Gamestop may be interested in buying 291 GAME shops

[RupeeClock]

GameStop, the world's largest video games retailer, has expressed an interest in buying the Iberian operation of troubled Game Group, the Independent has learned.

News of the approach came as it emerged that another supplier was withholding products from Game.
GameStop's interest in all, or parts, of Game's 291-stores operation in Spain and Portugal is a rare piece of good news for the company. Both declined to comment.

But Game, which has 610 UK shops, still faces a battle to safeguard its future. Its shares closed at 4.6p yesterday. The supplier Capcom is refusing to ship its latest games, Street Fighter X Tekken and Asura's Wrath, scheduled for release on Friday, to Game.

This followed the technology giants Electronic Arts and Nintendo pulling products last week over concerns about its creditworthiness.
A Game spokeswoman said: "We're in talks with Capcom to resolve this temporary situation and we apologise to our customers for this disappointing news."

It put its 663-stores overseas operation up for sale by appointing advisers at Rothschild in January.

Game Group PLC own both GAME and Gamestation brand stores in the UK. Whilst this article discusses Gamestop's interest in purchasing Spanish and Portuguese GAME shops, this may also mean Gamestop could become a brand in the UK beyond its current online stores.

Source

 

[emigre]

 

[prowler]

I'll be surprised if GAME is still here after the Summer.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

That sucks. Oh well.

 

[kicknhorse]

I would like something decent to replace all the Game and Gamestation shops here in the UK. I don't know much about Gamestop, but there never seems to be much decent on their website - what is the point in listing games which you will never have in stock again?

I would also prefer them to be different companies. Not a Game, and then a Gamestation 2 shops down... We need real competition on the British Highstreet otherwise I will continue ordering online and buying from supermarkets

 

[McHaggis]

Gamestation was a great store until it was bought out by Lacklustre Video. Now that it's been bought by GAME, it's even worse, as there's no pricing competition between the two like in the good old days. GAME should re-sell Gamestation to save their arses.

That reminds me, I guess I should hurry to spend my saved GAME points...

 

[RupeeClock]

Gamestation was a great store until it was bought out by Lacklustre Video. Now that it's been bought by GAME, it's even worse, as there's no pricing competition between the two like in the good old days. GAME should re-sell Gamestation to save their arses.

That reminds me, I guess I should hurry to spend my saved GAME points...

With actual competition in used goods from stores like CEX, and no new shipments coming in, things are incredibly harsh for Game group right now.
You're hella right about the distribution of Game Group shops though, in my local shopping district you've got a GAME on the main street, a Gamestation on a branch of that street, and in the shopping mall you have another GAME inside.
What's the point of that? There's also an HMV and CEX on the main street with a nearby Tescos, Sainsburys and ASDA.

 

[chartube12]

This is already more than a week old. Digital spy reported this a week from last Tuesday.

 

[SparkFenix]

I gotta say I would love that

 

[prowler]

Advice to UKers: Check your local GAME and/or Gamestation store today or tomorrow. Loads of stores are having clearance sale with everything off even new stock. Grab what you can because I can see them going under very soon!

 

[FireGrey]

I wonder if this will affect the Australian game.
I generally don't go there because dicksmith has better prices and ebgames has better pre-owned prices.
Though they have great prices on controllers.
Only $8 for a new GC controller designed for the Wii.

 

[RupeeClock]

Advice to UKers: Check your local GAME and/or Gamestation store today or tomorrow. Loads of stores are having clearance sale with everything off even new stock. Grab what you can because I can see them going under very soon!

Emphasis on "What you can" because a lot of titles like Mass Effect 3, Mario Party 9 and many more big titles are not going to those stores at all.
I had heard about them possibly selling off brand-new stock as used, yikes.

I'll be going down that area tomorrow anyway so I may have to indulge.

 

[McHaggis]

Dixons Group (PC World, Currys, etc) have their "Collect in store" feature of their website where you can purchase an item online and pick it up from your local shop an hour later, giving you the online price at the convenience of having the product same day. The idea is that, while you're in the store picking your product up, you see something else you want to buy or the sales guy sells you insurance on your hardware, which compensates for the loss of margin on the product. I think if GAME had done something like this a long time ago, it would have saved them. I can't count the number of times I would have even bought from GAME at store price if I could check local store stock from the website.

