GAME (as in the shop GAME): Retailer Of The Year 2019

Just had an email to say the store in Lakesode Shopping Centre is closing and will be moving into a part of House of Fraser. Got the same offer of £5 points etc.. as well :lol:

Went into Reading yesterday to find GAME has closed in the main shopping centre. No signs or anything, but I looked online and found it listed as inside Sports Direct. Out of interest went to Sports Direct (also not where I expected it to be, it's moved into a different unit) and it had signs saying GAME was inside. Where exactly inside wasn't clear at all, but eventually (after walking through aisles and aisles of sportswear and turning two corners) we found GAME in a back corner. There was a shelf of Switch games, a shelf of PS4 and PS5 games, and the rest was all Lego. Depressing stuff and suffice to say I won't be making the arduous journey back through Sports Direct any time soon.

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OrangeRKN wrote:Went into Reading yesterday to find GAME has closed in the main shopping centre. No signs or anything, but I looked online and found it listed as inside Sports Direct. Out of interest went to Sports Direct (also not where I expected it to be, it's moved into a different unit) and it had signs saying GAME was inside. Where exactly inside wasn't clear at all, but eventually (after walking through aisles and aisles of sportswear and turning two corners) we found GAME in a back corner. There was a shelf of Switch games, a shelf of PS4 and PS5 games, and the rest was all Lego. Depressing stuff and suffice to say I won't be making the arduous journey back through Sports Direct any time soon.

Let us know when you find your way out!

So I have had a rather annoying experience today at game in Nottingham, I had £33.93 in my game wallet and looking at my games I thought I would trade in both my life is strange games and got £21.50 so ended up with £55.43 so all good so far

Super Mario Bros Wonder is out today and £49.99 so perfect, I will have that then please, he scanned everything and the till system was a problem but I refreshed my app and it’s been taken and I got a email so I thought that’s it and I can be on my way = wrong

Apparently the transaction didn’t go through and after 20 minutes of phone calls there was nothing he could do, I was rather angry, he said the funds would go back on within 24 hours, it left me with £5.44 but I just checked and it’s now £5.66 so it’s gone up by 22p so now I’m thinking it’s probably not going to add £49.99 and it’s going to be confusing explaining all this

I got the stuff below for free but if I don’t get that back it will have cost 1p under £50!

RichardUK wrote:So I have had a rather annoying experience today at game in Nottingham, I had £33.93 in my game wallet and looking at my games I thought I would trade in both my life is strange games and got £21.50 so ended up with £55.43 so all good so far

Super Mario Bros Wonder is out today and £49.99 so perfect, I will have that then please, he scanned everything and the till system was a problem but I refreshed my app and it’s been taken and I got a email so I thought that’s it and I can be on my way = wrong

Apparently the transaction didn’t go through and after 20 minutes of phone calls there was nothing he could do, I was rather angry, he said the funds would go back on within 24 hours, it left me with £5.44 but I just checked and it’s now £5.66 so it’s gone up by 22p so now I’m thinking it’s probably not going to add £49.99 and it’s going to be confusing explaining all this

I got the stuff below for free but if I don’t get that back it will have cost 1p under £50!

Contact trading standards if they strawberry float you over. Take your time and write a detailed email about the issue. Fobbing you off with tat sounds very legally questionable.

Well it’s been over 24 hours and nothing has been refunded, I contacted them again via live chat and they said to contact them again on Monday

Hey at least you got a grubby old Union Jack flag, could have been worse :toot:

It looks like there are going to be redundancies at GAME and that remaining staff will generally be on zero hours contracts. Source: Eurogamer

I feel bad for the staff that are remaining.

Staggering that they are still going, their stores are looking more like poor toy shops than game shops.

Hopefully current staff can all find new jobs, moving to zero hour contracts feels like a way of sacking a lot of people without saying you're sacking people so the company/owner can save face and maintain the delusion of running a successful business. And hot a dead brand, which now sells cheap toys and puzzles.

