They might have to rename the shop to Tat following this
Everythings digital now
last time i stepped into an actual game store it was 99% shit merch stupidly priced, now they are just corners in sports direct I think
Am I right in saying that GAME has gone the HMV route of pivoting to selling a lot of Marvel t-shirts and Funko Pops?
It’s all a bit sad, really. Like music, just downloading games makes it easier than ever, but it feels less fun.
As someone who is currently having broadband problems, physical copies of games are important. Not everybody can get online.
Bring back the 80s when you had dedicated computer game shops. Atari and Commodore, Spectrum and Amstrad. Rows and rows of games in big boxes with nice manuals and posters. Did you want it on floppy disk or cassette. No patches to download. All reasonably priced too.
I honestly didn’t know they still had physical stores.
Stopped shopping there when it changed from Electronics Boutique and they stopped selling edge magazine in the one near me.
Finally my boycott is paying off
Gamen’t
This is honestly a shame. Mileage will definitely vary, but my local game stores are still good to this day. The staff are friendly, and they’ve frequently got physical games on a decent sale. They’re also the only physical retailer that stocks a decent amount of games, rather than just the latest of releases.
We’ve obviously come a long way from the awesome days of Gamestation, but it’s still a shame to see more closures.
Glad I still have a local game shop near me with retro games too.
Are they renaming to Download Code?
Remember the days of big box PC games and manuals like a paperback book? Ah ‘member.
CEX absolutely rubbing their hands, totally annihilated GAME who have failed to move with the times.
It’s a shame but sadly inevitable.
It does wind me up though how even some if not all digital copies of games still require an internet connection to play from what I’ve seen, even when the game is on your console’s internal hard drive.
Long live Electronics Boutique and Gamestation
Most GAME stores are inside sports direct now. Those that aren’t, have a tiny corner for games, and the rest is a toy shop.
They’ve already stopped trade ins, and their rewards card is gonna be useless by the end of July.
It’s depressing, GAME was the best at one point, killing both EB Games and Gamestation, gobbling them up. It’s a shame to see it die this drawn out painful death only a decade after it was saved from liquidation too.
It’s not surprising.
But hey, least we have CEX, wouldn’t be surprised if they branched into new releases….
Another physical media store gone the way of HMV. Selling Pop culture tat is the only way for them to stay afloat these days.
I can’t believe they have been selling physical games this long to be honest with how high they price them, especially 2nd hand ones.
The thing is, there are advantages to getting a DVD or Blu-ray but not many to buying physical games in this day and age. Most of them require an online connection to download updates and the rest of the game anyway.
GAME store in my town closed last year I think. I worked there for 3 months (which as a game nerd was a dream) but most of the staff were absolute narcissists because they worked in “aggressive sales”.
I couldn’t hack the environment, both in terms of my sales ability and personal satisfaction, so I left. Glad I did it but never shopped there again.
These days I try my best to buy physical releases and have to use my local Argos or resort to online retailers
My next nearest GAME (over 50 miles away) mainly sells tat, Lego and pop vinyls. I have a lot of pop vinyls but never buy from them as their prices are inexplicably high, as they always have been
They recently had a 50% discount on all used games. So I went to buy Demons Souls, it was £32. In CEX down the street it was £18. Maybe people aren’t buying your games because they are way overpriced.
Game in MK has what looks like a lan party gamer setup, you can go in and pay for X amount of time on one of their machines, they’ll probably expand on this possibly.
Game was fantastic but then at some point they just refused to keep up with other retailers. Why would I buy full price from them when places like Amazon, ShopTo, Currys etc were usually lower price and often still included any sort of pre-order incentive.
Feels like they must be close to shutting down, they’ve also stopped pre-owned stuff when pivoting to a CEX style preowned shop might have worked.
It’s really important to have physical media because games publishers only sell you the rights to play the game. Not the actual game.
So a publisher could pull the game from you at any time, no matter how much time you’ve put into it or money spent on it.
At least with physical media, you stand a very low chance of them sending someone round your house to take a disc away, but with digital media you can lose a game instantly.
I remember taking a collectors edition of Assassin’s Creed 2 to Game for trade in. Fully intact Ezio statue thing. Had absolutely no money as a college student so was desperate. Not desperate enough to accept £5 though. Still on the shelf now and looks great.
Disappointing news. There’s been a big worrying movement regarding digital ownership of games and movies where just because you buy a game through the PlayStation store for example doesn’t mean you own the game. You just have proof you’ve purchased the ability to play the game. Games can be delisted from the store at any time and you won’t be able to get a refund.
I genuinely believe sooner or later we’ll start gravitating back to physical media, that way you physically own the product.
