flippin nora lads a canny believe it, we've nowt part from CEX now
nobody cares
>>743697760Rest in piss. Fucking awful company.
>>743697760Tbh they were just CeX if it was complete shit
>>743697821>>743697890what's so bad about it
>>743697760UK gaming retail died when blockbuster sold Gamestation to GAME.
>>743698038It was just a terrible version of gamestation, worse prices, worst trade in prices, worse staff, pain in the ass to return shit even when it was broken, shitty depressing stores. Then they bought gamestation and closed them all down.
>>743697821Worse than GameStop?
>>743697760shut down like a decade ago here
>>743697890CeX ARE complete shit>order a refurb'd CPU>arrives unsecured in a shitty little cardboard box that isn't even properly sealed, left outside my door in the open>a month later it has multiple failing cores and they won't take a return
>>743697760this is like the 4th time
>>743698215I think I only ever saw 1 UK GameStop in my life, it felt the same as GAME.
>>743697760I thought it already had
>>743698381>left outside my door>not getting it delivered to the store>not having them run testing before you accept ityour fault
>>743697760Why don't nerd stores exist in the UK anymore? we used to have loads. It would be so easy to make bank selling videogames alongside gunpla, modelling shit, anime figs, and videogame merch. forbidden planet exist but its like it was tailored exclusively for 45 year old dr who capeshit fans.
>>743698381How much did you pay for it?
>>743697760>GAME>enter store>barely any gamesshits been a manchild toy store for years
>>743697760more like GAY lol
Physical stores seem kinda out of place nowadays.I know it sounds weird and I don't deny they were very useful for a long time, but with digital storefronts everyone can access and physical distribution that can reach everywhere, what is even the point?It's not how I do it myself but I know people that even order meat and fish online
>>743697760The cunt who owns it doesn't care. He asset stripped the place, sold more merch than actual games and closed stores to instead sell stock in the back of fucking Sports Direct.This was inevitable.
>>743697760the end of an era of corrupt branch managers hiring scene girls to have sex with
I'm salty they took over my local EB 20 years ago and turned it from a nerd dungeon into a respectable place.
>>743698169>pain in the ass to return shit even when it was brokenThis is the thing that baffles me. 99% chance the reason I was returning it was because they sold me someone's scratched as fuck return as a "NEW" game and I'm giving it back with a "no thanks." so that guy got a return, and you're fighting me on it?
>>743697760Thanks, Valve.
>>743698928>Why don't nerd stores exist in the UK anymore?Outside of London they don't really have a market, like Camden is full of them that's why the gundam base is there. Found a shop that sells Nendos last week while jw as exploring.
>>743699594Stores were great for browsing. Amazon and all other web based retailers are useless for browsing. Amazon even does it deliberately to increase sponsored products "engagement" which generates them revenue.Sure, it sucked going outside, dealing with the public, dealing with shitty store staff, but actually being able to browse the stock with your eyes and hands is so much faster than dealing with "10 products per page" or worse "infinite scroll" shittery. Plus in the old days GAME was great for the back catalogues. They had shelves and shelvs full of 10year old games for shitpence and you could really pad out your PS2 collection for nothing.Gamestation used to have glass cabinets full of reasonably priced Saturn games in good condition. You could get boxed GBA games without dealing with ebay fakes.But gamestation removed all their retro stuff, GAME replaced it all with funkos. The store stock became Gun & Ball gamer top 10s and nothing else. It became absoltely pointless to even bother going in. They killed themselves and it's hilarious given what total crap online with worse pricing they were competing with.
>>743701136Nerd stores do exist but they are built off the back of being warhammer and MTG retailers.
>>743697760Good riddance.
>>743697760This is like the third time they died. I still miss the store we had in Galway back in the day.
>>743697760deserved for killing gamestation
I saw this going around on twitter today too and it's actually more interesting as an example of how dogshit these 'news' feeds actually are. This all happened back in April, what happened today was someone involved in the administration publishing a post-mortem about what went wrong. Yet all the 'gaming news' sites are reporting it as if the administration happened today because I guess one of them misunderstood the original publication and the rest just copy from each other.
At one point there were like 4 GAMEs and a Gamestation in my city all within minutes of each other.
>>743703059Because GAME bought all of their competitors and turned them into more GAME stores. My medium sized town had 3 of them on the same fucking high street.
>>743697760It's amazing how every single person they hired was a cunt.
