GAME Axe Trade Ins..

↘↘ The Free Game Collection ↙↙
👉🏼 SUBSCRIBE HERE! → / tvmreviews
It's official. GAME are putting an end to trade ins and pre owned. Did anyone see this coming? I simply don't see how they can survive from this point onward.
Full EuroGamer article: www.eurogamer.net/uk-retailer...
Over 500 Sports Games that actually SELL! - SALE now on!
📃 Get The Sports Almanac - payhip.com/b/quCp2
🎮 Video Games Deals & Games I Own - amzn.to/3n6YMrw
⚡️ My Game Room Equipment - amzn.to/3n6YMrw
💻 My Equipment - amzn.to/3n6YMrw
👉🏼 Trade in Game Collection Playlist
• Flipping Video Games t...
Prime 30 Days FREE - www.amazon.co.uk/tryprimefree...
👉🏼 Follow My Instagram - / tvmreviews
👉🏼 Follow me on Twitter - / tvmreviews
👉🏼 Thank you channel Members! You help the channel more than you could ever know - / @tvmreviews
Thanks for watching!!
#VideoGameCollection #VideoGames #VideoGameHunting

[@Lethorio]

I'm not surprised Game are struggling. The high street is general has been suffering, but any company headed by Mike Ashley is bound to fail.

[@voivod6871]

Mike Ashley has some terrible business practices but if he is so bad at running companies how did he get them in the first place. He started his first shop with a 10 grand loan now he is the richest man in Britain that suggests he knows a thing or two. He is a pretty unlikeable person but the fact is like him or not he came from near the bottom all the way to the very top.

[@modermonkula]

Confidence can get you surprisingly far

[@marlonthomas8042]

High street is failing but Mike Ashley is actually very good at building wealth He’s worth like 4 billion or something From one shop 40 years ago I’d say that’s pretty good going

[@greenhowie]

@@voivod6871 Is this Mike Ashley?

[@John-du6ec]

Was that shooter black ?

[@deano_bites]

The UK had once many places to explore and get your Games but here we have high street gaming stores entering their coffins

[@justchilling4491]

We used to have Chips here in the north east

[@InputArchive]

Grainger Games was also really good too. The excitement of visiting like 5 game shops in your town centre is a feeling I really miss

[@lambosnicko]

@@InputArchive nah. Always found that place to be hella expensive and a rip off. When they closed down where i lived i was not surprised.

[@christopher9727]

.. Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Come to Jesus Christ today Jesus Christ is only way to heaven Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today John 3:16-21 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Mark 1.15 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hebrews 11:6 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Jesus

[@themadmoderator8465]

@@justchilling4491 travelled home see sunderland play still got fish chips 🤣

[@gavdanby-cooper9085]

I worked at the Notts branch of GameStation, and it was an absolutely incredible place to work, especially part-time as a student. They were fantastic people to work with. Shame GAME came along and ruined it. GameStation used to have a fantastic retro section, as well.

[@Chris-ht5ng]

Respect to you guys. Been in that store on a number of occasions!

[@marlonthomas8042]

The one on angel row? That one was amazing All the staff were so knowledgeable and never pushed a hard sell

[@mooganify]

yeah he said, reminds me of when I got some GC games

[@TimeToCrash88]

I worked in several different stores way back when, I was constantly travelling between Nuneaton, Coventry, Kidderminster, Hinckley and Leicester, I am still with GAME now, nearly 16 years all in. I loved the GS days, it felt more friendly, and like it was "for the gamers" I would give anything to work in that kind of vibe again.

[@Whalewraith]

I used to go to your store.

[@jacobfield4848]

CEX is the only place in the UK that works for used games in the highstreet.

[@krnc17]

Their prices here in Ireland are either very good or very bad for second hand games. When the PS5 came out they had the nerve to sell it for 900.00e and it was second hand.

[@superspecky4eyes]

Yeah but it always smells like wet dog in CEX for some reason.

[@LoCoAde87]

​@krnc17 Just my experience, but I find it very bad here in Ireland.

[@krnc17]

@@LoCoAde87 you’re not alone, man. When CEX first hit Ireland their prices were amazing. But, now not even half what we used to get. Used to love that place!.

[@greenhowie]

I will say that CEX might be great for price but some stores don't clean the equipment properly. Got a PSVR headset from them a while ago that had makeup smeared on the inside. Didn't realise until I took it off...

[@rodpanhard]

I remember back in the days of the video rental store our local Blockbuster was closing up and they were selling all their Nintendo game rentals off for 50p each and I took the lot, £50s worth. That night me and my two young kids spent all night picking the rental stickers off them and the next day we went to Game to trade them all in, we actually had to go to 3 Game stores as we had so many and there was a lot of duplicates. That was a great day, I can still remember the staff scanning the trade in price, beep, £4, beep £4, beep £7 etc. By the time we were through my £50 and a half a tank of petrol got one boy a new Gamecube, the other got a New Dreamcast along with some games and I got some PC games, the only one that dipped out was the wife lol.

[@TheHoggcast]

dude thats awesome.

[@AG-kb7yb]

Edit - Read comments below, his story is fiction. Didn't they move stock to another store?

[@rodpanhard]

@@AG-kb7yb This was about the time the Video/DVD rental stores were dying out.

[@AG-kb7yb]

@@rodpanhard When they all closed down?

[@rodpanhard]

@@AG-kb7yb How old are you? there was a time before online streaming that you had to go to a video rental store and rent a movie for the night. Then streaming became popular and they almost all went out of business in a short period of time. Blockbuster actually held on longer than most.

[@BoomDoll]

I spoke with a manager from a CEX store that closed down in a small East Coast seaside town in Yorkshire. They said the store was making a profit and moving lots of product. The problem that the company had was that the store wasn't taking in enough trade in stock and had to have stock shipped in from other stores. It's interesting how CEX values the trade in compared to Game.

[@RWL2012]

I was wondering only the other day what happens if a CeX store doesn't have enough stock coming in from buying from customers, so thanks for that.

[@proudtobeageordie9490]

Cex values the trade in because they set up. Shops in places where people don't have much money and are struggling and they take advantage of that alot of there stock comes from thefts and people struggling that's why they can get away with giving such low prices for trade in a cash buys

[@Retromaster2023]

Electronic boutique was the best game store in the early 90’s.

[@jamesmoore391]

Yes!

[@thechef8677]

Your so old. I remember them as well. 😂

[@tonybne]

The one in my town used to hold game tournaments for like Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat. Where the winner would get goodies. I miss that store

[@superspecky4eyes]

I remember when they used to have those "Virtuality" machines with the giant helmets. I always wanted a go but my Dad would never pay the fiver it cost to play. 😢

[@superspecky4eyes]

They also let you take games back if you didnt like them. I had a copy of Soul Blade that I swapped for Worms then eventually swapped back for Soul Blade. 😂

[@robdavies82]

We were spoilt for choice up north. We had Game, Gamestation and Grainger Games everywhere. Grainger Games was an interesting one as they went from a market stall in Newcastle, to having a shop in every town in northern England and Scotland. It was where you went for the cheapest deals. The owners were…dodgy, and there was always rumours going around that some of the shops were fronts for other dealings at the back, then suddenly they vanished from northern high streets.

[@LeiraVeil-Challenge]

oh yeah grainger was pretty shady. i knew someone who worked at one at there was alot they had to say after the store closed down.

