GAME Swallows GameStation For £74 Million

Game Suck!

Game Suck!

Ugh. What the hell happened here?

I don't want dirty GAME all over my GameStation. :(
Business decisions like these suck the melon. Have the big massive company who knows jack all about their market take over their competitors who are actually pretty cool.

Man, this has happened before. I miss Future Zone. I'm off to be sad now.

it depense on what you meen about that because if you have a store were the staff are into gaming then that store dose not suck in the area were i live we have game, gamestation, a little inde and out of the 3 game is better with customer sevice and its knowledge of games
gamstation the manager of the store dose not like games and the only resion to go in is to see what ratro games and the little inde store is full of people how want to rip you off

Sounds like a pity to me; Gamestation generally have better console offers than Game, and this has significantly reduced competition for GAME in game-only retail, not to mention the fact they will probably close stores.

I just hope they don't do a mass rebranding.

"On the upside, this could provide the super-retailer with greater purchasing power and this should be passed on to the gamer."

Note: for should, read won't.

I think I missed something here - since when did GAME own gameplay.co.uk?

According to GAME's Interim Results for the Six Months ending July 31st 2004:

"In July 2004 the Group acquired Gameplay (GB) Limited, an award winning online and mail order retailer of video games, computer software and associated products."

Full text here.

According to its regulatory statement made today regarding the purchase of GameStation:

"The acquisition follows other complementary acquisitions made during the past
three years in France (Addon and Maxi Livres), Australia (Games Wizards), Norway
(Spiderman) and online (gameplay.co.uk)."

Full text here.

Hope that helps...

Crap :(

You know, there's a damn good reason out of the 2 GAMEs and 1 GameStation in Telford Town Centre, I went to GameStation to place my pre-order for Forza 2. May the children of the GAME execs forever bear the retaliation of our nation's gamers. I suppose GameStation will lose the 10 day guarantee now, and the slightly lower than GAME prices.

It is a sad day.... Black Wednesday I will call it.

I work at Gamestation, this is a serious shocker!

I really do hope we keep our casual laid back identity n keep the hardcore gamer crowd.

Im guna miss the days of re-directing the clueless customers who'd come walking in the "GAME reward card".

Another thing is how much I used to hate customers thinking we're the same company before......and now we bloody are! : ( its a sad day for UK gaming retail.

I have to agree with you all. Because of the Gamestation in my local Blockbuster, I haven't been to game in ages, and that doesn't bother me. I worked for Game for a brief period and I have to say, while I had a good knowledge of games they didn't care for that, and just wanted no brainer people to push all kinds of crap.

I hate the revamp Game have done to their stores too. They now have a clinical uninviting mobile phone shop look, complete with cheesy wood floor paneling.

If anyone at Game are reading this, I feel you don't have a clue what gamers want when it comes to service. They think we want clinical and cold service, when sometimes we just want to come in to see what's cooking and have a chat with people who also like games.

Something else that just beguiles me, is that when you work at most places you are taught about what you sell (even in those dumb mobile phone shop). Game on the other hand, teach their staff next to nothing about what they sell, a bad move, which in turn leads to them hiring people who don't know or don't give a stuff about games. I still find the Gamestation staff much more approachable.

Yeah Sora, a dark day indeed. I too hope Gamestation doesn't loose it's casual identity.

Game have so much to learn about why everyone was leaving Game and going to Gamestation. Game might have the money but that doesn't buy the sense in knowing what we want.

So much for competition in the games market then. Ebay might be the last bastion of the small indie games store.

There's a Chips game shop in my town, but the arrival of Game might see them disappear altogether, where as competition next to the Gamestation, they actually gave us choice and are still open as a result.

GAME are crap and I hate them!!!!! Who are they gonna copy off now??

Thanks Tim.

Conversely - If they keep GameStation running in it's own unique style like they've done with gameplay.co.uk then I think our worries will be over nothing.

Like the report says - GAME haven't bought GameStation to rebrand it and open new GAME stores. That would mean most major towns and cities would have 2 branches fighting between each other for custom (or 3 in the case of Leeds which already has 2 GAME's).

GAME are simply trying to diversify, giving the consumer the choice as to which outlet they want to buy what is now essentially the same product/service from. I give them credit for it, it makes perfect sense to me (if you can't beat 'em...)