The most depressing sight, the remnants of the once might GAME, in the back of a Sports Direct on Sheppey….
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Back in my day, we had to blow into our game cartridges to make them
work, and we went to GameStop to trade games with actual people – none
of this digital download business
I dunno.
Gaming is arguably not really “a sport” that fits with all the other sports that the store’s franchise supports, and those game displays are in pretty much every other department store going, even some larger pharmacies where I live.
They probably aren’t much of a draw and aren’t really selling that well there.
Not surprising, ordering online is significantly easier for physical copies. You also might get your copy of a new game early of the distributor messes up.
That’s because they are way too expensive.
Walked into the Cardiff (Wales) game not too long again to preorder totk and it was reduced to similar, so sad
GAME was ‘great’ when they had no competition. The 2000s were great, gaming was on the up, amazon was still mostly selling books.
But then supermarkets started opening their video game section, and then online retailers too, all cheaper than GAME.
Digital downloads was the nail in the coffin.
The last time I ever went to GAME was on my lunchbreak in 2016 or so, it was more of a niche game I wanted so it wasn’t in the supermarket. GAME had it on the shelf for £44, when it was a 3ds game I expected to spend £30 for, max.
I stood in the store, checked amazon on my phone and bought it for £25 +£2 for 2 hour delivery. It was waiting for me when I got home…
Nowadays you’ll find a better game section in a Smyths toystore than in any ‘official GAME’ behind all the 5 pairs of socks for £3 in sports direct.
Yeah the one in Ipswich is just a corner in sports direct now too, it’s fuckin weird tbh.
Same where I am. It’s downstairs in our Sports Direct. Where the poor lads working there have to stick by a shitty air con unit as the downstairs area is hot as fuck all the time. So sad what’s happened to GAME.
Can’t say I’m going to miss them. Don’t forget this is the company that rips people off on an epic scale whenever they get a chance.
Whenever there is a new console out they force you to buy it with a load of rubbish games and pointless accessories that you don’t want. You either bought their bundles or went without. Often putting new consoles beyond the reach of some people. Thankfully supermarkets and Amazon put an end to that.
I miss No Fear energy drinks, my favorite was Motherload.
Yeah it’s a shame that there are no stores but at least the website is still around so these days I just order my games from there or buy second hand ones from CEX.
It’s the same with Douglas in the Isle of Man. Only they’ve been given the luxury of some standalone shelving.
When I was younger we had Electronics Boutique which then merged with Game, and then Gamestation – which then merged with Game. At this point I’d say the largest/only video game store chain in the UK is CeX.
why even bother having it…
it’s not even in the right order and the selection is pathetic.
Choices was the game shop for me in my town, every title for every console wall to wall, they even had a few isles for all the latest movies and popular movies within the last 20 years.
god i miss choices, they sold out to costa coffee.
We have one of these in our town. It’s right at the back and it’s on like a raised platform with three steps so gtfo if you’re a disabled gamer I guess?
EB, Game, GameStop, etc. had a retail markup of 10-25%.
Valve, with a more efficient digital delivery toolset, marks up 30%.
I don’t think it’s been mighty tbh, Gamestation – yes. Game is just a place clueless parents went to and got shafted lol.
Gamestation was the best UK retailer in the 00’s, I was never a big fan of GAME. Sad to see how far these places have fallen. I feel like they’ve shot themselves in the foot by only selling modern games which most people would rather just download, why not sell stuff from older generations too? I get retro isn’t the biggest market, but they’d probably be doing better than they seem to be right now.
Another case of Mike Ashley making everything he touch seem cheap.
There will always be a marketspace for gamestop as long as nintendo games exists.
I will Always buy hardcopy nintendo games, why would i download a digital copy that i can’t resell?
Also, Gamestop being the only retail location is, and has always been, the one stop for nerds that have to go shopping with their family at the mall. It’s like the one reprieve i have against all the endless fast fashion stores i dont care about.
There will always be a space for gamestop, stop this slander nonesense.
The local game in the town I live in lowestoft has also relocated to an upstairs corner of sports direct. Sad times!
The fact it’s in Sheppey adds to it.
Source: used to live opposite KCs amusements (think it’s called cains now)
I remember the days when my city had two GAME stores, a Gamestation, and an independent game store all within a 10 minute walk of each other. Now, only a single GAME remains.
The weirdest thing about the GAME sections in other stores, is that… they don’t fit in with GAME’s audience? While in London, I saw one that was in the back of a high end looking clothes store???
The digital download revolution moved fast. I didn’t even expect it to overtake physical media that quickly.
Not just games but sales of Blu-Ray discs for movies are dying off fast too.
Future kids gonna grow up and not realize that, yes, we once went *inside* stores to buy music, games and movies!
Bury st edmunds recently lost its game store, Ben going there for years, sad to see it finally go
I don’t know. I think it’s pretty cool that I can just instantly download my games now. One thing I definitely miss is the midnight launches for some reason. Those were always killer.
Have this in Kendal in Cumbria too, there’s a CeX just down the road so it’s not that bad