I visited about 5 different video game stores last week looking for Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon. If I could search all GAME shops within a 30 mile radius, I'd go pick one up in a heartbeat. The problem is that they don't want to pay the initial setup costs to have all stores stock controlled by a central database. Of course, now they don't have the money to do that :-p

 

[muckers]

I had heard about them possibly selling off brand-new stock as used, yikes.

The company have done this for years. It's a process called mint-to-preowned. Basically, old stuff (or potentially stuff which may have damaged packaging from sitting around for far too long) gets 'turned into' pre-owned stuff so it can be sold at a lower price just to shift it.

A buy-out is possible, but it's unlikely the company is going to go under. The heads of the company aren't even close to considering pulling the plug, despite all the negative and false press they've been getting recently; things are not that bad.

Hell, 50% of the Vita's launch sales were through Game or Gamestation, and the group has a 45% market share of current SSX sales. We're hobbling along, but with a promising long-term future to balance out the bleak short-term. There's also new financial year upon us in a matter of weeks which will allow us to repair connections with EA et al.~

Game are having such a crazy sale because they've realised their margins on pre-owned are too high to actually shift any of it. As a result, they've moved forward the spring sale that they were always going to have (and always have had, year on year) to rake it a bit of extra moolah before the end of the year and also shift some stock.

It's not a closing down sale by any stretch of the imagination. It's a "make way for new stuff by reducing old, overpriced stuff" sale.

Dixons Group (PC World, Currys, etc) have their "Collect in store" feature of their website where you can purchase an item online and pick it up from your local shop an hour later, giving you the online price at the convenience of having the product same day. The idea is that, while you're in the store picking your product up, you see something else you want to buy or the sales guy sells you insurance on your hardware, which compensates for the loss of margin on the product. I think if GAME had done something like this a long time ago, it would have saved them. I can't count the number of times I would have even bought from GAME at store price if I could check local store stock from the website.

I visited about 5 different video game stores last week looking for Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon. If I could search all GAME shops within a 30 mile radius, I'd go pick one up in a heartbeat. The problem is that they don't want to pay the initial setup costs to have all stores stock controlled by a central database. Of course, now they don't have the money to do that :-p

Those store (and other stores like Argos) have a completely different setup, though. They're all warehouse store, effectively with the same back-room operation as their website may have. GAME and Gamestation don't operate like that. They have a much smaller setup, and it's so different that I don't think implementing something like that would work. Unless, of course, GAME went from being a highstreet store to renting huge units at retail parks.

 

[RupeeClock]

Dixons Group (PC World, Currys, etc) have their "Collect in store" feature of their website where you can purchase an item online and pick it up from your local shop an hour later, giving you the online price at the convenience of having the product same day. The idea is that, while you're in the store picking your product up, you see something else you want to buy or the sales guy sells you insurance on your hardware, which compensates for the loss of margin on the product. I think if GAME had done something like this a long time ago, it would have saved them. I can't count the number of times I would have even bought from GAME at store price if I could check local store stock from the website.

I visited about 5 different video game stores last week looking for Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon. If I could search all GAME shops within a 30 mile radius, I'd go pick one up in a heartbeat. The problem is that they don't want to pay the initial setup costs to have all stores stock controlled by a central database. Of course, now they don't have the money to do that :-p

Gamestation, unusually enough will allow you to place online orders for their games right in their stores. It's convenient if you lack online facilities at home and need to buy something that Gamestation will only supply online, for whatever reason.
But it's not enough, even though the online prices are much cheaper.

 

[McHaggis]

The heads of the company aren't even close to considering pulling the plug, despite all the negative and false press they've been getting recently; things are not that bad.

Daily Express cites "sources close to the situation" indicating otherwise:

A source close to the situation said: “There is a real risk that Game’s directors will pull the plug because they can’t be sure that the company can survive through the next trading season, and then insolvency becomes inevitable.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/305980/Bosses-may-pull-the-plug-on-Game/

Those store (and other stores like Argos) have a completely different setup, though. They're all warehouse store, effectively with the same back-room operation as their website may have. GAME and Gamestation don't operate like that. They have a much smaller setup, and it's so different that I don't think implementing something like that would work. Unless, of course, GAME went from being a highstreet store to renting huge units at retail parks.

I don't know about that, CeX manage it just fine and they're much smaller than GAME. I remember a few years ago even ordering store stock from the website (now there's an interesting concept!) and having it sent out to me.

