GAME to close 85 UK stores

by Alexander Sliwinski on Sep 29th 2010 7:00AM

For the second time this year, UK retailer GAME announced the closure of stores following further financial losses. MCV reports the company plans to close 85 stores over the next three years, slimming down to 550 shops.

The closures are designed to reduce overlap between the company's two brands (GAME and Gamestation) and "drive for greater cost efficiency" (i.e., cut general overhead). GAME's chairman Peter Lewis noted that 70 percent of customers from stores closed earlier this year shifted to another GAME store. The other 30 percent went to another game store.

Source: GAME, MCV

Tags: britain, business, game, Gamestation, retail, uk

Reader Comments (43)

Heh, just after closing a buttload of stores down under.
Seems like troubled times ahead.

Can't really blame them for my area, in Southampton there's 4 GAME stores and a GameStation within the city centre.

@Ninjanun

Upvoted just for the avatar.

@Chazzr I've lived in 2 city's so far both and had 3 stores and a gamestation within 5 minutes walk, never made any sense to me but was really useful when I got banned from one for taking liberty's with the very lenient refund program they had many years ago, just move onto the next :D

In Kingston (the town local to my uni) there are two game stores easily within a ten-minute walk of each other. I think this is the same in most other towns, so not suprised many stores are gonna be closing.

I rarely shop in stores anyways, unless it's for big games and consoles (looking at you 3DS) which I absolutely must have on day one.

I haven't shopped in Game since I worked there and found out how little they actually care for the customers, that and they are damn expensive.

@(Unverified)

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The staff in game are staff.
The staff in Gamestation are gamers.
Plus Gamestation is cheaper.

@Istari Spartan

Having worked in both, i can tell you that isnt true. Plain and simple.

Gamestation was better to work for, because they didnt care about anything, including customers, i could spend the day flicking rubber bands at other members of staff, and i was loved in my store.

a year later, i applied for a job in GAME, and the only member of staff that doesnt play games is the temp manager we have, the rest of us are all hardcore gamers. also, GAME and Gamestation, being the SAME COMPANY, also means we pricematch each other.

I suppose my point is, we are all gamers, thats why we work in a shop dedicated to selling games.
Tho anyone who has worked in either, knows the hellishness of shovelling crap down every customers throat.
but thats in every job..

@DEMERGE I must be lucky then because I live in a small town with only one game store and most of the staff are games players, even the female staff. I've had lengthy conversations with some of them about the games I intended to buy as well as the games I have already played.

@DEMERGE Sorry that was meant to be @Istari Spartan and @Unverified

@Istari Spartan

I work in a Game store and I can tell you that atleast in my store we're all gamers. We wouldn't hire someone who wasn't, how can they help customers if they don't know what they're talking about?

And as has been said, we'll price match with Gamestation, just ask.

This sucks for the people who may loose their jobs. Luckily I work at the only Game in our little city so we won't be going anywhere. The Gamestation may close, but that's no real loss as even the employees don't care.

If their prices are anywhere near the ones in their Swedish stores, the whole damn chain needs to shut down. At GAME you'll find used, years-old games for higher prices than any acceptable seller charges for a new release.

@Chazzr

Thats odd, didn't know game did regional pricing because new super mario wii is not 39.99 in my local GAME, i'm in london so would have expected the higher price here!

And new super mario bros wii is £36.21 on HMV. com, its a bit odd that HMV.com is more expensive than the in store price you have!!

@Milky1985

Yeah, prices tend to differ, you can imagine the shock on my face when I saw £60+ games when PS3 and 360 first released, thank god that doesn't happen any more, and if it does, it's rare. Genji was far from worth £60 :/ Today I would even refuse to pay £20 for that game.

@Chazzr

The price may be only one or two pounds different for a little while, it all depends on how popular the game is and how many we have. Pokemon games for example hold their price for a long time because they are always popular. Same goes for trade ins, you may only get £2 for a sports game such as Fifa because there is a new game every year, whereas other games hold their price better because they're popular, such as Mario Kart.

