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

KK wrote:GAME are still promoting what they're now calling "Britain's biggest games magazine". I've been into 3 GAME's since it launched now and never seen it.

So on Saturday I went into GAME to buy Red Faction, and they had this magazine, so I picked it up.

+ Full page interview with Jessica Curry (Composer, The Chinese Room)
+ Short interview with Aaron Contreras (Narrative Lead for Jedi: Fallen Order)
+ Full page spread on the Call of Duty Endowment, an organisation helping charities getting ex-military personnel into work, including a short interview with the directory Dan Goldenberg
+ Generally well presented with lots of words and surprisingly few ads
+ Some light features on top of the hype/previews

- Zero criticism - it's all previews for upcoming games, and the magazine is obviously biased to selling you on them
- Full page spread on Funko Pop figures
- "The very best of the blue blur" = Sega Mega Drive Mini, Team Sonic Racing, Sonic Mania, and Funko Pop! Sonic the Hedgehog :fp:

- Staff and contributors are only named on the back page

Sports Direct says it is facing a €674m (£605m) tax demand from Belgian authorities - as boss Mike Ashley warned that problems at House of Fraser were "terminal".

Mr Ashley also warned of more store closures at House of Fraser and expressed apparent regret for buying it, as Sports Direct published a much-delayed set of full-year financial results.

The tycoon used the results statement to deliver a stark assessment of the problems his business is facing as well as venting at length about those he blames for them.

He warned that the acquisition of House of Fraser had "led to significant uncertainty as to the future profitability of the group as a whole".

Meanwhile, the group said its chief financial officer Jon Kempster would step down in September.

Buried at the bottom of the results, Sports Direct revealed that only a day earlier it had received a payment notice of €674m from Belgian authorities - including penalties and interest payments - after a tax audit.

But the group said it would enter talks with the authorities and believed it was "less than probable" that the final sum due would be "material" to its finances.

It said the sum related to "amongst other things, the tax treatment of goods being moved intra-group throughout the EU via Belgium".

Mr Ashley's assessment of House of Fraser - after he had "looked under the bonnet" of the department store chain bought by Sports Direct for £90m last year - saw him take aim at previous management for its woes.

Blaming "serious under investment" as well as "greed and excess", he said: "We have found that the problems are nothing short of terminal in nature."

House of Fraser had 59 stores when acquired by Sports Direct last year - with Mr Ashley aiming to turn it into the "Harrods of the high street" - but by the end of April five had closed.

Mr Ashley said the group had worked as hard as it could to save jobs and stores but that many remained unprofitable and more were expected to shut in the next 12 months.

He added: "On a scale out of 5, with 1 being very bad and 5 being very good, House of Fraser is a 1, albeit we are trying very hard to turn the business around this will not be quick and it will not be easy.

"Even though we do believe there could be a bright future for House of Fraser... if we had the gift of hindsight we might have made a different decision in August 2018."

The results showed underlying profits at Sports Direct rose 5% to £143.3m for the year to the end of April, with revenues climbing by 10% to £3.7bn.

But within this, House of Fraser dragged on the bottom line, recording an operating loss of £54.6m.

The results statement also saw Mr Ashley take aim at Debenhams after his failed attempt to take control of the company - in which Sports Direct had a 30% stake before it collapsed and was subsequently taken over by its lenders.

MPs were also in his sights - he accused them of having "showboated" during his appearance before a Commons select committee last December in which he expressed his concerns about the dire state of the UK high street, and of failing to act on his concerns afterwards.

The results were only published after markets had closed on Friday afternoon, having been due for release at 7am. They had previously been pushed back from an initial release date of 18 July.

Shares fell 4% on the delay, which was described as a "shambles" by one analyst - even before investors were able to deliver a verdict on the results themselves.

They will now have to wait until Monday when trading re-opens.

https://news.sky.com/story/sports-direc ... r-11771188

GAME’s in good hands.

"It's all literally everyone's fault except mine"

Lagamorph wrote:"It's all literally everyone's fault except mine"

That's the mainstream game industry's response to any criticism so he should fit right in.

I don't go into GAME anymore but I thought I'd risk a jaunt into my local CeX today. They've expanded their retro section so it's all behind glass and arranged by format. There was a pretty decent amount, in OK nick - was nice to do some retro browsing for a change!

Shame the overall 'feel' of the store has definitely changed from indie nerd indulgence to Cash Converters esque exploitation station over the years. Unless you're fortunate enough to have a good indie in your home settlement, the provision of pleasant retail spaces from which to browse and buy games is at an all time low, in my opinion.

Mystical Ninja Starring Danmon wrote:Unless you're fortunate enough to have a good indie in your home settlement, the provision of pleasant retail spaces from which to browse and buy games is at an all time low, in my opinion.

I was thinking just that myself very recently too after reading a Twitter thread about the demise of Gamestation.

In my local town centre (Sunderland) we had an Electronics Boutique (later rebranded as GAME), a GAME, a Grainger Games, a Gamestation, a Chips, a little indie shop called Noble's and a couple of market stalls.

Now all we really have is GAME and CeX. Noble's is still going but it's looked like it's been on it's last legs for years now

Mystical Ninja Starring Danmon wrote:Shame the overall 'feel' of the store has definitely changed from indie nerd indulgence to Cash Converters esque exploitation station over the years.