I worked for PC World when they transitioned to Collect at Store, the whole process was part of an entire overhaul of Dixons Group, updating all the systems and every store simultaneously auditing their entire stock ready to be synchronized. I can only guess at how much this process might have cost them, and I think that's the bullet that never gets bitten by other retail operations. The actual process of a collect at store is very simple, one checkout would be alerted when new orders came through and a member of staff collects the stock and puts it in a holding area. Many times, this involved taking stock off the shelves (very few items would be stored in the back-room/warehouse, mostly large hardware items only). The central server reduces the store's stock level for each product ordered. I disagree that this wouldn't work for GAME and/or Gamestation.

 

[prowler]

Hell, 50% of the Vita's launch sales were through Game or Gamestation

That doesn't mean anything, Game had an agreement with Sony, Sony loaned them the Vitas to sell and Game/Gamestation have to send back any Vitas that don't sell. Didn't you notice the laughable OWNED BY SONY sticker on the Vita boxes and games?

Game are having such a crazy sale because they've realised their margins on pre-owned are too high to actually shift any of it. As a result, they've moved forward the spring sale that they were always going to have (and always have had, year on year) to rake it a bit of extra moolah before the end of the year and also shift some stock.

It's not a closing down sale by any stretch of the imagination. It's a "make way for new stuff by reducing old, overpriced stuff" sale.

No, it's a clearance sale. Stores are shutting down, it's not the same sale we've had for years.

 

[muckers]

Daily Express cites "sources close to the situation" indicating otherwise:

A source close to the situation said: “There is a real risk that Game’s directors will pull the plug because they can’t be sure that the company can survive through the next trading season, and then insolvency becomes inevitable.

http://www.express.c...e-plug-on-Game/

I'm citing a conference call my manager had with Tom Devine, the company's DM, who said the company isn't even contemplating total closure a little bit. Does my source win?

That doesn't mean anything, Game had an agreement with Sony, Sony loaned them the Vitas to sell and Game/Gamestation have to send back any Vitas that don't sell. Didn't you notice the laughable OWNED BY SONY sticker on the Vita boxes and games?

Why doesn't that mean anything? It means half of all launch period Vita's sold were sold in a GAME or a Gamestation, or through the respective websites. The more they sell, the more profit goes into GAME Group's pocket. How does this not equate to a benefit for the company? Unless you're telling me the company make zero profit on the Vita and all of its games?

It was off the back of this success of almost selling through launch stock of Vita consoles that Ubisoft decided to resupply GAME with its Vita titles.

No, it's a clearance sale. Stores are shutting down, it's not the same sale we've had for years.

Yeah, I totally agree - it's a clearance sale. GAME needs money, stores are sat on stock which haven't sold at their current price. Reduce their price to sell through and make some more money back. Pre-owned margins are really high, so they'll make a tidy profit on a majority of stock still (not to mention the future profits on anything traded in during this sale, as trade in prices will have dropped to come in line with sale prices of pre-owned stuff).

But clearance doesn't mean 'shutting down the company' at all. All sales are clearance sales. Do you think company's put on sales to be nice, or to get rid of stock they can't shift at full price?

I worked for PC World when they transitioned to Collect at Store, the whole process was part of an entire overhaul of Dixons Group, updating all the systems and every store simultaneously auditing their entire stock ready to be synchronized. I can only guess at how much this process might have cost them, and I think that's the bullet that never gets bitten by other retail operations. The actual process of a collect at store is very simple, one checkout would be alerted when new orders came through and a member of staff collects the stock and puts it in a holding area. Many times, this involved taking stock off the shelves (very few items would be stored in the back-room/warehouse, mostly large hardware items only). The central server reduces the store's stock level for each product ordered. I disagree that this wouldn't work for GAME and/or Gamestation.

Yeah, I think I agree. It's definitely not something that could be implemented overnight (like the ability to order through the GAME/Gamestation website in store can be) and does require quite a substantial overhaul of not only stock control systems, but the setup of stores.

Given that GAME and Gamestation operate in a number of pretty small stores, I think it would still prove a little difficult but I guess there's no reason why it can't be implemented in larger stores. It's definitely something they should try (or should've tried when they weren't struggling). And expensive; like you say, they don't have the money for such a massive overhaul, and certainly not to employ someone to stand at the online order till all day just checking in orders and collecting stock.

 

[McHaggis]

I'm citing a conference call my manager had with Tom Devine, the company's DM, who said the company isn't even contemplating total closure a little bit. Does my source win?

Yes

 

[BORTZ]

Man GameStop sucks. I mean it's the only place I have to really buy games other than the Internet... But they still suck. All the old stuff is really expensive. Like FireRed is still like $35