Picked up Wipeout 2048 from Grainger on release day for 30 quid, Game and Gamestation wanted £34.99.

I think if Grainger stick to their current practices (cheapest prices, best trade in prices), they should do very well. It's nice to have some competition, although I'm not sure who they'll be competing with if Game do go bust.
Does any of this affect GAME outside UK?
Stock issues - not sure, although I think they're all owned by the parent company which is struggling. They were reportedly looking to close some of their non-UK stores.
 
And in a couple of years HMV/Waterstones will relaunch under a single brand that sells Games/DVDs/Books/CDs in a well fucking lit manner (Come on HMV, stop trying to look cool and make it easy to see!) and a single shop. Least I hope - otherwise retail is fucked, and they'll be the next to fall.

Game can't live the year. Its all about Christmas, if your in trouble a few months after Christmas your fucked.


So many retailers lack strategy - whats going on with these guys?
Am serious about HMV/Waterstones going under one single banner, they should at least do that online and sell like Amazon - a wide range of products (and with a good website - again, wtf is wrong with retailers strategies?!?)


/sigh this shouldn't have to happen, and lack of investment available means no one will replace them except maybe the existing retailers out there.
 
Don't think we'll see that happening unless they replaced the top tier management.
right to the point. this whole company needs a big fat REBOOT on every level. Restructure, resize, re<everything>. and especially REPLACE THE WHOLE GOD DAMN BOARD OF DIRECTORS because I'm sure that Average Joe(TM) Employee didn't cause this shit to spiral out of control.
 
And in a couple of years HMV/Waterstones will relaunch under a single brand that sells Games/DVDs/Books/CDs in a well fucking lit manner (Come on HMV, stop trying to look cool and make it easy to see!) and a single shop. Least I hope - otherwise retail is fucked, and they'll be the next to fall.

Game can't live the year. Its all about Christmas, if your in trouble a few months after Christmas your fucked.


So many retailers lack strategy - whats going on with these guys?
Am serious about HMV/Waterstones going under one single banner, they should at least do that online and sell like Amazon - a wide range of products (and with a good website - again, wtf is wrong with retailers strategies?!?)


/sigh this shouldn't have to happen, and lack of investment available means no one will replace them except maybe the existing retailers out there.

Not going to happen since HMV sold Waterstone's last year and we are in the process of a 12 month plan to completely seperate all aspects of the company. Unfortunately HMVs priorities going forward is not games, however depending on what happens with GAME over the next 12 months this may chance drastically.
 
LOL! Got a email from Zaavi:

Buy any EA game including Mass Effect 3 Collectors Edition and receive:

Double Reward Points
Exclusive content on selected products
Recommend a friend & earn double points
Automatic entry into competitions
Breaking news.

They are really rubbing it in. Stay classy Zaavi.

Should have just went with:


Buy any EA game including Mass Effect 3 Collectors Edition and receive:

The game you ordered
 

rvy

Banned
lol, if only I had 77€.
KuGsj.gif
 
And in a couple of years HMV/Waterstones will relaunch under a single brand that sells Games/DVDs/Books/CDs in a well fucking lit manner (Come on HMV, stop trying to look cool and make it easy to see!) and a single shop. Least I hope - otherwise retail is fucked, and they'll be the next to fall.

Game can't live the year. Its all about Christmas, if your in trouble a few months after Christmas your fucked.


So many retailers lack strategy - whats going on with these guys?
Am serious about HMV/Waterstones going under one single banner, they should at least do that online and sell like Amazon - a wide range of products (and with a good website - again, wtf is wrong with retailers strategies?!?)


/sigh this shouldn't have to happen, and lack of investment available means no one will replace them except maybe the existing retailers out there.


They already are doing that. The HMV near me is called HMV/Waterstones and sells everything under one roof. The game section alone is probably bigger than GAME's floor space a couple of units away. All that's missing is a unique name, but I dont think that's a good idea....look what happened to Virgin when they changed to Zavvi.
Also I dont think sticking everything under one roof is the answer though. People are renting more DVDs, downloading music and books and soon games will go that way too.
Doesn't matter how good you make your store,if youre selling items people dont want.
 

Cookie18

Member
Holy shit I did not expect this. Ubisoft was one thing but now EA too? With Nintendo supposedly jumping then they might as well throw in the towel if they lose Activision too.

I will be sad to see Game go.
 
I heard EU peeps have a bad time with them but my orders have always been good and timely. US here.

zavvi are a bunch of lies and cheats, don't support them.

I have ordered things from them in the past at a good price, they raise the price and then tell you that the system is having a period and that you will have to cancel your order and reorder it, at the new premium price.

I've also ordered a game before when it was in stock to find that after being billed it was a 2-4 week wait, yet the page for said item still says "in stock"

they are bullshit.
 

Omikaru

Member
zavvi are a bunch of lies and cheats, don't support them.