[@johnw7409]

It closed coz they couldn’t get funding from investors I’ve a feeling gta v also had something to do with the decline I’ll never forget preordering the game they promised a free poster (still have it) but refused to tell customers the actual price So midnight I stand in a long line for gta v ps3 notice a lot of people going back out the store then coming back into the shop Turns out they added a extra 10er to the price so it was now 49 quid rather than the usual 39 for new games

[@SamuraiofDejima]

Man, I miss Grainger Games so much in Newcastle, South Shields and Sunderland. Same for Gamestation at the corner of the main street of South Shields across from the market.

[@J__14]

Grainger Games did indeed close due to creditors pulling out while the company was attempting a costly expansion out of the gaming industry under the name "Trade Nation" to save itself from impending decline. The company was not a front of any kind, though isolated incidents did occur and were carried out by shop staff. Drugs and unbecoming activities however were not uncommon amongst upper management, some of which you can hear of through google, some from the stories of those that attended staff parties.

[@rj8877]

I worked at HMV at the time of Grainger Games, to their credit they'd always call us whenever anybody attempted to trade in stolen/suspiciously new goods. We caught one numpty who lifted half a shelf of GoT DVDs from our shop then tried to trade them in with Grainger not realising they were dummy boxes with nothing inside.

[@umairkhokhar8000]

Agree - Gamestation just had a different vibe, more consoles to try in store and happy staff. I have been thinking of opening my own retro trade in store in Glasgow for a while, consoles stands, retro game competition, etc

[@LeeFleming-nt1le]

You should bro

[@richallenxbox1976]

As I recall, Gamestation were the same company under a different trading name.

[@umairkhokhar8000]

@LeeFleming-nt1le thanks for the positive response bro, much appreciated. I am coming from a corporate world, let's just say I want the store to be the opposite! Deals every week, prices to stay under eBay, Amazon so anyone can build a collection.

[@clarkkent4734]

That's genuinely going to be a really hard business to keep afloat, but if you can do it, that would an amazing place that the community would love. Best of luck to you if you go for it! @@umairkhokhar8000

[@mastercontrol469]

Good luck Man, we need more independent retailers 👍

[@AdladGaming]

just received email regarding this today. I worked for gamestation for many years, so many memories and a great time in my life. Staff nights, midnight launches were amazing, great staff perks. all staff true gamers not like game corporate monkeys, i worked in most of the north west Uk :) really miss gamestation, I love going to car boots and seeing gamestation stickers on games. even found my writing on a sticker haha

[@chilly6470]

I remember someone stole my copy of R-type Delta and thought I'd never get another copy again. Good ol' Gamestation came to my rescue!

[@xIDarkSideIx]

Preston Gamestation was amazing loveed that place as a kid the staff where awesome spent many happy hours in there

[@scottyboi3759]

Absolutely loved going into the GameStation The staff were always helpful and informative.

[@fookoff9220]

I loved gamestation as a kid, I never ever went to game until they bought them out.

[@christopher9727]

.. No hope in going to the past come to the loving savior today Seek his Holy Spirit in prayer today he can give you peace confort and guidance today Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Come to Jesus Christ today Jesus Christ is only way to heaven Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today John 3:16-21 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Mark 1.15 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hebrews 11:6 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Jesus

[@YakobtoshiNakamoto]

I went into Game last weekend actually because I just so happened to see some D&D stuff as I walked past. The shop was littered with all kinds of crap. Board games, kids toys, plushies, film merchandise, phones etc… It’s like they’re trying to sell anything to still remain relevant. It was like a mashup of Build a Bear, CEX, The Entertainer and HMV. Now that’s not necessarily a bad thing as brands do need to change to follow consumer demands but at the same time it’s sad to see what it’s become. I feel like it’s lost its identity and that they should just completely rebrand tbh to better reflect what they actually now sell. I feel it’s now too late for them to become a CEX type of store.

[@tutin4090]

Low-maintenance licensed stock, just trying to kick up a profit. Undesired plush characters and USB LED lights, most likely scooped up from cheapo factories

[@ted_7563]

I only ever go in my local game every few months to see what’s new or if I need to get a wallet top up for PlayStation. My local is full of shit as well. Half the shop is now just for board games and plushies and PlayStation and Xbox has to share an aisle. Pointless

[@ewilko7423]

I work in the royal mint where all coins are made for the UK and yes obviously this is the same case however it’s diversified in so many ways and for the better. A similar situation here in that Game are being affected by the use of digital currency being able to also now buy a digital product. Not sure how I would diversify game unless they turned into a store like curry’s doing all electronics, TVs, monitors, console hardware and repairs could be good considering how many peoples consoles get defects and never ship them off for repair because they don’t know how or don’t trust the process. And the plushes and everything like that can be done providing they choose the most popular brands. I personally like to collect and sell in the same way to earn my collection free the Mario all star plushes of which GAME do sell some but only the most common rare uk versions. Now should they decide to import official ones from Japan where there is plenty of stock of characters that aren’t sold in or anywhere near the Uk. I and many people would be all over that because it’s so rare and unobtainable. Yes they could charge a more premium price for that too. So plenty for them to do but looks like they have had many years to do these things and have done it half arsed and sadly looks like they will be gone. No trade ins, sell old stock, nobody will buy physical new stock or go there to trade ins and buy other stuff while there as a result it’s on its way out the door

[@robfut9954]

Not taking trade in would essentially ruin the gamer relationships where folks go there specifically to recycle old games. I don’t see it being a sane strategy

[@adamj4713]

I've not bought a new game from Game in.. nearly a decade.

[@mic8679]

GAME prices are way higher than everywhere else where I live, I can get new games cheaper in smyths than GAME sell preowned.

[@Damian808UKOfficial]

No one trades in at GAME as they'll giveyou fuck all,.

[@steveh9229]

I miss Gamestation 😔

[@crossmarian773]

People are no longer buying physical video games, so there's no benefit to accepting trade-ins when they can't sell them. GAME are essentially re-marketing as a HMV-style store with a bigger focus on pop culture merchandise rather than video games, so I don't think they care as much as their relationship with gamers because they're not really the target demographic anymore.

[@SickNote93]

I could spend hours in gamestation as a kid now I'm in game barely 5 minutes and still don't buy anything.

[@NuRetroReactions]

Game station was the s*** back in the day

[@superspecky4eyes]

The Gamestation near me was ran by fat neckbeards, smelt of wet dog and had numetal blaring out all the time.

[@CreateHarmony]

fr. Only time i've bought anything from game in the last 5+ years has been random crap, usually because i'd spend an hour in there and felt awkward walking out without anything. (the random hour was usually just price checking shit.... the joys of being autistic).

[@lsvlogs_]

Yup I made friends with everyone and played the game in the store on the TV that was behind the counter 😢

[@DestroyPlanets]

As a guy that worked for both Game and Game station. I can 100% say gamestation was absolutely the best as an employee. At Game, We used to get treated like selling games was used car sales, pressure sales for add ons, disciplinary action for not meeting sales targets with no incentives to do so. I worked as an assistant manager and my manager at the end wasn’t even a gamer. I can clearly remember upselling someone’s grandma to a season pass for COD one year and I knew she had just dropped 35 quid and had no idea what she bought, couldn’t get it refunded but I got told good job.