I'm not surprised by this. As much as I love GAME, they can only blame themselves. They don't have the most competitive prices on preowned games, or new games for that matter. Plus, I'm kinda sick of them having games on the shelf that they don't actually have in stock. There's 3 of their stores I go to regularly and it's the same in all them.

That said, the reward card can be quite generous. So that's why I stick with them when I can... Although, HMV and Extravision are always worth checking out.

@Styli

Same exact feelings I have about them, wasn't exactly overwhelmed with delight when they bought out Gamestation because it meant prices would probably rise, but so far it hasn't been too bad.

In my experience, there are often a lot of GAME family stores grouped together. Either GAME or GameStation stores. I think a lot of 'duplicate' GAME stores (two GAME branded stores close together) are the remnants of when GAME took over Electronics Boutique.

I don't think there's need for two retail outlets selling the same stock at the same prices in close proximity to one-another. At least GameStation is often used as GAME's 'used-game-emporium' when there's both a GAME and GameStation close together.

It sucks that people will lose their jobs through this, though. Especially in harsh economic times. Hope they land on their feet somewhere else.

Are all GAME stores so PINK? Don't get me wrong, it's a fancy colour, but considering the target audience, it's not exactly the best image to giver yourself. At first glance I thought it was one of the Teenie bopper stores...
Yeah HMV is pink too, but at least their stores don't look like Barbie's castle...

@Coleman811
It's actually purple, just not a good picture.

@Coleman811

For pink stores, they always seem to be packed with gamers looking for games, so I hardly doubt the pink is doing anything negative for their reputation. And yeah, its not pink, its purple.

Don't suppose there's a list of which branches are shutting down is there?
There are a few in Swansea (Game & Gamestation). There's one quite local to me which comes in handy every now and then as they are open till 8pm. Although I usually go for Tesco & Asda and their 24hr opening times to get my impulsive midnight 'I need a new game' fix.

There is 3 in Coventry, 2 that are within throwing distance. Then a Gamestation just a small walk away. Then another Gamestation not so far away. Thats only the ones I know about. I've always thought it was a bit silly but looks like they all do well.

Are Game run/owned by HMV? They look almost exactly the same.

@PooPooKaKaBumBum
Nope GAME group is nothing to do with HMV...

@Chazzr Amen to that...

Used to live there until just recently. Game, HMV and Starbucks... yeah you know what I'm talking about... Too many of everything for no purpose at all.

Dumb store. I've tried to order some PAL games from their online web store and you can't complete any order without phoning them.

Why??? They still have requirements like this for e-commerce?

While I'd rather my local Game isn't closed (closest for 20 miles and doing decent business so unlikely), in all honesty, I could get by fine with Amazon for the pre-orders/planned buys and ASDA/Tesco for the impulse buys. Game really only does me well as a way to get consoles easier as I'd be wary of a large package such as a console in the post, and Game always did decent prices for consoles by themselves. It was also crucial for getting a Wii that 1st Christmas as a small store in a smallish town was a little easier to get a console from than Amazon would have been.

@Chazzr I live in Luton near the Arndale wouldn't surprise me if one shut down there I can go in look at a price of a game walk to Gamestation and say "mind knocking a couple quid off this game has it cheaper?"

GAME = Ripoff
Gamestation/HMV = Ripoffable

@kooda Wait isn't that 3 total or are you counting the one in Debenhams as the 2nd that shut down?

@Chazzr

Dont foregt the one in Debenhams!

Manchester Fort is probably acceptable!

If you took that sign, changed the word to "Microsoft" then changed the colour of the text and the font, it would be an EXACT rip off of Microsoft's logo.

That store looks...girly

@mduck

You're too tough for it. If you even glance at it walking by, I guess you won't have your army of girls go after your bodacious self anymore. You're too attractive for this store obviously.

@thisredengine relax, mom

I'm not surprised :/ There were 3 GAME stores in Croydon at one point only 5 minutes walk away from each other, I remember thinking WTF is the point in that? To add to that there were also 2 gamestations, so in total, the same company had 5 stores in one single place selling the same games and I couldn't for the life of me understand why.

