“GAME has basically been bullying people around and now it comes back to bite them on the ass,” said Paradox boss Fredrick Wester, according to GI.biz.
“It’s been abusing their situation in the UK for a long time but it always come back to you,” he continued. “Look at EA and Nintendo, they’re not even willing to help. They will take the hit just to get rid of GAME and start over.”
I’m not sure any publisher is ‘taking the hit’ but he’s clearly got things to say. He claims that businesses like GAME aren’t making changes and adapting, and are suffering as a result. But he’s adamant that there’s more at hand here.
“One of the biggest problems is they haven’t behaved nicely to other people,” he continued.
“So it’s karma.”
GAME are indeed struggling, with the retail stores unable to stock big name titles like Mass Effect 3, The Last Story and various others. They’ve been in the headlines for weeks now, without much in the way of positive news.
justboy
What a tease! Couldnt Fredrick elaborate or give an example?
SH Number 7
Hmmm..
hazelam
and developers and publishers are saints i suppose?
pfft.
bunimomike
No one is but Game has regularly been accused of heavy handed tactics and a reputation of a particular type.
3shirts
He’s right. As I’ve said before GAME where terrible at what they do but rode on the wave of being the big name that non-gamers assumed was reliable.
The only sympathy I have is for SOME of the staff but I qualify that because a lot of the staff didn’t really deserve a job in a game shop anyway.
Taylor Made
yeh GAME are terrible, I went in to trade in a game but cause it didnt have a manual they said no they wont take it, then went gamestation they took it.
The way these two companies operate you would think its a different company runned by different people
3shirts
They are, largely. They are run independently of each other but, unfortunately, the one way that they are connected is financially which means that when GAME goes down it will take gamestation with it.
Taylor Made
oh I just assumed its same people that do the price scheme and deals for both companies. Its a shame really that Gamestation will be wounded badly if GAME drowns.
3shirts
I agree with you that they feel completely different. Funny how gamestation is so much better yet none of that seems to have rubbed off on GAME
The Lone Steven
He has a point as Game are fully aware that they are the only gaming specialist left(HMV is more of an entertainment specialist) and thus have abused their postion by charging full price for games regardless of whether it’s preowned or new and seem to try and trick non gamers into getting things that they don’t need.
I think one more publisher pulling support from Game will end up with them folding within weeks and thus the supermarkets will bump up their prices on games knowing full well that they have little to no compition. I really hope we will see a new gaming specialist take over as i like being able to pop in and browse the games.
SoulGamer
supermarkets will still see plenty of competition from other supermarkets, HMV and the ever growing pressure of online
gazzagb
Perhaps its how much Game push to see pre-owned games that the publishers don’t like. All the ones I go into have equal shelve space for both chart, new and pre-owned games.
Forrest_01
Unfortunately, you are correct – Well, apart from the fact that in my local, the pre-owned section is actually quite a bit larger than the new section!
But they have had a policy to push pre-owned over new for some time now & i can’t see that many devs & pubs would have been happy with this to be fair. This is definitely where they have come a cropper, as it is pretty much based upon greed due to the fact that they take the lions share when a pre-owned title is sold.
To be honest, i am not sure why they were so blind. I seem to recall a phrase about ‘not biting the hand that feeds you’ & it actually seems very apt here.
wirralsman
Very clear that GAME need a change in direction. They should turn their stores into something that resembles an Apple store. Walls of devices with demos instead of walls of game cases, and a desk at the far end that you can order games from, with a system similar to Argos. Some “Geeks” walking round to make the hard sell to customers looking at the displays/demos
3shirts
You mean geniuses. LOL
aerobes
Interesting that he has such a low opinion of them and their business practices. I’d be intrigued to read something more in-depth.