GameStop will be lucky to get a foothold in the UK now...

GAME pretty much use GameStop's tactics to sell games in the UK, (except GAME has a much better loyalty initiative and they're nowhere near as big as a55holes to their customers) and there isn't really a company for GS to take over here, possibly acquire a few indie chains like Chips and CEX, but thats a drop in the ocean still.

Yeah, I agree, what other american game retailer has managed to enter the UK Market...Zero!

Also, talk of entering the UK came from PlayTrade in the US months ago...seems to have all gone quiet now...

GameStop will just buy GAME when the time is right :)

Considering the overvalued share price that GameStop have, they'd be hard pushed to nail a share deal and in the current economic crisis, foolhardy to go cash in hand. My guess would be buy a couple of decent indies and invest in a few home growns.

Or alternatively go all out concession within a sleeping giant - possibly marks & spencers... Woolworths would be worth a chat too - well needed capital injection.

...and an extremely handy and strategically powerful distribution arm.

God I'm good.

@2 theone!! You ****!! "Yeah, I agree, what other american game retailer has managed to enter the UK Market...Zero!" How about EB or Electronics Boutique (An American company!!) that bought out the failing Future Zone stores, expanded, bought out Game then sold off the UK arm to shareholders who in turn re-branded all stores as Game? When will this site just be for people that know the trade instead of the 1/2 with children that have nothing to do with the trade? Flame me but just to let you know, I was the one at a head office meeting about four years before the re-branding happened that sat in front of then CEO John Steinbrecher (a truly english name if I ever heard one!) and Martin Long (future CEO) and told them that the british public didn't understand what an Electronics Boutique was and should rename it all Game. They laughed owing to the cost of doing so but I knew I was right and low and behold, what happened? Should have got some reward for that at least :-)

pls don't say that i love my chips store those Gamestop bastards take over i will have to do all of my game shopping from gamestation who charge like £10 extra and have a crap variety. Indies rule!!!

@Northern Monkey

1) MCV has a dedicated industry only forum, if you don't like mixing with the people who keep the industry running, i.e. paying customers, then use that forum.

2) EB failed, in my eyes, because their tradein prices were worse than Game (I remember taking 30 megadrive games - including three a month old - and it still didn't cover the cost of the game I wanted), the stores were nearly always close to Game who had better merchandising, range, and prices, and all in all they had nothing which made them of any value under the EB brand.

It's the same in my experience in the USA, everywhere there is a an EB there is a better Gamestop. An EB in Orange Mall Orlando was selling loose DS games preowned for a $1 less than the new price!

Am I the only one here hoping GAME get the fu**king kicking they deserve?

@9 I'm with you there.

I used to work at game for a while and I know their way of doign things and prices sucks, some people make out they do good trade ins but from what I saw they are ripping people and saving a big fat profit for themselves.
COD4 as an example, brand new £40 pre-owned £35 what a joke.

Plus because of the clout they have gotten from being so big they are usually the only ones who offer LE's of games or in the case of COD:WaW they offer a few extra things if you pre-order it that are in the LE version in the US, but for some reason we dont get a LE version.

6) One of the main reasons EB changed the name to Game was the yearly fee they had to pay ebus to use the eb name oer here. I was gutted when we all had to chang over to the Game branding at the time but totally agree with you about it sounding alot better. I remember the bad days of working at Futurezone and the nasty colour scheme.

8) EB were the the first big retailer over in this country to really promote the pre-owned markt at the time and if it was not for them it would not be at the level it is at now. Game never really got anywhere with pre-owned before they were brought out by EB.

I totally agree that they now rip people of with the selling on prices for pre-owned Games. It works out cheaper just to buy a game online now or go to a supermarket.

Hopefully Gamestop might introduce abit of real competion to the market for once and actually work where blockbuster and DSG have both failed.

There's too much competition on the high street now, not that I'm bothered as I buy all the games online. Shops like GAME, HMV have been ripping us off for years with their high prices. It makes me cringe to see people buying games from shops. In the future, games won't come on discs, it'll be downloads so the future isn't so bright for shops after all....

Ripping you off implies they're making **** loads - which they're not.

