GAME no longer stocking EA Games..

[EWB's Best Poster.]

GAME Australia administrators announced plans to close 60 retail stores at the cost of 264 jobs, GamesIndustry International reported Friday. An additional 17 head office positions will be terminated at the company.

In a media release, Kate Warwick of PricewaterhouseCoopers said, "this is a difficult time for employees and closing the stores was not a decision we made easily. However it is not financially viable to continue to operate at this level at this time." Warwick was appointed as voluntary administrator of GAME Australia on May 14.

The Australian Financial Review posted a list of the 60 stores that have closed.

[thatshortguy]

No shit, I've walked into a store, asked if they had a certain RPG, and before I can even finish saying the title of that game, they bring it up from behind the counter. That's fucking awesome service there. And if one store doesn't have a certain game, they'll look for nearby places that show they have it in stock for you.

When I did seasonal work for a nearby GameStop, this was my favorite trick to pull. Some poor shmuck customer poor shmuck came in looking for the Tron: Legacy Collector's Edition and by the time he could finish saying it, I had already nabbed our last one and slid it over to him (making the cycle noise, naturally). The look on his face made my day.

However, I'll never work for a place like that again. After seeing how a video game chain should be run via Rhino Video Games, working at GameStop was a completely sobering experience. The people are great, but there is a big reason why turnover is always a problem. It's an extremely high-pressure company.

[King Ellis]

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/end-of-an-era-gamestation-rebranded-game/0102919

Game Retail has announced today that all its stores will now operate under one brand – GAME.

MCV understands that an announcement was made during the GAME Conference today.

It means an end to the firm’s dual-brand identity. It has operated both GAME and Gamestation stores since it acquired the latter chain from Blockbuster in 2007.

It follows comments made to MCV last week from CEO Martyn Gibbs, who said the company is researching what gamers ‘want from a specialist.’

Gamestation was formed in 1993 in York and by 2002 had 63 stores. It was then sold to Blockbuster who aggressively rolled-out stores until the brand had almost 240 on the High Street. GAME then acquired Gamestation in 2007, with the store’

MCV will reveal more on the new changes happening at Game Retail over the coming days.

SO LEAVE THE MEMORIES ALONE

[Summers]

I forgot to say this, found our a week or so ago.

GAME also released a poster to the stores showing what customers thought GAME and Gamestation did well. Gamestation's ratings were essentially far better.. Ah well.

Goodnight GS.

[stokeriño]

I can only presume the Gamestation store that sits opposite the GAME store in central Milton Keynes (as opposed to the second GAME store nearby) is going to close then.

Because otherwise that would just be silly.

[Robsturgh]

The stores were becoming more and more similar over recent years. Inevitable really. Still, I'll always have a soft spot for Gamestation.

[ZJ Penn]

I can only presume the Gamestation store that sits opposite the GAME store in central Milton Keynes (as opposed to the second GAME store nearby) is going to close then.

Because otherwise that would just be silly.

Yeah I always thought it was bizarre how many stores they have. Near where I used to live there were four GAME/Gamestation stores in the city centre, literally a one minute walk from one to the next.

It's a shame that GAME is the one staying, I prefer pretty much everything about Gamestation.

Edited September 14, 2012 by ZJ Penn

[stokeriño]

I can only presume the Gamestation store that sits opposite the GAME store in central Milton Keynes (as opposed to the second GAME store nearby) is going to close then.

Because otherwise that would just be silly.

Yeah I always thought it was bizarre how many stores they have. Near where I used to live there were four GAME/Gamestation stores in the city centre, literally a one minute walk from one to the next.

It's a shame that GAME is the one staying, I prefer pretty much everything about Gamestation.

As far as I can tell they simply haven't closed enough of the stores they took over. The first GAME store I mentioned above was originally an Electronics Boutique store. Then the first real GAME store opened round the corner. The EB store became GAME and they just kept both. I do have to think that doing the same to the Gamestation store would be extreme overkill.

[Cactus Drags]

What's probably being glossed over here is that it's not just an assimilation of Gamestation. Looks like we're going with the Gamestation style for marketing (stuff like posters with cheeky slogans on them and toning down the purple), more casual approach to uniform and better trade-in policies. Slight change to the reward scheme, and I presume we'll be adopting Game's 28 day policy as it's more viable than the 10 day Gamestation one what with all the online pass bullshit that's around now.

It's interesting. If the higher-ups are actually going to stick to the MO we've been told (straight-talking by-gamers-for-gamers type stuff and an emphasis on "honesty, humility and humour"...whatever that means), then it could be pretty good. If they jsut fall back into old habits....might as well just fold now.

And you can stop capitalising GAME now. It's just Game.

[LL!]

I can only presume the Gamestation store that sits opposite the GAME store in central Milton Keynes (as opposed to the second GAME store nearby) is going to close then.

Because otherwise that would just be silly.

You'd think that, wouldn't you? We have an indoor mall here that isn't all that big... yet it has two different GameStops. And they're not even that far from one another.

[Cactus Drags]

It's weird, sometimes it totally works. We have a couple of towns in the region where there's two, I think one town has two on the same street, and they're consistently in the top ten for performance. There's also been situations where one store has absolutely slaughtered the other, and that's obviously no good for anyone.

[stokeriño]

My point was that there would be three within the same shopping centre/mall.

Any other examples of there being three?

[Cactus Drags]

Southampton used to have two Games and a Game concession in Debenhams. But they were spread out, I don't know of any in the same centre, I didn't realise anyone could be that stupid. I think there's a couple of examples of Game and Gamestation being opposite each other on a high street, but none in my region so I couldn't say how successful that is.

[LL!]

My point was that there would be three within the same shopping centre/mall.

Any other examples of there being three?

I'm sure if I looked hard enough I could. The fact is, from my house, I could get to three different GameStops in a matter of 10 minutes.

[METALMAN]

Glasgow City Centre had four five minutes walk of each other I think. The one I went to is the one that closed down. :/

[King Ellis]

I dunno, it works for Greggs. There must be about 10 of the bloody things where I live.

[Crybaby Bunting]

Carlisle has a Game, a GameStation and a mini Game at the bottom floor of Debehnams if I remember correctly.

[Cactus Drags]

Think all the Debenhams concessions were closed a year or so ago.

[EWB's Best Poster.]

WELL THERE'S YOUR PROBLEM!

http://www.joystiq.com/2012/11/03/former-gamestop-vp-pleads-guilty-to-embezzling-almost-2-million/#comments

2 MILLION embezzled.

From gamestop but they are one company now, worth a looking into.

[Cactus Drags]

Are you saying Game and Gamestop are the same company? Because they aren't.