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UK retailer GAME not stocking any EA games after SSX (includes ME3) [&Nintendo?]
- Thread starter Omikaru
- Start date
Sportbilly
Member
If the rumours about them forcing games off Steam for an exclusive period and threatening not to sell Steamworks games are true, then they can bugger off.
Zomba13
Member
I noticed that at http://www.ea.com/uk/1/mass-effect-3-update-1 they don't make any mention of the CE being available at shopto. Is it anything for people preordered at shopto to worry about?
CrunchinJelly
formerly cjelly
Because Shopto have sold out of their allocation.
see my post above, theyve sold out, bar a few pc digital and ps3 left, 3000 orders in an hour will do that lol
Zomba13
Member
Ah that makes sense then.
glaringradio
Member
There are plenty of worse examples than this as to why they should bugger off, in particular buying stock from cheaper stores and then selling said stock as new in their own, on MANY different occasions.
People can say what they will about feeling sorry for the staff when they inevitably lose their jobs, but if you're a staff member (of which I know MANY) who has towed the line and done everything upper management has told you to do, including all the shady shit, then I feel zero sympathy for you and you should have been unemployed years ago.
ScreenSplitter
Member
"GAME is not stocking any EA titles at this time"
Way I see it, they've pretty much screwed EA over. Sure, some will flock to ShopTo, Zavvi, and Amazon. But they've potentially lost EA money, and I doubt they will be too eager to give GAME any stock, any time soon.
Way I see it, they've pretty much screwed EA over. Sure, some will flock to ShopTo, Zavvi, and Amazon. But they've potentially lost EA money, and I doubt they will be too eager to give GAME any stock, any time soon.
glaringradio
Member
PR lady also bullshitted to the extreme by saying just over a week ago they can 100% guarantee all future pre-orders. Wouldn't trust absolutely anything GAME says at this point in time.
This wasn't really a GAME decision, I don't think.
GAME screwed themselves over far worse than they screwed EA. This just destroys customer confidence in them.
You have to remember...GAME make money from pre-owned.
Mass Effect 3 is going to sell gangbusters making most retailers a few quid, probably single figures. The market it going to be swamped with copies of the game second hand.
GAME will have plenty of copies next week when they give £10 trade in for whatever they do get in. They'll promptly stick it on for £35 at least.
They're being selective right now and buying time till the next generation starts. One thing you guys need to remember. GAME has chosen not to stock those games. Nintendo and EA haven't refused to sell them any games.
GAME obviously don't want to bother with Mario Party 9...let's face it...who's buying Wii games anyway?
They have fucked themselves up in that regard, wrong decision, they should have backed down with EA and tell them to fuck themselves with Simcity 5 instead.
BlazingDarkness
Member
lol, right.
ScreenSplitter
Member
Pretty ignorant, GAME isn't going to call out either EA or Nintendo for not giving them stock, as that would likely piss them off further. GAME can't get new titles on credit, because from a publisher point of view, they're circling the drain.
Who's buying Wii games? You'd be very surprised. The Mario Party titles don't sell peanuts.
Hypertrooper
Member
Of course. They don't want to get some piece of the Mass Effect 3 cake which will be the most selling title this spring. Especially since the GameGroup had the exclusive selling rights of the Collectors Edition. But they said no to some profit of course.
Mario Party has seen better days.
GAME need to be selective right now, they've refused EA's payment terms for Mass Effect as they've probably balanced the pros and cons of stocking it Vs maybe something else they feel is more worthwhile later down the line.
It's a shit situation they are in but if it means my share price goes up in the long run, I can suffer a 1p loss for now!
bigtroyjon
Member
lol, I'm sure your delusional spin on GAF will help the share price.
ScreenSplitter
Member
Mario Party has seen better days.
GAME need to be selective right now, they've refused EA's payment terms for Mass Effect as they've probably balanced the pros and cons of stocking it Vs maybe something else they feel is more worthwhile later down the line.
It's a shit situation they are in but if it means my share price goes up in the long run, I can suffer a 1p loss for now!
Yeah but what big titles are coming out in the next few months that eclipse Mass Effect 3? It's a pretty huge title, with EA backing it with everything they've got.
Zomba13
Member
Mario Party has seen better days.
GAME need to be selective right now, they've refused EA's payment terms for Mass Effect as they've probably balanced the pros and cons of stocking it Vs maybe something else they feel is more worthwhile later down the line.
