![]() "Would it all go to supermarkets? I doubt it. "You definitely get some movement towards the people that are left. Their sales spread around the industry," Hayes recalls. "Look at what happened when Woolworths and Zavvi went. He expects there would be "some natural movement" towards supermarkets if GAME went. "For a supermarket that works quite well." "Generally you're looking at your top 20 until Christmas," Tesco games buyer Jonathan Hayes explains. "Some consumers believe supermarkets will take up the slack if specialist retailers disappeared, but in truth they are only really interested in the very biggest selling games like Call of Duty and FIFA," comments Eurogamer Network managing director Rupert Loman, who has been dealing with people from all walks of the games industry for over a decade, "and they won't stock the range of games that specialists should be offering." And those obliging supermarket stores don't offer the library of games that GAME does. Usually only the major supermarket stores do - the Locals and the Expresses don't bother. Not all branches of a supermarket sell games. It's the 10 per cent of crap." Don McCabe, joint managing director, Chips "Now if you walk into your local supermarket, how much range of books have they got? Would it be enough to satisfy you? It's bland. I remember the Harry Potter books were cheaper to buy from Tesco than from a wholesaler! Now if you walk into your local supermarket, how much range of books have they got? Would it be enough to satisfy you? It's bland. "Then the supermarkets came in, wiped out the cream, took the top sellers, the premium sellers, sold them as cheap as hell. "You could browse thousands and thousands of books on every subject under the sun. "There used to be, on every high street, book stores and chains from Waterstones right the way down to Ottakar's," remembers McCabe. They get it made as cheap as hell, maximise the profit on it and there's no competition."Īs for range - take a look at supermarket books. "Now if you walk into your local supermarket, you'll get a choice of three: a budget, a premium and 'best price' or whatever they call it. "Then supermarkets came in and undercut everybody," and the variety disappeared. Several years ago, toasters came in all shapes and sizes and brands. They spot HMV and GAME in trouble - if they smell blood and really go for it, they could wipe them out the market and they'll share the market between themselves and online." An 'Around the World' video from December 2010, posted on Game's investor website. And they may "smell blood", warns Don McCabe, joint managing director of indie video game chain Chips. To supermarkets? Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Tesco are regulars on Eurogamer's many price roundup articles. ![]() The first thing to consider is where the 2.5 million people that walk into GAME and Gamestation shops every week go. After all, business is business, sentimental gaming heritage or not.īut what would happen if GAME died? Here Eurogamer presents a theoretical picture of the future, painted by commenters from all walks of video game industry life. If GAME and HMV don't makes ends meet, bailiffs will. Emergency bank rescue packages are all that props them up. GAME's not out of the water yet, and nor is high street rival HMV. ![]() ![]() But when GAME was suddenly asked to pay for stock up front, the wobbly house that credit built nearly wholesale toppled over. GAME took £1.625 billion in revenue in its last full trading year. ![]() Try ignoring GAME, the UK's largest specialist video game shop chain, being unable to to stock Ubisoft's PlayStation Vita games (until today), Wii role-playing game The Last Story and Tekken 3DS.Īs of September 2011, GAME is a hulking worldwide business of 1287 shops, and 615 of those stretch the length and breadth of the UK. Does anything really matter until you're personally affected by it? It's easy enough to ignore financial reports and credit warnings and gloomy editorials - but try ignoring an empty shelf. ![]()
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