Yesterday’s press rampage over GAME not stocking Mass Effect 3 (and other EA titles) this month caused something of a media frenzy, but perhaps it shouldn’t have done.
I’m no expert – by any stretch – but from here it looks like the truth is that GAME’s financial lifelines of late have meant that they simply don’t have the same amount of cash to spend on new games – and under the same conditions they’ve enjoyed for years.
The difference with EA (and Ubisoft last week with the Vita titles) is that as far as we can tell they’re simply not prepared to offer the same buying conditions, and as a result GAME couldn’t – currently at least – afford to stock their games.
We’re told a recent meeting with GAME apparently left attending suppliers super happy and positive about the future of the company, but signs suggest perhaps it wasn’t attended by every publisher in the industry.
Anyone buying games from the retailer over the last few weeks might have noticed ‘property of’ stickers on the backs of certain titles – this seems like it was the publisher’s way of granting GAME the stock but retaining ownership in case there were issues down the line.
Sony were seemingly happy to do this, but maybe EA aren’t.
Because of this, GAME’s limited funds for stock mean that they can’t splash out on the quantities required, and so have had to refrain from selling them, at least for the time being.
The logic’s quite simple, even if it’s frustrating for the consumer.
Although everyone in the games press jumped all over the news there’s a chance that – just maybe – the actual situation was a little different and that none of this was that much of a surprise.
All this – obviously – isn’t great news for GAME, but it’s not as shocking as the headlines might have read.
Paranoimia
I think the solution for GAME is simple – drop the prices and make more money. I posted the following comment on G+ on 23rd Feb, in response to a GAME-related post from Catherine Goode, a game designer at Lockwood…
The first thing Game need to look at is their prices, at least online, where they always charge full RRP.
I loved Game, but loyalty only goes so far. I know they have physical stores, but their online prices need to be lowered. Other online retailers routinely charge around £10 less, and in many cases offer a faster/better service.
Then, since I don’t drive, I save a further £4 by not needing to get the bus into town to pick up the game. So that’s around £14 I save per game versus visiting their store, or £10 versus buying from their site. Which, obviously, means I can buy more games. Everyone wins. Well, except Game, clearly.
CarBoyCam
Even though I do most of my shopping online, I do hope GAME manage to keep going. It’s always handy to pop into GAME with some spare cash during a break from lectures at Uni!