[@moltenriches]

That right there though is why Game still exists even in its current state and Gamestation doesn't. At the end of the day it is a business trying to make money. I also worked there and can confirm your experience as similar to my own and by the end of my time there it was no longer a fun job, but I did understand why things were the way they were

[@calluminkster6892]

It was always amazing when the company expected you to hassle old people into buying the super duper butt fuck battle pass to a sweet old 85 year old granny buying the new COD for ungrateful little Jimmy. What was the reward you got? You were a hero for about 15 seconds.

[@Properbellend]

@@calluminkster6892 I was there during the 360 launch, we took loads of paid preorders only to tell the customers they couldn’t purchase the machines solo on in a bundle. They actually got in trouble for that.

[@TheAshCooper]

Wolves used to have gamestation game and cex. Now there is only cex left.

[@2760db]

I always preferred gamestation because they had better prices and always slightly more obscure items for sale; like collector's editions you don't often see

[@Mannydas728]

The problem as always is that Online has killed the high street,

[@benroyle4431]

I agree, killed it for me for games for sure, well trading games in for me died when I got older and worked as I can just buy what games I want now without needing to trade ones in for credit to buy. Also the fact I’m more into my collecting side of gaming than I used to be when I was younger I have only traded a handful of games in in like the past 10 years. But it’s so much easier to just buy a game new off Amazon and get it on release day, and eBay is a half decent place to get second hand games at least for me personally so I only really pop into game to browse if I happen to be near my local one. I rarely go out of my way to go there unless they have a special edition of the game that is exclusive

[@chrisgermann6658]

Yep blame 9 year olds and current trends with v-bucks and in came currencies.

[@Diogo85]

​@@chrisgermann6658How is it their fault?

[@EduardSLVRU]

Online didn’t killed high street. High street killed themselves because of lack of variety of goods. Every time for the past 10 years a go to a shop, any Currys, Game, John Lewis and so on. There’s nothing that I need, but everything is online on their own websites. Even many products market online only. And when I go to a shop to tell them what I want, then staff immediately tells me, we can order online for you. Then why would I need to go to the shop so staff can order it for me online if I can sit at home and do it myself. All these big retailers have own huge warehouse where online stock is kept for deliveries. All these stores blame it on Amazon and Ebay for their failures. Amazon has its own stuff, Ebay mostly fakes and stolen goods. If high street stores want to be relevant and have customers, then they should stop shifting big varieties of goods to online market. Also some of the high street retailers also sell goods through Amazon. What can go wrong after that.

[@paul1979uk2000]

@@benroyle4431 To be fair, the high street tried to kill PC gaming in the early 2000's by giving it far less shelf space, so the PC adapted and went all digital with Valve taking full advantage of that with Steam. That did two things, the retail sector for PC games almost died out, but two, the PC showed that digital games works, which in turn it spread to consoles. It was probably going to happen regardless but this likely speeded up the process and the retail sector ended up helping to create their own downfall. As for game trade-ins, from what I understand of it, the publishers and developers don't get a cut of each trade-in, so if a game is traded in 10 times, the publisher or developer only gets the sale of 1 copy, isn't that almost like legal piracy? On the other side of the coins, for so many years, the digital store fronts, sales and good deals on consoles have not been as good as they are on the PC, on the PC, you're actually getting a lot of good deals for digital games, that's got better overtime for consoles but still not as good as the PC, I suspect that's because on consoles, there's only really one source where you can get the games from, the PS, Xbox and Nintendo network, on the PC, there's far more options, even on the same given store there are many options, that likely puts downwards pressure on the price point. Personally, I prefer digital games, but only on the PC, I'm not a fan of the way it's done on consoles because consoles by their nature are very controlling, that central store pretty much means they can dictate whatever price they want whiles also blocking competition, something the PC doesn't have to worry about.

[@1Pandemoonium]

I do miss Gamestation We had a giant one with two floors in Birmingham; the staff and products were great. Did a couple of midnight launches there as a teen (3DS and Skyrim) which were cool. Definitely feels like the times are changing on regarding to buying games now, though. Our actual Game store in the Bullring has turned into an Ann Summers, and Game now lives in other Mike Ashley buildings like House of Fraser and Sports Direct and is just full of junk.

[@Extorting]

Facts. The game shop in sports direct is terrible hahahaha. Basically turned into a Sports Direct franchise. Plus that dumb gaming cafe by the new street one.

[@NBeeRL]

haha fr@@Extorting

[@sdgm2432]

I remember the all green Xbox 360 area in the downstairs section of the Birmingham branch. These days are truly over.

[@Electro096]

It's funny because you go to CEX now and it has that Nostalgia of having a big section with Xbox360 green sign or PS2 and it definitely gives off the old Gamestation feel for sure. ​@@sdgm2432

[@andyturner6921]

Gamestation new street, I was part of the team that opened that!!! Awesome experience

[@Lukemcpherson01]

Gamestation was a legendary games store. I literally lived in my local store. I had a fantastic relationship with the employees, the customer service reps were so knowledgable, polite and happy people. I was gutted to see them go😢

[@_boracic_atreus_23]

Mike Ashley is the kiss of death to any organisation he gets involved with. I admire him as a successful businessman, but he will strip the soul out of any brand he gets into. House of Fraser, Firetrap, Jack Wills, Kangol...the list of brands that he has diluted and stripped of all identity is a long one. It'll be interesting to see what happens with Mulberry. That is a high-end luxury fashion brand. In that market you have to rely on strong branding, that is all high fashion really is. It is purely clever branding that allows them to charge £1000+ for a handbag...so if they start appearing in Sports Direct alongside Everlast tracky bottoms for £29.99, the prestige will disappear overnight and the brand will be destroyed.

[@a.demifemiflapo5795]

The second he sold Newcastle United, they qualify for the Champions League 😂

[@LoCoAde87]

​@@a.demifemiflapo5795Helps he was replaced with the richest owners possible tbf. One extreme to the other.

[@iantheblue8581]

Fail I think ur wrong mate the frasers group is thriving in today's retail landscape they are the number one company in UK and Europe opening new stores every month

[@DEAN_23]

Worry for Sports Direct then, yeah?....

[@a.demifemiflapo5795]

@@DEAN_23 Then a real sports shop might open up instead of them

[@Simon-xc5oy]

As an older chap, I am in my 50s, I have been playing games since the start of the video game era. Back in the days when it began with Pacman and Space Invaders! I went through the home computer boom of the 80s with a Spectrum, C64 and then Amiga. And every town had a computer shop or two and WH Smiths and Boots used to sell computer games! Thats how old I am! I saw the computer and electronics games industry come from nothing and now its going back to nothing. Physical at least. Its all online. GAME used to be great. I live in the North East so there was a huge shop in Metro Centre, and in Newcastle, Durham and all major towns. They used to sell PC games back in the day, like the early 90s on and did well out of it. Till consoles started to evolve and the Playstation and X Box came along. Last time I saw a GAME at the metro center it had moved from its big shop, into a small broom cupboard style unit. And all it was selling was soft toys, Funko pops or whatever anything but games! And that is its problem. Its a prefect storm of issues. Business rates on shops are now extortion. Heating and Lighting bills are too high. They cant make a profit. So they close or try to sell other stuff that people dont need. Add in the fact that modern games are now getting so large they cant fit them on disks anymore and its...Game Over... For physical media, and shops in general. Towns are so unfriendly these days with high parking charges, bad public transport, crime and muggings, people stay away or dont bother half as much as they used to. I think its sad also, to have these places where gamers would meet up in real life to chat about games, play them and buy them and share the experience. The early 80s computer shops were buzzing hubs. It was all about the hardware and the new experience of computer games, as well as what you were playing....so now its going. It will be all online. Downloads only, direct from developers for the systems and shops for games are just no longer needed and you cant make profit from them.