Anyway, I think 2 game stores closed down as did one gamestation, so there are 2 stores now, which makes a lot more sense.

@Nintari

If you took that sign, changed the the whole thing to this 'Who gives a monkeys about font' it would be a rip off of......well nothing :/

In Birmingham city center (the one in England), near where I live.. there's 2 GAME stores & 2 Gamestation stores all within 5 minutes walk of each other.. we also have 3 HMV's, 2 McDonalds, 2 Waterstones.. overkill much?

@Chazzr

I remember 2 funny stories involving experiences in GAME, 1. trying to get NFS Underground at GAME, I took back 2 old games and the guy said they were worth £10, I couldn't really understand why, they were only a year old and I bought them both brand new. I stepped out of the queue to consider putting NFS back, but decided I would buy it anyway, but this time a different guy served me, I told him the other guy said they were worth £30, the other guy was too busy serving other customers, so yup, walked out paying a minor extra £10 for NFSU.

2. I bought a £1 game at one GAME store and traded it in at another for a different game for £5 on the same day :P £4 profit :D

GAME OVER!
(I'm surprised nobody said that yet. Too obvious?)

Plymouth had three Games in its relatively small city centre until the small one inside Debenhams closed. One is quite large and the other is part of the shopping centre, so I'm not sure if either of these will close. The Gamestation is a vast improvement on the small store it was originally.

I'll buy from CEX before I buy from Game, that's for sure. For them to own Gamestation and make themselves out to be the more expensive, more corporate part of the organisation is dumb.

@Spunky Monkey 190906

When was that? Now we do it all through the till, we don't set the prices in store so you wouldn't get that confusion anymore. Weird.

The annoying thing about all of this is that most towns have both a Gamestation and a GAME. They've been owned by the same company for about three years yet they still haven't sorted out the corporate branding, you still can't use your GAME reward card in Gamestation and the prices are so wildly different that you cannot walk in either store and be confident that this is the cheapest price.

I'm tired of walking into GAME, seeing a game I want, checking out the price, then walking to Gamestation to find it's not actually cheaper there and having to walk back. Or vice versa.

GAME near me, ( Burton ) despite being half the size of the Gamestation, is a better store and I just wish they'd have done with it, close down one chain or the other, and get their act together.

GAME to close 85 UK stores

Reader Comments (43)

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 7:24AM Esposch said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 7:29AM Ninjanun said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 8:10AM Esposch said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 7:30AM Lord Simpson said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 7:31AM Kaminaaa said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 7:35AM (Unverified) said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 9:16AM Istari Spartan said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 2:06PM DEMERGE said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 4:26PM carbonize said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 4:27PM carbonize said

Posted: Oct 1st 2010 3:51PM Mollfie said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 7:40AM Mehbah said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 9:18AM Milky1985 said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 3:18PM Spunky Monkey 190906 said

Posted: Oct 1st 2010 3:54PM Mollfie said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 8:41AM Styli said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 3:14PM Spunky Monkey 190906 said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 8:50AM SSUK said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 9:40AM Coleman811 said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 11:11AM iceytoa1 said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 3:08PM Spunky Monkey 190906 said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 9:50AM B0FF said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 10:23AM Hooded said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 10:33AM PooPooKaKaBumBum said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 11:12AM iceytoa1 said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 11:34AM Mike DPad said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 11:34AM thisredengine said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 11:42AM mrmobius said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 11:46AM kooda said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 11:47AM kooda said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 11:53AM stereo441 said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 1:46PM ThePope said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 2:20PM mduck said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 2:58PM thisredengine said

Posted: Sep 30th 2010 2:39AM mduck said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 3:05PM Spunky Monkey 190906 said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 3:06PM Spunky Monkey 190906 said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 3:14PM Mazrael said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 3:25PM Spunky Monkey 190906 said

Posted: Sep 29th 2010 7:27PM Brendan H said

Posted: Sep 30th 2010 4:59PM SWGooner said

Posted: Oct 1st 2010 3:55PM Mollfie said

Posted: Oct 4th 2010 12:47PM Rylan said

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