Ahh, so what? It happens. Virgin games centres were bought by Electronics Boutique. They got swallowed into the GAME moniker. Now Gamestation follow. Oh well. Like Kev said, it happened in the US too. I remember Funcoland, and I saw Gamestops and EBGames stores either running with each other's literature etc. In fact, it happens EVERYWHERE. EA bought Criterion and many other developers. Infogrames bought Atari and a LOT of other companies. Now you have the PROPER choice - GAME or the independant store. Barc-de, come to my town. Come to my shop. We have been trading 10 years. Before us, there was Arcadia (closed mid 90s), Software Plus (closed early-mid 90s), both of which were indies. Then our shop opened, and THEN several years later Electronics Boutique opened in Debenhams. They now have their own GAME store. We must be doing something right to be going still, no? So yeah, I really couldn't give a crap about corporate bullshit and chain stores swallowing other chains. They all have the same crap policies. They all dump retro in favour of modern eventaully (EVEN Gamestation, EVEN before Game - I bought loads of Mega CD and Saturn games for 50p each in Salisbury GameStation because they had no room for it.... what they did have was overpriced e.g. Sonic Jam for £18!). LONG LIVE THE INDIES - they are the REAL game stores.
The problem is not all cities have indie shops. Sure, there is the Internet, but a lot of people like to browse in a shop and talk and meet with like minded people in a physical store. One main retailer is bad for consumers. If you are an Indie shop and prices go up because of this merger then you're bound to be in favour of that kind of change. Less competition is good for retailers.
I m with Importaku on this. Shops that don't offer the option of imports are done-deal for me. I have no interest for the ordinary games, neither do I like blowing my cash on launch for popular games. It's a game of patience and good old searching. I love retro games, and I love being able to walk into a shop and feel like I ve walked inside a time-machine. Unfortunately, game-shops in the UK have become standardized and lack personality. Their personnel is ass as well for the most part of it, although I m certain there are a few members here who work in gameshops, and I wish I could be served by them instead of the usual clue-less dicks we have here
Maybe it's just lack of experience on my part, but I've not been to a game store in the UK since the turn of the century that I'd genuinely mourn the passing of. I'm sure they're out there somewhere, but damned if I can find them.
Just skimming and my point might already have been made for me, but so long as there are no job cuts or adverse issues relating to staff / pay, then no great shakes. My local Gamestations have drastically cut back on their retro sections in the last few months, primarily due to the likes of Cash Convertors, Cash Generators, eBay and local AdTrader competition. If Gamestation & Game continued to sell their part-ex, second-hand Xbox units (for example) at between £60 & £70, but the other sources are expecting their customers to pay out as little as £30, who the hell do you think is going to attract the customers? I think the retro thing is a very hard thing to get right and most of these retailers aren't. They buy in too many consoles then struggle to flog them, because the demand is low and the prices are high. Simple as that. I am not going to mention the name of the company I worked for, but we had a similar problem a few years back and we decided to have an amnesty. Each stock check was a nightmare as we filtered through boxes of half complete units or tried to find a pile of missing items that had been sold through on the wrong codes etc. In the end we offered the second-hand stock at very low prices. Yes, it was a loss leader, but you cannot buy that kind of customer loyalty. Sell cheap and you gain a valued return customer who is prepared to purchase other more expensive items. This turned this aspect of the company right round and led to a perminant clearance section on the Internet and presence on eBay. Job done! The division of sales for gaming must be an interesting one to look at as every other retailer seems to sell gaming equipment. GAME and GameStation were never just competing against one another, they've had to fight off competition from Supermarket chains, high street electrical outlets, and worse still for anyone trading on the High Street - the Internet! The two stores (IMHO) seemed to be pretty similar anyway, swap the logo around and I'd have been hard pushed to know which grumpy member of staff related to which store ;-)
Strange you don't see imports in your local Gamestations - my local one does. And as for £60 Xboxes - I'm pretty certain it's £50 with 2 games last time I checked (and at one point, they flogged off a load of £50 boxed PSPs because they were flooded with the damn things. I do admit though, their corporate rebrand a few years back did kill off much of the dingyness of most Gamestations.
Lol, since when did the XBox class as retro? :lol: I get your point, but all the Gamestations I ever visited had SNES, Megadrive, Saturn (etc) games stacked up.
No IMPORTS in our local store, which is presumably because G-Force & Gametex have quietly taken over that sphere thank you very much. As for the Xbox units at £50. Argos did brand new units with 4 brand new (old) titles for the exact same amount with 1yrs warranty. Why would I buy a second hand one with 3mths warranty and 2 games (of my choice, please look in the shit section)? Cash Convertors have 30 Xbox units sitting in their basement and the manager is getting more and more peeved cause he can't shift 'em at £35 with 1 game. The great Xbox 1 crash of July 2007 awaits us!
Don't ask me, that's where our local store has plonked them - a large glass cabinet marked "Retro". A year or two ago that section was a beautiful sight to behold full of nice items all waiting for my monthly pay cheque. Now, it's GBA, DS, PS2, Xbox and PS1 marked as "Retro Gaming". Their marketing, not mine!
When they get those Xboxes down to £25 or below, PM me eh Parris Nice price for a flexible media center, and there's a few titles for the old girl I've yet to play. EDIT: That's another thing about video game shops that I didn't mention in the previous post: the nutters. I was in a Game the other week in Hanley when some weasely-looking doley sidled up to me and started offering advice. Fine, I'm generally up for a chat about games. There was something obviously up with this fella though; his eyes were shifty and he was getting into it far too much. It ended up with him re-enacting -in disturbing detail- character special moves from two Devil May Cry-alikes, blow-by-blow. He didn't end up damaging anything, but I started to get somewhat concerned as he pulled down his imaginary sword a few inches away from my nose, apparently splitting me in half. Marvelous, you fucking nutjob. Now leave me alone. When confronted by the people who play games (at least in Stoke), I'm often reminded why it's still often considered a hobby for kids and the socially outcast. I mean, that's your clientele right there.
The most disappointing move Gamestation has made is towards merchandising, as far as I am concerned. Our retro section was cut in half to allow for Un-funny Nintendo t-shirts and Pokemon cards. And on the note of retro, I'd recommend you fellas ask your Gamestation staff for the items not on the shelf! For example, we have some Neo Geo CD games up in the store room at my work! Along with some sealed Dreamcast games, Some very good condition SNES games, etc... Problem is, people don't seem to want to buy them these days. We've had Shinning Force 1 and 2 PAL in great condition in our store for nearly a year now, sitting in our retro cabinet. We switched 'em out for a few bashed up copies of FF IX and they sold within an hour :/
Yup I`m with you on the merchandise......m8`s store shifted all the Nintendogs right in front of the tills after having them at the back somewhere and shifted loads The Wallace & Grommit stuff and the Final Fantasy stuff has been sitting in their for ages also and all getting reduced. You have to give someone some credit for at least trying!, but when it hasn`t shifted either reduce it big time and cut your losses or just out it. Strange how some stores take import stuff and some don`t, I presume it was just down the knowledge of the store staff/manager and what they could shift, or what was good for themselves ;-)