[@SiAnon]

We had a Virgin Games place in the basement of Burtons lol

[@Simon-xc5oy]

Burtons? Odd place to put a game shop, but there you are...I was just thinking of all the names of game shops and general shops that have gone. Our Price, Borders, Game / Game Zone or whatever on its last legs. Then there were the independent computer shops so in the North East where I am, stuff like CHIPS, and TopSoft. Burtons went ages ago. Toys R Us, Woolworths, British Home Stores, Wilko / Wilkinsons and Maplins / Tandy. We almost lost HMV and Waterstones but they were bought out and have recovered somewhat, though with reduced numbers of stores and smaller shops. Boots and WHSmiths are struggling to hold on as well these days its sad. But when you look at Ebay and how easy it is to search and pick what you want with free postage, its a miracle there are any shops left at all .The costs of getting to them in petrol and car parking and then them just not having what you want, or if they do its two or three times the Ebay price due to taxes, wages and business rates....

[@archangel0891]

Im an 80s kid from 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 so im from the Texas Instruments/C64 era. I remember John Menzies/Boots/Woolworths all selling games. And aye its the death of the highstreet, the shop costs were too much for even Santander in my town to theyre offski aswell. I remember games beginings from Game Zone to becoming Electronics Boutique then Game. I was never out those stores. Now all ive got is 1 game and 1 CEX in Glasgow my own town is on its deathbed shopwise. As you say the games qre getting bigger but just makes it a muli disc install. The devs want to cut the stores out so you buy it on the platform direct. The £40-50 brand new AAA title is dying too. First £100 AAA game (not special edition) just the entire game itself Ive seen was Starfield. I mean 100 fkn quid gor a game?? Im a GTA fan and theyre sayin GTA 6 will be £120 on launch, not a special edition, bare bones core game!? Say what ypu want about physical media but movies have seen an uptick in sales. Folk are srarting to gag on the streaming model. You wznt to watch Stanger Things, you need netflix. You want to watch Star Wars you need Disney+. You want to watch Halo you need Paramount+. The cost for all that is preposterous. Plus they edit and delte titles all the time. Theres some films you just cant get on streaming but on dvd/bluray once you have it they cant edit it or take it away or need to pay a subscription to watch it again, thats where streaming falls on its arse. Plus folk like me are colkectors, I love physical media. Itll never die as long as theres collectors, they still cant kill LPs, in fact its resurgant. Its honestly sad times we live guys..

[@Simon-xc5oy]

Yes I keep and collect the physical media, Bluray etc. I hate streaming as they can pull shows or drop and change things at a whim. Most of it is rubbish, then you get the odd good series, so its not worth paying for, just to watch one or two things. I have no problem and use the High Seas methods to get what I want. If its good, I buy it on disk if its available, if not I watch it and delete it. These days with Star Wars and Trek etc its not worth even that. I just no longer watch full stop. I am currently waiting to get hold of the Doctor Who Season 15 of Tom Baker when it comes out. As for paying over a hundred for a game. NEVER! For one thing it will be bugged to blazes. And will need lots of patches and updates to get it running. I wont pay that for a half finished mess and I would not pay it for a work of art. I am currently playing a new version of GTA V on my pc. Graphics updated, mods pre installed, better water, shadows, grass and trees etc and all fixes done. It runs in high res at insane frame rates. And its perfect. But its taken them TEN YEARS to get it like this! GTA V came out in 2013 / 14 time period. So I would not pay silly money for something that will need years of fixes, updates and mods that should have been done for its release....

[@visiblekoment]

Remember my local newsagent having C64 games racked!

[@dangarside2661]

Okay, that was a trippy watch. Never expected to see my handwriting on the "Your nearest respawn point is..." posters, as it was my Gamestation store that closed down in Sheffield City centre. Gamestation always felt passionate about games and the gamers in the store, GAME never felt like that. I'm surprised they've lasted this long tbh.

[@Hamburger-Gaming86]

Gamestation was awesome!! Way better than game, better prices and better staff by a mile! I was proper gutted when gamestation went under.

[@LaurenceReeves]

They stupidly sold to Game.. I was so gutted... they used to sell used PC games, where game never used to touch that side of things. I discovered so many PC games thanks to GS.

[@richallenxbox1976]

@@LaurenceReeves Selling used PC games was (and still is IMO) legally iffy at best, due to high Piracy.

[@LaurenceReeves]

@@richallenxbox1976 just like fake ps2 games, you can always tell a fake game? So I’m not sure that’s valid.

[@knuffel_me_gek4131]

I do miss gamestation, the game i visited i built up quite a good rapport with most of the staff and management at Game when Gamestation closed its doors. But when my local Game moved to another building, the workers I spoken to and got along with had basically been let go for some new people that don't even bother to talk or converse in any new games coming out. I use to have a good rapport with my local Gamestations too. Even remember the challenges they put on the CD boxes back in the ps1 days "if you complete this game within a certain date you'll get £50 store credit, have to show proof on memory card".

[@Josh_P96]

Game used to be a great store. The feeling of meeting gamers for a midnight release was amazing. A shame really the way it went but cannot deny the great times.

[@dannymcnabb1998]

Gamers leave the house? 🥴

[@shadowside8433]

I think that Ashley has 'asset stripped' Game. Maybe the motivation behind stopping the trade-ins is to remove the need to have specialists in the Sports Direct who need to check traded in hardware etc. Now they can put any shop member on the 'Game' till.

[@gregprocter765]

are game stores just a tie in with sport direct now? The last time i shopped with them it was called electronic boutique.

[@richallenxbox1976]

With mixed results, you might get served by some old dear who can't even play "Pong" or knows chuff all about gaming in general.

[@mjmr914]

Specialist? To check for scratches

[@moltenriches]

​@@gregprocter765that was 22 years ago lol

[@stephenrowley4171]

Game was already dead before Mike though he just brought their dying embers and absorbed the brand name

[@DKGXX85]

I remember electronics boutique, that was different time man. But anyway, about a year ago I went to my nearest GAME to trade in about 4 games and some of them were quite new releases and they only wanted to give me £40 in trade, I refused obviously then went to cex and got nearly £100 in trade. It's like GAME just gave up being competitive but now we're gonna see CEX taking the piss

[@adultmoshifan87]

The EB in Canterbury were great! I bought my copies of Bust A Move 2 for the Saturn and Crush Roller for the Neo Geo Pocket there!

[@E6hosting]

Yeah I remember that, I also remember that GAME were far less competitive with trade in than EB.

[@RaverRacer]

Cex already take the piss a bit with DS games since Game stopped accepting them, and some other retro stuff. Having an actual competitor would have been great for us

[@L3V3LBOOST]

Quality video, mate. Being a local lad and avid gamer myself, your story hit me. I remember those days when I used to go into Cardiff City Centre with my weekly pocket money and first ship I would go to would Virgin Megastore (pre Game). I would spend hours each weekend doing this, just to find those hidden gems for my C64 and my Amiga. In most occasions, I would bump into fellow gamers who were doing the same, and we would chat about what games they were buying etc.. Anyhow, you got a new subscriber and follower on your social media platforms. Keep up the great work, your content is awesome.

