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UK Retailer GAME Won't Be Stocking Mass Effect 3, Other Upcoming EA Products

The woes for one of the UK's formerly biggest video game retailers continue to grow.

The financial issues currently plaguing one of the United Kingdom's most visible video game retailers are still growing, it seems. GAME, a retail destination that was, at least at one point, the UK's equivalent of GameStop, has been having significant financial issues of late, the kind that are apparently so dire, they have to avoid stocking games they are unable to acquire from publishers at a "favorable" rate. This recently prevented titles like Nintendo's The Last Story and Ubisoft's Vita launch games from appearing on the chain's shelves. Now, it appears, it's all but killed the company's relationship with EA.

The memo in question. Or, at least, the half of it that mentions credit issues.
The memo in question. Or, at least, the half of it that mentions credit issues.

According to a leaked memo obtained by Eurogamer (which you can see in the attached screenshot), the retailer will not be stocking the publisher's upcoming blockbuster role-playing sequel, Mass Effect 3, and has begun refunding pre-orders. The company has also canceled pre-orders for upcoming EA titles like Tiger Woods 13, FIFA Street 3, and The Sims 3 Showtime.

GAME channel director Tom Devine wrote in the original memo that went out to employees that they had tried to secure favorable credit terms with EA after meeting with publishers last week to explain their current situation. Apparently unable to come to terms with EA, GAME has now put off any notion of selling the publisher's titles in their retail locations.

GAME has since put out an official statement in response to the Eurogamer story, which more or less confirms that Mass Effect 3 won't be coming to GAME due to a "supply issue," and assiduously avoids mentioning that whole "favorable credit," thing.

This inability to negotiate stock for major product, not to mention the recent cut of 46 jobs from the company's headquarters, does not paint a particularly bright picture for GAME and its future. As Giant Bomb user SoyBob mentioned in the thread currently discussing this very subject, maybe don't accept store credit when cancelling your Mass Effect 3 pre-order at GAME. After all, there's no telling how much longer that store credit might be usable, you know?

Alex Navarro on Google+

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Ravenlight

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Edited By Ravenlight

'grats on for dropping this bomb faster than Alex.

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Gimpy

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Edited By Gimpy

It's hard to get too smug about something where so many people are going to lose their jobs, but as a company I really have found them insufferable over the years. Have consistently come across as greedy to the very end. As I say, its a damn shame so many people will be unemployed, but I won't miss the store itself in the slightest

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act26

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Edited By act26

I've pre-ordered the CE from GAME, So I hope this is some sort of mistake!!!

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Coiledstring

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Edited By Coiledstring

If Game goes then so does Gamestation (as owned by game). That means there will be no national video game outlet left in the UK, but will mean a life line to the struggling HMV (of small puppy looking into horn logo). Who will be the only national outlet left.

As Game/gamestation are almost the only bricks and mortar outlets left wonder if this news will impact sales figures in the UK.

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Lucien21

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Edited By Lucien21

@andrewf87462:Online stores are great but you have to go to one of those sites on purpose to buy games.

Taking games off the high street reduces visibility, impulse buying and more importantly sales to kids and their parents who can't or won't buy online.

Where do the under 18's buy games when GAME disappears?

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CarpetRemnant

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Edited By CarpetRemnant

I have always had perfectly reasonable encounters in GAME shops. They've always tried to get me with the upsell when 'corporate' is dictating but I've never been treated like shit by a GAME employee and have never needed to, or been penalised for not, pre-order anything to buy it on release day.

In short, they are NOTHING like the Gamestop I hear so much about on here.

Equally it will be a sad day when they close, whenever I heard an employee trying to help a mother/relative with a gift purchase they were always steering them in a good direction rather than a shady 'buy this because we're told to tell you to buy it' direction. There's no other game shop on the high street who will do that.

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Funky_Pasta_Tommy

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GAME fucking blew.

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PolygonSlayer

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Edited By PolygonSlayer

Yeezz! First I didn't get The Last Story from them, they didn't even send me an email saying they were not stocking it. I had to call them myself to find out the day after launch. Then they do the same with my Mass Effect 3 order, well... now I got all my pre-orders moved to Amazon. Done.

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Coiledstring

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Edited By Coiledstring

I agree bricks and mortar is dying but where else will wives, mothers and girlfriends buy presents for their gamers.

My wife wont surprise me with an online purchase at Christmas, etc, and supermarkets have limited mainstream stock.

[In Plymouth there are still 3 "Game" stores and a "Gamestation" on the main high street. This is probably their biggest problem financially]

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kosayn

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Edited By kosayn

Hiccups like this are what will eventually sink physical media. It's a very slim margin for game retailers to profit on new game sales.

