GAME is one of the biggest game retailers in the world, and will be an instantly recognisable name for UK and Australian gamers.
And how much longer it will be around is a big question. According to a report at Gamesindustry.biz, the retailer has hired accountants, PricewaterhouseCoopers, to conduct a strategic review on the mid and long-term future of the company.
This doesn’t happen under normal circumstances unless a company is in really dire trouble. And the numbers back up that concern. It’s expecting a pre-tax loss of £18 million for the financial year ended January 31, and is considering selling off its offshore branches.
Why is all of this big news for Digitally Downloaded? Well, GAME is the premier game retailer in the UK, and if it is forced out of the market, it will likely cause a rapid increase in digital downloads in one of the world’s biggest markets.
As sad as that will be for GAME and its employees, it would be a good thing for the rest of the industry, we would argue. Retailers and game developers and publishers have a notoriously love-hate relationship, and the disruption to the second hand market would help the publishers maintain their profit margins.
Interesting – I'm not familiar with GAME – not sure they have much US traction, but it could be an interesting precursor of things to come with other companies. I still stand in the opposite camp about this sort of thing being good for the industry, at least to some level, but it is interesting to watch all the same.
Interesting – I'm not familiar with GAME – not sure they have much US traction, but it could be an interesting precursor of things to come with other companies. I still stand in the opposite camp about this sort of thing being good for the industry, at least to some level, but it is interesting to watch all the same.
Poor GAME. They do quite well with customers and sales in Australia IMHO. The staff are generally quite friendly, but I prefer Gametraders because of the variety
Poor GAME. They do quite well with customers and sales in Australia IMHO. The staff are generally quite friendly, but I prefer Gametraders because of the variety
I don't think they exist at all in the US, but they are everywhere in the UK. And that's part of the problem, they bought out several chains like Electronic Boutique, Gamestation and after rebranding, they literally had 2 or 3 shops in medium sized towns within 2 minutes walk of each other. They are making a effort on increasing sale of PlayStation Store cards but generally are much more expensive that everywhere else (except HMV who originally sold music, but also do films, games, technology and is also badly suffering).
If Game ended completely it would radically change the gaming scene in the UK. Imagine Gamestop ending in the US, it would be like that. UK customers will shop in Tesco, US customers will shop in Walmart and I'm not so sure if that's a good thing. Let's just hope the new Vita digital game pricing policy ends up on the PS4 as digital is coming, possibly faster than many people would like.
I agree Mart, I think this digital era is going to come on earlier than people anticipated. That, of course, is why we set up the website – hopefully broadband around the world improves and becomes universal enough that no gamer gets left behind.
See, I have an almost impossible time seeing Gamestop going away – they've proven to be pretty adaptable over here. And honestly, the digital era is just not ready to happen, at least here in the US yet. I can't say I'm super excited for it or against it – it's an option I like to participate in. But until the ISP's here in America get on board, there's too many barriers. I cross my monthly allowance way too often, and have had friends shut down for a month or two at a time on their internet not because of anything illegal – just downloading too much content. When companties limit you to 100 or 200 gbs a month, and you have games rolling in at 10-20 gigs each, plus digital media like netflix and online gaming that all just chew at that bandwidth – something's going to have to give, but at least here in the US, it doesn't feel like it's going to be the cable companies. They keep talking more and more about data restriction and raising prices.
It seems to me that the game industry and ISP are at opposite ends here in the US at this point, and each generation of game consoles winds up with larger games. If it's true that the next Xbox will support bluray, are we looking at game titles of 30-45 gigs? that means 2 game downloads and one of my friends w/ a 100 gb limit is done for the month nearly.
Yeah, America is a bit different to the rest of the world, especially Asia and mainland Europe, which is all about the fast Internet connecting everyone and plenty of downloads for all.
Even Australia is getting in on that, albeit in a different way – ISPs here offer plans with 100GB or so caps, but 'unmetered' use for other things – Foxtel streaming through the Xbox 360 for instance.
It'd be interesting to see when the first mainstream gaming plans start to crop up. I think they'll be very popular.
Still, for people who like using retailers, the good news is that the world's biggest gaming market is in a variety of ways resisting the transition to downloads 🙂