[@martinbourne8176]

Completely agree with everything you said. Little insight to working for GAME. I left GAME just under 5 years ago and worked for them for 3 years. The first year was actually ok, good team good customers and a nice village store. The 2-3 years went super downhill with the Mike Ashley takeover. after the takeover cuts came in to the rota affecting everyone including myself. Everything was under a microscope and it killed customer service and what I enjoyed about working for them. As for not taking pre owned, the only thing we where told was to sell pre owned as that was how GAME made there money. If you sell a PS4 or ps5 console GAME got no money. If you sold an Xbox S/X or the one range you got £6 per unit. In comparison pre-owned margin was almost a minimum of 50% I can't remember if GAME made anything from new Nintendo units. When I left the writing was on the wall for me. Bleeding and no way to fix it. The X2 Plymouth stores went quickly after they built pay-to-play arenas in them and they didn't make any money. The 3 stores closest to me one which I have was working in, have lost all their managers and are now thin on staff and people who understand the retail business at all. Very sad but at the same time a completely confusing and frustrating business. Top people not understanding the market, dodgy staff and management.

[@justinanthony8858]

I used to love going gamestation, the staff in my 2 local gamestation shops were so cool, I often wonder what happened to them

[@markoliver9581]

Gamestation were gobbled up by Game

[@aaronsmith9209]

My local Gamestation sold me my PS3 in 2009 that I spent nearly a year saving up for as a teenager, they were so happy to make sure I got the games I would enjoy most and get the best value (got Uncharted 2, GTA IV, GRID and MW2). Fantastic staff back then that cared about their customers. Got a lot of PS1 and N64 games for pennies from gamestation too, gaming weren't the same when that shop went. It's not the same but at least CEX sells retro games, Game is souless and always has been, I can see Game not existing in a few years.

[@moltenriches]

​@@markoliver9581think he means the staff mate

[@CommodoreMudkip]

Purely as a customer, I loved gamestation. I remember going to midnight launches for games like halo reach with the staff wearing cosplay and setting up lan patties in store. Such a great vibe that Game never had

[@Ashontour]

Ahhh dude, Gamestation was my first and favourite job. Game were never meant to be competitors because Game and Gamestation were actually both owned by Game Group but Gamestation was always clearly the favourite amongst locals and while working there i never once heard any customers say anything good about shopping in Game. Honourable mentions of my time at Gamestation: - Awesome midnight launch parties (I mean queues out the door). - Being able to borrow games from the shop and even play games pre release. - Having hilarious marketing slogans such as "Cheaper than your Girlfriend!" that could never be used today. - Customers who smoke bringing in consoles to trade in, and then taking offence when we tell them that we weren't gonna buy it from them because it stinks like an ashtray and has turned from pearl white to pissy yellow. - 2 Local Police officers coming in asking about Xbox 360 bundles a couple days before Christmas, who accuse 16yo me personally of false advertisement because we had no stock left. - That one guy who came in every 2 weeks to tell us we cant legally sell traded in games because selling something that is bought in second hand makes it "third hand". Those were the days!

[@stateofthecultureaz]

So my sister is an assistant manager at game and have just been told today that all the pre owned games are being transferred this month to the Blue Water store, that will be the only store that will still deal with pre owned games in the country 😮

[@njp2k914]

Both of our local ones have just closed and I think they’re on their way out completely! I was only about 15 when all the game stations closed and I remember feeling really sad about that as they always had a good choice of retro games!

[@glenn309]

I started working for Gamestation in my local area around 2009 and was there for the crossover to Game. I think that Gamestation was definitely more hardcore and the customer base was up for a chat. As it crossed over to Game, I didn't see a massive amount of difference, the pos changed and the pink started to become apparent. I left in 2016 after a lot of speculation that the company wasn't doing well and we started to see 'to let' signs appearing on our store 'without being told. It was that day I decided I'd had enough. I do miss it dearly. You don't have the same atmosphere on a launch day and community is none existent now. Going to a shop to buy a game lessened an already mainly anxiety driven customer, now it's the opposite.

[@kingoverseas9052]

I loved working at Gamestation. We had our retro cabinet right up until the end, and you're right, Pre-owned was 100% the money maker, which is why CEX completely embraced it.

[@leerodger9197]

Found this by pure chance, my local store is (was) also Caerphilly which has just closed its doors for good. Great content mate.

[@arranmc182]

I think it would be cool if CEX tried to buy the game company from Mike Ashley as I could see CEX brining Game in to the bigger CEX stores to sell new games, goanna suck to not have a shop you can trade in old games for money off new games as easy as game allows it to be done at the moment.

[@corneliussmiff2773]

I remember in 2011 when I got a bumper bonus at work. I randomly bought an Xbox 360 (having sold my PS3 the year before due to financial issues) and Gamestation were kind enough to do me a special deal on a butt tonne of games to go with it. I think i got something like 30 games for something stupid like £120.00 and some of them were pretty recent releases too. The staff were super knowledgable in my local store and the trade in system is what essentally allowed me to devour so many xbox titles over the next 8 months unti I sold the console. Still one one of the best gaming eras of my life and thanks in part to having access to cheap used games, as well as being able to recycle them in a sense.

[@Discombobulate453]

Great deals like that are probably why they went under. Great for the customer and for their loyalty but it doesn’t count for shit if the company can’t sustain itself

[@dannymcnabb1998]

"GAME, on the other hand, are kind of run by people who don't know anything about video games." You are absolutely correct 😂 I asked one of the GAME employees to recommend me between three different games I was indecisive on, and he said to me "I don't play video games so I'm not sure."

[@pauljakeman]

When game and game station were both trading at the same time, they were great. As soon as game took over game station, things changed. Over the past few years, back to about 2018, they had gone downhill rapid. The games , both new and pre owned, have dwindled right down, the vinyl pops and other stuff took over. I now haven’t been to a game for a few years. One of the reasons also was that I could get some games cheaper new off of Amazon, then getting it from them used from game! Obviously when your on a budget your going to choose the cheapest. I don’t think game will last another year. Great video mate.

[@owainmason7837]

I feel like Game never recovered from administration in 2012 and were always worse after it. To me they were always fighting online from that point on and moved their model further and further away from just video games. I last went in a SD Game 4 months ago to try to buy a Lorcana deck, as online they wouldn't give you a choice of which starter you got! I'll probably never go in one again unless they sell off all their 3 for 2 stuff

[@yokaidigital3033]

This happened in America too. GameStop had a competitor once called Electronic Boutique and like your story GameStop bought them out and slowly took over their locations and destroy any policies they used.

[@mclane1984]

We had it in the UK too. I use to go in there all the time. It was my preferred games store before Gamestation opened

[@eyeonthesty1939]

We had Electronc Boutique… funnily enough, I remember it being bought out by GAME 😂😂

[@TheDogbrainShow]

@@eyeonthesty1939yup! Game bought them. Used to love EB here in the UK. Lots of good memories as a kid

[@sgm2463]

Had one on Croydon high street nr mcD

[@HeyLaserLips]

Talking of CeX, around the time EB was still around in the UK and CeX was still called "Computer Exchange", I remember they had ads in all the games magazines at the time saying "trade with us, don't bother with "Electronic Buttocks" xD

[@user-vp8mu5fj7o]

Always had better vibes in gamestation, I could talk to an employee about a game and end up talking for around 15-20 minutes about that game, because they genuinely knew what i was talking about and had passion for gaming in general. I talked to one employee about Halo and we stood there for ages talking about Halo. I went into game a few years ago before I started buying digitally and it was a mess... They had hardly any idea what games I were talking about, it was more of a hurry up and get out experience... Such a shame. Gamestation lives on in our hearts, fantastic store.