>>743697760I fuckin love Cex because the publishers get zero.
>>743698928Forbidden planet was that, but even they turned to funko pops and didnt really do video games.Board games of video games they did. But not video games of video games.
Even CeX is shit compared to years ago. They used to have a lot more aisles for DVDs, PC games and older console games. Now it's all just blu-rays and PS4 games.
>>743698038all they do is sell chinese t shirts and funkopops.>>743698928Uk high street culture as a whole is dead. Even the games worksho- sorry I mean "Warhammer" stores are empty now when warhammer is the most popular it's ever been.
>>743697760The UK is going the way of the PS3
>>743700937If its anything like similar US based retailers, employees are sometimes allowed to borrow games, and unless its actually sold they still count it as new. Gamestop is infamous for that, as well as trying to sell display copies as "new" despite being gutted and repacked.
>>743697760I haven't been into a GAME since 2013. I mostly stopped using physical stores for vidya 20 years ago because it was always cheaper to order online.So, whatever.
>>743704381Sounds like Gamestop in 2026
>>743697760more like GONE haha
>>743704245Why would you ever buy a DVD in the UK? Blu-ray finally putting an end to the PAL speedup is the best thing to ever happen to home media over here.
>>743697760I remember them coming to Australia and immediately dying.
My abiding memory of Game is seeing a guy vault the counter to attack the member of staff over the trade in price of Mario Kart Double Dash.
>>743697760What the fuck does "administration" mean in this context?
The death of Grainger Games was the only one worth mourning. No other high street game store can boast that they ruined the Games Media Awards by hiring a load of booth babes (and midgets dressed like booth babes), rocking up in an orange hummer, handing out branded bright orange condoms before the fancy sit down dinner, getting colossally drunk and heckling all the presenters before capping off the night being caught taking coke in the toilets.
>>743705395I think it's a UK phrase of saying it's insolvent, so it's being passed onto some lawyer/practitioner who specializes in trying to save companies. Usually means selling it to some other shmuck or trying out different things (selling different products or trademarks or whatever) to try and save it.
>>743705395When a company becomes insolvent the people it owes money to can ask the courts to appoint administrators, an external firm, to take control and either try to turn things around or ensure they get as much money out of it as possible as it goes bust.
>>743698928>It would be so easy to make bankEnjoy being rich then.
>>743704381What do the older gen A/ youngest zoomers even do outside their house? In Japan those kids still mostly do what we used to, they shop around nerd stores, go to arcades, cinema, grab food, end up at a friends house for couch multiplayer, all that shit is dead or dying in the west.
>>743706690I would set up a weeb/gaming store if I didn't have to deal with third world immigrants stealing shit. Large companies can deal with it.
>>743697760Can anyone think of a more un-googleable name for a store than "Game?" What the fuck were they thinking?
>>743707449Given they predate Google by 8 years, I'd wager they weren't considering it.
>>743707449They became the largest game retailer in the UK because they had a better name. normies shopped there even when everything about the store was worse than their competitors.
>>743707656No they didn't. Their only real competitors were Gamestation and Grainger Games. Gamestation they bought because Blockbuster, who'd owned them until that point, was dumping all of its non-core companies and they were the only player big enough to do so, and Grainger only ever operated in about half the country. Game was last man standing by default.
>>743705395People in administration won't have to pay anything and can keep their £35 million bonuses.
Are game stores just going to be funko pop retailers now? What is the future prospects of an industry that is actively and overtly saying they are getting rid of physical shit.
>>743707767>Game was last man standing by default.they literally bought their competitor, you're acting as if gamestation just died randomly, they were bigger than gamestation and so they bought them, meaning they were the most successful game retailer in the UK before that point.
>>743707928And mtg. Maybe they'll have a few shelves of nintendo games behind the merch. Maybe
>>743697760went one in norn iron and it was mostly shitty merch so nothing of value was lost, innit?
>>743708018Gamestation didn't go bust out of poor performance though. They were owned by Blockbuster, and it was the collapse of the parent company that prompted the sale. Gamestation itself was still doing well it was just collateral damage from the American parent co falling apart.
>>743708274Game had to be big enough to purchase them in the first place. They were just objectively a more successful and larger organisation at that time.
