Soon to rebrand from "game" to "merch"
this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2024
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Always has been
Definitely not always, I remember buying games and accessories there many moons ago!
They were good before (and please correct me if I've got this wrong) EB bought them and did a "reverse takeover". Since that point they've been going downhill.
Game doesn't exist anymore where I live, but the last thing I bought from a similar store (down to overpriced games and being mostly about merch) was a 8bitdo controller several years ago. I was there, price was not excessive, and it was slightly more convenient than having one delivered.
Beyond that... I went a couple times just to pick up a free event pokémon on 3DS, and nothing else, and I think the last actual game I got from them must have been Order of Ecclesia on the DS.
game over i guess
Not that they were a great company to begin with, but nice one Mike Ashley, killed off another brand basically
Mike Ashley didn't actually want a game shop, he wanted people spending £70 on each football/COD release, then buying that season's team strip on the way out of the shop.
Ashley wants two main things out of his purchases, the brand name to slap on a web store with any head start it can give into running a business in that sector, and the retail space. Any decent retail space he wants to flip into residential property while stripping any fixtures and fittings of any value, anything else will be gone or rebooted into the lowest common denominator for that area.
Does he also do that thing where people buy out a company using debt loaded onto the company they're buying?
Pretty sure he pays cash or close to it rather than a traditional leveraged buy out. He normally only buys struggling or collapsed brands he can get cheap like Wiggle.
Then basically there's no point in this shop existing anymore. They're basically toy stores now.
I occasionally look in Game but can't remember the last time I actually bought anything. It would've been a pre-owned title anyway.
Is Electronics Boutique still going? 😁
EB is now GameStop - in the US. They are going. Not sure where, but they are going.
I miss Babbage's...
I was being a bit tongue in cheek. GAME took over EB in the UK. I don't think they're any dedicated gaming shops anymore, just independents.
The French branch filed bankruptcy 10 years ago.
Some of the stores became Micromania-Zing (owned by gamestop) which amazingly enough still exists.
Yeah, those have been primarily funko pop stores for years too. Their new games are like 20% more expensive than everyone else, and their second hand games priced like everyone else's new.
Yeah even in the US GameStop sucks now. Like at least 10 years ago they were decent, but now it's just trash.
The ~~FunkoPop Store~~ EB Games here in Canada were re-labeled to GameStop recently. They're still in every Mall in the land from what I've seen. Though they are doing better. Game selection isn't what it use to be, but the variety is growing now. I was surprised when I found Manga in our local GameStop.
Not exactly my cup of tea, but catering to "Nerd" culture, and going beyond "Merch" is something I can get behind, since it's rare to see another store not selling the same old drivel as everyone else.
Not hugely surprising given next gen consoles to all be without disc trays even
I still buy physical whenever I can. I'd hate to have my entire collection beholden to one account, although I know people do that with the PS Store, or Game Pass, or Steam. I don't trust corporations, I guess. I really hope they don't make disc-less consoles the standard.
Me too Shyfer, I buy 2nd hand a lot
I used to think the same way, but one day MS was having server issues on their end, and my XOne refused to play my rightfully owned game despite the disc being in the console. I was also unable to log into my account, which made me unable to save my progress, which made playing the game (if it suddenly decided to work) impossible.
Consoles were great until the X360/PS3 era. I could buy a disc, insert the disc into the console, and start playing, and the game would probably work fine without much hassle. I played my X360 offline for years and it worked just fine. Nowadays I go to the store, buy the disc, go back home, insert the disc, wait for it to install, and then I discover that the game was not optimized for my console of choice and it runs awfully to the point of unplayability. And if I have no internet connection, tough luck, my console turns into an expensive brick.
I now just buy on GoG. Much easier that way. Console exclusives are ported to PC anyway, so you're not missing anything. You also get nice perks like playing online for free if you're into multiplayer games, or playing older games on emulators (~~and current ones, because fuck Nintendo~~).
Same. I forgot to mention that I like to buy cheaper games through second hand rather than paying full price on electronic stores. Often even their big sales aren't as cheap as secondhand.
Yeah. Games are all digital downloads these days. And consoles and accessories are cheaper and easier to get online. There's no point in physical video game stores any more.
Personally, I just want Radio Shack back, and not just the cell phone and crappy toy store.
What are they going to sell then? More than half of their shops are poor quality merch, and own brand peripherals
In case anyone is following this: Eurogamer are reporting that Game have denied this.
I really hope game will still sell... games, but am cynically wondering if they are measuring the reaction from this to make a decision. :/
Im from the States and the moment RadioShack went all in on selling Cell Phones, they died.
The tech wizards shared ancient stories around the campfire of being able to buy radio parts at RadioShack. I was not of that era.
It wasn't even that long ago. I bought tons of discrete parts from RadioShack like, even up to 8 or 9 years ago. They had these drawers full of things, pots, LEDs, ICs, sensors, motors, dials.
Yeah, they had that one coming. Stuff in there is just straight up insanely overpriced
Huh, I get not selling media any more, but surprised they’re not even going to sell consoles.