Though Game qualified it as a small percentage of its 682 stores, it still translates to 247 lost jobs. Here's hoping that those affected will land on their feet.
Though Game qualified it as a small percentage of its 682 stores, it still translates to 247 lost jobs. Here's hoping that those affected will land on their feet.
Reader Comments (67)
Posted: Feb 26th 2010 11:17AM Snowblind said
Most cities have multiple GAME stores, so it's mainly these duplicate ones that are getting closed down.. as well as all the ones inside Debanhams.
I live in a fairly small city in Scotland, and we have three GAME stores in the city centre alone. Totally uncessary and the prices are ridiculous, so yeah.. this really isn't a surprising turn of events.
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I live in a fairly small city in Scotland, and we have three GAME stores in the city centre alone. Totally uncessary and the prices are ridiculous, so yeah.. this really isn't a surprising turn of events.
Posted: Apr 30th 2010 8:48PM (Unverified) said
I can tell you anything you want to know about the closing, or anything about the company for that matter if you want.
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Posted: Feb 26th 2010 6:16AM (Unverified) said
Losing my job at Gamestation, or thats what our manager has told us. In Manchester, they are shutting 1 and keeping the other open, both aren't doing to well. And neither will I if I do loose my job ;[
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Posted: Feb 26th 2010 8:28AM (Unverified) said
@Smooth No, the one under the Food Court. The arndale Gamestation should be fine as far as I know. I think they may also shut one of the GAME's because both of them are like within 200 feet walking distance LOL. Also the HMV across the way from the shutting Gamestation has shut down, theres now 2 HMV's.. Too many still IMO, but Gamerbase is in one of them I cant complain xD
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Posted: Feb 26th 2010 6:18AM CynicalStrike said
Seeing as Game always seem to have have 2 stores within spitting distance of each other, I'm surprised they aren't closing more.
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Posted: Feb 26th 2010 6:27AM BlackedOut said
For real man, In Bromley theres about 200 yards between the two stores.
Who buys games at a retailer nowadays anyway?
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Who buys games at a retailer nowadays anyway?
Posted: Feb 26th 2010 9:13AM technoKyle said
I was saying this to my boss the other day. Some cities or towns have like three Games and two GameStations all in town centre. It's crazy.
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Posted: Feb 26th 2010 7:33AM (Unverified) said
DOH! Seriously, did you think that was a recent picture! Yea, the joystiq guys have time to run out and shoot fresh shots for evey posting LOL
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Posted: Feb 26th 2010 6:48AM (Unverified) said
I've heard that Grainger Games (a well known indie in the North of England) have plans in place to open a load of stores in the Yorkshire area. Wonder if that has anything to do with these closures
This is coming from a friend who works there.
Whenver I go in Grainger their prices are very competitive and are mostly lower than Game and Gamestation
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This is coming from a friend who works there.
Whenver I go in Grainger their prices are very competitive and are mostly lower than Game and Gamestation
Posted: Apr 30th 2010 8:50PM (Unverified) said
Grainger are opening about 40 stores in yorkshire, it doesn't seem to be anything to do with the closures (i'm a good friend of the manager) but they are kicking the hell out of the Leeds Gamestation already (i work in that store), so in all honesty, it looks bleak for Gamestation Leeds at the moment, Grainger is bloody high competition.
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Posted: Feb 26th 2010 6:50AM Furyia said
Not forgetting that all their games are overpriced compared to online retailers. Also when games drop in price online they remain the same in the shops. And like some of you said, there's too many. There's two in Manchester in the same shopping centre..
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Posted: Feb 26th 2010 8:40AM (Unverified) said
its the same in meadowhall in sheffield theres 2 games and a gamestation
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Posted: Feb 26th 2010 11:57AM joe wright said
the superfluous manchester stores used to be EBs before they took up the GAME brand, if i remember correctly. Honestly I just don't know why they kept going with the stores right next to each other, surely it costed more to keep them open when customers would have bought the same thing from them 100 yds away anyway.
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Posted: Feb 26th 2010 6:54AM Spunky Monkey 190906 said
While it doesnt suprise me because GAME's extravagant prices hurt my wallet severely, I do hope that all those losing thier jobs get employment somewhere else. Good luck to them all.
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Posted: Feb 26th 2010 7:12AM benedictm said
I concur.
Much sadness at people losing jobs but extravagent prices and having few things in stick hardly makes me want to shop there even though there's one 2 mins from my front door.
Most games you can get for a fraction of the cost in othe rplaces.
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Much sadness at people losing jobs but extravagent prices and having few things in stick hardly makes me want to shop there even though there's one 2 mins from my front door.
