Music, Style & Culture

Death Of The High Street Game Shop?

GAME stores across the UK face a troubling time.

GAME have been denying that anything's up, but we're all seeing it coming. With limited stock and employees rumoured to have received late payment, it looked like the end was looming for the UK giants earlier this week as it was speculated a huge investor had recently pulled out of the company.

Some customers had claimed that stores had stopped taking pre-orders for releases and that, when the shops re-stocked, it was so limited that there were none left on the day of release. The trade paper MCV claimed that the usual credit insurance for GAME was altered significantly at the start of the year meaning that there was no money left to buy in new games, leaving the stores having to make new deals with the publisher of each game individually.

Game CEO Ian Shephard told MCV "I don’t think the consumer economy is suddenly going to turn around anytime soon. And so we will be very careful. But fundamentally the wider context is, we have a clear vision about where we are taking this business. And when I talk to investors and banks, I hear a great deal of support for that strategy."



An insider at GAME told us that the company has massive debts to publishers such as Nintendo, but an announcement by GAME last week explained that they'd made an agreement with their lenders and that they were likely to, at least, last the remainder of the year.

But with dwindling stock, what does this mean for us?

GAME have denied major problems and are assuring customers that their pre-orders are safe. The launch of the PS Vita at the end of this month should see massive sales for the stores, but an insider claimed that, unless you pre-order it, you're unlikely to be able to walk in and buy one.



Worryingly, this could be the last nail in GAME's coffin - who's likely to go into a GAME store, see a game advertised that they can't buy there because it's sold out, then go home and buy it from the GAME website, instead of a cheaper online competitor?

One of GAME's major draws, though, is it's large stock of pre-owned titles, in some stores, dwarfing the amount of new games. The ease of trade-in sees customers able to take in old games, trade them in for store credit or put the money on GAME's in-store trade-in credit card for use later. But if GAME were to suddenly collapse - what would happen to all the money we've saved on those cards? Our gift cards become redundant and what about GAMECARE, the store's insurance over consoles?



Where will go on the high street for our games? GameStation is one of the bigger alternative on the UK streets, but it was bought out by GAME in 2007! Will the high street gaming market be reclaimed by independent gaming shops, or will we all have to go online to get our fix?

Customer wariness is understandable when there's a monetary investment of any degree into the firm, but GAME assure the public there's nothing to worry about. For now. But maybe we should all start using our vouchers a little quicker...