[@B3n55]

Really great video, I remember going to Game station as a kid picking up a new game for my xbox every week, i miss that.

[@reanukeeves2k77]

I think subscription services have also been eating into their sales for a while now. When you were going through the games I couldn’t help but notice how many were free with ps plus extra or game pass. A lot of people don’t even have disk drives anymore. It’s a shame, but I think the market is heading in that direction.

[@Stokie316]

R.I.P. Game! I've not been in Game in years. I used to like Gamestation before Game took it over and converted it to one of their stores. We had two Game stores within a quarter of a mile of each other.

[@MeteorTesh]

That's norhing. In my town, we had. And I'm not joking. Two games on the same street. And I don't mean, a long street. I mean around 30 seconds walk from each other. you could see one from the entrance of the other.

[@Stokie316]

@MeteorTesh - Brilliant 😂 That's eigther bad management or business was thriving. I'm going guess option 1. lol. My situation was bad, but at least it was a 10-15 minute walk between them.

[@simonmanley9245]

I worked around Christmas in Game Swansea right when the Game Station acquisition occurred. We went from putting people off to encouraging them to go! I never liked working in Game, the whole focus was on up selling customers & bamboozling them for sales at any cost. We were absolutely forbidden from talking negatively about ANY game, no matter how poor we knew it to be.

[@hdips7081]

The nice thing about this whole situation is that even in terrible towns people are now making a living opening up independant retro game shops. usually 5 percent less than ebay on sticker price and no brand new stock but they tend to offer very good trade in prices to keep the inventory stocked. Im happy to pay toactually have a chat to the owners that are usually enthusiasts, get my hands on a cardboard box and work out a deal. still makes me long for the electronics boutique days!

[@jensablefur155]

Game is a zombie games shop at this point. At my local one a good half of what they sell is Forbidden Planet-esque plastic nerd tat, the most basic entry-level board games and overpriced Pokémon plushies of sleeping Pikachus and the like. Honestly the writing has been on the wall for a while.

[@IanDevlinPhoto]

In the branch of CEX I work in it would surprise you the amount of Dvds we sell 😂

[@misterprecocious2491]

Not at all, I go to CEX to buy old DVD gems that I cannot usually find online.

[@wayne1da121]

I still buy DVD/ Blurays. You never know when your internet/ technology will fail you Yes, I still stream, but it's a nice backup to own your all-time favourite films on DVD

[@Reno_no.8]

I used to looooove gamestation, I'd go there everyday after college and spend hours in there! Can still remember them having final fantasy X playing behind the counter! Ahhh memories 😄

[@Weaponsandstuff93]

The thing I liked as a gamestation customer was all the really cheap DVDs etc that were also in the stores, if I didn't find any games to buy I'd normally buy a load of £1 DVDs.

[@frankhayman]

Do we reckon that CEX will start to reduce the prices they offer for trade ins? Punters have now got basically no other alternative if they want to sell their games quickly that day- unless you're lucky enough to have an independent game store nearby

[@symonmifsud1414]

That’s a really good point.

[@Security848]

game wasnt really competition to cex for trade ins as their trade in prices are so bad

[@frankhayman]

@@Security848 You're right, but it was at least a store and an alternative that existed

[@DKGXX85]

Cash converters are still pretty fair

[@Mav1988]

​​@@Security848I agree, it's rare I've traded games in (I like to keep a collection going) but on the occasion I have I've used CEX as the trade in prices at game tend to be poor.

[@_SYDGAMING_]

Tbf i saw it coming when they left Ireland years ago. Sad times so many childhood memories in GAME

[@LoCoAde87]

Same. We were spoilt with choice - Game, HMV, Virgin Megastores, Smyths, Electronic Botique, Argos, Tesco.. good times, good choices.

[@_SYDGAMING_]

@@LoCoAde87 lol I love that Tesco's is last on the list. Yeah kinda sucks now all we have is Smyth's and cex

[@ilpalozzo]

They made a big thing about Game coming back in Sports Direct in Cork. I went in and found it s month later and there's was barely a corner and no Game branding so I don't think it's lasting

[@smart3k]

I miss Gamestation, All the staff in mine were gamers and knew what you wanted and always able to help you out. You go into a Game store now and they look at you like you've grown another head when you ask them something. Me and my mates used to do all nighters at a cyber cafe on Counterstrike and stuff too with them. It was such a good shop if you were a true gamer R.I.P

[@cyberleaderandy1]

Weve a CEX in our local town and they are the obvious go to games store for trades in now and I've had an email from Game to say exactly what you are saying.

[@V3NALDINI]

I think what you said is 100% true..but you have to think about the gaming company’s.. like Sony and Microsoft.. they are making consoles that are digital.. so there is no need for physical copies of games anymore… I grew up on physical copies since I got older and the console have changed alot, I have recently moved over to PC where I can get AAA games for like half the price what they charge on console.

[@athleticgravy1]

Was always a fan of Gamestation, their disintegration was devastating to gamer me. Wasn't topped until Grainger Games shut down.

[@EdgingLucasTracy]

Is this Birkenhead?

[@NuRetroReactions]

Grainger Games was so good. The issue was they grew too quick.

[@wesleywyndam-pryce4081]

They had a really good points system with free gifts 🎁 got headphones a free brand new 40 quid game and everything, had some cheap new prices as well but seemed to lose the plot after that

[@proudtobeageordie9490]

​@@bretton_woodsit was so staff knew if the game was purchased from them or not and alot of the time they would find a reason not to by or trade the game with u because it was. Originally purchased from them

[@proudtobeageordie9490]

​@@NuRetroReactionsthe bloke who run grainger games became to big for his boots and forgot about where he came from he started it from a little market stall in the grainger market hence the name grainger games he used to be such a nice bloke he would let people test games before buying them he would give discounts or multiple purchases but once he started becoming successful instead of being that same nice guy he started to become a bit of a knob and spending loads of money on cars like hummers and minis with the grainger games stickers all over them and then he just started taking the piss out of how much he would give you for selling things to the shop because he knew he could take advantage of the people because most of his stores were in deprived areas and once that kept happening people stopped going a remember the warehouse got robbed a couple of times and 4 of his hummers got burnt out because of it even staff who had worked for the company for years just started leaving because he turned in to a absolute knob

[@chrisfisher5345]

Every now and then I throw a thought back to Game and Gamestation, I miss buying games from a high street, especially Game Station, no you're not bias it was the better store, even if I was being upsold a product the staff knew how to actually engage with me and recommend something I actually enjoyed rather just constantly asking me if I wanted to preorder FIFA...I miss those days, taking a bus to into town, grabbing something that caught my eye, and reading and rereading the manual on the bus back home...Its depressing that I'm likely never going to have those experiences again, thanks for making this video and making me remember better times.

[@kilarymz4life772]

5 things that killed GAME: -Digital Sales like gamepass etc -Poor management and leadership -Lack of communication with customers -Fallout 76 flopping so hard -The death of retail and the high street.