26 comments
They might have to rename the shop to Tat following this
Everythings digital now
last time i stepped into an actual game store it was 99% shit merch stupidly priced, now they are just corners in sports direct I think
Am I right in saying that GAME has gone the HMV route of pivoting to selling a lot of Marvel t-shirts and Funko Pops?
It’s all a bit sad, really. Like music, just downloading games makes it easier than ever, but it feels less fun.
As someone who is currently having broadband problems, physical copies of games are important. Not everybody can get online.
Bring back the 80s when you had dedicated computer game shops. Atari and Commodore, Spectrum and Amstrad. Rows and rows of games in big boxes with nice manuals and posters. Did you want it on floppy disk or cassette. No patches to download. All reasonably priced too.
I honestly didn’t know they still had physical stores.
Stopped shopping there when it changed from Electronics Boutique and they stopped selling edge magazine in the one near me.
Finally my boycott is paying off
Gamen’t
This is honestly a shame. Mileage will definitely vary, but my local game stores are still good to this day. The staff are friendly, and they’ve frequently got physical games on a decent sale. They’re also the only physical retailer that stocks a decent amount of games, rather than just the latest of releases.
We’ve obviously come a long way from the awesome days of Gamestation, but it’s still a shame to see more closures.
Glad I still have a local game shop near me with retro games too.
Are they renaming to Download Code?
Remember the days of big box PC games and manuals like a paperback book? Ah ‘member.
CEX absolutely rubbing their hands, totally annihilated GAME who have failed to move with the times.
It’s a shame but sadly inevitable.
It does wind me up though how even some if not all digital copies of games still require an internet connection to play from what I’ve seen, even when the game is on your console’s internal hard drive.
Long live Electronics Boutique and Gamestation
Most GAME stores are inside sports direct now. Those that aren’t, have a tiny corner for games, and the rest is a toy shop.
They’ve already stopped trade ins, and their rewards card is gonna be useless by the end of July.
It’s depressing, GAME was the best at one point, killing both EB Games and Gamestation, gobbling them up. It’s a shame to see it die this drawn out painful death only a decade after it was saved from liquidation too.
It’s not surprising.
But hey, least we have CEX, wouldn’t be surprised if they branched into new releases….
Another physical media store gone the way of HMV. Selling Pop culture tat is the only way for them to stay afloat these days.
I can’t believe they have been selling physical games this long to be honest with how high they price them, especially 2nd hand ones.
The thing is, there are advantages to getting a DVD or Blu-ray but not many to buying physical games in this day and age. Most of them require an online connection to download updates and the rest of the game anyway.
GAME store in my town closed last year I think. I worked there for 3 months (which as a game nerd was a dream) but most of the staff were absolute narcissists because they worked in “aggressive sales”.
I couldn’t hack the environment, both in terms of my sales ability and personal satisfaction, so I left. Glad I did it but never shopped there again.
These days I try my best to buy physical releases and have to use my local Argos or resort to online retailers
My next nearest GAME (over 50 miles away) mainly sells tat, Lego and pop vinyls. I have a lot of pop vinyls but never buy from them as their prices are inexplicably high, as they always have been
They recently had a 50% discount on all used games. So I went to buy Demons Souls, it was £32. In CEX down the street it was £18. Maybe people aren’t buying your games because they are way overpriced.
Game in MK has what looks like a lan party gamer setup, you can go in and pay for X amount of time on one of their machines, they’ll probably expand on this possibly.
Game was fantastic but then at some point they just refused to keep up with other retailers. Why would I buy full price from them when places like Amazon, ShopTo, Currys etc were usually lower price and often still included any sort of pre-order incentive.
Feels like they must be close to shutting down, they’ve also stopped pre-owned stuff when pivoting to a CEX style preowned shop might have worked.
It’s really important to have physical media because games publishers only sell you the rights to play the game. Not the actual game.
So a publisher could pull the game from you at any time, no matter how much time you’ve put into it or money spent on it.
At least with physical media, you stand a very low chance of them sending someone round your house to take a disc away, but with digital media you can lose a game instantly.
I remember taking a collectors edition of Assassin’s Creed 2 to Game for trade in. Fully intact Ezio statue thing. Had absolutely no money as a college student so was desperate. Not desperate enough to accept £5 though. Still on the shelf now and looks great.
Disappointing news. There’s been a big worrying movement regarding digital ownership of games and movies where just because you buy a game through the PlayStation store for example doesn’t mean you own the game. You just have proof you’ve purchased the ability to play the game. Games can be delisted from the store at any time and you won’t be able to get a refund.
I genuinely believe sooner or later we’ll start gravitating back to physical media, that way you physically own the product.