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'sThe Last Story and Ubisoft'sVita launch games from appearing on the chain's shelves. Now, it appears, it's all but killed the company's relationship with EA.

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?

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'sThe Last Story and Ubisoft'sVita launch games from appearing on the chain's shelves. Now, it appears, it's all but killed the company's relationship with EA.

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?

Bad times, I ordered Mass Effect 3 N7 edition on that site but soon as i heard the news I cancelled, choosing to order it from the cheaper Zavvi offer available.

Seems to me that Game is becoming a sinking ship, which is sad to me!

Game sent me a £5 off voucher for a future purchase though! Win all around!

Feel sorry for all their emplyees atm, a big retailer going out of business regardless how you feel about them isn't good for alot of people.

Interestingly the last game I bought was "The Last Story" and the next game will be Mass Effect 3. I pre-ordered both as limited/collectors editions. I try to give GAME money, they wont let me.

Sucks but I guess it's kinda obvious with this they are going to go under.

I wonder what they consider to be a "favorable" rate.

That is a shame, I'm sorry to the folks across the pond in the UK.

Slow getting this up.

I've made my feelings known in the pre-existing thread regarding this. So the following is sort of off-topic:

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

Good riddance, retail needs to die, long live <digital service/store>!

All you UK fellows out there, was this a particularly good company? Did they have business practices that made you come back, or are they a company you wouldn't mind seeing gone, like Gamestop here in the U.S.?

If Game and Gamestation go bump I think it be pretty serious for gaming in the UK. The arse will fall out of it to put it plainly.

In before someone makes a comment about how EA is evil.

I need to ask, in the article title, why as 'or' been replaced with a comma? Makes no sense to me.

Game has been terrible for a number of years. Let it die and let shops like Grainger Games take over.

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.

Game over, man. Game over.

Game have a fairly rapacious and scrofulous used game focus.

They shan't be missed.

I'm not a big GAME fan, but honestly it's difficult to imagine retail game purchasing without the GAME stores. There are plenty of others, but as Alex said GAME is the most visible and it's really the first thing people think about when they consider buying games at retail. It's amazing that they're going under like this.

Two friends of mine got emails at work today saying their pre orders of the special editions were cancelled and they both just about lost their shit.

This is well deserved Game is overpriced and staffed mostly by people that don't give a shit and always try to get you to buy some worthless guide or pre order the next over priced game coming out.This has been a long time coming.

'One of the UK's biggest video game retailers' undersells it a little bit. They are (or were) so dominant on the high street that they practically are video game retail in the UK. GAME is the largest specialist retailer and GameStation is the second largest afaik (which is now also owned by GAME and all of this applies to them too).  There's very little other specialist competition worth mentioning.
 
It really represents the whole pack of cards collapsing as far as specialist game retail in the UK is concerned.  Unless they somehow turn this around, or somebody else steps up to fill their shoes (who?) then this represents a seismic shift in how game retailing will work in the UK.  Not necessarily for the worse, but it's definitely gonna be a big change.

A horrible overpriced store that killed all competition in the UK. Good bloody riddance.

Maybe now THQ games will show up on steam at the same time as everyone else! Not 3 months down the road. That is if THQ actually last that long...

Got my preorder for the N7 canceled today ... was another retailer though, now I got it on amazon.uk, I hope they will ship it :/

@Goldanas said:

All you UK fellows out there, was this a particularly good company? Did they have business practices that made you come back, or are they a company you wouldn't mind seeing gone, like Gamestop here in the U.S.?

Judging from how people discuss GameStop the companies are almost identical.

@Goldanas said:

All you UK fellows out there, was this a particularly good company? Did they have business practices that made you come back, or are they a company you wouldn't mind seeing gone, like Gamestop here in the U.S.?

I wasn't a fan. It was your traditional "can I help you with anything" as soon as you walked in, with a big emphasis on buying accessories or their GAME care guarantee thing.

They also pulled in a lot of the collector's or limited edition bundles so you couldn't get them anywhere else. As soon as they took the collector's of ME3 off their site and it appeared on 3 others, I was able to pick it up for £5 less.