>>743703368>>743703059I was at uni when the Gamestation merger happened, 3 Games each within a minute walk of one another, all competing. I got so much for dirt cheap. Now there's, what, Amazon and ShopTo, and CeX/eBay for second hand? I can barely think of online games retailers that exist in the UK anymore, no wonder Nintendo have their own webstore for physical copies
CeX fucking suck because they sell their used games and controllers at full if not very close to new price
The only game nearby was in the far back corner of a big sports direct, but I still don't understand how they continued to lose money then
>>743708469>I can barely think of online games retailers that exist in the UK anymoreBizarrely, the EE store. They're regularly the cheapest source of new games if you're buying day one for some reason. Smyths Toys and The Game Collection are options too, then the supermarkets obviously.
>>743698928>alongside gunpla, modelling shit, anime figs, and videogame merchFrom occasional conversations with the pushy guy at my local, they're at the same import costs as everyone else ordering online and the target demographic knows how to do that. iirc he said something about getting discount bulk lots from somewhere in continental europe during the covid gunpla export moratorium, but seemingly that ended up with a mountain of unshiftable crap like Sakura Wars reboot kits for every one high grade.
>>743698721It had, idk what the fuck the OP is talking about
I buy Switch cartridges from eBay and steal the cases for them from CEX and NO IM NOT SORRY
>>743704381I mean, Argos, Currys and fucking ASDA still sell videogames don't they?
game stopped
>>743707082>What do the older gen A/ youngest zoomers even do outside their house?They aren't allowed to congregate, that's a teen takeover.
>>743698928I saw a bunch of those 'gaming cafes' pop up a few years back. Bizarre concept. Like they sold MTG cards but also baked potatoes and sandwiches. I wonder if any are still around. The one that opened directly across from Forbidden Planet in Newcastle is long gone.There's also Travelling Man which has always been a bit more weeb-adjacent than Forbidden Planet, although Forbidden Planet is basically nothing but manga these days anyway.
>>743698215I confused GAME with GameStop, was wondering how they could have failed.
>>743709210>Bizarre concept. Like they sold MTG cards but also baked potatoes and sandwiches.Knowing whether it's MTG focused is important context here. Because of the game's shift to exclusively revolving around commander, the actual money to be made for a retail location is selling overpriced consumables to people mid-game, because it's entirely feasible in certain kinds of group to go over an hour between turns in that format and checked out players would otherwise be doing nothing but scrolling their phones.
>>743698381>all purchases come with 5 year warrantyyou are chatting shit
>>743698928Because you are being replaced by browns who only car about stabbing and kicking a ball. Enjoy the kebab shops that will replace the game shops
It used to be called Scoregame. Bought my first vidya in one of those, was it Super Smash Bros? Gex? Last game i bought was Dark Souls from the bargain bin.What a pit stop of a store in my local commercial area. Just paid it a visit when i had nothing to do. Had my point card with the stamps.A salesman tried to sell me a batman game i didn't want, i was like 8yo. I remember his pitch>don't you want the batman game? batman's cool right?Said nah.When they rebranded to GAME it clearly had become soulless and Steam was better by then.
>>743697760I feel like the news of this closing down has been a thing for a decade now at this point.
>>743707262Just use the same magic they use where stealing this somehow doesn't affect their profit margins anymore.
>>743700243 >>743708630>Sports DirectMy local GAME had an e-sports room with no lighting and was pitch black the whole time, I guess to accomodate the behaviour of nocturnal gamersbut it didn't last long since there were only a couple people in their at a time, and considering the store closes at 6pm it was never going to be a "go-to" spoton paper it was a good idea, but they sorely miscalculated how the average autist plays games
Because for a place called GAME they were selling less and less actual games, mostly because digital was tearing them a new one and their only other avenue was selling funko pops, trading cards and other merch. The GAME in the Manchester Arndale had a novel concept where for what I think was £15 a month you could access one of their gaming PCs that they had in a sub-section that had a bunch of things installed - I saw people playing Overwatch, Halo, Valorant and Battlefield on them. Four shooters, yes. It's normies.
>>743701136Are you talking about that new place near Camden?
>>743705395"Receivership" I would assume.
>>743697760what the fuck is collapsed into administration supposed to mean?
GAME?
>>743723490It means the business has become insolvent, meaning it lacks the cash to pay its debts. Licensed insolvency practitioners are appointed to take control, protect the business from creditors, and either restructure it, sell it off as a going concern, or liquidate its assets.TL;DR: They're fucked.