I have ordered things from them in the past at a good price, they raise the price and then tell you that the system is having a period and that you will have to cancel your order and reorder it, at the new premium price.

Amazon UK are known to have done this too (it happened to me with MGS HD collection). It's a pretty standard way of fucking over your customers.
 

mclem

Member
I love how instead of trying to secure one of the biggest new releases of the year, they have decided to hand out £220 cash for pre-owned Vita's to anyone who walks through the door.

Just shows you where managements priorities are.

They'll own those VITAs without any "Property of Sony until point of sale" stuff, though. Hmmm. Which means they'll have to offload them if they do shut down.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
If nothing else, this should show significant light on how influential Game/Station is on the UK charts.
 

mclem

Member
If nothing else, this should show significant light on how influential Game/Station is on the UK charts.
I'll be rather interested to see how ME3 sells compared to ME2 at launch here.

If there's no change, or ME3 sells better, Game really weren't all that significant in the long run, despite their apparent dominance. If the sales are distressingly lower, we could be up for a lean period in sales. I'm expecting the former.
 

Torraz

Member
zavvi are a bunch of lies and cheats, don't support them.

I have ordered things from them in the past at a good price, they raise the price and then tell you that the system is having a period and that you will have to cancel your order and reorder it, at the new premium price.

I've also ordered a game before when it was in stock to find that after being billed it was a 2-4 week wait, yet the page for said item still says "in stock"

they are bullshit.

The trick here is to write back and say you want to a voucher for the difference of the old --> new price. Not sure if it was a fluke, but I got the voucher that one time it happened to me! You just have to be assertive, yet polite, but persistent.
 
The trick here is to write back and say you want to a voucher for the difference of the old --> new price. Not sure if it was a fluke, but I got the voucher that one time it happened to me! You just have to be assertive, yet polite, but persistent.

I'll admit I have not used them for a long time now, they used to be really good about stuff but something up in management must have changed about a year ago now, and problems arose so I canceled my zavvi account.
 

CrunchinJelly

formerly cjelly
ShopTo took 3,000 orders in an hour: http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/shopto-experiences-mass-effect-3-order-surge/091963

The industry may be wincing from this morning&#8217;s disturbing news from retailer GAME, but one man&#8217;s loss is another man&#8217;s gain.

Online indie retailer *********** has this morning seen record traffic levels as gamers looked to secure their copies of Mass Effect 3 that can no longer be supplied by GAME.

In particular, the N7 Collector&#8217;s Edition, which was until this morning a GAME exclusive and is now available at a number of retailers including ShopTo, is proving extremely popular.

&#8220;Since the appointment this morning *********** has seen our highest ever traffic levels,&#8221; ShopTo CEO Igor Cipolletta told MCV. &#8220;We have taken nearly 3,000 orders on *********** in one hour.

&#8220;For the sake of the games industry, and gamers, we hope that GAME can come through this difficult situation.&#8221;

Edit: Can a mod please review the banning of ShopTo?

I like Nintendo's quote: http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/ea-and-nintendo-confirm-game-rumours/091957
Nintendo added: &#8220;Mario Party 9 is available to buy on the high street via Argos, Asda, Tesco, Dixons Stores Group, GameStop, Sainsburys, Smyths Toys, Toys R Us, HMV, Blockbuster or online at Amazon, The Hut, Play.com, zavvi.co.uk, johnlewis.com and Littlewoods.com, as well as most good games retailers.&#8221;

LOL
 

Saty

Member
I guess it will be interesting to see if ME3 still tops the #1 spot in its launch week on the UK. And how big a role GAME plays.
 

Good and bad news, Gamestop US in my experience are not too bad, but their pricing was as insane as Game's (and their customer service can be just as spotty) though I wonder what Gamestop's management is doing better than Game to not be suffering the same issues in the US

I don't think they can use the US store sales tack though, they need to find a way to reasonably take on the Supermarkets/online (I'ld also suggest they need to negotiate getting rid of multiple leased stores in an area) - though wondering if maybe for them it might be better to wait till Game is REALLY in trouble, or on the cusp of bankruptcy to get a good deal
 

Spookie

Member
Reading MCV they mention that Gamestop are poised to take the UK/Spanish arm but want nothing to do with the Aussie side of things. Creditors are also waiting for GAME to dump the international arm too but, how I read it, they want rid of ALL international business.

So administration then the white knight swoops in to take the UK branch?
 

Chopper

Member
KuGsj.gif


Hopefully ShopTo get unbanned, best UK games retailer by a long way at the moment in my experience.

I agree. I bought a game off them recently, and within an hour I had a text message telling me it had been dispatched, as well as an email containing a PHOTO of my package! Unnecessary and awesome!
 
To be fair GAME have always been leading to this. They sell everything overpriced. I can literally walk five minutes round the corner from the two GAME stores and the one Gamestation store and head into Grainger Games and buy pretty much anything for a significantly cheaper price. They often sell brand new releases for £35 too, rather than the £44.99 that GAME often try to pull. What with that and the fact that sites like Amazon and Play are usually more reliable with pre-orders and with better prices GAME was just never going to last.