It's a shit situation they are in but if it means my share price goes up in the long run, I can suffer a 1p loss for now!
I completely understand your position. I'd be lying to myself too if I spent money on the shares of a dying company.
Mario Party has seen better days.
GAME need to be selective right now, they've refused EA's payment terms for Mass Effect as they've probably balanced the pros and cons of stocking it Vs maybe something else they feel is more worthwhile later down the line.
It's a shit situation they are in but if it means my share price goes up in the long run, I can suffer a 1p loss for now!
What DA HEYL are you talking about?!
I remember when i worked at GAME maybe 6-7 years ago, there was a similar spat with EA, and GAME refused to stock an SSX, and a Fightnight, for similar reasons over EA not giving them a good enough trade price or something, perhaps this is something similar.
Either way all this talk of GAME leaving the high street is terrible news for the UK industry, as a nation the UK has a higher spend on Videogames than any country excluding the US. Its pretty weak that the 2nd largest consumer of videogames in the world, doesnt have a dedicated chain of store to service that massive demand.
It's all the upper managements fault on GAME side though. They have completely stripped the personality out of each store, and take their staffs knowledge of games for granted or even discourage it rather than celebrate the fact they are a SPECALIST. Over the past few years you can see a trend in GAME for short term gain rather than try to create any significant brand loyalty its all about get in the customer sell as much shit to them at the till as you can rather than create a positive experience that they will want to have again.
Either way all this talk of GAME leaving the high street is terrible news for the UK industry, as a nation the UK has a higher spend on Videogames than any country excluding the US. Its pretty weak that the 2nd largest consumer of videogames in the world, doesnt have a dedicated chain of store to service that massive demand.
It's all the upper managements fault on GAME side though. They have completely stripped the personality out of each store, and take their staffs knowledge of games for granted or even discourage it rather than celebrate the fact they are a SPECALIST. Over the past few years you can see a trend in GAME for short term gain rather than try to create any significant brand loyalty its all about get in the customer sell as much shit to them at the till as you can rather than create a positive experience that they will want to have again.
Brera bought a bunch of GAME stock since he's sure that the company's about to have a massive rebound.
Just don't pay attention to every sign that it's a company circling the drain, unable to gather enough funds and/or credit to even pay for a title that they had an exclusive lock on the CE and was the most highly anticipated title for spring and summer.
CrunchinJelly
formerly cjelly
Yes, they have definitely focused far too heavily on the Wii gravy train, which has now bit them in the ass, but they were going downhill before then, as well.
IdreamofHIME
Member
EA is the Kingslayer.
Killed the Dreamcast, now they're going for retail giants......President of the USA will be next.
Killed the Dreamcast, now they're going for retail giants......President of the USA will be next.
Starwolf_UK
Member
They had recent (within past gew years) sparring with Activision for the same reason of "trade price too high to sell at price we [and consumers] want". Can't remember what game it was though. Also there was the Muramasa Wii not being in stores for about a week. Something like GAME wanted something from Rising Star Games (RSG, probably lower prices though why since RSG stuff always goes low) and RSG didn't want to bulge.
But what I'm thinking this recent thing is "we would love to buy the ME3 stock but that requires money. Could you like loan us the stock and we pay you back as we sell it on unit at a time?" which I can see EAs point; they want players to enjoy their game but the main point is the payment. Either that or a similar "be a PAL, not an NTSC give us a beta bargain".
*groan*
As for Nintendo. They have high wholesale prices and no retailer returns. You overstock a game they make that nobody wants and you're done (Jam with the band=snake oil if you ask me given how steep it fell and how quickly). Given Nintendo have put out more misses than hits recently (Skyward Sword being a big offender here but far form the only one) then I too would be apprehensive. At least its more than 48 hours notice this time.
checkeredknight
Member
The good news is, my store can get our Street Fighter X Tekken mini-competition on the way! We held it off in fear that due to the ME3 launch we wouldn't have enough available staff in to man the competition.
Awful staff? Surely something must have happened to you in the past with them to make a statement such as that. I'm interested to hear more if you would care to share...
inb4 no Street Fighter X Tekken stock
Casp0r said:
Awful staff? Surely something must have happened to you in the past with them to make a statement such as that. I'm interested to hear more if you would care to share...
StalkerUKCG
Banned
Iv been a previous employee at Gamestation Before and After the GAME takeover and iv had bad dealings with staff of both gamestaions and Game stores, its not exceptional most of them are self righteous nerds so far up their own arse that they feel the need to tell a customer what game is good and bad, many are badly informed about the industry and alot feel the need to force their views upon customers, its part of the job but alot of them are pushy salesmen aswell.