Most games you can get for a fraction of the cost in othe rplaces.
Posted: Feb 26th 2010 7:21AM Spunky Monkey 190906 said
Alot of the games I tend to buy are second hand or cheap because they released ages ago, very rarely do I buy a game that released quite recently let alone on release day. I do lots of trade-ins and I tend to sway away from unneeded accessories, to add to that, its probably because of people like me that this happened, so I'd like to personally apologise to the employees for being so cheap, its just the way things are, you have to live, I have to live, its just unfortunate circumstances.
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Posted: Feb 26th 2010 6:58AM (Unverified) said
Not surprised, there are 2 gamestations and at one point 3 Games in croydon, then there is their compition with 2 hmv's and 2 CEX's all in one town centre and all within walking distance of each other.
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Posted: Feb 26th 2010 7:28AM UnreadyCrab said
Unlike Gamestop, GAME have done nothing to react to the swelling wave of digital distribution and online purchasing. Yeah they have their own website, but it's long been outstripped by Play.com and amazon. They've rigidly stuck to the same retail prices and non-existent marketing scheme, it's no wonder they've fallen on hard times.
Still it's always hard to hear when good people lose their jobs, so they have my sympathies. Unfortunately they've fallen foul of yet more crap upper management in British Industry.
I try to support my local non-chain games shop with console game purchases, but for PC I use steam almost exclusively and play.com/amazon for everything else.
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Still it's always hard to hear when good people lose their jobs, so they have my sympathies. Unfortunately they've fallen foul of yet more crap upper management in British Industry.
I try to support my local non-chain games shop with console game purchases, but for PC I use steam almost exclusively and play.com/amazon for everything else.
Posted: Feb 26th 2010 7:30AM (Unverified) said
Used to work in GAME and still drink with my old manager quite a lot. He says that the percentage they make on sales at Debenhams stores is pretty low as the rent from Debenhams is high, so that one figures.
As for the rest of them (to echo what has already been posted), there are far too many to close to each other. All due to GAME being eaten by Electronics Boutique UK around 8 years ago, with EB then taking up the GAME name for marketing purposes. Suddenly two competitors that were on opposite sides of the street are now under the same name.
Think it's more a clean up then a sign of shrinkage - Their sales figures are pretty heathly...
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As for the rest of them (to echo what has already been posted), there are far too many to close to each other. All due to GAME being eaten by Electronics Boutique UK around 8 years ago, with EB then taking up the GAME name for marketing purposes. Suddenly two competitors that were on opposite sides of the street are now under the same name.
Think it's more a clean up then a sign of shrinkage - Their sales figures are pretty heathly...
Posted: Feb 26th 2010 7:57AM (Unverified) said
Yup, look it up if like! My old man had shares in EB at the time so got all the stuff about it. They bought GAME and decided they had a better brand so just rebraded themselves to the company they bought! I kinda agree, old EB stores were just white, red and pretty drab. Oh how i miss buying Amiga games off the shelf :-p
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Posted: Feb 26th 2010 8:37AM Milky1985 said
I get the opposite, used to order games online from play or amazon, far too often i would get the game the enxt tuesday so i stoped and just go to stores and get them, woudl be around an extra £5 for guarentted first class delivery anyway so no different and i know i can get the game.
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Posted: Feb 26th 2010 7:48AM (Unverified) said
Not surprised by this at all, there prices are far too high compared to online retailers.....
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Posted: Feb 26th 2010 8:08AM coiled string said
In Plymouth we have 3 game stores and 1 gamestation all in the shopping centre. NO more than 5 minutes walk between any. One is located in a debenhams (which is listed as closing), so a thin out is probably needed. All the stores are relatively large with no small ones.
The only suprise is it took then so long. I suspect that we'll still have 2 Games and 1 gamestation as only 12 are closing nationally.
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The only suprise is it took then so long. I suspect that we'll still have 2 Games and 1 gamestation as only 12 are closing nationally.
Posted: Feb 26th 2010 8:03PM SWGooner said
Yay for Plymouth on Joystiq! At least our Gamestation is newly opened and a vast improvement, so we might be lucky. The staff in there are great (I went to school with one of them). Having said that, having the pre-owned X360 games in the queue is a major pain when some janner mum is six deep with her offspring. :D
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Posted: Feb 26th 2010 6:06PM (Unverified) said
problem is people have learnt that games cost more there why by from game when its going to be 10-20 cheaper else wear? Also putting games inside debhanams was a silly idea.
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Posted: Feb 26th 2010 8:35AM (Unverified) said
Thoughts are with the guys who are being laid off. Chins up.
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