@ 12

And it's when you can only buy games via download and not have the option trade them in towards new ones is when I stop buying video games altogether.

Also, do you think the price of downloads will stay the same once physical media vanishes? You're a fool if you do.

Virtually everyone I know is either buying games via online or straight from the super-markets. Its really interesting to see if this aggressive expansion is going to help them for the future. Their MD keeps harping on a about the range of stock being the key differential, but is that really going to bother the consumer? Besides whenever I pop into a GAME store, its just like Blockbusters - masses of the newest releases being packed at the front of the store, and pre-owned in the middle. I think pre-owned is the only thing that differentiates them from the rest, and only because of them stitiching up the customer and the massive mark-up they can make.

Either way, i think this xmas and 2009 in general is gonna be an interesting time for GAME.

Week in week out people slag off GAME as ripping everyone off, but hold on a second. I remember a time pre Game when stores sold video games of that generation whether it be NES, SNES, Mega Drive etc... for roughly the same prices we see today in Game. I agree there trade in prices are rubbish but if you imagine the vast quantities they trade in on a daily basis are you suprised. They have to protect there profit margins just like anyone else in the buisness.
Game can not afford to discount heavily because games etc are there only source of income. The supermarkets do all this at a loss to try and increase footfall into their stores and hope people will do their weekly shopping at the same time.
Someone tell me then how Game are ment to slash prices to that kind of level and still maintain a buisness?
If it wasn't for retail chains such as GAME the industry would still be catering to 'hardcore gamers' for lack of a better expression. where as now you see people from all walks of life playing games, and without that the industry would never grow?

t MD]

Sadly it's a very British trait to slag off success.

@8:

I don't see supermarket shoppers commenting on news at The Grocer's website (that industry's trade mag) nor at BrandRepublic (the advertising industry's cross trade mag website). Why? Because as we've said before, this website is not for the customer, nor the games player. It's for those who work in the industry and only those who work in the industry.

Nothing 8 posted was out of line with the tread or news item,

Its time to tell you to stop, as I’ve had enough of you chucking you’re weight around this forum, saying “It's for those who work in the industry and only those who work in the industry.” You are bulling people and that is not what this forum wants or what I want to read. If consumers are taking the time and trouble to post on this site’s forums (no matter how non objective or opinionated) then see it as a good thing and learn from what is being said. In these financially difficult times we are all going into I can’t possibly see how anyone can afford to be ignorant of the consumer.

To gamers and future gamers, please do post comments about news items here as I can only imagine you’re opinions and retail experiences are very important to a vast majority of those who work in the industry.

(If the editor comes back at me and says they don’t want the consumer posting here then fine I retract what I said!)

DJ; if customers can actually come up with an intellectual argument and acknowledge their position as someone from outside the industry; in such a way that they provide insight to us retailers, then by all means, I don't mind the idea of them commenting. But as I'm sure you'll recognise, the vast majority of them come in with arguments even a 5 year old would be embrassed about.

It doesn’t matter everyone is entitled to an opinion in my opinion. Unless you’re going to don superman’s cape and fly around the internet forcing everyone to have objective arguments, then you're effectively wasting you’re breath by telling people off whose opinions don’t please you. If posts are not worth commenting on then I suggest you don’t comment about them.

In game specific stores like Game... the profit margins on hardware are non existant, the margins on new software not exactly mindblowing. Unfortunately when selling, most customers see their game as an asset with a definitive and intrinsic value. What they don't see is the pile of invisible yet very real resale costs and overheads heaped upon that little case when it enters "preowned". And yes, the supermarkets take losses and sell cheap games, but most of the time those prices aren't cheaper than preowned ones in game stores. Think of the hours of entertainment in a game for the price - if we want quality games from indie studios (who can't carry the losses or low production budgets) we need to support the industry in this "I deserve everything as cheap as can be; and screw the consequences" society. From what I've read online Gamestop doesn't have the best customer service reputation - newbies tend to scamper when heaped with "hardcore" gamer scorn and ridicule (or indeed, when called a newbie). The growing popularity of games is a great thing - indie stores will always serve the specialist collector market, so lets not be snobs about the families, kids and casual gamers.