[@bazzer8685]

I agree. Game, despite growing quickly and then absorbing Gamestation, have done all the wrong things since then, in trying to strive for profitability and growth. In a business like this Trade-ins keep customers coming in to get the latest games, and there is definitely more profit in pre-owned rather than new. (I have knowledge of this, being a console game retailer in the halycon days of gaming, before Game exsisted!) Like you, I will be in for the bargains when the pre-owned sales are on, and I give them six months left on the High Street. I presume they could keep an online presence still?

[@ANDYDT]

imagine a compamy striving for profit and growth

[@bazzer8685]

@@ANDYDT Yep, that's what your supposed to do, and having the financial backing to be able to do that, and remove a rival from the High Street must have felt great for them! 😆 But every change they've made since then to how they operate on the high street has been pretty naff, and it appears they've alienated the few customers they had? Whereas on the other hand, CEX has become much bigger and grown by selling I would say about 95% second-hand stock? It appears Game took their eyes off how this rival did business? And I'm predicting for them before the end of 2024!

[@chirpywiggins5796]

As a former Gamestation manager myself, I concur. I miss the early 2000's that was the heyday !!

[@snagger2810]

Looking back now I wish I'd emptied every one of gamestations bargain cages and juat put them in a cupboard. Remember seeing games like metroid prime, shenmue, kirby air ride for like £5 each new. Used to love that shop.

[@AngleseyDarter]

Gamestation was the best! I miss the one in Bangor, North Wales. All of the staff there were brilliant and treated their customers with the outmost respect.

[@TABSF1]

This is so true! In Bradford we had 2 Gamestation, 2 Game and 1 Game Trader. One of the Gamestation's managers was a pillar of the community, as teen and then young man he would tell me what games not to waste money on unless I really wanted it, the staff in general seemed way more approachable and not trying to shill. I remember wanting Predator Concrete Jungle so badly, he was like it's completely crap, the guy at Game was saying it was incredible lol. Game Trader was amazing as they did foreign imports and kept previous gens and classics around for longer. Now we have 1 Game store, it's bleak!

[@Jack-kx5rf]

Personally, I think the shareholders are running it into the ground intentionally to force games to go digital only.

[@gregordrizzlewing7339]

Hope not I’m a physical copy guy

[@DuckAlertBeats]

I don't really see how that would help Game

[@Jack-kx5rf]

@@DuckAlertBeats It's a long-term strategy. GAME stores are going to be places to buy consoles, accessories, digital games, and merchandise, completely getting rid of all physical games. For X-Box alone for physical games they currently offer 137 XboxOne games and 390 Series S games, including collectors editions and such. Their digital codes library is 588. They've already started the process of not even stocking some new or pre-owned physical games and only offer digital ones. The only caveat is that Sony and Nintendo don't offer digital game codes. Sony used to, but they stopped selling them before the industry started going heavy-handed on digital only. Nintendo does offer DLC digital codes which on how insistent they are that their games stay the same price they can ensure that by switching to digital only, like the older Pokemon games getting rereleased on the Virtual Console.

[@DandyCam47]

I used to love gamestation growing up. Such a shame the way things are going

[@lukeb6045]

I work at CEX and I can tell you that people buy a lot of DVDs, although we usually receive more than we sell from people 'having a clear out'

[@dazadorph45]

Currently in Trowbridge in wiltshire and Basingstoke hampshire have a physical stores, I dont really shop at game stores, I buy more and more from charity shops via online or in stores, Find them are cheeper if your looking for older games for older game machines. But mostly have gone digital buys for ps5 and ps4 games via ps store when the games are on sale. I do compaire them to actual discs prices on line before i buy digital.

[@alexdolling]

Gamestation was loads better, travesty they were merged and basically shut down

[@wesleywyndam-pryce4081]

Gamestation had so much more vibe than game then game went bust for a while then bought out

[@doublejumpvideogames....]

Games more like a toy and tat store nowadays ..CEX will eventually decline once digital fully grips console gaming

[@MichaelGeorge161]

As of January 2024, Game have 64 standalone stores left. Yes, I went to the website and counted them.

[@bmmaaate]

My local one closed months ago. It was always expensive. CEX has plenty of cheap games and they also stock vintage games as far back as Megadrive carts. AND they play Heavy Metal which is equally cool and really embarrassing at the same time.

[@gyaldriplikeaknackeredfrid5829]

I've not gone to any game store in about 10+ years, digital is just easier and better in every way other than if u want to collect physical copies.

[@simonbooth9803]

I worked in game about 15 years ago and worked in retail for about 5 years either side of that. You're right that pre-owned has a much higher markup but remember that game has been brought by Sports Direct Group. Their speciality is high volume low markup and don't want to have to train staff members or pay for staff who have good product knowledge. Companies like CeX also have to hold a lot of stock, for example a Legacy console could be sat on the shelf for months maybe even longer. Tying it up as capital. Sports Direct will try to get through stock as quickly as possible, ideally selling it before the period where they have to even pay the suppliers. Also the target audience is mostly not hardcore gamers and this was the case even back when I was there and the target market was actually people who didn't really know what they were buying for example parents and grandparents buying their kids presents. And on top of that even back then companies like Microsoft and Sony were putting pressure on them to not sell pre-owned as it broke into their sales. With digital they now have even more power as they can simply stop selling to stores and still have a good market share selling directly to the customer.

[@richardelkin6109]

On PC boxed sales are basicly dead. That is going to be consoles soon. So many stores have stopped selling boxed games now.

[@Megalocade]

We had 2 Games and 1 Game Station in our town centre, always preferred GameStation the staff were very knowledgeable and they sold a lot of retro struff which was right up my street sadly its all gone now game has moved up to the retail park in the back of some sports shop. Its very sad to see whats happend to all our game shops, digital games have ultimately killed them and will eventually drive them out of busness as physical games will be a thing of the past, we used to have 6 video game shops here 4 independents now sadly all gone long ago.

[@mattbrown4833]

Game stores are almost invisible now. Went to get a game as a Xmas present for someone a few weeks ago because Amazon prices were a bit silly, and after googling it found out there was a Game store near to my work, that I had walked past countless times but never clocked was there. It’s at the back of the 6th floor of a huge sports shop, right on Piccadilly Circus. I couldn’t see a single sign saying it was there. It really felt like the sort of place they have open to fulfil some contractual obligation rather than expecting to make many sales.

[@kovalveli]

Man, gamestation was my place in the late 2000s , I used to spend half of my wages on Xbox and PS3 games,.the trade ins were awesome too, I genuinely felt sad when I found out they were going to be taken over.