>>743723620Looking more for an explanation of the wording, it seems very strange to me
>>743723780The company cannot pay its debts, so a court has appointed someone to run the company for the benefit of the creditors to try and make sure that the creditors get something. Look up "receivership" as a concept because that is what it's called in most english-speaking jurisdictions.If you need it dumbed down even further: They have no money and are fucked.
>>743705254>PAL speedupSpeed is arbitrary. If you're smoothbrained enough to enjoy original speed you can always set your player to 0.959x. Resolution is higher than NTSC so it's actually better. Real problem with PAL DVDs is the fucked up interlaced transfers they sometimes use in a misguided attempt to avoid the speedup.
>>743724268Also fun fact, if you are a shareholder you get fucked too, the creditors get the first slice of the pie and you get whatever is left over, typically about three fiddy
>>743698215Both as terribleHave CeX
>>743724447>Own part of a company>That company goes bankrupt>BLUUUUUHHH WHY DON'T I GET ANY MONEYI don't see an issue here.
>>743724528>dying business>beg for loan, putting up insane collateral>bank clearly knows you are fucked, but smell a payday coming either way and gives out money (that isn't even theirs)post nose
>>743724661The bank didn't force the business to take the loan... You get what you deserve, I guess?
>>743698928because the UK is a shithole
>>743701136They do if you look. Super Game Shack in Leicester. Mobile Game Exchange in Derby. Parallel Universe in Nottingham.
>>743707082Hang out at parks and do drugs/smoke, that's about it. Everyone just stays at home on social media now.
>>743697760
you can say it's game over
>>743729462I guess they lost The Game
the high street is nothing but barbers and vape shops now
>>743697760From my experience, your only chance to get a good deal on used games is either from a garage sale or from a thrift shop. And you hope that neither of them look stuff up on Ebay.
>>743729538This meme is also becoming a reality in the country formerly known as Canada.
>>743700243>owned by mike ashleylmao no fucking wonder
>>743702401to be honest, i genuinely thought game died years ago
>>743729508das it mane
>>743729538Don't forget the betting shops
>>743729424no girls went into these shops and if they did, it was a mother with 2 kids in the trolley or a girl buying her bf a funko pop.
>>743697760Huh didn't know there were any stores left. The few remaining ones have been moved to the back of Sports Directs for a while now
>>743708961>unshiftable crap like Sakura Wars reboot kitsOY, I liked those kit, well I got them for really cheap since nobody wanted them in my local hobby store but still
>>743709210A lot of those board games cafes function like LGS these days for things like MTG and other TCGs as well as being general hang out spots for nerds to play board games and chill.
>>743697821This>Go to buy title, realise it's £1 more expensive than the ticket says>"Oh, that's just disc insurance so if it's too scratched to play you can bring it back and we'll fix it">"But I didn't ask for this">"Mate, it's only a quid"Staff rolling their eyes and acting like I'm being majorly uncool for not paying it. I know they just had a quota to fill but FFS.Thankfully being a sloppy employee also meant they gave me the special edition disc with all dlc, in the regular edition box.
>>743698040Game station was quality when I was in college>4 preowned titles for £20>Took trade ins on retro, you could buy people's NES and Sega shit for very little moneyTake me back
You will own nothing and be happy.Just rent digital stuff online.
>>743729538I was surprised when HMV made a come back a few years ago, although from a quick look at the one near me it's basically GAME all over again as it was mostly merch and other similar stuff
All I remember from the GAMEs I've been in is that they had 5 times more business when they had those display demo games and shit around and then they removed them and it all slowed down to a depressive level. Kind of happened in general after a certain time, they all dropped the fun stuff like existing game stations to play the new thing and then it all went to shit.
>>743700243>>743729983LOL. Guys like him need to be lynched.
>ratchet and clank a rift apart for PS5>check ebay>get it for £9 from a charity shop>go to GAME some time later>theyre selling it for £69 brand new>literally comes free with a psn subscriptionjust a fucking stupid company in general, this was a year ago and I am sure they are a walking skeleton of a company for the last 5 years
>>743730867Gamestation was a fucking gold mine. Must have been like 2009, I got preowned Symphony of the Night with CD and art book for £20.
Oi m8s, where are yer existin' loicences? Yer all under arrest for illegal opinions an' spoons, now 'op in u cheeky buggas.
>western civilization is literally rotting from inside and collapsing at an exponential rate>oh noez my vidya gaimz!video games are the least of your worries faggots
>>743731360You can't stop it, so why not play your lute while Rome burns?