I know its far from ideal longterm, but I'd take a redundancy payout over a forced move to a 0 hour contract, especially if you've been with the business a few years, it won't be a big sum, but then a 0 hour contract can be brutal.

Robbo-92 wrote:I know its far from ideal longterm, but I'd take a redundancy payout over a forced move to a 0 hour contract, especially if you've been with the business a few years, it won't be a big sum, but then a 0 hour contract can be brutal.

Yeah I have to imagine you're right.

More bad news. I would like to know how rough exactly students/ young people have it these days. I know they don't have it at all easy

When I was a student, you was fairly spoilt for part time jobs like this (not exactly GAME, but jobs like that), I worked in supermarkets, shop like Debenhams, House of Fraser, pubs, waiting tables -all really easy to come by at the time. These days with 'the death of high street' feels like those jobs just aren't there anymore. Plus we didn't have half the problem students these days face. It sucks!

Sincerely hope the workers will be ok

Barnsy! wrote:
Robbo-92 wrote:I know its far from ideal longterm, but I'd take a redundancy payout over a forced move to a 0 hour contract, especially if you've been with the business a few years, it won't be a big sum, but then a 0 hour contract can be brutal.

Yeah I have to imagine you're right.

More bad news. I would like to know how rough exactly students/ young people have it these days.

When I was a student, you was fairly spoilt for part time jobs like this (not exactly GAME, but jobs like that), I worked in supermarkets, shop like Debenhams, House of Fraser, pubs, waiting tables -all really easy to come by at the time. These days with 'the death of high street' feels like those jobs just aren't there anymore. Plus we didn't have half the problem students these days face. It sucks!

Sincerely hope the workers will be ok

I dare say there will be a few students/younger employees, but in general retail workers are a little older than the student age that used to be so popular in the sector, mainly as business want to run on the minimum amount of labour possible, so they want to go for staff who have experience, who need minimal training (if any) to get up to speed, people who can be a lot more flexible than students can with their shifts/hours.

I do hope the employees aren't too disheartened by this, this feels like it has been looming over Game for well over 5 years now, not that it makes it any easier for them of course.

Give it another year or so and the GAME brand will purely be one shelf inside a Sports Direct selling the latest EA Sports FC, CoD and Fortnite Bucks.

ITSMILNER wrote:Give it another year or so and the GAME brand will purely be one shelf inside a Sports Direct selling the latest EA Sports FC, CoD and Fortnite Bucks.

I popped into a sports direct to see what remained of GAME and it was exactly that; a sad corner with those games and a smattering of toys and controllers.

its a very weird concession arrangement too - i cant imagine there is much crossover between people buying sports gear and and buying a full price physical game with a remote control dinosaur on the side

i was buying some gym tops last month and the game section was literally sharing space with the tennis rackets and hockey sticks

Sounds like the rewards programme they do is ending on 31st July

Last edited by rinks on Mon Jun 03, 2024 2:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yep, just got the email. Step by step, every day a little bit shitter. The company really might as well not exist any more.

Points stop being earned on 15 July, and any points have to be spent by 31 July.

Fond memories of collecting the big old Electronics Boutique reward vouchers, enough to get a few free games each year.

"How do we rescue this failing business?"

"Make it shitter?"

"Perfect!"

Sad thing is I still quite like my local branch, well the staff at least. Only reason they haven't closed and hidden in a recess in sports direct is a long term lease in Chatham's decrepit pentagon Centre. One of the guys in there said its basically Chatham and bluewater left for proper stores. And that's full of toys

I've got such fond memories of GAME over the years, but it does feel like they're on a slow path to death.

The reward points and trade in bonuses usually made them super competitive when it came to console launches, but I can't really see myself rocking up to the local Sports Direct at midnight to pick up the Switch 2 at full price. Such a shame.

GAME (as in the shop GAME): Retailer Of The Year 2019

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