Iv cancelled my SF X T CE and went with Amazon, its cheaper and they are looking to be more reliable
Its not every store but its far from an exception to the rule.
Starwolf_UK
Member
Zavvi is a name owned by TheHut group now. They're not the same Zavvi that died.
It makes me wonder if Virgin Megastores became Zavvi to avoid it tainting the Virgin Brand name.
Mario Party has seen better days.
GAME need to be selective right now, they've refused EA's payment terms for Mass Effect as they've probably balanced the pros and cons of stocking it Vs maybe something else they feel is more worthwhile later down the line.
It's a shit situation they are in but if it means my share price goes up in the long run, I can suffer a 1p loss for now!
I really hope you get a tag for this post after GAME goes under...
glaringradio
Member
Doesn't it state in your job contract that you're not allowed to speak ill of the company on the Internet?
In my experience, as is with ANY company, there are employees out there who are knowledgeable, dedicated workers who love to serve their customers. However, in my experience, as is with ANY company, there are far more employees out there who just see it as a job and henceforth do not give a single fuck about their job, only their income.
Just out of curiosity checkeredknight, did the company ever ask you to do anything questionable? You know, buying out stock from rival companies, that sort of thing?
glaringradio
Member
Do you even realise why Zavvi went bust and had to pull out of high streets and move to online retail? You clearly don't, so maybe its time to stop bleating on about your doomed amount of money locked up in shares and be completely realistic about the situation, instead of being a really annoying GAME cheerleader.
EDIT: Apologies, double post.
ScreenSplitter
Member
Yeah he's wrong about Zavvi.
Still hate Zavvi though. For my own, not getting my game reasons.
Well they did such a good job of that on the website.
You mean this kind of bullshit? http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-03-29-game-staff-told-to-buy-3ds-from-tesco
ScreenSplitter
Member
Wow, that is so, so sleazy. O.O
glaringradio
Member
That exact bullshit, there are other examples of this happening but I can't find specific articles. I remember something similar happening with the launch of the 360 slim. Also there are rumours about GAME staff buying up the Vita 16gb cards from HMV stores, but those are unsubtantiated (albeit not surprising in the slightest).
CrunchinJelly
formerly cjelly
They do it literally every time the supermarkets have those £25 deals.
StalkerUKCG
Banned
They do
Lazlo Woodbine
Member
Pre-order now!
Is this a photo of the Sutton branch? Looks familiar.
Epsom lot has been closed for a while, no? I remember looking out for it at Christmas and only seeing the Gamestation near McDonalds.Messofanego said:
Genuinely lol'd. The pre-order bonus bullshit is tiresome as fuck. It's virtually impossible to own an entire games content anymore, or at the very least, insanely expensive.Cheesecakebobby said:
ScreenSplitter
Member
In other news, this seems like a good oppurtunity to use up my £15 of Gamestation points. Any suggestions? (3DS/360)
StalkerUKCG
Banned
Use them with your £5 voucher from you got in your cancellation email and get some microsoft points they send you the code straight away if you choose the download option, I grabbed 1600 for £9 worth of reward points plus the £5 off code.
ScreenSplitter
Member
I hadn't got a preorder with them, just have some saved up points lying around that I figure I should spend sooner rather than later.
Might get Marvel vs Capcom 3, been wanting to pick it up for a while.
The most insidious part of this it that Game end up +1 customer, other retailers end up -1 customer.
Resulting in all those potential future sales due to that same customers next game buying thought process being:
a) going back to success
b) avoiding retailers that they could not buy from last time.
All directly down to Game stores original fuckwit behavior
zomgbbqftw
Banned
Virgin Group sold the high street chain for £1 to the management who took on the debt and assets of the stores hoping they could turn it around. They didn't and it went under.
s_mirage
Member
They didn't because their main supplier, Entertainment UK, was owned by Woolworths. IIRC the deal Zavvi had with EUK allowed them to only pay for the stock when they sold it (i.e. the stock in the stores was still owned by EUK), but when Woolworths went into administration the deal would have been voided as Zavvi was holding EUK's assets. Because of this EUK required payment for all of the stock that Zavvi was holding, which Zavvi did not have enough capital to cover. Zavvi had been doing well prior to this but simply couldn't afford to front £106 million unexpectedly and at short notice.