>>743705594Get fucked m8, we didn't take coke. The rest was true though lmao.
>>743731360>western civilization is literally rotting from inside and collapsing at an exponential rate>"hey, can i get a job so that I can get money for a house, maybe get a girlfriend so that I can have children, and be happy?">absolutely fucking notFuck you then, you wanted this outcome clearly.
>>743731360>don't find a single shred of happiness in life brosOk
>>743707082>all that shit is dead or dying in the west.It's a hellscape of homeless addicts, illegals, or homeless addict illegals outside, why would you ever want to go out there?All you can do is drive to your destination and then back, and try not to make any eye contact along the way lest you get attacked or have something thrown at you.
>>743697760thanks sony!
>turn in your old console for a discount when buying a new console>best they ever gave you was a £10 discount
>>743697760>16million no arrests or anythingBut if I owe a grand the gov sends the fucking spetznaz on me
>>743701136>Nendos kys. Same trash as Funko pops.Actual good nerd stores that are catered towards actual nerds / retro gaming etc are actually ALL outside of London, because London rent is atrocious. All the stores in London are money laundering fronts, selling cheap temu nerd stuff for triple the price. London is a fucking shit hole
>>743697760That's the photo from my actualy town. It was there my entire life until 1 year ago.Not they use the unit for craft fayre market stalls.
>>743733121Then you have this casual.
>>743697760I'll miss the incredibly depressing sweat pit GAME in the back of a Sports Direct store in Stirling. >No AC because SD are cheapasses and its right at the back so you can barely see it through the 9000 black parkas and roadman gear.>just two shelves stacked with collectable garbage. >SD staff would often just take over their tills if they were busy because "lmao who is buying from GAME still" Thankfully we still have a CeX so if I need to go see the cheapest cumstained carpet in a 30 mile radius I can.
>>743698040>UK gaming retail died when blockbuster sold Gamestation to GAME.false. both brands operated independently until 2012. that is when opcapita acquired game, and all gamestation stores were then rebranded as game. just when my local gamestation began experimenting with internet cafe style LAN setups. it was all down hill from there.
>>743697760>GAME closing down foreverRip in piss, you won't be missed.
>>743729538and pawnbrokers. Keighley used to have a nice town centre but now it's total shit.
>>743731360go back to /pol/
>>743698040>buy game>beat it in a day>return it for credit no issuesRIP GamestationOne near me had a hot Noomi Rapace lookalike that had no interest in my huge dong. Always bothered me that.
>>743705594My mate nicked a PS3 from there. Just went to pay for it and asked to pay part cash part card. Handed over a tenner or somet and just walked out.
>>743698928>Why don't nerd stores exist in the UK anymore?HMV is that now
Let’s be honest, this was the sensible business choice with Snoy’s digital announcement
This is because of too many forens
>>743698040I remember my parents getting me Pokemon SoulSilver for my birthday for like £30Those were the days
gamestation was better anyway
>>743729538not worth going there anyway with all the dodgy foreigners milling about
>>743697760GAYME OVER
>>743738927>had no interest in my huge dong....May we see it?
>>743714464this is itjeets, muzzies and niggers dont care about that shit and lets be honest, once old whites are gone, most of europe will look beyond grim, i dont think most people are ready to accept that
>>743731459Any cool stories to tell?
>>743698928Warhammer is still doing fine. CeX is a thing. In general white Brits are being replaced by mutts whose dreams involve being a roadman, not a nerdy gameboard guy.
But what about OTHER GAME?
>>743697760CeX still impresses me for being the only used game shop that sells used games at a half-reasonable price. I swear GAME (Gamestation?) used to be okay 20 years ago or so, but at some point it became "used games for 10% discount + 50% pop culture funko pop tat"
>>743736937the heritage railway is fun
>>743736937>>743748153Does it still have the car museum with that Mini covered in old pennies
>>743698928football and bmws are more important
>>743698928>storesdo you mean shops
>>743698038Horrible trade-in value.>i know your game is worth $30 since it's very sought after normiecore shit, but this is a fookin' business, $2.99 or fuck off, and we give store credit onlyMy nephew wanted to trade his PS4 and like 40 games plus 2 extra controllers (all in top notch condition) to buy a PS5, they offered 50 fucking dollars, and they could only give him $20 real cash. He ended up selling everything on faceberg for like 70% of its total value. He sold each additional controller for $25.
>>743731290>irl bosses