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lord_canti

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Edited By lord_canti

the odd part of this desision would be that the last story and mass effect 3 is that they would have earned them a sizeable chunk of change not enough to get them out of it but that would help a good deal

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DefAde

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Edited By DefAde

regular Game users should also remember their loyalty points... i recently had accumulated just over £40 quids worth of points, and seeing the writing on the cards for these guys, i decided to cash the whole lot in ASAP... i used them all to purchase Sydicate... so i effectively got the game for free.

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Chris2KLee

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Edited By Chris2KLee

Margins on software are pretty low (at least that's the impression I got when I was working at Best Buy). I have to imagine the offer EA made them had to be pretty low also, for them to blow of the company entirely.

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Agamemnon

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Edited By Agamemnon

Is it UK only? I live in Norway, and my local GAME store assured me i would still be getting my ME3: CE
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Zaxex

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Edited By Zaxex

If Game aren't doing well already then they are probably finished; Mass Effect 3 would have been a good seller, but if we're talking about EA then the FIFA series would represent a huge problem. Without FIFA people will probably go elsewhere, I think only Call of Duty does better in the UK.

I get most of my games from Amazon or Stream; bring on digital downloads!

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deactivated-63590ea485d4d

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@Coiledstring said:

I agree bricks and mortar is dying but where else will wives, mothers and girlfriends buy presents for their gamers.

My wife wont surprise me with an online purchase at Christmas, etc, and supermarkets have limited mainstream stock.

[In Plymouth there are still 3 "Game" stores and a "Gamestation" on the main high street. This is probably their biggest problem financially]

I was going to point out the exact same thing... Plymouth isn't massive and yet they have 3 stores within a mile of each other.

Many parents/partners used to rely on stores like this for getting presents, I worked in Game in my earlier years and we often got parents and bemused girlfriends asking for help on what to buy, which is something you can't do in Tesco...

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phrosnite

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Edited By phrosnite

My copy is secured so... It sucks though. In my country we didn't have PC versions of Space Marine and DOW2 Retribution. lol Had to buy them off Steam.

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BonOrbitz

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Edited By BonOrbitz

As one who is unfamiliar with GAME's woes, could someone fill me in as to how they got into this predicament in the first place?

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234r2we232

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Edited By 234r2we232

Not stocking EA games?

Wait... what's the bad news?

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Terranova

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Edited By Terranova

@bonorbitz: they charge higher prices than any where else , give next to nothing to you for trade in's yet sell them on at near full price , i saw a pre-owned copy of darkness II in a Game store for £35 full retail is that much in some places, people have just wised up and are going else where and such profits etc have dropped a fair amount and they can no longer afford to pay to stock everything, it wont be long until they are gone or someone buys them out, rumor is Gamestop is interested in them.

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Emperor_Jimmu

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Edited By Emperor_Jimmu

You know, Amazon is pretty good.

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plato84

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Edited By plato84

If they are anything like Australia's Game, I say good riddance, they, along with EB games routinely charge up to $40AUD more than places like JB.

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JoeBigfoot

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Edited By JoeBigfoot

hmmm. I know they overcharge and push 2nd hand waaaay too hard but I still loved the concept of a student discount and loyalty points system. Something nice about browsing physical boxed copies of games in a dedicated games store as well. Since GAME/Electronics Boutique killed off most independent games shops I cant have too much pity for them as a corporation.

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SomeJerk

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Edited By SomeJerk
@plato84 said:

If they are anything like Australia's Game, I say good riddance, they, along with EB games routinely charge up to $40AUD more than places like JB.

That's what they do everywhere, even in Sweden, but what's driven the UK division into ruins has been getting into price matching fights on new titles - cutting price by upwards of 50% within a week's time.
 
They wonder why they are in this condition, and my local GAME wonders why people hesitate to buy their marked-the-fuck-up "launched a year ago and we want full price" stock.
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SockLobster

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Edited By SockLobster

Thank fuck for that, my order of SSX is unaffected, hopefully this means no more shitty preorder bonuses that force me to order from them. Shopto.net and amazon are all that you need, zavvi has good deals too.

@BakingPanda said:

Its sad to see these brick and mortar stores slowly failing. On the flip side maybe this will be the start of the digital era in gaming.

I don't see how this is sad at all, it seems EA has won the war on used sales as far as they're concerned. Game has always been a cess pool for retarded parents to buy overpriced games for their whiny kids, gamestation was decent before it was bought, and now HMV are the sole survivors.

