No Wonder Game Are Struggling

In my very first post I said that I would write about Game at some stage. My motivation for doing so was off the back of a ridiculous situation that came up when I tried to buy my HTC Vive from Game, apparently they didn't want my business!

Who Are Game?

Game used to be an international operation, although I'm not sure they ever operated in the US and I'm not sure if they operate outside the UK today. So for all you guys from all over the world, let me describe who they are.

Back in the day, probably 20 years ago, the main video games shop on the high street I remember were Electronics Boutique, a very oddly named store that I didn't initially realise was all about computer games. Whilst Electronics Boutique was still going, the Game shops started to appear and then at some stage, Game bought out all the EB stores.

Remember these guys?

This led to some oddities, like in my local town for example, there used to be a Game shop and an EB shop competing against each other, and you could see one shop from the front of the other. You'd think once Game bought out EB they would have shut one of the shops, but no! Both stores continued to operate until Game went into administration a few years ago, and then apparently someone started making some sensible decisions and closed one of the stores down.

So, just to make that point again, you had 2 Game shops almost literally within spitting distance competing against each other for years, possibly a decade.

Really, the pattern of questionable business practices was established then.

So Are/Were They Any Good?

Amazon - cheaper than everyone?

Game genuinely was a good store at the time. Prior to the days of Amazon pretty much being the cheapest for everything, Game was a good place to go to get all the latest games, consoles, gaming peripherals, etc. I recall them being very competitive on price and they had decent sales and I would often just go in a Game shop and have a look whenever I was out shopping for something.

The trouble is, even after they went through a period of administration, they don't really seem to have worked out that the world has moved on. They streamlined some of their sections, the PC one particularly (having utterly failed to compete against Steam for years), shut down some of their shops, and basically made a bunch of business decisions they should have made years ago.

So They're Good Again Now, Right?

Well.... kinda.... not really.

I think the only reason Game still exists at all is because of the convenience of their trade-in service, that is, getting some cash for your old games and hardware. They have a system where you get a pittance if you want cash, but they upgrade that to a "low but more like it" offer if you take store credit. You can definitely get more money if you sell the games yourself on eBay, but then you have the hassle of doing it all, making sure you have padded bags, having to mail it, dealing with potential idiot customers, etc.. so the convenience goes a long way.

Game's games prices (did you get that) tend to be on the expensive side these days, but I build up my store credit over time and then wait for a January or summer Sale and do okay out of that.

So Where Does the HTC Vive Come In?

So the situation was that I basically had 2 places I could buy my HTC Vive from at the best price, Amazon not being one of them this time. It was Game or PC World.

At the time, I had about £20 of store credit build up, plus another £7 left over on a gift card I received as a present. Plus Game were doing a deal of double points on the purchase of the HTC Vive so I would have got about £30 worth of store credit from the sale as well. So about £27 off the price and another £30 credit back again.

Except Game rejected my business!

I actually found out what happened from my credit card company. They said that due to the nature of the transaction i.e. a high value purchase from a store normally associated with smaller purchases, they asked the merchant (i.e. Game) some additional security questions as part of the standard transaction process.

Game didn't bother replying at all, so the credit card company cancelled the transaction. They then phoned me up to explain what happened, which actually I thought was good service from my credit card provider.

So I placed the same order with PC World and received my Vive 2 days later.

Game Astounds Me

I really really don't understand how Game continues to thrive with such a long track record of poor business management. There was nothing to single me out from any other member of the public with this transaction, so I can only think Game are also pushing away other customers like this. The HTC Vive is one of the most high value items Game sells, and yet they don't even have the process in place to ensure they complete the transactions, it's unbelievable.

I continue to use Game because of the convenience of the trade-in service, and will probably continue to do so until they die as a business. Because I'm sure they will die as a business at some stage. They are so completely out of touch with the customer it is ridiculous...

• They are relatively expensive these days, still charging full list price for games you basically always can get for cheaper on Amazon.
• They just about give enough money for trade-ins, but their second hand game prices are stupid expensive also. But a second hand copy of this game that came out 2 weeks ago for 50p less than brand new, and still more then you can get the game brand new on Amazon. What an amazing deal!
• Their choice of hardware peripherals these days is extremely limited. For example, their genuine Sony PlayStation peripherals range seems to be mainly limited to just the controllers these days. I bought my PS4 dual charging station and Move controllers online because Game didn't have them.
• Even their game selections for the latest consoles is not what it used to be.

I no longer wander into Game if I happen to be on the high street because... what's the point? They never have anything interesting. I only go in there now if I've got something to trade in or I've built up store credit to the point where I really need to spend it. I bet their foot traffic has dropped massively over the last few years.

If the people in charge of Game had any sense whatsoever, they'd be doing 2 things.

1. Understand why they still survive today, the trade-in service is a part of it, and work out how they can maximise bringing customers into the shop on that basis. More special deals for extra cash on your trade-ins are needed. Or trade-in your old Skyrim to get the new Enhanced version for half price, things like that.
2. Work out how they can sell games at better rates, or with better deals. The only time anyone should buy from a Game shop is when they want a game literally right away. You can even get release-day games from Amazon these days, for less price than Game! It's insane, they need to work something out.

Thanks for Reading This Post

My genuine thanks to you for reading this far. This blog post is a bit of a rant I guess, I swore to myself I'd write it when the whole business with buying my HTC Vive went down, because it is just so silly. So thanks for being prepared to read something a bit different to my normal technical posts about using the Vive itself.

Game's future is limited, mark my words.