For what it's worth I don't think I've ever recieved a pre-order from Play.com after release day, they very often arrive on the Thursday or Wednesday for me (and I'm up in Sunderland) rather than the Friday. Amazon.co.uk have usually been good too. Can't say for Zavvi or Shopto.

Think I might splash out on the Collectors edition when Amazon update their page as I have £20 worth of vouchers for there anyway.
 

Spookie

Member
I agree. I bought a game off them recently, and within an hour I had a text message telling me it had been dispatched, as well as an email containing a PHOTO of my package! Unnecessary and awesome!

Heh I just ordered SSX because I can't be arsed to get out of bed on Friday, Gmail had a fit as they picked and put it in dispatch in the time it took for me to make a coffee. :p
 

acm2000

Member
I agree. I bought a game off them recently, and within an hour I had a text message telling me it had been dispatched, as well as an email containing a PHOTO of my package! Unnecessary and awesome!

hey, the colour of your jiffy bag is f*cking important information!
 
Just got an email from GAME apologising for the ME3 cancellation and they're giving a five pound voucher.

Its £5 worth of reward card points, which at this point in time is like paying someone in Reichmarks during the Weimar republic.

KuGsj.gif


Hopefully ShopTo get unbanned, best UK games retailer by a long way at the moment in my experience.

Thirding the review of ShopTo being banned.
It was banned because their third party credit card payment providers were hacked and peoples credit card details were stolen.

If all gaming related services that have recently been in the news for being hacked and having user details stolen, we would have very few gaming things we were now allowed to talk about.
 

Loudninja

Member
GAME "may" stock Mass Effect 3 in the future
GAME "may" stock Mass Effect 3 in the future.

The embattled high street shop called on its customers to "continue their loyal history with us" in a FAQ designed to address concern following today's news that GAME will not stock Mario Party 9, Mass Effect 3, FIFA Street, Tiger Woods 13, and Sims 3 Showtime.

"What message do you have to gamers who are afraid of pre-ordering with GAME because they're worried they may be cancelled at the last minute because you can't stock them?" GAME asked itself.

It's response: "Well, we know our customers really well. Most of them have a really long history with us, and they know as a business we are absolutely committed to giving the best possible range as much of the time as we possibly can.

"Clearly we have had a small number of issues in the last couple of weeks but we are working to resolve that going forward. We hope our customers will understand that these are temporary issues and continue their loyal history with us."
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-02-29-game-may-stock-mass-effect-3-in-the-future

I dont think this is a small issue.
 
To be fair GAME have always been leading to this. They sell everything overpriced. I can literally walk five minutes round the corner from the two GAME stores and the one Gamestation store and head into Grainger Games and buy pretty much anything for a significantly cheaper price. They often sell brand new releases for £35 too, rather than the £44.99 that GAME often try to pull. What with that and the fact that sites like Amazon and Play are usually more reliable with pre-orders and with better prices GAME was just never going to last.

For what it's worth I don't think I've ever recieved a pre-order from Play.com after release day, they very often arrive on the Thursday or Wednesday for me (and I'm up in Sunderland) rather than the Friday. Amazon.co.uk have usually been good too. Can't say for Zavvi or Shopto.

Think I might splash out on the Collectors edition when Amazon update their page as I have £20 worth of vouchers for there anyway.

Yeah Game certainly brought this upon themselves. Anyone who is even slightly in the know would totally avoid using them. the prices are ridiculous! Im willing to bet that if they went really competitive with the pricing that they would do a lot better. Probably too late.

I am worried that Game leaving the market will allow the other shops to raise they're prices. :(
 
Oh man, there are going to be so many dudes a dudettes that will roll into these stores on March 6th and there will be no N7 Edition to pick up even when they preordered. Goddamn that is going to completely blow for these guys.
 

Patryn

Member
Oh man, there are going to be so many dudes a dudettes that will roll into these stores on March 6th and there will be no N7 Edition to pick up even when they preordered. Goddamn that is going to completely blow for these guys.

Isn't it March 9 for Europe?

But, yeah. I REALLY wouldn't want to be working in a GAME store that day.
 
GAME "may" stock Mass Effect 3 in the future

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-02-29-game-may-stock-mass-effect-3-in-the-future

I dont think this is a small issue.

Smacks of "Please shop with us still! Even if we can't ensure your preorder or that we'll even get the games you want anymore in stock!"

I feel for them, I really do - but now many people have the money to really walk into a Game and buy something right now? Or want to thanks to the recent messing about. I like Game, but will consumer power really save them? I imagine it would take a LOT of sales to cover the loss of profit they would of gotten from selling MW3 - surely the bigger problem is the lack of titles and those long leases? Plus all the management missteps
 
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