Game + Sports Direct = ?

Toasty

Love or loathe Game, its been the main gaming presence on the high street for the last few years. Its no surprise that they are struggling atm given digital and online store front competition, but it appears that Ashley from Sports Direct has spotted a bargain and grabbed over a quarter stake in Game.

Now I think this has been in the pipeline for a while. I went to Insomnia 60 earlier in the year and Game were labelled as selling the merchandise, hoodies, bags, etc. What I recall at the time was while the products had Game tags on them, the receipts were serviced by guess who? Sports Direct! Thought it was curious at the time, so the recent buy out came as no surprise.

I think we will start seeing Sports Direct have more influence in the gaming market, especially regards sports games, merchandising and events. Any thoughts? Good, bad? Have retail gaming store fronts become irrelevant and need to look to the likes of eSports for that USP?

lpoolm

I go into game and get frustrated every time, it's soo expensive but I think I would be sad if they all closed, I go into hmv now and thing God what has happened to this place! The Internet has ruined these shops and sooner rather than later they will all go..
I can see the only option for buying physical New games from the high street being supermarkets but even supermarkets are not as cheap as they used to be! I remember buying mw2 from sainsburys for £25 on release day! Them days are long gone now
I don't like sports direct or the owner but there seems to be loads of there shops around now so maybe he will have the magic formula to give it the kick it needs, surely he can't make it any worse???

shango

I dont think it's lto do with online/digital why they are struggling, its their prices, service, hard sell tactics, staff, customer service etc.

Have a local privately owned game shop in my town that are doing fine, moved to expand once already and moving again very soon to a larger premises.

Competitive prices, loyalty scheme, good staff, everything that the game store just a 2 minute walk away does not have, probably why it's always empty and the private shop always has customers.

Cant wait to look in the window of game soon to see the staff in their new uniforms, adidas shorts and football shirts

Seems an odd pairing as sports shops and game shops rarely share the same customer base.

Greg Hook

Game solely survive on ripping off unsuspecting parents and grandparents who unwittingly pay far too much for games and accessories. Game is a horrible chain with horribly trained staff with no customer service.

It's not a recent thing either, they have always been like that, even when they didn't have to compete so much with the internet. Gamestation was always better until they were bought by Game.

I find the Sports Direct thing very odd.

Toasty

They have competition from the likes of Cex and as such I've found some good offers through Game, especially when trading, but new, retail releases are always at a premium price. They don't bother asking me anymore anything to do with insurance, etc, but I do see kids saying yes to pretty much anything they ask..

Preacher

I remember a few years back, I was buying a DFGT wheel, Game had them for £119 and Argos had them for £89. I felt loyal to game as I had been buying there for years, the sales person would not price match Argos, so I bought it from Argos.

Sy1441

On this topic, why are digital downloads the most expensive way of purchasing a game even though they have the lowest production cost????????

Toasty

Lack of competition, however, once a game has been out a while or sells badly, digital prices are ripe to ddro below physical prices..