CeX has always felt like the latter description there to me, but I guess it might have varied by location!

It's definitely always been more metal than indie...

Round my neck of the woods (south-east London suburbs) there is a GAME (which I rarely go in) and a CEX (which I barely ever go in). A couple of local supermarkets stock a very small selection of games; a random "top 5" for each of PS4, XBO and Switch.

If I'm buying a game on PS4 I download via the PS Store: if Switch than it's either from an online retailer or through the eShop.

I could probably count on one hand the number of game related purchases I have made from physical stores in the last 10 years. Like Jawa I'm either buying digital or I'm ordering from online.

Buying my PS4 from Currys this week was a somewhat surreal experience as I think the last time I bought a console in an actual shop would have been my 360 way back in 2006! :shock:

If Amazon hadn't delayed my One X, the last time I'd have gone to a store for a console would have been my 360 in 2013. Instead that was cancelled and it was down to Argos to get the Forza bundle on the day it came out instead of who knows how long after thank you very much Amazon.

And of course, all of my games have been digital so the only time I've ever been into stores is to look.

I think the last console I bought from a shop was my Wii; I got that from GAME in 2009.

My last portable console that I bought from a shop was a DSi XL that I picked up in my local Morrisons when they were getting rid of their gaming stuff; round about 2011.

The last console bought from a shop was my Xbox One X, got it from CeX when I traded in my first Switch. Normally wouldn't by a console from them as they all look manky as strawberry float but they had a batch of brand new X's only opened to check the contents so happy days, last one before that was a PS3 from Gamestation. Every other console since has been online.

Actually,I was very surprised to see it still exist as a brand. I used to buy from them in France all the time when i was a kid,during DS/Wii era. They closed everything very fast at the time though,and all was left was GameStop.

I recently preordered Super Mario Maker 2 and Fire Emblem Three Houses from their store. Their phone app isn't great for preorders,but the staff always is very friendly.
I also enjoy buying merch there because they.. don't really know how to price apparel,and i ended up getting the Playstation hoodie for 5 bucks,one Forza tshirt for 90p and about 5 Nintendo/Mega Drive tshirts for 10 bucks.. as a pack! It's a bit of a shame they don't seem to stock amiibo for more than a week,but i managed to buy the Diablo Loot Goblin there for 13 bucks. I remember it selling up to 50£ online.. so that was a great deal!

IAmTheSaladMan wrote:
Mystical Ninja Starring Danmon wrote:Unless you're fortunate enough to have a good indie in your home settlement, the provision of pleasant retail spaces from which to browse and buy games is at an all time low, in my opinion.

I was thinking just that myself very recently too after reading a Twitter thread about the demise of Gamestation.

In my local town centre (Sunderland) we had an Electronics Boutique (later rebranded as GAME), a GAME, a Grainger Games, a Gamestation, a Chips, a little indie shop called Noble's and a couple of market stalls.

Now all we really have is GAME and CeX. Noble's is still going but it's looked like it's been on it's last legs for years now

Is nobles the one that had a downstairs?

gaminglegend wrote:
IAmTheSaladMan wrote:
Mystical Ninja Starring Danmon wrote:Unless you're fortunate enough to have a good indie in your home settlement, the provision of pleasant retail spaces from which to browse and buy games is at an all time low, in my opinion.

I was thinking just that myself very recently too after reading a Twitter thread about the demise of Gamestation.

In my local town centre (Sunderland) we had an Electronics Boutique (later rebranded as GAME), a GAME, a Grainger Games, a Gamestation, a Chips, a little indie shop called Noble's and a couple of market stalls.

Now all we really have is GAME and CeX. Noble's is still going but it's looked like it's been on it's last legs for years now

Is nobles the one that had a downstairs?

Not sure I rarely went in as their trade in prices weren’t very good. Full name of the place was Noble’s Toy and Computer Shop, it’s on Blandford Street.

I think they had a stall in Jacky White’s Market too.

https://www.game.co.uk/en/m/marie-amiib ... on-1275986

£111.35 for 1 Amiibo....

Godzilla wrote:https://www.game.co.uk/en/m/marie-amiibo-splatoon-collection-1275986

£111.35 for 1 Amiibo....

That's a 3rd party using the site isn't it? Says "Sold and Fulfilled by MohnyMedia"

I recently noticed while walking past my local GAME that they now offer credit arrangements on bigger purchases. Isn't that somewhat ironic for a company that went into administration partly as a result of publishers refusing to sell them stock on credit?

IAmTheSaladMan wrote:I recently noticed while walking past my local GAME that they now offer credit arrangements on bigger purchases. Isn't that somewhat ironic for a company that went into administration partly as a result of publishers refusing to sell them stock on credit?

We at Grainger tried that, one of the many attempts to keep the company afloat it's was unpopular with the staff because an average credit check would take around 20 to 30 minutes only for it to fail 90% of the time.

They tried to bring it back in late 2017, but all the staff refused outright to support it as they had already cut back costs and staff, while throwing other stuff at us, like repairing phones and phone cases and buybacks.

I should really do a Grainger Games ama.

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

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