[@Draqziifying]

As a kid i loved going into my local Gamestation and spending quite a bit of time looking at all the xbox 360 games they had. Later on in 2012/2013 they were rebranded to GAME which didnt bother me at the time since everything was pretty much same but under a new brand and i could still use my Gamestation reward card i had. Around early 2017 was when my local GAME store shutdown for good and it pretty much made me switch to digital only games since there wasnt any other GAME stores close to me. Last year i ended up walking past a GAME in meadowhall and i decided to walk in and check it out since i haven't been in one for years at this point. I was so disappointed when i walked in because it was mainly just plushy's, toys and board games with an Xbox/Playstation/Nintendo section to the side. I spent probably 5 minutes in there before walking out and i didn't even en dup buying anything I know GAME has its issues but i will forever miss being a kid and spending nearly an hour in a Game store just looking at Xbox 360 games that i wanted and trying to convince my parents to by them for me lol. I really cant see GAME lasting until the end of the year

[@LostSoulNo301281]

The Game store are Lakeside in west Thurrock has closed down since Xmas. It was actually the very last store in the entire shopping centre to not have moved or closed since the mid-90s. Now it's gone. I remember going into Game at Lakeside back in the 90s, when it had its old black and purple colour scheme, with corrugated steel high up on the walls with graffiti style are of characters like Sonic and Mario. At one point there was also an Electronics Boutique upstairs and slightly across from that store. Unfortunately that was taken over by Game som time in the early 2000s. There was also a retro style gaming shop in Lakeside shopping centre called Thatz Entertainment. They mostly dealt with pre-owned games, PC games and a lot of retro games and consoles. Although they something of a rip when it came to trade-ins. Then some time around 2009/2010 Game opened another store in the nearby retail park. And by 2011 Game had a third store in Lakeside shopping centre, although this closed down around 2012 when they nearly went under. Now all there is is the "Game" section in the nearby Sports Direct store on the far side of the retail park, but it's been renamed/rebranded as Belong.

[@Q2k7]

I remember GameStation on Birmingham New Street. I used to love visiting that back in the day, just to play new demos and checkout out the retro corner.

[@KoalaJC]

Oh wow, this brings back memories. I used to work at Gamestation in Brighton!

[@deanpedley]

I used to love gamestation I remember the tv advert with Brian blessed voice over…you could get some mega deals at Christmas time as they used to do daily sales on brand new titles £20/£25 got some cracking deals

[@mrrayner7162]

As someone who grew up in the EB era in the UK, and used to go to Gamestation when EB moved to game its s sad sight. I can see why though... Afaik Gamestop are struggling so much theyre closing (or at least reducing) their international portfolio. For example, here in Ireland (I live here now) in June 2023 Gamestop closed their own stores completely. Our local store basically sold all stock off and closed the doors. Recently a "Game" appeared in our Sports Direct store. Like you said it literally is a few systems, 4 games per system and a plethora of merch. If it survives I'll be entirely shocked.

[@anthonyhalpin66]

Interesting observations. I'm across the pond and would have shopped in GAME Dublin up until they closed (2005?) I always got the feeling that the staff weren't into games!

[@bornGmE]

At Telford Our one went from sports direct to fraser and there like 2x bigger now and the prices are slightly better and the fact its bigger and sells way more stuff it adds to it

[@MisterHughes]

I still have my Game reward card and it's been very useful, just doing up a bathroom and it's great for smoothing down silicone sealant.

[@degussqueak]

I worked at CeX for many years. You would be amazed by the amount of people who buy Dvds. However the amount being brought in from house clearings is horrific, they normally offer only a penny per Dvd. We had to write off 100s of Dvds daily due to us not having the room for them. From what I am hearing from people still there, there is a push to remove dvds completely due to this. Generally ther was a 25% mark up from buy in price everything although this depends on how badly the company wants the stock. Not just the individual store

[@terryglover3215]

In Bedford, we had an Electronics Boutique and a Gamestation. EB got bought by GAME, and went the same way as GS. Then after the GAME in Bedford closed. We now only have a CEX, which is OK. The nearest GAME is in Milton Keynes, which, ironically, is next door to a CEX, and next door to that is an indie games store.

[@StevesgamingWorld]

I live in Norwich and there used to be two game stores (one was pretty big) and I enjoyed going in both. When I learnt that both had closed last year, I was shocked and disappointed that they moved into a small corner of sports direct. Some very fond memories of game and the midnight launches for big games, but now they’re a pale shadow of what they once was. Before game and gamestation (which I also loved and some ways more than game) was Electronics Boutique. You could buy a game and get a full refund within two weeks! Lost count on the times I would complete a game within that time and take the game back for a refund.

[@ssaiyandad345]

Before Christmas on black friday there was a discount on gift cards. When to my local Game was told by staff yes there is an offer but because we have a new till system installed 2 days ago you cant have the discounted offer. Told to go to another store 20 miles away

[@MrTOM845]

Damn, remember Gamestation from when I first came to UK in 2005. My second day in a country a bought myself a Dreamcast with a Alone in the Dark for like 17.50. That store was located in a small place called Accrington and back then almost on a daily basis they were getting different used Dreamcast games on bog-off offer or something like that. Managed to nearly complete PAL Dreamcast set within couple of months from that store alone. Very,very fond memories of that store , of a whole chain of them. It was a sad day when Game took over,it was never the same again.

[@theslasherspotlight81]

I actually really rate Game and have bought a lot of new PS5 games from them in recent times at very good prices. Admittedly, some of these were from the website but I've also picked up numerous bargains in my local Wet Midlands store. It's a shame they'll no longer be stocking the pre owned stuff as like you say, the 3 for 2 promotion was always worth a browse. Even without that though, I think a lot of the prices they have for new games are very competitive, probably not so much so for AAA titles in the chart, but certainly for less mainstream stuff.

[@chewchewmagoo121]

I remember seeing pre owned games on the shelves of GAME in Cardiff being more expensive than the same game brand at same shop. 💯🤦‍♂️

[@LeiraVeil-Challenge]

i personally cannot wait to have GAME dissapear after how its been handled for a long time now. as a pokemon fan i always hated when there was code events there because the staff were very stingy with it. they were literal free codes that the pokemon company didnt limit the ammount on but the stores would insist on only one per person even if you were collecting for a family that couldnt make it due to work scedules or school. it didnt stop people coming back on multiple days or going to other stores all it did was annoy people to the point that they went out of their way to not buy anything. towards the end they even tried the " oh you can only get a code if you purchase an item" but that was stopped with a swift message to the pokemon company for breach of agreement. (again free codes so trying to charge for them didnt fly) pretty much any game store was better off than game but they had the capital to purchase out their competition ( gamestation, granger games, blockbuster and all the family owned businesses)

[@wlkerptter]

I worked for electronic boutique and had the same issue with youse moving over, but we did get too take games home and have gaming nights and discount which was slowly dissolved before I left

[@Rumym8]

at my local town centre we had a game and a game station and a few years ago game obviously moved into sports direct and the funniest thing is cex moved into the old game location

[@andrewallen446]

It's hard going trying to walk into a store to purchase a new release in 2024, and that's quite sad considering my childhood and the time I spent in video game stores. I used to walk back and forth between GAME and Gamestation checking prices as they were right next to each other, and Gamestation always seemed to offer the better trade-in deals and just had a better vibe to it. I loved spending my time in there (my parents got very bored and angry 😂). I always remember the queues being nearly out the door at Gamestation so I was very surprised at the time when it closed down 🤷. My local Asda sells a few games but that's about it now. Sainsbury's and Tesco have stopped selling physical media and my local GAME has just gone. It's just sad to be honest as I have the memories of how it used to be. As a gamer, nothing beats going into store flipping the boxes and making your decision... now it's all online. Understandable but still a shame.

[@dhauxx]

I was a Christmas temp at GameStation back when I was 18, absolutely loved my short space of time there. Was a sad day when it closed down

[@VladTepesRomaniaPSN]

You’re beautiful 😍 ❤

[@Replays96_]

I had a Game and Gamestation near me in Uxbridge, Always went to the Gamestation as the people and overall feel was so much cooler!

[@DEAN_23]

I worked for Game, and it was one of the coolest experiences in my life, but yeah, Gamestation had a completely different vibe - the number of tournaments they held there was so cool....