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BonOrbitz

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Edited By BonOrbitz

@Terranova said:

@bonorbitz: they charge higher prices than any where else , give next to nothing to you for trade in's yet sell them on at near full price , i saw a pre-owned copy of darkness II in a Game store for £35 full retail is that much in some places, people have just wised up and are going else where and such profits etc have dropped a fair amount and they can no longer afford to pay to stock everything, it wont be long until they are gone or someone buys them out, rumor is Gamestop is interested in them.

Boy, that sounds a lot like Gamestop here in the US. I guess the only difference between Gamestop shoppers and GAME shoppers is like you said: GAME shoppers wised up, huh? So what I want to know is what's with Gamestop's customers?

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batmeng

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Edited By batmeng

Well, I certainly feel like I've stolen someone's Collector's Edition pre-order now. Those things were effing sold out and I had to pay a lot of money to buy it from an ebay seller from Canada. I couldn't find it anywhere here in Europe, for the 360. I was surprised that not even amazon.uk had it. But now they do, and I immediately pre-ordered one and cancelled my overpriced ebay copy. I'm sure they'll be out of stock again soon enough, and some people who were supposed to get it from GAME might not get it at all anymore (for the 360 anyway).

It's a hard life.

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Nyhus

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Edited By Nyhus

@dekkadekkadekka said:

Does anyone else hear Alex's voice when they read his articles?

Im so glad its not just me.

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Jedted

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Edited By Jedted

Wow! Sorry UK Mass Effect fans! :(

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BakingPanda

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Edited By BakingPanda

@SockLobster: I'm seeing it more as people losing jobs in the end. Granted yes the used games market is a disaster but even publishers are finding ways around that with things like the EA pass.

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ptys

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Edited By ptys

As Mass Effect to me is the most important thing to happen to entertainment since Blade Runner, it sickens me a think a company that incorporates the title GAME in it's business model is letting the interactive equivalent to 'Gone with the Wind' slip under it's belt. Yes I wear rose coloured specs when it comes to my Shepard, LOL.

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chilipeppersman

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Edited By chilipeppersman

@sofacitysweetheart: seriously. Fuck EA, they suck now.

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deactivated-629fdfa1dbf9a

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Look. I'm not a massive Game fan. I mostly buy my stuff on amazon. But seriously... Anyone who thinks there will be a brick and mortar "Games" shop in 10 years time is nuts. This is just the beginning of the end. With the popularity of digital downloads and the major consoles pushing full game downloads on their systems (well maybe not so thus gen) but next gen I'm sure the consoles will be. Also used games suck! The makers of those games never see a dime and so allowing company's like this to make profit on the same item many times over.

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Junpei

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Edited By Junpei

most profit in the games industry for retailers tends to be in the add on hardware and possibly in the guides range. Games themselves don't turn a heavy profit individually though the amount of sales you could expect from a major title like Mass Effect could make it worth it. Kudos to GAME for holding to their statement and plan but I hope it works out for them somehow. Usually when a retailer stops carrying a few major products most people are going to go elsewhere and stay elsewhere.

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Jonny_Anonymous

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Edited By Jonny_Anonymous

God fucking damn it!!!!!

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muktor

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Edited By muktor

what about used copies of games? do they sell them? because i heard gamestop and other stores make most of their money selling used copies rather then new ones

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deactivated-5998b7e12fabb

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I recommend UK gamers to preorder their copy in ShopTo. They're cheaper and guarantee day of release delivery with £5 of credit if they don't.

I have no sympathy for GAME, they regularly charge an extra 10% on price than that of competitors. That's the way of business, don't provide a good service, don't expect to last long. It is sad that some people could eventually lose their jobs, but this could have been avoided.

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Semantix

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Edited By Semantix

This sucks for the people who rely on their jobs but as a company they totally had it coming. Constant staff harrasment and upselling, overpricing on pre-owned and classic titles and terrible selection in pretty much every branch I've ever been in. Staff knowledge was very sporadic too. For every guy who had a legitimate interest and knowledge of video games, there are usually a couple of retail bots who don'tknow what to say if you asked him about something other than CoD, FIFA or strategy guides.

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Edited By ajamafalous
The icon for this story.
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Leadcat

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Edited By Leadcat

Sucks that people will lose their jobs, but I won't miss Game in the slightest. Whenever they talk about bad GameStop experiences on the Bombcast it always sounds like they're describing Game to me, so that should give non-Brits a good idea of what the chain is like.

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RecallBerserk

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Edited By RecallBerserk

So when does Gamestation die too, since they are the same company?

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NipCrip66

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Edited By NipCrip66

This doesn't surprise me at all. Over Xmas I bought Skyrim, Uncharted 3 & Saints Row 3 from the high street. All three were around £38 in HMV and £43 in Game. If you can't compete on price with your only brick and mortar competitor then you are going to struggle. It's more of a shame about Gamestation as that is the number one high street resource for used game sales and can have some pretty good 2 for £20 offers.