If they go under I don't doubt that it will have an effect of the landscape of how people buy games, but I also don't think it will be for the worse.

way to shoot yourself in the foot

so bloody annoyed

i traded in a shit ton of my games to GAME just so i could afford mass effect 3

this is literally the worst news i've heard in a while

@AlexW00d: That's an acceptable use of English primarily used in headlines to keep fewer words and place importance on the words that matter.

Plus, you were able to understand it, so it obviously makes some sense.

@craigymail: Yeah! Zavvi offer is cool.

First, I was shocked and had a panic attack: "OMFG HOW WILL I GET MY MASS EFFECT!?" and I was also disappointed because I used £10 of their rewards points to save on my copy.

Then I realised, it MIGHT not be so bad, because this would mean nobody will get their N7 edition. I really wanted one for the xbox360 but they sold out too soon. This might mean I can get my hands on an N7 box if somebody else will sell them. I just hope they don't go higher than £70.

@2HeadedNinja: Gamestation are owned by GAME so that's why it was cancelled. Same with gameplay (which is merging with gamestation tomorrow).

Yup its ocean madness alright.

@Goldanas: As a conglomerate, they were much worse than Gamespot is in the US with very bad practices built in to their foundation.

However, they are by far the biggest chain and losing them would mean the lost of hundreds of thousands of jobs. Plus ome of their stores were really good for consumers actually being the only retailer on the highstreet to treat gaming with any respect and actually have staff who know anything about gaming. They also had some fantastic deals, rewards and competitions for customers.

So while I truly hate them for core beliefs that the CEOs have (like telling every employee to push Preowned games as they don't want to give any money to developers or publishers and keep all of it - specifically increasing costs for new games to make preowned games look better while not giving very much money to the people eturning games in to this service) and really want them off the highstreet; it would cause extreme gamage to the gaming industry in the UK.

The job cuts are the worst part of this whole thing with GAME starting to go under.

@Goldanas said:

@AlexW00d: That's an acceptable use of English primarily used in headlines to keep fewer words and place importance on the words that matter.

Plus, you were able to understand it, so it obviously makes some sense.

But it doesn't use fewer words, it uses one less letter. I would understand if it were to cut down on lots, but one damn character. I see it everywhere in article headlines and it always annoys me as it is always just replacing 'or' or 'and'.

They have just cancelled my mass effect pre-order so I think that sooner or later they are going to administration. avoid them is the best thing to do.

I had a nice talk with a game worker, I understand he has nothing to do with the problem. I told him to stay strong for the hords of angry fans who don't know better.

Pfft going outside to buy games, Amazon is my friend.

I love that screen cap. NOOOOPE. That's exactly how I feel about EA titles too.

They shot themselves in the foot.

@mere_immortal: @ModerateViolence: Thanks for filling me in. I wish that Gamestop would start going the same way because their practices mirror those of all the sentiments mentioned here: exclusivity, accessories, egregious up-selling, price-hiking, etc., but I know it'll never happen because the blind consumerism over here is just so horrible that we'll keep this company afloat for many years.

I miss EB Games.

@Goldanas: I never had a problem with GAME their service was good and the people working there were nice and helpful. It would be a real loss to the uk if this shop dies.

Just preordered the CE from another store, don't want my money? Fine, there are plenty of other stores who will gladly take it.

@BrockNRolla said:

Slow getting this up.

My thoughts exactly. Work day is pretty much over in the UK. Guess that move to NY doesn't do much for news eh?

I got a look at the full memo in my local game today and it had a Q&A for the employees to tell customers and from what i read basically lays all the blame on the publishers and how it is out of games control.

@SimplyTron said:

@BrockNRolla said:

Slow getting this up.

My thoughts exactly. Work day is pretty much over in the UK. Guess that move to NY doesn't do much for news eh?

Ha, this scenario has gotten me wondering about how this works at GB. I feel like Patrick should be more on this stuff, but I guess I don't really have any idea how new duties are delegated.

All you UK fellows out there, was this a particularly good company? Did they have business practices that made you come back, or are they a company you wouldn't mind seeing gone, like Gamestop here in the U.S.?

This is what you get for charging money for loyalty cards assholes. Good riddance