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Zatoichi_Sanjuro

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Edited By Zatoichi_Sanjuro

You mean the tactic to base multiple GAME stores five minutes walk from one, with both stores stocking the exact same over-priced, second-hand games didn't pan out?!
 
Specialist game store-my-fucking-ass. I've seen better game selections in HMV. I've seen more variety, including older system titles, in CEX stores.
 
They deserve to go out of business. Someone else will fill the vacuum, and do it better, because they couldn't possibly do it any worse.

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Jaktajj

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Edited By Jaktajj

Ah, shiiiiiiit! There goes my Mass Effect 3 CE pre-order =( But:

@Zatoichi_Sanjuro said:

You mean the tactic to base multiple GAME stores five minutes walk from one, with both stores stocking the exact same over-priced, second-hand games didn't pan out?! Specialist game store-my-fucking-ass. I've seen better game selections in HMV. I've seen more variety, including older system titles, in CEX stores. They deserve to go out of business. Someone else will fill the vacuum, and do it better, because they couldn't possibly do it any worse.

Your absolutely 100% right.

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colinjw

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Edited By colinjw

This will just lead to a branding change in the UK. EB own GAME, GAME bought over Gamestation a few years ago now. The prices are the same in each store but the type of environment is different, Gamestation looks well run but no dudes in suits.

I used to work a GAME the discount was the only good thing.

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Spookie

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Edited By Spookie

@Zatoichi_Sanjuro said:

You mean the tactic to base multiple GAME stores five minutes walk from one, with both stores stocking the exact same over-priced, second-hand games didn't pan out?! Specialist game store-my-fucking-ass. I've seen better game selections in HMV. I've seen more variety, including older system titles, in CEX stores. They deserve to go out of business. Someone else will fill the vacuum, and do it better, because they couldn't possibly do it any worse.

Can't put it better. Badly managed, awful company who had to bully/buy their way for their majority market share can't keep a foothold when better companies arrive, then goes down the pan. News at 11.

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deerokus

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Edited By deerokus

@bonorbitz: As I understand it, GameStop has less direct competition - here in the UK, Game (and its sister companies) are squeezed by HMV, a very competitive supermarket sector who are all prepared to sell big new releases as loss leaders, and a healthy online sector, with all of the above involved as well as Amazon and a few smaller online companies. I get the impression that due to the sheer size of the US, it's a little more difficult for online retailers to compete with large retail chains like GameStop on a national level - you need to have warehouses and depots all over the country, which takes a lot of investment, while the UK is a small, densely urbanised country, which is roughly the size of a single state.

We have several smaller online retailers (such as Shopto) who provide an excellent service, at much cheaper prices than bricks and mortar or Amazon. As a result, they don't have quite the same stranglehold over stuff like pre-orders as GameStop seem to have, since Amazon and Shopto at least will get new releases to you on or before release date. All of this has lead to an extremely competitive market here, compared to other countries - it's not unusual to see big new releases dropped to half price within a few weeks of release - if not on release day itself. One memorable example: supermarkets could afford to sell MW2 on day of release for £25 ($40), rather than the £40-45 (c. $65) Game sell new games for. Anything which has flopped will often be cut by massive margins within a week or so. Meanwhile. Game are charging $60 for pre-owned...

Game also has traditionally made big play of trade-ins and preowned, to the extent that their shops are now unpleasant places full of old copies of old Fifa games, rather than anything new. The problem there is that everybody else does that too, and gives much better trade-in value. Seriously, Amazon do it, even our equivalents of Safeway or Walmart do game trade-ins now.

Ultimately, they're a terribly run company.

Also, Game's business model and general management practices are near-identical to GameStop's. Back in the 90s Game were taken over by Electronics Boutique, who rebranded themselves as Game... UK EB had previously been spun off from the US arm which is now... part of GameStop.

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Krokodile

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Edited By Krokodile

Pleeeeease let this happen to Gamestop.

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Chindie

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Edited By Chindie

I work for Game's sister company, Gamestation.

This isn't the greatest news to hear today.

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HarrySound

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Edited By HarrySound

Game are the middle man

They sell new games for £45-£50 and pre owned game for £35ish depending.They are expensive, online retailers sell for around £32.99-£37.99

The sooner developers start seeing cash for their hard work the better and with the pre ownder business being as huge as it is thats not going to happen.

So the less people like Game, the better.

The gaming industry will end up like the music industry unless we put our hands in our tight pockets and help people.